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Eric Houston enters guilty plea, but will the ex-Tampa cop now testify against his wife?

 
Former Tampa Police officers Eric Houston, left, and his wife LaJoyce Houston, center, walk into the Sam Gibbons U.S. District Courthouse in Tampa on Oct. 28, 2015. With them are their attorneys Lyann Goudie, second from left and Wade Whidden, right. Goudie is representing LaJoyce Houston and Widden is representing Eric Houston. [SCOTT KEELER    |  Times]
Former Tampa Police officers Eric Houston, left, and his wife LaJoyce Houston, center, walk into the Sam Gibbons U.S. District Courthouse in Tampa on Oct. 28, 2015. With them are their attorneys Lyann Goudie, second from left and Wade Whidden, right. Goudie is representing LaJoyce Houston and Widden is representing Eric Houston. [SCOTT KEELER | Times]
Published March 31, 2017

TAMPA — Will Eric Houston testify against his wife?

It was one of the questions a federal district judge couldn't get answered last week before rejecting the former Tampa police detective's plea agreement.

Another judge asked the same question this week.

The answer: No one seems to know. Not Houston's attorney. Not the federal prosecutor leading the tax fraud conspiracy case against the couple. Not even LaJoyce Houston herself.

When U.S. District Judge Mary Scriven popped the question Thursday, the wife quietly shook her head.

"I think I could pretty easily find out if my husband was going to testify," Scriven followed up. "But that's you."

The answer is one step closer to mattering. Eric Houston's plea agreement cleared a procedural hurdle Friday before a magistrate judge who assists Scriven. Houston pleaded guilty to a single charge of receiving stolen government property. Magistrate Judge Thomas McCoun signed off on the plea, recommending that Scriven accept it.

The former Tampa police detective admits that he used money from fraudulent tax returns to pay a credit card debt.

If the deal goes through, the government has agreed to drop more than a dozen other charges he faced, including aggravated identity theft and conspiracy.

His wife, a former Tampa police sergeant, still faces those charges and more.

She is headed to trial.

Eric Houston will not be sentenced until after LaJoyce Houston's case reaches a conclusion.

The husband and wife sat three seats apart at Thursday's hearing. They did not appear to make eye contact. They are still married and live in the same house, Scriven was told.

Whether the husband testifies, and what he might say, could be influenced by a pair of complicated legal concepts, said Tampa attorney John Fitzgibbons, who is not involved in the case.

Spousal testimonial privilege prevents a witness from being compelled to testify against his or her spouse. Marital confidential communications privilege protects conversations between spouses.

The latter privilege, though, does not protect conversations that are part of a conspiracy.

"It's a really tricky area of the law," Fitzgibbons said. "If Mrs. Houston decides to go to trial and the government seeks to call her husband as a government witness to testify against her, she can be expected to vigorously raise legal challenges to his testimony."

The Houstons were accused of mining confidential police databases for names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers. An indictment alleged they shared the information with Rita Girven, a former police informer, who used it to commit stolen identity tax refund fraud. Prosecutors said the Houstons enriched themselves by at least $239,117.

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Girven, linked to $2.4 million in losses, is serving 12 years in prison.

Last week, Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Lazzara said he could not stomach Eric Houston's plea, saying the agreement did not adequately reflect the seriousness of the alleged public corruption. He noted that sentencing guidelines for the single conviction put the former cop at the highest level for which he could admit guilt and still get probation rather than prison. Judges are not bound by those guidelines. There's no guarantee Houston would get probation.

Lazzara recused himself from the case. It bounced to U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell, but she, too, recused herself, citing independent knowledge of the allegations. She is married to Gerald Honeywell, a retired Tampa police major.

Finally, the case landed in Scriven's court.

At a Thursday afternoon status conference, Scriven asked prosecutors and defense attorneys to bring her up to speed on the allegations. Like Lazzara, she wanted to know why Eric Houston was pleading guilty to the lone charge.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Riedel explained that the government's case against him was more circumstantial.

They know he accessed police databases to obtain information about specific people. Those people were later victims of tax fraud. But they were also victims or witnesses in ongoing homicide investigations, Riedel said.

"He may or may not have a legitimate law enforcement purpose for doing that," Riedel said.

The government has more direct evidence against LaJoyce Houston, indicating that she conspired with Girven to lift identities from databases, Riedel said.

"We're able to trace much more of the proceeds to her," Riedel said.

Eric Houston's defense attorney, Wade Whidden, told the judge he believes the plea agreement adequately reflects his client's level of involvement.

"We take a very strong position that the evidence in this case is vastly different as it relates to Mr. Houston's culpability," he said.

Scriven asked about the likelihood that LaJoyce Houston would take a plea, too. Riedel said government offers have been rejected.

LaJoyce Houston's attorney, Lyann Goudie, said an agreement was doubtful. "I don't think there's going to be a plea," she said. The judge asked LaJoyce Houston if she understood the consequences of not taking a plea offer and then being found guilty at trial. People who take plea deals may end up with lesser sentences because they get credit for cooperating with prosecutors.

"Nobody thinks they're going to be convicted until they get convicted," Scriven said. "Do you understand that?"

LaJoyce Houston said she did

The judge proposed a set of dates for a two-week trial in mid-summer or early fall. The exact trial date will be decided at a future court hearing.

Contact Dan Sullivan at dsullivan@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3386. Follow @TimesDan.