Houston Police Department Chief Art Acevedo holds up a letter from the FBI announcing the bureau's civil rights investigation related to the deaths of two people during the no-knock raid by narcotics officers that killed two people and injured five police officers last month, during a press conference from Houston City Hall, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2019.
Republished February 21, 2019 - 5:35 PM
Original Publication Date February 21, 2019 - 3:01 PM
DALLAS - Prosecutors have dismissed one of the cases being re-examined because they involved a Houston officer accused of lying in an affidavit that led to a deadly drug raid last month.
Court records show the drug case against Courtney Jacobs was dismissed Wednesday, the same day the Harris County District Attorney's Office announced it will review more than 1,400 cases worked by Officer Gerald Goines.
The cases, including more than 25 pending before a court, came under review as the FBI launched an investigation into whether any civil rights were violated during the January raid that left five officers, including Goines, injured and two residents dead.
The veteran narcotics officer was discharged Thursday after weeks in Memorial Hermann Hospital, according to his lawyer, Nicole DeBorde.
A spokesman for the district attorney's office said Jacobs' case was dismissed because she'd been in jail for four months and prosecutors were not ready to go to trial. Goines did not file the charges against Jacobs but her case was included in the review because he was present at the arrest, according to Dane Schiller.
Jacobs' defence attorney, Marcus Fleming, said prosecutors informed him Wednesday that the case would be dismissed "in the interest of justice." He said he believes Goines' involvement was "a factor."
Last week, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said Goines lied in the affidavit that justified the warrant for the Jan. 28 raid on a home in which Dennis Tuttle, 59, and Rhogena Nicholas, 58, were killed.
DeBorde has said Goines is innocent of any crime.
The district attorney's office is in the early stages of reviewing cases Goines handled during his 34 years with the Houston Police Department and has not yet released the full list of court proceedings.
Each case will be reviewed individually and none of the other pending cases have been dismissed, Schiller said.
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Associated Press writer Terry Wallace contributed to this report.
News from © The Associated Press, 2019