Houston Chronicle

Sat 08/25/2007

Court to handle questions about prisoner's death / Family wants a judge to get two Pasadena officers to explain details involving the case

By ROBERT CROWE Staff

Attorneys for Pedro Gonzales Jr.'s family have asked a judge to order two Pasadena police officers to answer questions about events leading to his death in a jail cell last month.

"The city has given multiple conflicting accounts and has failed ... to give full disclosure to the public of the actions of its officers," said Clyde "Jay" Jackson, an attorney representing Gonzales' wife, Diana.

Gonzales, 51, was found dead in the cell on July 21, about five hours after officers Christopher Jones and Jason Buckaloo arrested him between 2 and 2:30 a.m. on suspicion of public intoxication in the 1300 block of East Harris.

"It's really up to the court's discretion whether to allow" the depositions, said Greg Cagle, the officers' Texas Municipal Police Association attorney.

The petition filed Friday in Harris County also seeks depositions from jailers and the 911 operator who took a woman's call report that officers were beating a man at the time and location where the two arrested Gonzales.

"If there is a petition, we'll respond to it according to the rules and the controlling law," said Bill Helfand, the city of Pasadena's attorney.

The officers could invoke their right not to incriminate themselves, said Richard Alderman, associate dean for academic affairs at the University of Houston Law Center.

"You don't have to incriminate yourself, but that doesn't mean you don't have to talk about anything to do with a particular event," he said.

Police initially said Gonzales suffered injuries by tripping and falling as officers escorted him to a patrol car.

Preliminary autopsy results, police said, indicated he died from a punctured lung caused by a bone splinter from a fractured rib. Final autopsy and toxicology results have not been made available.

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