Gerald Goines Sentenced: Five-Year Federal Term in the Harding Street Raid Case
A federal judge on Monday accepted a plea agreement and sentenced former Houston police officer Gerald Goines to five years in federal prison on a civil rights charge tied to the 2019 Harding Street raid that killed Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas.
Former Houston Police Department officer Gerald Goines was sentenced Monday to 60 months in federal prison, as a judge accepted the plea agreement in his federal civil rights case, KPRC 2, KHOU 11 and FOX 26 Houston reported. Goines had pleaded guilty in August to deprivation of rights under color of law resulting in bodily injury, tied to the deadly 2019 Harding Street raid.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, as reported by FOX 26, Goines admitted he lied in claiming a confidential informant had bought heroin from a resident of the home and turned it over to him - information he later said was completely false - and that he also lied about other drug purchases at the home in the three weeks before the warrant. Prosecutors said there was no informant and no drug deal, and that Goines never investigated the home before the narcotics team served the warrant. The January 28, 2019, no-knock raid killed Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas and injured four Houston police officers.
At Monday's hearing, Goines expressed remorse and apologized to the families he hurt, FOX 26 reported. “I'm truly sorry. I truly apologize to the families I've hurt,” he said, adding that he was embarrassed and ashamed.
The federal term does not stand alone. Goines is already serving a 60-year state prison sentence after a Harris County jury convicted him in 2024 on two counts of felony murder in the couple's deaths - a sentence KPRC 2 reported remains under appeal. KPRC 2 reported he will receive 25 months of credit for time served, with the remaining 35 months of the federal term to run concurrent with his state sentence.
