'I knew the officers were lying': Another drug case dismissed in fallout from botched raid

Boards cover the front of a home at 7815 Harding Street in Houston, Friday, Feb. 15, 2019, where the occupants of the home were shot to death during a police raid on Jan. 28. A lead investigator lied in an affidavit justifying a drug raid at the Houston home in which two residents were killed and four undercover officers were shot and wounded during a gun battle, the city’s police chief said Friday. less Boards cover the front of a home at 7815 Harding Street in Houston, Friday, Feb. 15, 2019, where the occupants of the home were shot to death during a police raid on Jan. 28. A lead investigator lied in an ... more Photo: Elizabeth Conley, MBO / Associated Press Photo: Elizabeth Conley, MBO / Associated Press Image 1 of / 32 Caption Close 'I knew the officers were lying': Another drug case dismissed in fallout from botched raid 1 / 32 Back to Gallery

A Harris County court on Monday tossed out yet another drug case over links to the officers at the center of the botched Pecan Park drug raid that left a couple dead and five officers injured earlier this year.

The dismissed felony charge against Xavier Womack hinged on claims that former narcotics officer Steven Bryant - who recently retired under investigation - spotted the Houston man going in and out of a supposed drug house.

But Womack's defense attorney, Lisa Andrews, says she repeatedly told prosecutors that her client was never at the scene, and it wasn't until after the outcome in Pecan Park sparked broader questions about police handling of drug cases that the Harris County District Attorney's Office agreed to drop Womack's drug charge.

READ MORE: 2nd drug case involving embattled Officer Gerald Goines dismissed in the 'interest of justice'

"I knew the officers were lying," Andrews told the Houston Chronicle on Monday. "But for the unfortunate circumstances" that led to the officers' departure from the department, Andrews continued, "I would be hoping to convince a jury of these facts against the word of two police officers."

The dismissal marks at least the fifth case dropped in the fallout from the Jan. 28 bust, which was unrelated to Womack's arrest and prosecution. In addition to Bryant, former Officer Gerald Goines is also under investigation and recently retired from the Houston Police Department.

Lawyers for the two officers at the center of the investigation did not immediately offer comment on the dismissal, but Harris County District Attorney spokesman Dane Schiller weighed in late Monday.

"As the investigation continues, we are proceeding thoroughly and methodically," he said. "We are still delving not only into the Harding Street shootings. but other cases in which certain officers were involved."

The arrest that started Womack's case came in 2017, when police said they'd been surveilling a house and had seen the South Side man coming and going, Andrews said. Afterward, police searched the place and instead arrested someone else they believed to be Womack.

"However, when they executed the search warrant, my client was not present at the target house, and they arrested someone else they believed was my client," Andrews said. "That told me they never really saw my client at the house."

When prosecutors realized that, they dropped charges against the other man and instead collared Womack, saying he'd been at the scene.

"I told the DA's office all of this from day one, and of course they chose to believe the officers' version," Andrews said. "Because of that, I set it for trial."

Court records show the 2017 arrest was dismissed because of an "investigation pending against investigating officers." The charge was possession with intent to deliver between 4 and 200 grams of cocaine.

The police involved in the arrest came under scrutiny earlier this year after investigators accused 54-year-old Goines of lying on the search warrant affidavit used to justify a no-knock raid at 7815 Harding Street. When officers burst in the home that evening in search of a heroin dealer, they kicked off a gun battle that left dead Dennis Tuttle, his wife Rhogena Nicholas, and a pit bull they'd been dog-sitting.

READ MORE: FBI opens civil rights investigation into botched Houston drug bust, police chief says

But the raid netted no heroin and only a small amount of cocaine and marijuana, and the slain couple's friends and neighbors have repeatedly maintained that they weren't drug dealers.

Days later, as Goines lay in the hospital recovering from a gunshot wound to the neck, investigators realized they couldn't find the confidential informant behind the alleged heroin buy that started it all.

When asked for details, Goines first named one informant and then another - but, according to court filings, police couldn't find anyone who admitted acting as the confidential informant before the raid. Instead, all of Goines' informants said they'd never met the Tuttles.

That revelation pushed the police department to retool policies around the use of no-knock raids, and also sparked investigations by police, prosecutors and the FBI. In addition to probing the possibility of criminal wrongdoing, prosecutors launched a review of more than 2,000 cases handled by Goines and Bryant - both whom retired under investigation.

Almost as soon as prosecutors announced their case review, a Harris County judged signed off on the dismissal of a drug case against Courtney Jacobs. In the weeks that followed, at least three more drug cases against other defendants were dismissed.

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