• Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Posthumous pardon request submitted for George Floyd arrest by ex-Houston police officer in 2004

Elinor Aspegren, USA TODAY
·2 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

An attorney in Harris County, Texas, has applied for a pardon in the 2004 drug arrest of George Floyd in Houston after the arresting officer has been accused of using false evidence.

Floyd was arrested by former Houston police officer Gerald Goines in February 2004 for selling $10 worth of drugs.

But Harris County Public Defender Allison Mathis, who filed the posthumous pardon application to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, said Goines made up the confidential informant in Floyd's case.

“No one bothered to question the word of a veteran cop against that of a previously convicted Black man," she said.

Goines is charged with two counts of felony murder for a deadly 2019 drug raid. Prosecutors allege that he lied to obtain the warrant for the raid, where Dennis Tuttle, 59, and his wife Rhogena Nicholas, 58 were killed.

Prosecutors say that Goines claimed that a confidential informant had bought heroin at the couple's home — but that Goines later said there was no informant and that he had bought the drugs himself.

The Harris County District Attorney's office has since dropped hundreds of cases after learning that Goines had lied about informants and evidence throughout his 34-year career. Most of the cases in the 10-year period evaluated involve drug dealing, and the majority of them involve Black Americans, according to The Houston Chronicle and ABC-13 Houston.

For Minneapolis protest leaders, no apologies over muscular demands for police reform

Justice Department to investigate whether Louisville police engaged in abuse after Breonna Taylor's death

A pardon “wouldn’t erase the memory, personal or institutional, of this thing that happened to" George Floyd, Mathis said, continuing by saying it would also not erase "things that would happen to him later."

But "it would show that the state of Texas is interested in fundamental fairness, in admitting its mistakes, and in working to increase the accountability for police officers who break our trust and their oaths, and harm our people rather than serve them,” she said.

The pardon application was made public Monday by a reporter with The Marshall Project.

In a statement to KHOU-11, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said that she supported the pardon, commenting that her office had looked into a posthumous pardon before.

“Prosecutors determined in 2019 that Floyd had been convicted on the lone word of Gerald Goines, a police officer we could no longer trust; we fully support a request that the Governor now pardon George Floyd from that drug conviction," Ogg said.

Last week, a jury found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of second- and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd's 2020 death. Floyd's death sparked a month-long protest over police injustice in June.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: George Floyd: Texas attorney applies for pardon for 2004 arrest

Recommended Stories

  • Bafta TV Awards: Diversity's BGT routine up for must-see moment award

    The controversial routine is among the nominees for Bafta's must-see TV moment of the last year.

  • Regina King Opens Oscars With Remark On Derek Chauvin Verdict

    "If things had come differently this past week in Minneapolis, I may have traded in my heels for marching boots,” the "One Night In Miami" director said.

  • Four minors robbed 82-year-old woman before car chase, Richland County deputies say

    A 16-year-old and three 14-year-olds robbed a Columbia woman at gunpoint before leading law enforcement on a chase, the sheriff’s department said.

  • Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez Were Reportedly Spotted Together Post-Breakup

    What's the story here?

  • Elon Musk says pandemic supply-chain issues and a global microchip shortage resulted in 'insane difficulties' for Tesla

    "We've had some of the most difficult supply chain challenges that we've ever experienced in the life of Tesla," Musk said, citing the chip shortage.

  • As demand for COVID-19 vaccines drops, experts stress more shots in arms are key for pandemic to 'be over'

    "We don't know what the magic number is to reach herd immunity, but it's certainly more than what it is right now. We've got a ways to go, no matter what," one expert tells Yahoo Life.

  • Fox News' Tucker Carlson suggests viewers call the cops on parents with masked children

    No one enjoys wearing a face mask, and plenty of medical experts are now saying people — especially vaccinated people — mostly don't need to wear them for non-intimate outdoor activities. The coronavirus does not spread as easily outdoors — though it could jump from human to human if, say, infected Tucker Carlson fans get in your face to scream (politely) about how you are making them uncomfortable by wearing a mask outdoor. And if one of these triggered people also calls the cops or child protective services because your child is wearing a mask, well, that may be on Carlson, too, after his Monday night show on Fox News. Tucker Carlson is now telling his audience to harass people who wear face masks outside. If they see children wearing masks, Tucker says the response should be no different than when you see a kid being abused -- "call the police immediately, contact child protective services" pic.twitter.com/4svVH0JY3s — Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) April 27, 2021 The Federalist's Molly Hemingway evidently thought Carlson had a good, and viable, idea. legit deranged to think it’s possible to “politely” walk up to a total stranger and tell them “your mask is making me uncomfortable” pic.twitter.com/4K3zR3Lfxw — Christian Vanderbrouk (@UrbanAchievr) April 27, 2021 Carlson's colleague Laura Ingraham hit on masked children, too, suggesting this may be a growing front in the conservative culture wars. pic.twitter.com/kBmCeMGzSM — Brendan Karet (@bad_takes) April 27, 2021 The COVID-19 pandemic has not gone away, new variants seem to be hitting younger people, children are not immune, and people under 16 are not yet eligible to be vaccinated. Also, per science, masks work. An average of about 715 Americans are dying every day from COVID-19, a sharp drop from February but not nothing, and very few of them are children, but not zero. Presumably, Carlson is just trying to make a point about snooty mask wearers scowling at mask scofflaws, but it's unlikely 911 operators will see it that way if his viewers take him seriously. More stories from theweek.comThe Oscars finale was a heartless disasterThe death of cities was greatly exaggerated5 brutally funny cartoons about COVID anti-vaxxers

  • Court to hear appeal of Dallas officer who killed neighbor

    A Texas court is scheduled to hear arguments Tuesday on overturning the conviction of a former Dallas police officer who was sentenced to prison for fatally shooting her neighbor in his home. An attorney for Amber Guyger and prosecutors are set to clash before an appeals court over whether the evidence was sufficient to prove that her 2018 shooting of Botham Jean was murder. The hearing before a panel of judges will examine a Dallas County jury's 2019 decision to sentence Guyger to 10 years in prison for murder.

  • Police: Daughter held without bond after fatally shooting mother

    A mother was shot and killed in Ellicott City. Her daughter is accused of pulling the trigger and now police expect her to face a first-degree murder charge.

  • Lawmakers, defense officials joust over next-gen ICBM plans

    The war over a next-gen ICBM flared up at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

  • 'Pop' fans: Biden kids, grandkids part of WH scene

    Biden’s big Irish American family is becoming part of the scene now that he's at the White House, with his children, grandchildren providing the kind of grounding that has served him during a lifetime of public service. (April 27)

  • Tesla reports another quarter of profits that top Wall Street expectations

    Tesla also said it made $101 million from selling bitcoin during the period after it bought $1.5 billion worth of the cryptocurrency in February.

  • Ex-Massachusetts mayor's corruption trial about 'lying, stealing cheating and shakedowns,' prosecutor says

    Former Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia is charged with stealing about two-thirds of almost $400,000 from seven investors.

  • Bill Gates under fire for saying vaccine formulas shouldn’t be shared with developing world

    Billionaire sees swift social media backlash: ‘Who appointed this billionaire head of global health? Oh yeah, he did’

  • HBO confirms 'Game of Thrones' prequel has finally started production and shares the first photo of the cast at a table read

    See a behind-the-scenes look at the first "Game of Thrones" spinoff currently in production. HBO gave fans a look at the main cast of actors.

  • Rick Santorum lambasted over comments seemingly erasing Native Americans from history

    Rick Santorum's critics did not take kindly to comments the former Pennsylvania senator made while speaking at a Young America's Foundation event last week. During his talk, Santorum offered his views on the founding of America, which he ties to the Judeo-Christian principles of persecuted Europeans who crossed the Atlantic and "created a blank slate ... birthed a nation from nothing. I mean there was nothing here." After Media Matters' Jason Campbell posted the clip on Twitter, critics decried Santorum's remarks as not only historically inaccurate, but also as an example of white supremacy and the erasure of Native American history and culture. Surprised to see Rick Santorum publicly admit how little he cares about Native Americans. https://t.co/WlDgx726m8 — ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) April 26, 2021 The Republican did appear to catch himself and acknowledged that Native Americans had lived on the continent before European settlers made their way over, but he added that "candidly, there isn't much Native American culture in American culture." That clarification may have actually angered people even more, since it was seen as blatantly ignoring the role of destructive U.S. policies, including the forcible removal of indigenous peoples from their ancestral homelands, played in the loss of culture and language. Rick Santorum straight up handwaves the genocide of indigenous people https://t.co/u0ZoLgZR5d — philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) April 26, 2021 More stories from theweek.comThe Oscars finale was a heartless disasterThe death of cities was greatly exaggerated5 brutally funny cartoons about COVID anti-vaxxers

  • AstraZeneca: US to share up to 60m vaccine doses

    Millions of doses will be available for export in the coming months, the White House says.

  • Nearly half of surveyed Republicans say Chauvin verdict was wrong outcome

    A whopping 46 percent of Republicans polled after Derek Chauvin was found guilty have a problem with the jury’s verdict. A CBS News/YouGov poll of more than 2,500 Americans noted the stark partisan differences of opinion related to last week’s verdict in the trial of former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd. According to the poll, 90% of Democrats believe that Chauvin’s conviction on all three counts — for second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter — was the “right” verdict.

  • Store refuses to sell gun to man who said he wanted to kill 8 people, Texas cops say

    Police are searching for him.

  • Black Lives Matter Claims Police ‘Wasted No Time in Senselessly Taking’ Ma’Khia Bryant’s Life

    In a post mourning the death of Columbus, Ohio teen Ma’Khia Bryant, Black Lives Matter claimed that the police “wasted no time in senselessly taking another Black child.” Bryant was fatally shot by police officer Nicholas Reardon after she charged at two women with a knife and attempted to stab them. Many neighbor witnesses, after watching video footage of the incident, concluded that the cop had no other option but to open fire to end the threat to the other parties. “Together, we’re going to uplift, center, and honor this Black child for what she loved — doing her hair, making TikToks, and being a teenager,” Black Lives Matter commented. The Black Lives Matter page on Bryant continues, “Columbus police officer Nicholas Reardon showed up and shot this 16-year-old child point blank within a matter of seconds.” The post also claimed that Bryant placed the 911 call that drew officers to the scene. While Bryant’s family members have said she placed the call, police have refused to identify the caller, though they did release an audio recording of the call in which the caller can be heard saying that an unidentified person is “trying to stab us.” Bryant’s death closely followed the release of the guilty verdict of police officer Derek Chauvin, who was convicted of the second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and manslaughter of George Floyd. “Another Black life stolen with no regard,” the organization wrote. “Ma’Khia Bryant’s life mattered.”