A Texas prisoner filed an appeal this month alleging he was framed on a drug offense by Gerald Goines, the former Houston police officer recently charged with felony murder for his role in a deadly drug raid that prosecutors now say was based on a lie.

The case involving Antoine Christian marks at least the second pending appeal raising concerns about a possible wrongful conviction stemming from the ex-lawman’s work. But, given the hundreds of cases that Goines handled in his 34-year career, these could be the first of many such claims.

“If you look at the seriousness of what’s happened, and what we've got him charged with, it does bring his entire career into question,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg told the Houston Chronicle on Thursday.

After examining more than 2,000 cases handled by Goines and his former partner, Steven Bryant, prosecutors expanded their review to include some 14,000 cases involving other members of the same narcotics squad. And, if there’s indication of additional wrongdoing by other officers, prosecutors may need to notify thousands more defendants about possible problems with their convictions.

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“I think there are going to be a lot more (appeals) ahead,” said Harris County Public Defender Alex Bunin, whose office is handling the appeal filed by Christian.

Nicole DeBorde, who is representing Goines in his murder case, did not offer comment on the appeal, noting that it isn’t related to the criminal case against her client.

The 52-year-old prisoner started working on his case himself after the district attorney’s office began sending out letters in March, warning hundreds of former defendants that Goines had some type of involvement in their arrest.

Christian got one of those letters on March 10, wrote up an appeal without the help of an attorney, and filed it in court this month. Even though prisoners aren’t automatically entitled to free legal representation at this stage of the appeals process, prosecutors took the uncommon step of suggesting that the court appoint him an attorney, citing Goines’ involvement in the case.

In November 2006, Christian was detained after walking out of a Spec’s liquor store, according to his court filing. An officer put him in the back of a patrol car and drove him to the scene of a disturbance so that a witness could identify him. When the witness said Christian wasn’t the suspect, the officer let him go back to the liquor store.

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Then, according to the court filing, Goines showed up and accused Christian of lying about money he had on him. Christian said it was from his paycheck, but Goines searched a car in the lot and allegedly found cocaine and a gun.

Christian disputed that discovery, and now argues that the police offense report recording the incident was “intentionally fabricated” to justify the initial “mistaken identity” and subsequent arrest for a crime he says he didn’t commit.

“A thorough reading of the report will establish that at no time did Officer Goines establish that he found evidence of a crime on applicant’s person,” Christian wrote, “or that applicant was part of the incident that occurred that evening.”

The car was never impounded or recorded with enough detail to tie the drugs in it to Christian, and his fingerprints were never found on the gun.

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“There exists a reasonable probability that the guilty verdict cannot be supported with confidence and has resulted in a miscarriage of justice,” he wrote. “The applicant is entitled to a full acquittal in this matter.”

Aside from faulting Goines for his alleged mishandling of the case, Christian faulted his defense attorney, who he says told him that he should plead guilty because a jury wouldn’t believe him over a cop.

“Even if they did lie,” the attorney allegedly said, “the jury is going to believe [the arresting officer], nine out of ten times before they believe you with your record. If I were you, I would take the deal.”

Christian was sentenced in 2009 to just under three years in prison for possession of one to four grams of drugs. After serving his time, he was released and faced charges in a new case — a gun charge and aggravated robbery — that landed him back in prison on a pair of 20-year sentences.

If he wins his appeal and the courts decide to vacate his drug conviction, he’ll still have to finish out those current sentences. But it would mean that he’d have one less conviction on his record if he gets in trouble again.

DETAILS: Court documents reveal origins of botched narcotics raid on Harding Street

The other appeal winding through the courts concerns Otis Mallett, a Houston man who alleges he was framed in a crack bust.

His 2011 conviction stemmed from a drug arrest three years earlier, when Goines met up with Mallet’s brother Steven to bust him based on an undercover buy. The officer gave Steven Mallet $200 in police funds, he said, then watched him go over to Otis Mallet, who plucked something out of a can in his truck and handed it over in exchange for the cash. Afterward, Steven returned with the drugs.

Goines was the only witness to the alleged deal. After he drove away, backup officers swooped in to arrest Otis Mallet, seizing a can containing crack cocaine from behind the house next door. On the stand, Goines testified that he’d seen Otis Mallet hide the can behind a neighbor’s house — but the neighbors disputed that claim.

Though Steven Mallet pleaded guilty to avoid waiting months for a trial, Otis Mallet took his case to trial and lost. Last year, attorney Jonathan Landers filed an appeal claiming that the state had suppressed evidence that could have helped prove someone else hid the drugs.

“The new evidence discovered in this case shows that Officer Goines testified falsely and that no drug deal, as described by Goines, took place,” Landers wrote in court documents. “Mallet was convicted based on Goines’ perjured testimony.”

The appeal was delayed after the clerk’s office misplaced some of the case records, attorneys said.

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Broadening fallout

The latest appeal comes amid broadening fallout from the deadly drug raid seven months ago at 7815 Harding St. According to charging documents, officers started investigating three weeks earlier after a tipster warned them about drugs and guns inside the small Pecan Park home.

But when police visited the house and didn't spot anything suspicious, the tip got passed along to Goines. The 54-year-old lawman then allegedly set up a controlled buy using a confidential informant, a deal he used as justification to ask a city judge for a no-knock warrant at the home belonging to Navy veteran Dennis Tuttle and his wife Rhogena Nicholas.

Late on the afternoon of Jan. 28, the narcotics squad burst through the couple’s front door in search of suspected heroin dealers. Instead, they shot a dog that they say lunged at them, sparking a gun battle. In the end, Tuttle and his wife were both killed and five officers injured. Authorities still haven’t released a ballistics report detailing who fired which shot.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Evidence left behind after botched Pecan Park drug raid raises new questions about shootings

The raid only 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 one, according to prosecutors. Instead, the veteran officer allegedly 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.

Prosecutors in April dismissed a few dozen pending cases involving Goines and Bryant, and launched a review of more than 2,200 cases they’d handled throughout their careers. Then on Friday, Ogg announced charges against both officers, who retired earlier this year.

Goines was charged with 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. Bryant was charged with tampering with a government record after the raid. Both men maintain their innocence.

The FBI is still probing the case with a civil rights investigation.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Grieving family members tour Pecan Park home as questions swirl about botched drug raid

After sending notices to the defendants in some 1,400 cases tied to the ex-lawman and 800 tied to his former partner, the district attorney’s office expanded the review to include the entire squad.

Prosecutors don’t plan to reinvestigate each case and figure out whether anyone was wrongfully convicted, Ogg said. But if the review uncovers evidence of wrongdoing by police, prosecutors will send more notices to current defendants as well as people already convicted.

“There's a precedent for this,” Ogg said, citing cases called into question by DNA issues. “That's how we handled the DNA mixtures when we learned from the FBI that the calculations were incorrect.”

But Bunin suggested a more detailed review might be in order given the seriousness of the allegations.

“The problem is all they’re doing is sending out letters,” he said, “and these folks don’t necessarily have the wherewithal to figure out what to do.”

Even after prosecutors flag possible problems with an officer in their case, it’s still up to the defendant to file an appeal — as Christian did. Though his claim was only recently filed, Bunin was optimistic about the possible outcome.

“There could be a basis to give him a new trial,” he said. “But they wouldn’t be able to re-prosecute him because their only evidence is based on this cop that they couldn’t call as a witness.”

keri.blakinger@chron.com

st.john.smith@chron.com