The January 28th drug raid at 7815 Harding Street turned out badly with two drug suspects killed in a shootout with the cops, four of whom were hit by the suspect’s gunfire.
The raid came after a reliable confidential informant purchased some black tar heroin at that alleged address. He informed his handler that inside the house there were a bunch of plastic baggies containing black tar heroin. The officers found no heroin. All they found was 18 grams of marijuana and 1.5 grams of cocaine. The couple who occupied the house, disabled Navy veteran Dennis Tuttle,59, and Rhogena Nicholas, 58, his wife of 21-years had no criminal record except for an old hot check charge against Nicholas which had been dismissed.
Houston’s police chief, Art Acevedo, held several press briefings on the raid. He implied the Harding Street house had a sophisticated surveillance system which should have alerted the occupants about the police. The house did not have any security cameras on the outside. Acevedo also said Tuttle should have known it was cops busting in his door because the police turned on the siren and flashing lights of a cop car parked outside. Since this was a ‘no knock’ raid, that seems highly unlikely. He claimed that Tuttle’s neighbors thanked him for getting rid of the drug house. But the Houston Chronicle interviewed every one of the neighbors, each describing Tuttle and his wife as good citizens. As for it being a drug house, they said, “They never had company” and “There was never traffic at that house. Never” and “They never noticed suspicious activity.” Several times Acevedo said the raid took place at 7815 Hardy Street, instead of 7815 Harding Street.
The raided house, as described in the search warrant affidavit, was a well-kept one-story cottage. A reporter did check out the 7815 Hardy Street address where he observed a dilapidated two-story house with its upstairs windows broken. The house was surrounded by a wrought iron fence and it had a number of high-tech security cameras on the outside. To the reporter that looked like a drug house. He thought the cops hit the wrong house.
I’ve been on many narcotic raids and not one of them led to a shootout, even though in most cases the suspects had firearms. On one raid we did have to shoot a pit bull that was about to take some bites out of one officer. It all boils down to meticulous planning, pre-raid orientation of all participants and careful execution of the raid. On every occasion we found a large quantity of narcotics, and usually a substantial amount of cash at the place we raided. In one raid we found a large bag of meth tied to the suspect’s penis. In other words, when raiding a drug house one would expect to find evidence of it actually being a place where narcotics are sold.
Search warrant affidavits are only as good as the integrity of the officer(s) composing that document and the prosecutor who assisted in its composition. Was the search warrant in the Houston raid based on a careless worded or worse, fabricated affidavit? I certainly hope not.
As for Acevedo, he was damaged goods when Mayor ‘Slyvestor’ Turner hired him. Reports from Austin indicate he was about to be canned over a rape kit scandal – the kits were piling up untested and the head of the sex crimes unit was punished for not lying about it. Allegedly, Acevedo removed the sergeant of Austin PD’s sex crimes unit for refusing his order to say rapes were going unsolved because the victims refused to testify, a blatant lie. Instead she told the truth, that rapes were not being solved because the rape kits were not being tested. And quicker than you can say Art Acevedo, she was out as head of the sex crimes unit.
Now Acevedo has embarrassed HPD and the city of Houston. His press briefing remarks, where he misstated the facts, have led to a flurry of inflammatory conspiracy theories, many of which accuse the Houston cops of murdering two innocent people.
You do not need to defend what’s right and you cannot defend what’s wrong. That seems to be a lesson Acevedo either ignored or never learned, as evidenced by the reckless way he responded to questions thrown at him by reporters.
Acevedo should be fired regardless of how the investigation into the Harding Street drug raid falls out.
Jim says
Amen
Tom says
Howie: you know I’m a criminal defense lawyer so my views may be a bit biased. View my reply with that in mind.
You say that the police got 1.5 grams of cocaine. That’s exactly what the police said. But in 30 plus years of defending drug cases, I’ve never seen a case where the lab report didn’t show less drug than what was in the police report. While this might make a difference in a multi-kilo drug raid, if there was less than a gram of cocaine (which is likely) given the lack of criminal history the two people killed were subject to mandatory probation even if they had gone to trial and been convicted. As for the amount of weed, it was so small that it fits within the DA’s mandatory no arrest policy.
So, you’ve got two people dead when even if they were guilty would not have gone to jail.
Also, as I recall and correct me if I’m wrong, there were no handguns found in the house. As I recall, there was a rifle and a shotgun. Any bets as to whether any of the officers was shot with a rifle or shotgun rather than a pistol?
This is just the latest example of police playing Rambo. You are correct, drug raids have to be carefully planned. Everyone should know his job. Just kicking down a door and going in shooting is likely to result in a shootout and people getting hurt.
Someone needs to take charge of the Houston Police Department and bring the cowboys under control. I’ve been in Houston since 1974 both as a reporter for the Chronicle and a lawyer. I’ve never seen a police chief able to bring the kind of control over the force that one would expect. That squad was totally out of control.
A prediction: the injured officers were shot by other police officers and when the DA takes it to the grand jury, no one gets indicted.
Tom says
One other thing, Howie. You are right about the chief’s statements at the press conferences. When you don’t know, “I don’t know. It’s still too early” is a good answer.
There are thousands of Houston police officers, the vast majority of whom do a good job and don’t act like they’re storming Omaha Beach every time they try to make an arrest or serve a search warrant. the chief’s misstatements, that is making up answers to questions, gives them all a black eye.
The rank and file officers deserve better than that.
Howie Katz says
Tom, the police report did not say they seized 1.5 grams of cocaine. They said it was an unknown white powder. I believe the cocaine identification was made by a lab.
Two shotguns and two rifles were found in the house. As for no handgun in the house, you’re overlooking the handgun Tuttle used in shooting at the officers.
I’ve been on similar raids and never felt like Rambo, or that I was storming Omaha Beach or, for that matter, the shores of Iwo Jima.
I’m glad you feel he rank and file officers deserve better than Acevedo. On that we can agree.
I wish to remain anonymous says
When fired DO NOT send him back here to Austin! Good riddance
Susan says
What about the money? The drug buy was made with HPD money. The house was under surveillance after the C.I. did the buy. Isn’t HOD money marked or serial numbers recorded? Was it found? Was any money found? Drug dealers, even small time ones have cash around.
Howie Katz says
Susan, the money HPD paid for that drug buy was a small amount. It’s not like a $1,000 buy where the serial numbers are recorded fr evidentiary purposes and so that HPD will get the money back once the case has run its course in the courts.
A big problem in this raid is that no evidence – drugs in the amount indicating sales, a scale, packaging materials, substantial amount of cash – was found which would indicate this was actually a drug house.
howie katz says
Tom, getting back to you. I have to agree with much of what you said. I just didn’t care for the Rambo and cowboy stuff. If this raid had succeeded without anyone getting shot, no one would have given squat. It looks to me like the raiders were ill prepared and this operation was rushed as a result.
It is possible that one or more of the officers shot were victims of friendly fire. But that cannot be determined unless doctors were able to retrieve a bullet from the victim’s body. Then the pistols of every officer who fired his weapon would have to be test fired and the bullets retrieved for comparison with the bullet that the doctors removed from the victim.
What looks bad in this case is that no evidence was found which would indicate the Harding Street house was actually a drug house. The cops may have hit the wrong house.
Tom says
HHowie: Most of the search warrant affidavits I;ve seen in recent years includes a picture of the place to be searched. I haven;t seen this warrant or been to the scene
Len WASKA says
Wasn’t there a similar case several years ago where the HPD made a no knock drug raid and , since they did not announce themselves as police, the homeowner defended his family and killed an officer and when it went to trial, he was found not guilty because the police didn’t announce themselves ?
Living closer to Austin than Houston, we saw Acevedo when he was there and I fully agree with the reader above who doesn’t want Aceedo back there.
I wish to remain anonymous says
That happened in Somerville some years back where the deputy died and the homeowner was no billed. Same outcome…
Bill Daniels says
I would hope that the police do little investigating before they conduct Bin Ladin level raids here in the US. Seems like running a standard check like the ones landlords use before renting an apartment would be pretty cost effective. That would have told us these people had no criminal record, that they owned their home for the last 20 years….not the typical ‘dope house’ facts. A cursory surveillance would have told the police that the owners actually LIVE in the house they have owned for 20 years.
That info right there should have made them ask some more questions before kicking in their door with no warning. Truly, I’d like to see the Texas Rangers investigate this, as impartial outsiders.
If it turns out this was botched as bad as it seems, there should be a lot more punishment than just Avocado being terminated. Two citizens with no criminal records (save for a dismissed bad check charge from years ago) are dead. Their dog is dead. All we have to show for it is a few long guns that you would find in any house on my block and a small amount of pot and coke, which you probably won’t find on my block, but doesn’t seem like it should be the standard for justifying a home invasion.
Fat Albert says
Howie,
I absolutely agree with everything you’ve said! Acevedo is a 2nd rate hack (at best) and Houston deserves better. So do the men and women of HPD.
One other thing. I have close friends and acquaintances who serve as LEOs. It’s often a difficult, thankless, frustrating job. The hours suck, the pay is mediocre, and there are the problems that stem from the need to put on a bulletproof vest just to go to work. The vast majority of cops are good, hardworking, decent men and women who honestly want to serve their community. There are, however a small number who are unsuited to the job and who abuse their authority. It does the community no good to try to hide or make excuses for such cops. It doesn’t help the good cops either. Better that the problems be rooted out early, exposed and fired.
I’m not saying that this was the case in this incident. It’s still early, and there are a lot of facts that still have yet to be brought forward. But, if there’s a problem, trying to cover it up is just going to make things worse.
Susan says
Will we ever know whose bullets shot the wounded officers? Nobody died but the house occupants, and we know who killed them. Are ballistics going to be done given that it would have no bearing on the main issue other than possibly clearing Mr. Tuttle from shooting them?
DanMan says
Randy Webster.
Mark says
If you hear anything more on this, please let us know. It seems that the local media does not like to dig into stories like this.
Tom says
Well, it hit the fan tonight. Seems the case agent flat lied on the affidavit for search warrant. There was no informant and the heroin from the buy came from the trunk of the officer’s car.
So, what you have is at least one lying cop and two dead innocent citizens.
It doesn’t get much worse for HPD than that.
Murray Newman on his blog tonight talks about no-knock warrants being for officer safety and to prevent destruction of evidence. I can’t see how both can be true. When you kick the door and go into someone’s house in the wee hours, the NRA will tell you the homeowner has the right to defend himself. It would be a hell of a lot safer for the officers to surround the house, then call on the telephone and announce they have a search warrant and would the occupants please come out with their hands up. Dope may get flushed but it’s likely on one gets hurt.
Or, the officers can wait until the occupants come out and bust them on the street. Or they can even turn off the water before they knock and announce themselves.
As for the head of the police union who called people critical of HPD “dirtbags,” my initial reaction is to suggest that someone give him a pistol with one bullet so he can do the honorable thing. But he’d probably miss.
Mary says
What the public needs now is the actual floorplan of 7815 Harding.
The animation provided is inconsistent with how others have described the locations of master bedroom, walls, livingroom.
Where can we get a real blueprint or can anybody get back in that house with any camera? I see on photos that it has been boarded up. If they bulldoze this home, then we are lost. We will continue to be under the boot of these lying idiots.