Former HPD officer testifies a sergeant wore a personal body camera during deadly Harding St. raid
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A former Houston Police Department officer who worked the deadly Harding Street raid got emotional on the stand and told jurors a sergeant may have worn a personal body camera during the incident.
Trial against former HPD officer Gerald Goines enters day 4
Former HPD officer Gerald Goines is on trial for the deaths of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas stemming from a raid at their Harding Street home in January 2019.
During the first week of the trial, prosecutors hammered home the message to jurors that Goines made up lies to obtain a no-knock warrant. They said he lied about using a confidential informant to buy drugs from the Harding Street home.
The defense team concedes that Goines did lie. However, they said Goines isn't responsible for Tuttle and Nicholas' deaths.
Goines is on trial for murder. After the raid, an investigator testified that Goines admitted he had no confidential informant buy drugs. Goines said he bought the drugs.
On the stand on Thursday, Officer Trenton Bickford testified about cell phone records he obtained from Goines' phone. Bickford said the data showed Goines was nowhere near Harding Street the day he told investigators he bought drugs.
RELATED: 1 of 12 jurors replaced on 2nd day of Goines murder trial for botched 2019 Harding Street raid
Emotional testimony leads jurors to clear the courtroom
It was a packed courtroom for the second witness of the day. Former Houston police officer Steven Bryant took the stand.
He worked with Goines in the narcotics division in 2019. Bryant told jurors the day before the raid, Goines called him about a drug buy.
Bryant assumed Goines called him to give him cover. Bryant said HPD policy at the time was for two officers and one confidential informant to do a drug transaction.
Bryant said he and Goines broke protocol regarding the number of officers needed for a drug transaction for "quite a while." He also told jurors that they weren't the only ones.
He said others in the narcotics division did the same thing. Bryant is no longer with HPD and has pleaded guilty to federal charges tied to the Harding Street raid.
Bryant got emotional when the prosecutors' questions turned to the day of the deadly raid. Bryant said his role the day of the raid was to breach the door.
After he did, Bryant told jurors it sounded like a warzone with a number of gunshots being fired. Bryant pulled injured HPD officers away from the house.
His voice started to tremble, and tears flowed when he was asked about what happened when former HPD chief Art Acevedo arrived on the scene.
"What happened from your conversation with Chief Acevedo?" a prosecutor asked.
"I stood down and handed over my weapon, and I had to get cleaned up," Bryant said.
Bryant began to weep. The judge ordered the jurors to leave the courtroom.
Goines was also in tears.
HPD body camera usage again at the center of the trial
On Wednesday, an HPD officer testified that Acevedo told him to turn off his body camera. Video played to jurors showed Acevedo doing just that.
On Thursday, Bryant testified that he heard Acevedo tell other officers to do the same thing.
READ MORE: Ex-HPD chief Art Acevedo defends ordering officer to turn off bodycam after deadly Harding St. raid
Questions arose not only about HPD-issued cameras but also about a possible personal body camera. On the stand, Bryant told jurors that no members of the raid team wore body cameras except for a sergeant.
He said the sergeant wore a personal body camera. The defense team raised questions after this, and the judge cleared the jury.
Bryant clarified on the stand that, without jurors present, he assumed the sergeant wore a personal body camera during the raid because of what other raid members said about it after the incident.
Bryant said he had never seen the video or known what had happened to it. Prosecutors told the judge they didn't have the video.
They've asked HPD for it but haven't received it. They plan to call the sergeant to the stand later in the trial.
According to the city of Houston's body camera policy, officers aren't allowed to wear personal body cameras. The policy states, "The use of any body-worn camera (BWC) not issued by the department is prohibited unless approved by the Chief of Police."
The trial is expected to pick back up Thursday afternoon with Bryant on the stand.
For updates on this story, follow Nick Natario on Facebook, X and Instagram.
