A man convicted based on the casework of a former Houston narcotics officer in 2009 is actually innocent, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said Wednesday.

Steven Mallet, 60, is the second person whose case was tied to Gerald Goines — the former narcotics officer at the center of a drug raid in 2019 that claimed the lives of two homeowners — to be declared innocent. His brother, Otis Mallet, was declared innocent earlier this month.

“Justice dictates that we continue going through questionable cases and clearing people convicted solely on the word of a police officer we can no longer trust,” Ogg said. “When the only evidence of criminal culpability is the testimony of an untrustworthy officer, we are going to work as fast as possible to right the situation.”

Wrong Door: Botched Houston drug raid not the first

Steven Mallet and his brother, Otis, were arrested in 2008 after Goines said that while undercover, he had bought drugs from the two men. At trial, a jury convicted Otis Mallet and sentenced him to eight years in prison. He served two behind bars before being paroled, but he always maintained his innocence and later challenged his conviction.

In early February, prosecutors said they agreed with Otis Mallet’s attorneys, and Judge Ramona Franklin declared the 64-year-old former inmate “actually innocent.”

In that hearing, Ogg and defense attorney Jonathan Landers wrote that Goines’ testimony served as the “cornerstone” of prosecutors’ case against Mallet.

The filing also notes serious discrepancies, including the fact Goines never disclosed he had paid a confidential informant for information leading to the Mallet brothers’ arrests. It also notes that he told jurors he used “police money” to make the drug buy, but expense reports show he never filed any draw money the month he allegedly paid the Mallets $200 for a “quarter” of crack cocaine. And while he had testified he’d seen Otis Mallet taking drugs from a blue can, later fingerprint testing failed to find Mallet’s fingerprints on the can Goines said he had handled.

When Goines was subpoenaed to testify in court about Otis Mallet’s case, he invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

Steven Mallet, meanwhile, pleaded guilty to time served in order to get out of jail. He said he did so rather than wait for a trial in which there was “no guarantee that a jury could be persuaded that Goines was lying,” according to a statement prepared for his Thursday court hearing.

Prosecutors after the hearing for Otis Mallet labeled the entire alleged narcotics transaction “a fraud.”

“This same fraud infects Steven’s case and conviction,” prosecutors and defense attorneys wrote, in a statement filed in advance of a hearing the matter, which is scheduled for Thursday morning in the 178th District Court.

Steven Mallet’s attorney could not be reached for comment Wednesday night.

In a news release the Harris County District Attorney’s Office said it has agreed with Steven Mallet’s defense to find relief based on actual innocence, false evidence and an involuntary plea.

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

Years after Mallet’s conviction, Goines has come under scrutiny after leading a January 2019 drug raid in south Houston that left homeowners Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas dead and himself and four other police officers injured.

After the raid, authorities said Goines had lied about numerous circumstances leading up to the incident, which sparked investigations by the Houston Police Department, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office and the FBI. Goines was charged with murder and other crimes, and accused of a raft of misconduct, including having sex with a confidential informant, keeping loose drugs in his car, and lying about casework. He has pleaded not guilty.

In the midst of the scandal, prosecutors dismissed dozens of active criminal cases and announced a review of more than 14,000 past cases Goines and other members of his squad had worked on. The Mallet brothers’ cases mark widening fallout of possible misconduct by the former officer, stretching back at least 11 years.

“Now we know he was lying and using the district attorney’s office as a tool to convict people wrongfully as early as 2008,” Ogg said, when she announced prosecutors believed Otis Mallet was innocent. “Anybody who was convicted as a result of Gerald Goines’ testimony, or involvement in a case that is significant or relevant, will now be given a presumption when they file their writ that Goines’ testimony or evidence in their case was false.”

RELATED: Judge declares Houston man innocent after prosecutors argue that his drug case was based on lies by former officer Goines

st.john.smith@chron.com

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