Matt deGrood, Staff writer
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A Harris County District Court judge quickly ruled Tuesday morning that he wouldn’t dismiss two murder charges against former Houston police officer Gerald Goines, but a request to move the trial outside Harris County won’t be decided until February.
Tuesday’s rulings came after lawyers for Goines asked Judge Frank Aguilar of the 228th District Court to consider moving the former officer’s trial outside Harris County. Both sides will meet again Feb. 1 to determine whether the change of venue is needed.
Goines orchestrated a botched narcotics raid in January 2019 that led to the deaths of Pecan Park homeowners Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas. The criminal case against him has now entered into its fourth year.
MORE FROM THE HEARING: Gerald Goines’ lawyers vying to have Harding Street case dismissed or moved out of Harris County
Aguilar began the hearing by denying the defense’s request to dismiss murder indictments against Goines on the grounds that the prosecutors had glossed over how the law enforcement official tampered with a government document.
“The court finds the state could, if they wanted to, describe more of the narrative,” Aguilar said. “But they’re not required to.”
The judge ruled the state had met requirements based on legal statutes, and he wouldn’t dismiss the murder charges.
Defense argues publicity warrants new trial venue
The next motion the judge tackled, requesting to move the trial, was filed in August, about a month before a hearing for an unrelated capital murder case prompted testimony from District Attorney Kim Ogg and her staff about their handling of pretrial publicity. The former spokesman for Ogg, Dane Schiller, testified at that time and he has been asked to return to take questions about publicity around the Goines case, records show.
Murray Newman was one of several defense lawyers who argued that news coverage in the weeks and months following the raid had been so heavy it warranted a change of venue, outside of Harris County.
“Harris County has always had high publicity cases,” he said. “But I’ve not seen any case with near this level of pretrial publicity than what has gone on with the Goines case and the Harding Street raid.”
After testimony from several legal experts who supported a venue change, Goines’ defense attorneys questioned Schiller, the former Ogg spokesperson, about his role in providing information about the case.
Goines’ attorneys highlighted passages in internal communications, mentioning discussions with local and national publications about the raid, as evidence that the office acted unethically and used “narrative” about the case to boost Ogg’s reelection efforts.
HARDING STREET EXPLAINER: What to know about Houston PD’s infamous no-knock raid that led to the deaths of 2 innocent people
But Schiller pushed back on that argument, asserting he stuck to the public record on the matter and didn’t treat the Goines case differently than any other.
“I take exception to the word, ‘narrative,’” Schiller said. “This was the public record. What we did was based on the public record.”
Schiller also testified he posted as “Dude Goggles” on the Houston Chronicle’s website in a personal capacity, and that only eight comments out of more than 500 he’d made were about the Harding Street raid.
The Harding Street raid led to a protracted scandal within the Houston Police Department that including indictments of other officers. A federal case involving Goines continues.
Investigators accused Goines of lying about drug buys at Tuttle and Nicholas’ home, while prosecutors went on to scrutinize his career and identify several instances where he was the sole witness in an undercover narcotics arrest. The latter discovery has led higher courts to grant new trials and overturn convictions for people convicted of drug offenses after being targeted by the HPD narcotics unit.