ALLEGED PERJURY BY KEY WITNESS

Brother of slain man under scrutiny by DA

Harris County District Attorney John B. Holmes Jr. said he is probing
allegations that the brother of a man gunned down by police in a botched
drug raid lied to state and federal grand juries about events surrounding
the shooting.

Rogelio Oregon Pineda first said he didn't know if his brother owned a gun
and denied knowing the informant who led police to his apartment, then
reversed himself in other statements, attorneys for former Houston police
Sgt. Darrell H. Strouse and former Officer James R. Willis maintained.

Pedro Oregon Navarro, 22, was slain while six Houston police officers were
pursuing an informant's tip that drugs were being sold in his brother's
southwest Houston apartment, police said.

In a March 1 letter to Holmes and U.S. Attorney Mervyn Mosbacker, attorney
Michael Ramsey said he discovered serious discrepancies in the testimony of
Rogelio Oregon, the key witness against officers charged in the death of
Pedro Oregon.

But attorneys representing the Oregon family in a lawsuit against the city
said the allegations are meant to blunt damaging testimony from a police
supervisor about the July 12, 1998, drug raid.

Houston police Lt. Harry Zamora testified he met Strouse as he walked up to
the apartment.

"Well, he basically told me that he . . . thought he screwed up," Zamora
recalled during his sworn deposition last month.

Paul Nugent, one of the attorneys for the family, said police are trying to
cover up their illegal entry and search of the apartment by attacking
Rogelio Oregon's character.

The officers are scheduled to be tried April 24 on charges they violated the
civil rights of Pedro and Rogelio Oregon by entering their apartment without
search or arrest warrants.

The wrongful death lawsuit filed by Pedro Oregon's mother and two minor
children goes to trial in July.

In his letter to Holmes, Ramsey stopped short of asking that Rogelio Oregon
be indicted. But he makes it clear that the discrepancies are perjurious.

"In the face of repeated admonitions, various chastisements and harsh
instructions to tell the truth made by investigators, prosecutors and grand
jurors, Mr. (Rogelio Oregon) Pineda persists in lying under oath," Ramsey
said.

Holmes said he has ordered complete transcripts of the grand jury
proceedings and asked prosecutor Don Smyth, chief of the Civil Rights
Division, to review them last week. He said if Rogelio Oregon swore to two
versions of the truth that in itself is perjury.

Mosbacker refused to say if his office would investigate the perjury
allegations.

Strouse, 35, and Willis, 29, are accused of conspiracy to deprive Pedro
Oregon of his civil rights during a drug investigation involving his
brother, Rogelio Oregon.

Although neither defendant was involved in the shooting, federal prosecutors
said they were involved in planning the illegal entry into the apartment.
The officers did not have a search or arrest warrant.

They have contended that Pedro Oregon pointed a gun at them. Police
officials have said one officer fired his weapon, hitting another officer in
his bullet-resistant vest and knocking him to the floor. The other officers
apparently thought that shot came from Pedro Oregon, and they fired about 30
rounds, 12 of which hit him.

No drugs were found in the apartment and Pedro Oregon's gun was not fired,
though it was found nearby. The victim had no drugs or alcohol in his system
and had no criminal record.

Chip Lewis, an attorney for Strouse, said one of the key discrepancies in
Rogelio Oregon's testimony was his sworn statement that he didn't know the
informant and didn't talk to him the night of the shooting.

But in subsequent testimony, Rogelio Oregon said he had known the informant
for three years. Lewis also said phone records showed the informant called
Rogelio Oregon three times the evening of the shooting.

Initially, Rogelio Oregon said he did not talk to Pedro Oregon that night,
but he later he said he called his brother and told him the informant was
coming to the house.

Defense attorneys have contended the brothers were selling drugs and that
gave probable cause for Rogelio Oregon's arrest.

Nugent noted that Police Chief C.O. Bradford cited the officers'
untruthfulness as one of the reasons they were fired.

He speculated the officers concocted the story that they were investigating
Rogelio Oregon's drug dealing to give themselves probable cause -- and a
defense -- for the shooting.