The Houston Police Officers Union is no longer paying for the legal representation of a former narcotics officer charged with felony murder in connection with a botched drug raid that left two people dead earlier this year.

Union officials on Tuesday confirmed the organization decided last week to stop paying the legal fees for the former police veteran, Gerald Goines, but declined to elaborate. Goines was charged with two counts of felony murder because the deaths occurred in the course of another alleged felony, tampering with a government record, stemming from the providing of false information to a magistrate in order to secure the warrant for the raid.

“As of Friday evening we are no longer representing Gerald Goines or paying for his representation,” union President Joe Gamaldi told the Houston Chronicle. “This is an internal matter so we will have no further comment.”

Nicole DeBorde, retained by the union to represent Goines earlier this year, said she was not surprised by the development, though she had not yet received a formal notification letter.

“A lot of people may feel that this is a comment on the case or that they want to make a statement by doing this,” she said, “but it’s really not either of those things. This is just kind of outside the scope of the representation of what the police union generally provides.”

On HoustonChronicle.com: Former HPD officer charged with murder in botched raid at Harding Street house

The organization, the largest of those representing Houston police officers, is still covering legal fees for Goines’ former partner, Steven Bryant, who was charged on Friday with tampering with a government record, a felony.

The district attorney alleged that after the shooting, Bryant lied in an offense report about helping Goines with the investigation and falsely claimed that they’d recovered a plastic bag that contained a white napkin and two small packets of heroin.

Both men maintain their innocence.

To some policy and policing experts, the police union’s move comes as a noteworthy development.

“It’s unusual and significant,” said Scott Henson, a criminal justice policy expert and the executive director of the nonprofit Just Liberty. “We are not a right-to-work state, so unions can’t strike in Texas — so the only thing that you get from your union dues is you’re basically paying for misconduct insurance, for the day that you’ve been accused of something and you need to be represented.”

Typically, the police union covers representation for acts committed within the course and scope of an officer’s duties — a standard that would not include felony murder or numerous other crimes.

“I don't think there’s any union that pays for criminal representation, unless you’re charged with official oppression or a civil rights violation, something that rises out of the performance of duty,” said Ron DeLord, former longtime president of the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, or CLEAT. “It’s all in the charge, and unions have some discretion, based on the facts.”

On HoustonChronicle.com: A botched drug raid led to a wave of leaks. Cops peeking at internal records then found themselves under investigation.

It’s not clear why union attorneys deemed Goines’ actions outside the scope of his duties but made a different determination for Bryant.

The former officers — who retired under investigation earlier this year — are both out on bond following their arrests on Friday, nearly seven months after the deadly drug raid at 7815 Harding St. in southeast Houston. According to charging documents, police zeroed in on the home on Jan. 8, as the result of a phone tip that day in which a caller raised concerns about drug use in the home and claimed she'd seen guns. After an initial visit to the home turned up nothing, officers passed the tip along to Goines, who got a warrant to raid the house after he allegedly used a confidential informant to buy drugs there.

Late on the afternoon of Jan. 28, a Houston police narcotics squad burst through the front door, looking for heroin dealers. Instead, they set off a gun battle that left Navy veteran Dennis Tuttle and his wife Rhogena Nicholas dead and five officers injured.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Federal grand jury hears testimony from Houston police officers about botched Pecan Park raid

The raid turned up small, user-level amounts of cocaine and marijuana, and in the days that followed, an internal investigation sparked questions about the alleged buy used to justify the raid. Police quickly realized they couldn't find the informant whom Goines said bought the drugs.

Under questioning, Goines eventually admitted there wasn’t an informant, according to prosecutors. Instead, police said, the veteran officer said he made the buy himself before conceding that he couldn’t confirm Tuttle was the same man from whom he’d bought the drugs.

After months of investigating the shooting and the entire squad, prosecutors on Friday announced the charges against both Goines and Bryant. The FBI is still conducting a civil rights investigation. In July, several police officers tied to the raid testified before a federal grand jury.

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