Another deputy fired with Goforth mistress connection
HOUSTON (KTRK) -- The Harris County Sheriff's Office says another deputy was fired Friday for inappropriate communication with two witnesses in separate cases.
One of those witnesses is the woman who claims to be Dep. Darren Goforth's mistress. The other is a woman in an unrelated theft case.
HCSO says Deputy J. Goodrich, a two-year veteran of the sheriff's office, was terminated Friday. He was formerly assigned to the patrol bureau, but was transferred to the jail where he did not have contact with the public in October.
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In a statement HCSO says: "An internal affairs investigation determined that while assigned to the Patrol Bureau, Deputy Goodrich engaged in inappropriate communications with two witnesses in incidents he responded to. One of the witnesses was involved in the Capital Murder investigation of Deputy Darren Goforth."
According to Sheriff Ron Hickman, neither communications were sexual in nature. In an exclusive interview with abc13, the witness in the Goforth case told us Goodrich reached out to her after he responded to an emergency call at her home in the weeks following the Goforth murder. He late returned in person and sent emails trying to start a sexual relationship. She did not. The woman reported that to Sheriff Ron Hickman, who referred her to Internal Affairs investigators.
According to the Sheriff's office, investigators found texts or emails to the theft witness during the course of the first investigation.
In that exclusive interview, the Goforth witness told us she was angry over Sheriff's staffers who engage in just this kind of behavior. 'It's how they get dates,' she told us.
Goodrich may appeal the termination.
Goodrich is the latest Harris County Sheriff's Office employee to be fired for having contact with Dep. Goforth's alleged mistress. Earlier this week, we learned Marc DeLeon has a relationship with the same woman. In October, Harris County Sgt. Craig Clopton was fired for having a sexual relationship with Goforth's alleged mistress. Clopton was an investigator in Goforth's murder case.
Dep. Goforth was killed in August of last year at a northwest Harris County gas station. Shannon Miles was arrested on capital murder charges, but was determined incompetent to stand trial.
