FEDERAL PROSECUTORS OPPOSE OPEN HEARING OVER MISCONDUCT

Judge's Right To Quash Police Officers' Indictments Challenged

Federal prosecutors said Friday they oppose an open-court hearing on
allegations they engaged in misconduct to win indictments against two
former Houston police officers in the death of Pedro Oregon Navarro.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Paula Offenhauser said in a lengthy brief to
U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas that there was no misconduct, despite
defense allegations that arose from Atlas' decision to dismiss the
indictments against Darrell Strouse and James Willis.

Atlas based her April 19 decision on a review of grand jury and
investigative statements by key prosecution witness Rogelio Oregon
Pineda, the brother of the man killed in a soured drug raid.

Atlas said the indictments were based on false testimony of Rogelio
Oregon on important issues. She noted that he admitted he lied to the
grand jury, the Harris County District Attorney's Office and an FBI
agent in a civil deposition given for his family's lawsuit against the
city of Houston.

Atlas invited the U.S. Attorney's Office to seek reindictment of the
officers without Rogelio Oregon's testimony. But prosecutors, instead,
challenged Atlas' authority to quash the indictments without a finding
of serious misconduct.

Although Offenhauser acknowledged the federal grand jury was given
Rogelio Oregon's state grand jury testimony, she said there was no
misconduct and cited four primary reasons why such allegations should
be disspelled:

Rogelio Oregon did not perjure himself before the federal grand jury,
although he may have before the state panel. Offenhauser noted that
the statements before the two juries were different.

Rogelio Oregon never swore before the federal grand jury that his
testimony before the state grand jury was true.

Federal prosecutors did not tell grand jurors that Rogelio Oregon's
state grand jury testimony was true, and were not required to do so.
Offenhauser said the federal panel was given the state grand jury
testimony so they could assess Rogelio Oregon's credibility for themselves.

Rogelio Oregon's statements before the federal grand jury were
consistent with what the defendants assert is the truth.

Offenhauser said it is immaterial if state prosecutors told federal
prosecutors that Rogelio Oregon lied during his state grand jury
testimony and statements to police, as defense attorneys hope to prove.

"Assuming these facts to be true, they neither establish that the
testimony Pineda (Rogelio Oregon) gave before the federal grand jury
actually was false or that the federal prosecutors suborned perjury by
presenting it," Offenhauser said.

Additionally, she said, prosecutors should not be faulted for
presenting the federal panel with Rogelio's live testimony and
transcripts of his state grand jury testimony; rather, presenting all
of his testimony enhanced the panel's ability to ferret out the truth.

A federal grand jury accused the officers of violating Pedro Oregon's
civil rights by illegally entering Rogelio Oregon's southwest Houston
apartment.

Rogelio Oregon was indicted by a Harris County grand jury last month
on two felony aggravated perjury charges and one misdemeanor perjury
charge. He is accused of giving conflicting statements about his
brother's ownership of a gun, his acquaintance with police informant
Ryan Baxter and conversations with Baxter the night of the shooting.

Police have said a tip from Baxter sent them to Rogelio Oregon's
apartment in 1998. Officials said one officer, believing Pedro Oregon
had pulled a pistol, fired his weapon and hit another officer in his
bullet-resistant vest, knocking him to the floor.

The other officers claimed they thought the shot came from Pedro
Oregon, and returned fire. Pedro Oregon was shot 12 times, nine in the
back.

A Harris County grand jury indicted only Willis, on a misdemeanor
charge of criminal trespass. He was acquitted.

Defense attorneys Michael Ramsey and Chip Lewis could not be reached
for comment.