One defendant accused former Houston police officer Gerald Goines of lying about a drug buy. Another, of linking him to a phone he didn’t own. A third said he was falsely accused of possessing drugs.

As the fallout from the Harding Street drug raid scandal continues, prosecutors have begun receiving legal challenges known as post-conviction writs from a growing number of people who accuse Goines and his former partner Steven Bryant of misconduct in the cases that led to their convictions.

The officers are accused of lying about a fatal Jan. 28, 2019 drug investigation and raid that left two people dead and five police officers injured. Goines faces murder charges in state court and additional crimes in federal court. Bryant faces tampering charges in state and federal court. The case sparked investigations by the Houston Police Department, the FBI, and the district attorney’s office, and prompted prosecutors to mail notices to defendants in cases handled by Goines and Bryant informing them of the investigations into the two officers.

District Attorney Kim Ogg announced Wednesday that two grand juries would be investigating other Squad 15 officers, as well as the shooting that claimed the lives of Rhogena Nicholas and Dennis Tuttle on Jan. 28, 2019. Prosecutors are reviewing more than 14,000 of the officers’ old cases. While they don’t plan to reinvestigate each one, Ogg has said that if their review uncovers evidence of additional wrongdoing by police, prosecutors will send more notices to current defendants as well as people already convicted.

So far, five current or former prisoners with cases that involved Goines or Bryant have filed habeus writs. Prosecutors have agreed that one former defendant deserves a new trial; urged judges to appoint lawyers in three other writs and in another case that they believe was also tainted by misconduct.

Goines’ defense attorney, Nicole DeBorde, said she could not comment on specific cases because Goines is facing allegations of criminal conduct.

“It’s smart lawyering for those filing the writs,” she said. “They can file whatever their fantasy allegations are and because he can’t respond, they’ll prevail.”

Because Goines’ alleged misconduct spans decades, more cases could well surface, Ogg said in a news conference earlier this week in which she announced grand jury indictments against him and Bryant. ﻿

Regarding such challenges, she said Friday: “It is important that every conviction have integrity behind it, and these cases strike at the very heart of that bedrock principle.”

Harris County Chief Public Defender Alex Bunin said that given the scope of alleged misconduct, a more detailed review might be in order.

“One of the impediments to getting anything done is all the DA has done is sent letters,” he said. “There may be people out there who don’t know what to do about it.”

Narcotics Division investigation: Botched Houston drug raid not the first

Otis Mallet, the first defendant to publicly challenge Goines’ casework, was arrested in 2008 after Goines said he met up with Mallet’s brother, Steven Mallet, at a house on Danube Street to make a $200 drug buy.

Police arrested both brothers. Goines was the only witness to testify to seeing the alleged deal. But Mallet’s appellate attorney discovered Goines’ expense reports showed he’d reported paying a confidential informant months after the arrest - something he’d never mentioned in relevant case paperwork or at trial.

Mallet, 64, appealed his conviction in 2013. In a Jan. 9 court hearing, Ogg’s office filed an affidavit from Jamie Burro, the prosecutor who initially handled Mallet’s case, who said she would have asked to have the case dismissed if she’d known about those discrepancies.

Judge Ramona Franklin is set to rule on the case Feb. 3. On Thursday, prosecutors filed a formal Brady notice related to Steven’s case, and urged that he be appointed counsel in order to appeal his conviction.

Steven Mallet pleaded guilty in his case to time served -- but refused the first plea offer that would have required him to attest to his brother’s guilt.

“If a Brady violation occurred for one brother, it unquestionably occurred for the other,” said Josh Reiss, chief of the post-conviction division at the district attorney’s office.

For subscriber: Key Houston police narcotics officers at center of fatal Harding Street drug raid tallied few arrests, low-level busts

Marcus Murphy, 45, appealed his 2017 drug conviction in May. He pleaded guilty to a possession charge and received a 10-year deferred adjudication, a form of probation.

In March, he received a letter saying Goines’ former partner was under investigation.

In his appeal, he said he pleaded guilty “because he was scared and unaware of evidence that showed the officers were involved in unlawful acts of setting defendants up and making up scenarios in order to obtain illegal search warrants.”

Reiss said prosecutors oppose relief in his case because Goines’ only involvement was as a member of the raid team that arrested him — the former cop did not develop probable cause, head up the investigation into Murphy or handle evidence.

In August, Antoine Christian appealed his conviction. The 52-year-old prisoner filed his appeal himself. Police detained him in 2006 after he walked out of a Spec’s liquor store, according to his court filing. An officer drove him to the scene of a disturbance so a witness could identify him. When the witness said Christian wasn’t the suspect, the officer let him go back to the liquor store. Then, Goines showed up and accused Christian of lying about money he had with him, court records show. Goines searched a car in the lot and reported that he had found cocaine and a gun.

Christian accused police of fabricating a police offense report that led to his arrest for a crime he says he didn’t commit. The car was never impounded or recorded with enough detail to tie the drugs in it to Christian. His fingerprints were never found on the gun.

He was sentenced in 2009 to just under three years in prison for possession of one to four grams of drugs.

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

Frederick Jeffery appealed his conviction in October. Jeffery, 58, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2018 for drug possession charges. In his appeal, Jeffery claimed his conviction was based on “illegally seized” evidence that did not belong to him.

He also accused Goines of lying during trial and falsely linking him to a phone that did not belong to him.

“The petitioner was allegedly linked to the aforementioned narcotics based solely on the testimony of a corrupt police officer who offered falsified testimony on trial," he wrote in an 85-page appeal.

Pat McCann, Jeffery’s appointed defense attorney, said: “We're finally getting some light shed on these cases. The tragedy is it took death of this couple for the courts to realize how long they’d been lied too.”

In November, James Alan Lewis appealed his 2016 drug conviction. Lewis, 37, was arrested and charged with possession with intent to sell cocaine, court records show. But Lewis argued he was picking up trash in the yard of a home when police arrested him, and said he was falsely accused of having cocaine

Lewis does not yet have an attorney to handle the appeal, court records show, but prosecutors said they will ask the judge handling Lewis’ case to appoint one.

The number of appeals is likely to grow.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Court documents reveal origins of botched narcotics raid on Harding Street

Gene Walker, 44, readily admits he dealt drugs -- and did his time for convictions for theft, drug possession, and other crimes.

But in early 2014, he said, the only thing he admits to is visiting the Third Ward and running to the home of his friend, “Big E” to use the bathroom after a Taco Bell #5 gave him the “bubble guts.”

Minutes later, police broke down the door, he said, according to a warrant filed in the case. They were looking for “Big E,” whom they suspected of dealing crack.

They found Walker inside and arrested him — and said the drugs they found in the house belonged to him, an assertion he denies. At one point, Walker said Goines threatened to charge him with assaulting a police officer — a claim that still baffles him.

“Who did I assault?,” he said indignantly.

Eventually, he pleaded guilty to a tampering charge and another for possessing drugs with intent to deliver and was sentenced to seven years in prison. He said he pleaded guilty only after being told that if he didn’t, prosecutors would seek more than 30 years. He ended up spending four year inside before he was paroled early last year.

Soon after his release, he got a job working construction. He said he plans to appeal his conviction in the coming weeks.

“They should have never booked me that day,” he said.

He thinks about moments he missed; with his kids, his wife, and his mom.

She died in January 2017.

“I've been robbed of time,” he said. “I couldn't even get the last moments with my mother before she passed.”