COURT DATE NEXT WEEK FOR EX-OFFICERS INDICTED IN OREGON CASE

Two former Houston police officers indicted for civil rights
violations in the 1998 shooting death of Pedro Oregon Navarro will
appear before a federal magistrate judge next week.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Calvin Botley will read the charges against
former Sgt. Darrell H. Strouse and former Officer James R. Willis at
their initial appearances at 10 a.m. on Sept. 28.

Strouse, 35, and Willis, 29, were accused of violating the rights of
Oregon and his brother, Rogelio, to be free from unreasonable search
and seizure when they entered Rogelio Oregon's apartment July 12, 1998.

Prosecutors said the officers did not have a search warrant or consent
from Rogelio Oregon to enter.

The indictment says Strouse, Willis and four other officers went to
the apartment with an informant, Ryan Baxter. They told Baxter to
approach the apartment door, then lie down when the door was opened,
according to the indictment.

Once inside, some of the officers pursued Pedro Oregon to a bedroom,
where the shooting occurred.

The officers involved have said Oregon approached them with a gun. An
unfired gun was found by Oregon's body.

Neither Strouse nor Willis was involved in the shooting, but they were
involved in planning the illegal entry into Rogelio Oregon's apartment.

The U.S. Department of Justice launched its own investigation after a
state grand jury indicted only one of the six police officers, Willis,
on a charge of misdemeanor trespassing.

Willis was acquitted of the state court charge.

The four other officers -- David R. Barrera, Pete A. Herrada, David
Perkins and Lamont E. Tillery -- were not named in the federal indictment.