Woman arrested by HPD officer Gerald Goines gets case dismissed amid his investigation
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A hug from her mom has never felt so sweet to Courtney Jacobs. She's been in jail since last September, after Officer Gerald Goines arrested her in an undercover narcotics operation.
Jacobs was released Thursday morning. She sat in jail for five months, unable to make a $20,000 bond, and now her case is dismissed.
"I was like, I'd been doing all this time for nothing. I have constantly been telling my momma, 'This time, I didn't do nothing,'" said Jacobs, who does have a criminal record.
She readily admits she had been legitimately arrested several times in her life, but this is not one of those times.
Jacobs says on Sept. 13, 2018, an undercover officer approached her on Ennis Street, blocks from her home, and started to flirt with her.
"He said, 'Come ride with me.' I said, 'No.' He said, 'Get in, get in. I'm a cool dude,'" she recalled. "He was saying he wanted to party, he wanted to get to know me and squeezed my thigh."
The two drove around in the undercover officer's car for 30 minutes, and at his urging, Jacobs stopped and bought a small amount of pot. Moments later, uniformed officers swooped in.
Jacobs, instead of pot possession, was charged with trying to distribute meth, which she says she did not even have.
"He kept the weed and he charged me with some pills, and I don't even have no pills on me," Jacobs said.
The arresting officer in her case was Goines, who after the disastrous Harding Street raid, is now under investigation.
RELATED: HPD chief said officer from drug raid would be relieved of duty after release from hospital
In all, the District Attorney's office will review 1,400 cases, where Goines was either the arresting officer or the witness of record. Of those, 26 cases are current, with four cases that still have individuals in jail.
Jacobs' case is the first one dismissed.
On Thursday, District Attorney Kim Ogg says she will ask for funding to hire on several more staffers so the cases can be reviewed faster.
"I'll be making an immediate request, to our funding body, the Commissioners Court, for some additional prosecutors to help with the review of the 1,400 cases," said Ogg.
Defense lawyers are pessimistic.
"There are way more than 1,400 cases that need to be reviewed," said attorney Norm Silverman, who represents two of the defendants who have active cases with Goines.
"Okay, we caught this officer. What happened to the checks and balances? What happened to the magistrate that's not supposed to be a rubber stamp? What happened to the system? What you're seeing is people becoming complacent."
As for Jacobs, the mother of two says she hopes the other people arrested under Goines' watch get a full review. For her, she says the case dismissal was a blessing, and an impetus to try and change her life.
"God answered my prayer," she said.
