OREGON'S BROTHER STILL SEEKS TO AVOID TESTIFYING

A jury of four men and two women was selected Monday to hear the
misdemeanor criminal trespass case against a former police officer
charged in connection with the shooting of Pedro Oregon Navarro.

But before jurors hear testimony in the Harris County Criminal
Court-at-Law Neel Richardson's court today, attorneys for Oregon's
brother will make a last-ditch effort to keep him off the stand.

Richardson denied a motion earlier in the day by Chris Flood, the
attorney for Rogelio Oregon, to quash a subpoena served late last
week. The subpoena ordered Oregon to testify against former Houston
police Officer James Willis.

Later in the day, Flood presented a more detailed version of the same
motion. It argues, in essence, that the Harris County district
attorney's office prosecution of Willis would harm the ongoing federal
probe into the July 12 shooting of Pedro Oregon, who was killed by
Houston police during a botched drug raid.

Prosecutors say if there were any chance of that, federal officials
would have already sought their cooperation, and that hasn't happened.
And Willis' attorney said that Flood is simply "afraid of what
(Oregon) will say" on the stand.

Richardson received the new motion as the lengthy jury selection
process was ending on Monday. Attorneys had spent the day quizzing 39
potential jurors and whittling down their numbers with questions on
everything from pretrial publicity to the nuances of state trespassing
laws.

The judge scheduled a hearing on Flood's second motion for 10:15 a.m.
today, 15 minutes before testimony is scheduled to start.

"What should be realized and what we're trying to get across to the
people of Harris County is that the Oregon family has not received
justice from the district attorney's office," Flood said. "They want
justice from the federal courts."

He added, "The district attorney's office is trying to cover up their
own inadequacy in their grand jury investigation, and so they want to
present the weakest possible case they can so they can allow the
injustice to remain and possibly keep a federal grand jury from ever
doing anything."

Flood said Oregon and his family, who have asked prosecutors to drop
the misdemeanor charge, were "insulted" by the state's case.

Oregon does not want to testify because he doesn't want to be part of
a "cover-up" or "whitewash" by state prosecutors, Flood said.

Prosecutor Ed Porter, who is handling the Willis case, balked at
Flood's reasoning and said he would fight the motion.

"The federal investigation touches on entirely different areas of the
law than what we're touching on," Porter said. "If there was any
potential for the federal grand jury to be affected by the prosecution
of this case, I feel certain that the federal authorities would have
requested our cooperation.

"I would remind individuals that in the past state prosecutions have
not prohibited, interfered with or stopped federal prosecutions and,
in fact, if the federal grand jury were to feel that serious civil
rights violations occurred in this case, I'm sure they would take the
appropriate action."

Brian Benken, the attorney representing Willis, said he thinks Flood
is afraid of what could happen to the federal investigation if Willis
is found not guilty in state court.

Lawyers for the Oregon family may also be afraid of what Rogelio
Oregon would say under cross-examination, especially when he is likely
to be confronted with allegations that he has dealt drugs in the past,
Benken said.

"The bottom line is they don't want Mr. Oregon to testify in the
trial," Benken said. "I mean, you can say what you want and you can
file what motions you want. They don't want him to testify because
they're afraid of what he'll say."

Flood said his client is not intimidated by those accusations or any
"tough questions," and that there is no proof that he had dealt drugs.

Oregon had balked at testifying in Willis' trial before, causing a
delay. Authorities had been unable to locate him because his attorneys
would not give prosecutors his address. But he was finally served last
week and met with Porter on Friday, hoping to persuade the prosecutor
to drop the misdemeanor case.

Before last Friday's meeting, attorneys for the family sent an
affidavit signed by Oregon to Porter asking that the misdemeanor case
be dropped.

Porter denied the request and has said Oregon is an important witness
in Willis' case because he was in the apartment the night his brother
was killed.

Acting on a tip that drugs were being sold there, six officers burst
into the apartment. After one officer accidentally fired his weapon,
the others opened fire on Pedro Oregon, hitting him 12 times, nine in
the back.

Some of the officers have said Pedro Oregon pointed a gun at them. He
did have a gun, but it was not fired. The officers had no arrest or
search warrants, and no drugs were found in the apartment.

After a lengthy Harris County grand jury investigation, only Willis,
28, was indicted on the misdemeanor charge. All six officers have been
fired.

When that grand jury inquiry ended, the FBI and federal grand jury
probe began and the multimillion-dollar federal civil rights suit was
filed.