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Thursday, November 19, 1998

Family of man killed in botched police raid sue city, officers

By TERRI LANGFORD Associated Press Writer

HOUSTON (AP) - Relying on the word of a drunken man trying to avoid arrest, six Houston police officers drew their guns and stormed the apartment of Pedro Oregon Navarro last summer without as much as a search warrant.

Within minutes after they entered, the 22-year-old landscaper, soccer coach, father of two - and at the time, suspected drug dealer - was dead, his body riddled with 12 bullets, nine of them in his back.

No drugs were found. A gun found in Oregon's apartment was never fired. A grand jury refused to indict the six for murder, settling instead for a misdemeanor trespassing charge for just one officer. When Houston Police Chief Clarence Bradford fired the six on Nov. 2, he called the case "super-egregious."

In the latest development on Tuesday, Oregon's family members filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Houston and the fired six of violating the victim's civil rights by illegally entering his home and acting as "judge, jury and executioner."

In the 11-page petition, Oregon's family claims the officers entered his home without a warrant or probable cause during the botched drug raid that ended his life in a hail of bullets.

"This shooting, this killing, was totally unjustified and constituted clear excessive use of force," said Richard Mithoff, an attorney for the family.

The lawsuit alleges the shooting resulted from "failed" city policies that allowed the officers to rely on unauthorized informants and use different standards in raiding homes in poor, minority neighborhoods.

Oregon was shot 12 times - nine times in the back - after the officers stormed his apartment in search of drugs. An unauthorized informant, who had been stopped earlier for public intoxication, told the officers drugs were being sold at Oregon's apartment.

Mistaking accidental gunfire from one of the officer's guns for a shot from Oregon, the officers unloaded 33 rounds. No drugs were found in the apartment and an autopsy revealed that no drugs were in Oregon's system. Although a gun was found in the apartment, it was not fired.

The officers involved were Sgt. D.H. Strouse, 34, and officers D.R. Barrera, 28; P.A. Herrada, 28; D.R. Perkins, 30; L.E. Tillery, 30; and J.R. Willis, 28. All six were fired earlier this month after a state grand jury declined to indict them on murder charges. Willis, however, was indicted on misdemeanor trespassing.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages. In a letter sent to the city last month, the family's attorneys offered to settle all claims for $35 million.

Houston City Attorney Anthony Hall said he is reviewing the lawsuit and the family's claims.

"It is the view of every city official that this is an extraordinarily tragic situation, not a good day for the city in terms of the incident itself, and it's regrettable," Hall said.

Oregon, 22, came to Houston from his native Michoacan, Mexico, in 1990. His mother, Claudia Navarro Pineda, is a legal permanent resident in Houston and had filed petitions for permanent residency status for all her children, including Oregon, who had been working for a landscaping business the past three years.

Mithoff said he did not know whether those petitions had been approved.

After the lawsuit was filed, Oregon's mother told reporters, "I don't want another mother to go through what I am going through."

Oregon also is survived by two children, Ashley, 5, and Belinda, 2, two brothers and a sister.

An attorney for the fired officers did not return a message from The Associated Press Tuesday. But Hans Marticiuc, president of the Houston Police Officers Union, said that facts in Willis' trespassing trial will reveal another side to the Oregon tragedy.

"When this criminal trespass trial comes about I believe these officers and their actions are going to be looked at in a different light," Marticiuc said. "There's always a question as to the entry and the search and seizure. But that being put aside, even on an unlawful arrest, state law does not allow anyone to use deadly force against an officer.

"Policemen do their jobs," he said. "When suspects run, police chase."