Former HPD officer Steven Bryant, forground, and Gerald Goines, background, turn themselves in at the Civil Courthouse, Friday, August 23, 2019, as charges were announced for those officers involved in the Harding Street Raid.
Karen Warren, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer
Steven Bryant, the former Houston police officer who in 2019 attempted to help cover up lies that led to the deadly Harding Street raid, was sentenced Tuesday to probation for his role in the law enforcement scandal.
Bryant, 52, pleaded guilty in 2021 to falsifying a police report that helped support the no-knock warrant for the raid in Pecan Park. The raid, in which he participated, quickly devolved into a shootout and ended with the deaths of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas and the wounding of five police officers.
The charge carried a maximum sentence of 20 years.
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MORE ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Gerald Goines pleads guilty to federal charges in Harding Street case
“I want to apologize to everyone affected by my decisions in the days after this raid,” Bryant said. “I accept responsibility for my actions.”
Bryant admitted that he lied about helping his former partner, Gerald Goines, conduct a drug buy that justified the warrant. In fact, the buy never happened.
Bryant also helped Goines cover up his lies after the botched raid by taking brown powder from Goines’ vehicle and claiming it was heroin purchased at the Harding Street home, according to the plea agreement. He also obstructed efforts by investigators who were attempting to find the purported confidential informant who helped provide a basis for the raid.
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The attempted cover-up was unsuccessful. Bryant was charged with records tampering in 2019.
Bryant is the third person and second police officer to be sentenced in connection with the Harding Street raid.
In 2021, a woman, Patricia Garcia, was sentenced to three years in prison for making false 911 calls that were also used to help justify the raid.
In 2024, Goines was convicted of murder over the deaths of Tuttle and Nicholas and was sentenced to 60 years in state prison. Earlier this year, Goines also pleaded guilty to a federal deprivation of rights under color of law, for which he has yet to be sentenced.
Since his guilty plea, Bryant has cooperated with authorities in their prosecutions of Goines, said his lawyer, Andy Drumheller. As a result of his cooperation, federal prosecutors recommended that Bryant’s sentence be reduced below the normal federal guideline range.
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U.S. District Judge George Hanks agreed with the recommendation.
“We all make mistakes,” Hanks said. “But what’s important is not the mistakes we made, but how we live our lives after we make those mistakes. I don’t believe that you will ever be before a judge again in any case, because you realize the mistake you made and you’re moving forward from that. You’re going to do the right thing from here on out.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather Rae Winter and Bryant both declined to comment on the plea deal and sentence after the hearing.
The full extent of Bryant’s cooperation wasn’t detailed in court records.
However, Bryant testified during Goines’ state trial. He wept as he recalled breaching the home’s door and pulling wounded officers from the house. Bryant referred to Goines as a “co-worker friend” and said they met occasionally outside of work.
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Bryant was prepared to testify again during a federal trial if Goines didn’t plead guilty, Drumheller said.
Drumheller said there was a distinction between Bryant and Goines. Goines knew that the drug transaction claimed in the warrant never occurred; Bryant didn’t.
“He had not only consistently answered the calls from law enforcement, but had been a steady presence in his family’s life,” Drumheller said. “You know, he’s really done everything that he could to redeem himself and show the court that he was completely rehabilitated from having covered for someone that he had no idea had completely fabricated a transaction.”
During Tuesday’s hearing, Bryant’s voice trembled as he read a prepared statement to Hanks before the judge handed down his sentence.
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“I’ve worked to rehabilitate myself in cooperation with authorities,” Bryant said. “I should have set a better example.”