HOUSTON — A woman involved in the disastrous Harding Street Raid in 2019 was sentenced to 40 months in federal prison Tuesday.
Patricia Ann Garcia claimed her daughter got heroin from her neighbors, Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas, and they had machine guns and other weapons in their home. No drugs were found in the home after the couple was killed during the botched HPD raid.
Garcia has a long criminal history dating back to 1984, KHOU 11 Investigates learned. One arrest for cocaine possession was done by Gerald Goines and the same narcotics squad involved in the Harding Street raid.
It was Garcia’s call and a “tip” from a fake confidential informant that Goines used to get the no-knock warrant for the raid.
Four officers, including Goines, were injured in the shootout with Tuttle and Nicholas.
Goines and Former Officer Felix Gallegos face murder charges in the case.
Last week, former officer Steven Bryant pleaded guilty to a federal charge of falsifying records that interfered with a government investigation. Bryant admitted he lied on a report to protect Goines.
Federal prosecutors said Bryant found the search warrant inside the victims’ home and realized Goines had lied about the drug buy. Bryant then wrote up a false report claiming he was with Goines when Goines bought heroin from the couple the night before the raid.
The attorney representing Nicholas' family said they hope Bryant and Garcia will now answer questions about what happened before, during and after the raid.
“Everybody following this story knows that there’s a lot of misconduct that’s been going on before,” Mike Doyle said Tuesday.
Doyle accused HPD and the City of Houston of concealing evidence after promising transparency.
Both families have filed lawsuits.
“It’s been a long fight that they’re not going to stop and hopefully their efforts will start bearing some fruit and they’ll get some answers,” Doyle said.
Bryant could get up to 20 years in federal prison when he’s sentenced in August.
He also faces state charges of aggregate theft by a public servant.
The Harris County District Attorney's Office has dropped more than a 150 cases linked to Goines and/or Bryant and they've investigated more than 14,000.
Multiple convictions have also been overturned.
