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Man who spent seven years in prison sues ex-HPD officer Gerald Goines and City of Houston

Byron Prophet said Goines lied about his case in 2008 and he was wrongfully convicted and sent to prison.

HOUSTON — Editor's note: The video above about other stories connected to Gerald Goines originally aired in May. 

Byron Prophet was imprisoned for seven years for a crime he says he didn't commit and now he's suing the City of Houston and former HPD Officer Gerald Goines.

Prophet is one of dozens of defendants who say Goines lied about evidence and informants in their drug cases. Prophet was convicted of cocaine charges in 2008 and is now out on parole. 

"The Houston Police Department has a pattern and practice of planted evidence, perjured testimony, false arrest, and malicious prosecution resulting in dozens of wrongful convictions, ruined lives, and countless lost years in prison," said Prophet's civil rights lawyer Randall Kallinen.

The wrongful incarceration and civil rights lawsuit also names former Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt. 

"The City of Houston, its chiefs of police -- from Hurtt to Acevedo -- are complicit in the murders, abuse, misconduct and trauma that Goines inflicted on the black community and the Houston community as a whole," said Prophet's civil rights lawyer U.A. Lewis, "The families that they destroyed with the wrongful convictions, and murders still need justice."

Prosecutors have dismissed hundreds of cases connected to Goines.

Goines was charged with murder after the Harding Street raid that led to the deaths of homeowners Dennis Tuttle and Regina Nicholas.

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