ACLU ASKS CORNYN TO REVIEW CASE

AUSTIN - The Texas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union on Friday
asked Attorney General John Cornyn to investigate whether racial profiling
and civil rights abuses are part of the work done by Texas Regional
Narcotics Task Forces.

The group alleges the rights of African-Americans and other minorities have
been violated by the groups.

In particular, the group notes all prosecutions under the Texas Controlled
Substances Act carried out by officer Tom Coleman, Swisher County Sheriff
Larry Stewart and Swisher County District Attorney Terry McEachern in a
controversial 1999 drug sting in Tulia.

The ACLU said regional narcotics task forces in Texas have targeted
minorities in low-income communities to supply arrests needed to garner
grant funding.

Both Stewart and McEachern have defended the arrests. McEachern said Friday
that racial profiling had nothing to do with the prosecutions.

The ACLU is also requesting the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence
review the regional task forces during the interim.

The case in Tulia, in which 40 people were arrested - 37 of them black - on
drug charges based on the word of lone investigator Coleman, "demonstrates
the unconstitutional drug sweeps targeted at minority communities in towns
throughout Texas," according to the filing.

Coleman, hired by Stewart to launch an undercover drug investigation using
money from the Panhandle Regional Narcotics Task Force, has been at the
center of the Tulia cases. He conducted the 18-month operation alone,
without any recording devices, and testified that he wrote information
regarding the cocaine buys on his leg. Defense attorneys later said they
discovered he had a poor record in his law enforcement career with Cochran
and Pecos counties.

The ACLU said in its filing with the AG that McEachern prosecuted the cases
without evidence, and that he knew of many conflicts within Coleman's
testimony and Coleman's questionable record in undercover work.

Coleman was later hired to work in Waxahachie by the Southeast Dallas
County/Ellis County Task Force immediately after his job in Tulia,
according to information from the ACLU.

The actions of the task forces indicate a "larger pattern of discrimination
by Texas Regional Narcotics Task Forces across the state," according to the
filing.

The petition for review was filed late Friday, and Texas Attorney General's
Office spokesman Mark Heckmann said the letter would have to be reviewed
before the office could respond to it.

McEachern said racial profiling wasn't part of the drug prosecutions in
Tulia and doesn't believe civil rights abuses occurred.

Regarding any grievance filed against him, McEachern said there has been no
misconduct. "I don't think I've done anything wrong."