U.S. ATTORNEY MAY CHALLENGE DISMISSAL IN OREGON CASE

Judge Ruled Charges Against 2 Officers Based On False Testimony

U.S. Attorney Mervyn Mosbacker said Monday he may appeal a judge's
dismissal of civil rights indictments of two former Houston police officers
because they were based on perjured testimony.

Mosbacker said he disagrees with U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas, who last
month threw out indictments against Darrell Strouse and James Willis.

Mosbacker said he has complete confidence in Assistant U.S. Attorneys
Gerald Doyle and Quincy Olafson, who took the case to the grand jury.

After comparing state grand jury transcripts of the testimony of Rogelio
Oregon Pineda with his statements to the federal grand jury, Atlas said
Oregon had clearly lied about vital aspects.

The federal panel did indict Strouse and Willis, saying they and other
officers illegally entered Oregon's apartment during a drug raid in 1998,
in which Oregon's brother was killed by police gunfire.

Neither Strouse nor Willis was involved in the shooting. but prosecutors
maintained the two had planned the entry. The officers said they were
acting on a tip that drugs would be sold.

Mosbacker was silent on five other pending cases that raise serious
allegations of prosecutorial misconduct. He said that only Strouse and
Willis were indicted during his tenure.

U.S. District Judges Lynn Hughes, Vanessa Gilmore and Ewing Werlein also
have misconduct cases pending in their courts.

In Hughes' court, the case of Edwin Wilson is the most compelling. Wilson,
a former CIA agent, was convicted in 1983 of selling explosives to Libya in
defiance of a presidential embargo.

Wilson, in prison ever since, has insisted he was acting at the CIA's
behest. Although CIA officials denied using Wilson since he left the agency
in 1978, recently discovered evidence indicates the contrary.

Another case in Hughes' court involves an FBI agent and federal prosecutor
giving an oral immunity agreement to two informants, then hiding the
details from defense attorneys.

Allegations by the two resulted in public corruption indictments against
former Texas prisons director James A. "Andy" Collins, former Houston Mayor
Fred Hofheinz and former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards.

Gilmore has two malicious prosecution lawsuits slated for trial.

Lawrence Ramming and John Cloud were exonerated in 1996, when U.S. District
Judge Kenneth Hoyt directed the acquittals of Ramming, Cloud and eight
others, finding that a prosecutor and FBI agent threatened witnesses and
hid exculpatory evidence.

Pending in Werlein's court are accusations that federal prosecutors paid a
witness and his former mistress $1.2 million to win a conviction against
drug trafficker Juan Garcia Abrego.

Former U.S. Inspector General Michael Bromwich said the FBI has many
internal problems exacerbated by its almost complete autonomy. An outside
probe of the bureau must be approved by U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno or
Deputy U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.