TAMPA — A judge has dismissed criminal charges against a former Tampa police sergeant accused of stealing food stamps from a jail inmate, agreeing she could not be held responsible since she had no intent to commit a crime.

Circuit Judge Samantha Ward granted a defense attorney's motion to throw out the case against La Joyce Houston, 48, who was fired last year after her arrest.

Houston was facing charges of food stamp fraud and grand theft. In 2013, she bought more than $300 in groceries with an electronic benefits transfer — or EBT — card belonging to Rita Girven, her personal friend and a longtime police informer.

In court filings, Houston's attorney Lyann Goudie argued that the charges against Houston required that she knew her actions constituted theft in order for a crime to have occurred. Since she had no intent, she did not commit a crime. The judge agreed.

It remains unclear whether Houston might be able to get her job back, or if she would try to do so. Houston and a representative of the Tampa police officers' union could not be reached Wednesday for comment.

Between Sept. 10 and Sept. 17, 2013, Houston and Girven spoke several times by phone while Girven was jailed on unrelated charges, discussing a variety of personal matters, according to court filings. Girven, 32, who is the biological mother of Houston's adopted daughter, repeatedly told her to use the EBT card to buy food for herself and her family members.

On Sept. 10, Houston used the card to buy $365 of groceries at a Walmart in Gibsonton where she shopped with her husband, Eric Houston, a former Tampa police detective. The transaction was recorded on video. A month later, she was arrested. At the time, she was a 16-year Tampa police veteran making $91,400 a year.

Prosecutors and the defense didn't dispute the facts. But prosecutors argued that Houston's own words, recorded in jail calls, suggested that she knew the funds belonged to the state and her use of them was illegal.

Goudie made several points attacking that assertion in court motions. Tampa police, she argued, do not typically investigate welfare fraud and that police officials who testified in the case said officers, including Houston, had no training about what constituted the unauthorized use of an EBT card.

Another point concerned a form that the Department of Children and Families provides to EBT card recipients. In a deposition, a DCF official testified that part of the form could be interpreted to mean that welfare recipients can authorize third parties to use their EBT benefits.

Girven, who maintained a personal relationship with La Joyce Houston for several years, was also a longtime — but off the books — informant for the Tampa police.

She was often seen in the lobby at the department's District 3 headquarters on N 22nd Street or at crime scenes, chatty and eager to offer up help in finding a perp.

Internal police records attribute more than a dozen arrests at least partially to information gleaned from Girven. Her intel exposed, among other things, an auto theft ring, a tax fraud ring, a handful of armed robbers and burglars, plus several suspects sought on warrants.

"On at least two occasions (Girven) coaxed people into her home and would then call, so that we could show up unannounced and take the subjects into custody," wrote District 3 Lt. Michael Stout in a summary of his knowledge of Girven.

"She just showed up to a lot of calls where police were involved," Cpl. Robert Fannin wrote. "She would know someone we were looking for in the area, and she would tell us where they were hanging out or sleeping. I know on two separate occasions she turned her family members over to us."

Girven's cooperation was often given voluntarily, without payment. But sometimes her tidbits came with strings.

Officially, Girven earned $625 over 21/2 years, usually in small amounts — money for a cell phone bill or a utility bill.

But she also called on favors.

Sgt. John Haggert of District 3 wrote that in the fall of 2011, while Girven was jailed on a criminal mischief charge, she asked if he would intercede on her behalf with the State Attorney's Office. Haggert agreed.

"(Girven) was sent to prison, but given credit for time served and was only there a short time," he wrote.

A year later, she asked him to speak to the property manager at the Belmont Heights Estates apartment complex so she could move in despite restrictions against ex-cons. Haggert wrote a letter and spoke to management. After a hearing, she was granted permission to move there.

Haggert also noted that several times he rejected her petitions for help, refusing once to appeal on her behalf to prosecutors after a theft arrest.

A codefendant with La Joyce Houston, Girven remains jailed on food stamp fraud, grand theft and other charges.

Eric Houston was fired from the Tampa Police Department in April amid revelations that he was under federal investigation for tax fraud. The investigation is ongoing, and Eric Houston has yet to be charged with a crime.