TULIA BILL GETS TENTATIVE HOUSE APPROVAL

AUSTIN - A bill filed in response to the 1999 Tulia drug bust that requires
corroborating evidence to support the testimony of an undercover officer
was given tentative approval by the House on Wednesday.

House Bill 2352 by state Rep. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen, requires
corroboration for an officer working undercover on a drug related case if
the officer has not worked for one agency more than two years. The bill
passed by a vote of 93-27.

The bill was changed to allow undercover officers who have held their peace
officer's license for one year or more to work undercover in drug-related
cases in high schools, universities and other institutions of higher
learning. Rep. Terri Keel, D-Austin, said he offered the amendment to allow
the "fresh faces" who are young enough to fill those undercover roles in
schools to do so without requiring corroboration.

The bill came from a drug bust in Tulia, where an undercover police officer
without evidence arrested 43 suspects - 39 of whom were black. The evidence
used to convict the defendants was written on the officer's leg.

"We need to make sure there are no more Tulias," Hinojosa said. "We need no
more Tulias."

Hinojosa said the bill would go a long way toward ensuring arrests are
based on the law, and not the "whim" of an officer.

"One of the most fundamental (needs) of the criminal justice system is the
trust of citizens, and Tulia has damaged that trust," Hinojosa said. "The
war on drugs is now a war on people....This bill will protect trust and
confidence in the criminal justice system."

Hinojosa said that officers who have little experience in drug-related
undercover cases should not work those cases and usually are not assigned
to them anyway

Rep. Robert Talton, R-Pasadena, spoke against the bill, calling the Tulia
incident an unfortunate issue that should be dealt with at the local level.

"Now there was a problem in Tulia, Texas, but Tulia, Texas, needs to take
care of their problems and not spread it to the rest of our state," he said.

Will Harrell, executive director of the Texas chapter of the American Civil
Liberties Union, one of the organizations that wrote the bill, said what
happened in Tulia reflects a pattern of racial prejudice in the justice system.

Barbara Markham, a former undercover narcotics officer in the Denton County
area, has worked for several law enforcement agencies including the FBI.

She said at a press conference held in support of the bill that it was the
federal agency's policy for officers to have some kind of corroboration.

Markham said that if Swisher County had used some backup for Tom Coleman,
he probably wouldn't have the allegations against him now.

As for the Tulia case, she said: "It happens. I've seen it happen where
officers lie in their reports regarding buys."

She said she didn't see the bill as an attack on her credibility as an
officer. Additional evidence is part of a good case for prosecution, she said.

"The object is a successful prosecution of the offender," she said.