JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TO PROBE TULIA BUST

LUBBOCK - The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into
whether civil rights were violated in a drug bust that rounded up 40 black
people in a small, predominantly white Texas Panhandle farming town last year.

Justice Department spokeswoman Kara Peterman said Thursday the department's
civil rights division has opened a criminal investigation of the case that
has attracted national attention. Federal law prohibits police officers
from depriving citizens of their constitutional rights.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the
American Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint earlier this month with
the Justice Department charging racial bias was behind the arrests.

The two groups contend the arrests were launched as a matter of "ethnic
cleansing of young male blacks."

Forty-three people, 40 of them black, were rounded up in the undercover
operation July 23, 1999, in the northwest Texas town of Tulia. Two whites
and one Hispanic were also arrested.

Nearly 250 of the town's 5,000 residents are black.

Swisher County District Attorney Terry McEachern said he welcomes the
Justice Department investigation, but questions its timing, less than two
weeks from the presidential election.

"I do find it ironic that this was placed at this point in the election
process," McEachern said.

"I certainly don't mind them coming down," he said. "I'll let them review
all of our records. I think if people look into what happened, there will
be no question that there wasn't anything done wrong."

The undercover agent in the cases, Tom Coleman, did not wear a wire, no
video surveillance was conducted and no other officer backed up his
reports, according to the complaint filed with the Justice Department.

"It would be easy to look at what happened in Swisher County and throw up
one's hands and believe there is no justice," said Amarillo attorney Jeff
Blackburn, who helped write the complaint. "I think this is a good way to
show there still is justice in this country."

Of the 43 arrested, 17 have pleaded guilty and 11 have been convicted.

Caroline Wafer's husband, Billy, was among those arrested. His case is on
appeal after being dismissed in another county.

"I can't wait 'til he calls me so I can tell him," she said of her husband,
who has since found work in another town. "I'm speechless, really. That is
good news."

Sheriff Larry Stewart said he has been aware of the federal investigation
for more than a week.

"We've never had anything to hide," he said. "If they want to look, great."

Coleman, who continues to work as an undercover agent in Texas, has refused
to be interviewed by The Associated Press.

Associated Press Writer Michael J. Sniffen contributed to this report.