FEDS WARNED NOT TO RELY ON ROGELIO OREGON'S TESTIMONY

Harris County prosecutors warned the U.S. Attorney's office that Pedro
Oregon Navarro's brother repeatedly gave perjured testimony during the
investigation of the 1998 drug raid during which Oregon was killed, federal
court documents showed Tuesday.

In a sworn affidavit, Harris County Assistant District Attorney Edward
Porter said he advised federal prosecutors not to rely on the testimony of
Rogelio Oregon Pineda because he lied about facts material to the case.

Porter said he issued the warnings many times before a federal panel was
convened to probe possible civil rights violations by the six former
Houston Police Department officers involved in the raid.

A federal grand jury issued indictments against former Sgt. Darrell Strouse
and former Officer James Willis late last year, charging each with
violating Pedro Oregon's civil rights by illegally entering Rogelio
Oregon's south Houston apartment.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas threw out the indictments last month after
ruling they were based on the perjured testimony of Rogelio Oregon.

The affidavit was filed by defense attorneys Michael Ramsey and Chip Lewis
as part of a motion for an evidentiary hearing before Atlas.

Ramsey and Lewis are asking Atlas to hold a hearing to show the government
knowingly presented false testimony to a sitting grand jury.

The move came in response to the government's appeal for Atlas to reinstate
the indictments, saying she lacked the authority to quash them without
issuing a finding of serious prosecutorial misconduct.

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 the police informant Ryan Baxter,
and conversations with Baxter the night of the shooting.

Police have said they were acting on a tip from Baxter when they went 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 hit 12 times, nine in the back.

After a lengthy Harris County grand jury investigation, the panel only
indicted Willis on a misdemeanor charge of criminal trespass.

He later was acquitted.

But community and political outrage over the warrantless entry did not abate.

A federal grand jury returned the indictments against Willis and Strouse
last year.