Pubdate: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 Source: Houston Chronicle (TX) Contact: http://www.chron.com/ Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html Copyright: 1999 Houston Chronicle Author: STEVE BREWER 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. - --- MAP posted-by: Rich O'Grady