A federal judge has denied a request from Houston city attorneys to move pretrial litigation related to the Harding Street scandal from state court to federal court.
In January 2019, Houston police officers raided a home in southeast Houston searching for drugs. The raid erupted in gunfire, claiming the lives of two homeowners, Rhogena Nicholas and Dennis Tuttle. Investigators later determined the agent who led the raid had lied about many of the aspects on which it is based, prompting a major scandal, litigation, multiple criminal investigations, and state and federal charges against multiple officers.
Lawyers representing Nicholas’ relatives had sought information from the city in probate court in what’s known as a “Rule 202” hearing, which would have allowed them to ask questions of Houston police officers and review other documents in anticipation of a lawsuit.
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The city — which has spent almost 18 months delaying court proceedings — filed a last-ditch motion the day before the planned 202 proceeding, arguing that the case actually belonged in federal court. Assistant city attorney Christy Martin also argued that the city should be able to withhold information about patterns of conduct in officer-involved shootings that had been discovered in a lawsuit related to the officer-shooting of Jordan Baker. The city settled the Baker lawsuit for $1.2 million last year.
In a four-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt systematically shot down all of Martin’s arguments, noting that while the city had tried to scuttle the Rule 202 proceeding, in arguments before the court, city attorneys had acknowledged that the "majority" of case law on such proceedings have not allowed removal to federal court — and that she failed to identify a single case allowing such a tactic.
The latest legal manuever follows a long campaign by city attorneys to delay proceedings related to the Harding Street scandal. When Nicholas family attorney Mike Doyle first filed the case in probate court, the city objected and said the probate court shouldn’t have jurisdiction. When the probate court judge disagreed, they appealed to the Fourteenth Court of Appeals, which rejected their claims in March 2020. When the city subsequently asked the Texas Supreme Court to review the case, the high court refused to consider the matter.
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After Doyle subpoenaed information and testimony related to the case in November, city attorneys asked for a motion for protection — which a judge also shot down — before the city made its latest request to move the case to federal court.
In an emailed statement, Doyle castigated Houston’s “continuing efforts to conceal the true facts about the Harding Street raid.”
“United States District Judge Kenneth Hoyt’s Order, issued this morning, rejected the City’s unprecedented cover-up of the facts about what happened, who was involved, and who needs to be held accountable, for almost two years,” he said. “This latest order means that the families of Rhogena Nicholas and Dennis Tuttle, along with the citizens of Houston, will finally start to see the wall of silence start crumbling.”
City officials have not yet commented on the ruling.
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Federal judge rules against latest delay tactic in Harding Street litigation by city lawyers - Houston Chronicle
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