Attorney: Murder charge after deadly drug raid 'political'

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy A Houston police officer indicted for murder following a deadly 2019 drug raid in which a couple was killed is being targeted by a district attorney looking to score political points in the wake of last year’s nationwide protests against police brutality, his attorney alleged on Tuesday. Officer Felipe Gallegos became the second officer who was indicted for murder following the January 2019 drug raid in which Dennis Tuttle, 59, and his wife, Rhogena Nicholas, 58, were killed. Rusty Hardin, Gallegos’ attorney, said the officer was a “hero” who saved the lives of other officers who were being shot at by Tuttle and who had nothing to do with an alleged faulty search warrant that had wrongly led authorities to the couple’s home In a brief statement during a news conference, Gallegos told reporters he hasn’t “been awarded the opportunity to tell my side of the story, to be able to explain that I’m not the bad person that I’m being painted to be.” Gallegos, who’s been with the police department for 12 years and whose father is a homicide detective with a suburban Houston police agency, did not comment on the shooting. At a separate news conference, Houston Police Officers’ Union President Douglas Griffith defended the indicted officers, calling the work by Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg and her office “nothing more than TV justice.” The union was paying the legal fees of all the indicted officers except for Goines.