TEXAS PROSECUTOR DROPS 17 DRUG-BUST CASES

Informant Suspected Of Falsifying Evidence; Task Forces Accused Of
Singling Out Blacks

A state prosecutor in Texas has dismissed charges against 17
residents of a small city who were arrested by a drug task force that
has been accused of focusing on blacks.

The arrests, among 28 that the task force made in the past year in
the city, Hearne, so outraged black residents that the city council
at one point hired a paramilitary security firm to take a colorblind
approach toward drug enforcement.

The prosecutor, John Paschall, the Robertson County district
attorney, said Tuesday that the informant who was responsible for
most of the arrests had failed polygraph tests when questioned about
tampering with the evidence in some cases.

``If he tampered with one case, as far as I'm concerned, he could
have tampered with others,'' Paschall said of the informant, Derrick
Megress. ``Other than those who have pled guilty already, I'm going
to dismiss them.''

A grand jury is to meet April 10 to consider evidence involving
Megress. No charges have yet been filed.

Same Story, Another Town

Arrests by a similar task force -- which involves local, state and
federal law-enforcement agencies -- in Tulia, Texas, have also been
criticized for focusing on blacks and for relying on a questionable
informant. The Justice Department is investigating the Tulia task
force.

Last week, the Texas chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union
and the NAACP asked the Justice Department to expand that
investigation to the Hearne drug task force, contending that events
in both towns showed a pattern of racism.

``I'm elated. This was an extraordinary release, but the questions
still remain as to the legitimacy of that task force,'' said William
Harrell, executive director of the ACLU's Texas chapter.

Harrell said the 11 people who had already pleaded guilty in Hearne,
about 140 miles south of Dallas, should be allowed to withdraw those
pleas and have their cases dismissed.

``We still believe that all of these people had their civil rights
violated and that the Justice Department should proceed with its
investigation and sanction the task forces in Hearne and Tulia,''
Harrell said.

The dismissals in Hearne seemed unlikely to quell deeply held
suspicions there that drug investigations have been rooted in racial
bias.

``What they call a drug war is picking out 20 or 30 young black
people every year, then arresting them,'' said Charles Workman, a
Baptist minister who is one of three blacks on the five-member City
Council.

Workman, whose nephew, Corvian, was charged with drug-related
offenses by the task force, was the official who first proposed that
the town -- which is 44 percent black, according to the 2000 Census
- -- hire the security company.

``Our feeling was that if we're going to fight drugs, let's get
everybody, from the big-time wealthy people to whoever else is
involved,'' Workman said.

In February, the council approved a $390,000 contract with
ShadowGuard, a company promising that, with electronic-surveillance
equipment, it could stop drug shipments to Hearne within four months,
Workman said.

The contract outraged many in Hearne. Residents forced the council to
rescind the agreement a week later.

Paschall, the prosecutor who until recently led the Hearne task
force, said it was ludicrous to say blacks were the target of the
task force, which he said was trying to stop midlevel dealers who
were selling powdered cocaine to make crack.

``Ninety-five percent of those involved in crack cocaine are black;
95 percent of those involved in some drugs, like methamphetamines,
are white or Hispanic,'' Paschall said. ``If a task force is
targeting methamphetamines, you're going to arrest more whites; if
it's targeting crack cocaine, you're going to get more black people.''

Eleven of those arrested have already pleaded guilty, and two cases
were dismissed earlier. A jury hearing charges against Workman's
nephew deadlocked.

As in Tulia, where a task force arrested 12 percent of the town's
black population in July 1999, there were complaints from the start
in Hearne about the credibility of the state's informant.

Deal To Avoid Jail

Megress, 27, the informant in Hearne, has been convicted twice of
theft and had an agreement with prosecutors to avoid jail if he could
produce 20 drug arrests.

Until Tuesday, Paschall had defended Megress' credibility. ``We'd
like to have Baptist ministers and Catholic priests buying and
selling drugs, but the real world doesn't operate that way,'' he said
last week.

Tuesday, Paschall said of those charged: ``I don't doubt one minute
their guilt in dealing drugs. But I now have a doubt as to the amount
of drugs they may have sold and whether the evidence was tampered
with.''

``To me, that taints the investigation, that taints the charge,'' he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.