Former HPD Chief Art Acevedo will soon be forced to answer questions regarding his actions surrounding the deadly botched raid on Harding Street from nearly five years ago.
This comes after Acevedo recently was subpoenaed to testify in the federal civil lawsuit filed by the families of the victims killed in what investigators and prosecutors described as an unlawful raid.
KPRC 2 Investigates obtained an exclusive video of Acevedo being served by a process server before a recent city council meeting at his new place of employment -- the City of Aurora, Colorado.
Acevedo, who is seen in the video wearing a police uniform, was served in person by a private process server at city hall before a recent council meeting. The private processor was used after the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office initially informed attorneys representing the families of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas that they were unable to track down Houston’s former police chief in November. The sheriff’s office wrote, “said defendant cannot be found,” regarding Acevedo, according to legal records.
To put this into perspective for Houstonians, this would be the equivalent of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office telling lawyers involved in a civil lawsuit that they were unable to track down the Houston Police Department Chief after they were requested to do so as a result of a federal civil lawsuit.
Surveillance video KPRC 2 Investigates obtained shows Acevedo receiving the subpoena and holding it up for a few seconds.
The subpoena reads, “YOU ARE COMMANDED to appear at the time, date, and place set forth below to testify at a deposition to be taken in this civil action.” Officials informed the family Acevedo also had been served in the days before the city hall serving, however, Arapahoe officials never informed counsel for the families that Acevedo had been served until after he was privately served.
Acevedo is set to answer questions by attorneys in the federal civil case later this month.
January 28 will mark the fifth anniversary of the deadly raid that shocked the city.
In the days following the deadly drug raid that also resulted in multiple officers being struck by gunfire, investigators from HPD’s Special Investigations Unit uncovered that HPD narcotics officer Gerald Goines was not truthful in his reasoning for securing a search warrant. His partner Steven Bryant was federally convicted for destroying, altering, or falsifying government records.
To this day, Bryant remains the only person – in state or federal court - to be found guilty.
KPRC 2 Investigates will have video of Acevedo being served on KPRC 2 News at 5 p.m.