NEVER AGAIN THE RALLYING CRY IN TULIA

Rally To Commemorate Drug Bust Anniversary

During the six years that Dorothy Gaines, a 43-year-old widow with
three children, spent in prison on drug charges she said were
trumped-up, her mother died and her children suffered, she said.

Her only son, Phillip, sought trouble, trying to go to prison to be
with his mother, she said.

"It was like a domino game. Everything fell, and I lost everything,"
Gaines said. "They sentenced my kids when they sentenced me."

She won clemency from President Bill Clinton on Dec. 22, 2000, just
short of six years into a 20-year drug sentence.

She'll be among several speakers today in Tulia during a "never again"
rally to commemorate a 1999 drug bust there that resulted in the
indictments of 43 people, most of them black.

The event kicks off at 6 p.m. at Conner Park in Tulia. At 11 p.m., the
group will march to the Swisher County Courthouse and jail for a
candlelight vigil.

Today's rally will be led by a local group of opposers to the drug
bust who call themselves the Friends of Justice.

The 1999 arrests were based on an 18-month undercover investigation by
officer Tom Coleman, who worked alone and used no surveillance equipment.

A lawsuit has been filed against Coleman, Swisher County Sheriff Larry
Stewart and Swisher County. The suit alleges that officers "conspired
to carry out Swisher County's policy to eliminate the county's
African-American population."

Coleman, who was honored as Outstanding Lawman of the Year following
the bust and currently resides near Waxahachie, declined comment Friday.

The sheriff and Swisher County District Attorney Terry McEachern, who
prosecuted the cases, have denied allegations of racial bias.

The U.S. Justice Department is conducting an investigation into the
undercover operation. An FBI agent based in Amarillo said Friday that
the investigation could wrap up in about a month.

About 250 people were expected to travel to Tulia from Austin to
support the rally, said Will Harrell, executive director of the Texas
chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

"Tulia is symbolic of a national drug policy gone awry, but it's also
the byproduct of regional narcotics task forces that are operating
outside the law," Harrell said.

The Department of Public Safety office in Amarillo will be sending
about 35 troopers to Tulia today, including a riot team, a DPS
spokesman said Friday.

The spokesman said the riot team will be equipped with riot
gear.

The spokesman said the troopers aren't expecting trouble but will be
in Tulia "just so that nothing happens."