OREGON BROTHER NOW COOPERATING WITH PROSECUTORS

Kin will testify about shooting

A witness who balked at testifying in the criminal trespass trial of a
former Houston police officer charged in connection with the shooting
of Pedro Oregon Navarro is now cooperating with prosecutors.

Rogelio Oregon, Pedro's brother, will be ready to testify when the
misdemeanor trial of James Willis starts on March 8, said Harris
County prosecutor Ed Porter.

The new trial date was set Monday after Porter and Brian Benken,
Willis' attorney, met with Harris County Court-at-Law Judge Neel Richardson.

"I believe that Rogelio will be present to testify," Porter said after
meeting. "All the problems are worked out, and he will be present."

Porter declined comment on how the problems had been "worked out" and
if any agreement had been made in exchange for the testimony.

Willis' trial was delayed earlier this month when Porter said he had
not been able to locate Rogelio Oregon, who was present on July 12
when six officers burst into his apartment during a botched drug raid
and fatally shot his brother.

Richard Mithoff and Paul Nugent, attorneys for Oregon's family, hinted
then that their client might not cooperate unless they were assured
that prosecutors wouldn't use his immigration status against him.

Both attorneys also said they were worried that the Willis case would
consist of character attacks on Rogelio Oregon, his dead brother and
their family members.

The sides have met since then, and Porter and Mithoff have both said
the meetings went well.

On Monday, Mithoff was unavailable for comment, but his office
released a statement that stated he was "optimistic" about working out
arrangements for Rogelio's testimony.

Nugent declined comment. Both he and Mithoff are representing the
Oregon family in a multimillion-dollar federal civil rights lawsuit
filed against the city.

Porter has said he has no interest in Rogelio's immigration status,
only in his testimony for this case, since he can address whether
police had consent when they entered the apartment.

The officers burst in on the basis of an informant's tip that drugs
were being sold there. They opened fire on Pedro Oregon after one
officer accidentally fired his weapon. Oregon was shot 12 times,
including nine times in the back.

Some of the officers contend Oregon pointed a gun at them. They did
not have an arrest or search warrant, and Oregon's gun had not been
fired. No drugs were found in the apartment or in Oregon's system.

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

When the grand jury investigation ended, an FBI probe began and the
lawsuit was filed, all amid harsh criticism of police and prosecutors
by protesters who say the shooting was not justified.

Some protesters from the Justice for Pedro Oregon Coalition were
outside Richardson's court Tuesday to shout at Willis and Benken as
they left.

One protester, Dan Wirt, called the misdemeanor prosecution a farce
and, after a brief exchange, Benken told him to get "a real job."

An angry and unidentified woman with Willis told the protesters the
shooting of Oregon might not have happened "if he wasn't dealing drugs."

In a related development, four of the officers involved in the
shooting have sought a gag order to bar attorneys and witnesses from
talking to reporters about the federal lawsuit Oregon's family filed
against them.

The former officers claim lawyers representing Oregon's family
continue to make inflammatory public statements designed to sway
potential jurors.

For example, they cite a comment that Mithoff made at a news
conference announcing the filing of the lawsuit: "Pedro Oregon ... was
gunned down, indeed probably executed, without cause."

They also quote Mithoff saying, "They (officers) had no grounds to be
in the apartment, and no grounds to open fire. ... And if this is
true, there certainly was no grounds to reload and execute this guy
lying on the ground."

The tremendous media attention to the case creates a "serious threat
to the fairness of the trial," the officers' attorney said in a motion
for a gag order filed late Friday.

Attorney Robert Thomas, who represents four of the officers, also
criticized the news media.

"Sensationalism obviously helps sell newspapers and helps market
advertising time on the local news radio stations," Thomas said in the
motion.

"Yet, the rights of the media to market `sensationalism' and the
rights of the defendants to obtain a fair trial and impanel an
impartial jury, must be balanced. The superior rights of the
defendants must be protected and guarded against prejudicial and
biased pretrial publicity."

Thomas declined to comment.