TULIA MAN FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST SHERIFF, EX-AGENT

Swisher County Sheriff Larry Stewart and former undercover agent Tom Coleman
are facing another lawsuit in connection with the 1999 arrests of 46 people
in Tulia.

Amarillo attorney Chris Hoffman and co-counsel Jeff Blackburn filed the suit
Thursday on behalf of Billy Don Wafer, who was accused of delivery of a
controlled substance, a charge that was later tossed out by an appeals
court. The suit seeks unspecified damages from Stewart and Coleman, alleging
that they conspired to eliminate blacks from Tulia by manufacturing evidence
in the drug sting.

"This is a big step toward getting justice for all those people who were
wrongly arrested," Wafer said. "That's what this is about, getting justice
for those people. It's not about me. It's not about the money."

Wafer's lawsuit effectively replaces a suit filed in September on behalf of
another defendant, Yul Bryant, which was withdrawn Thursday.

"We have decided to focus all our efforts on the case of Billy Wafer, and
Yul supports that decision," Blackburn said. "Billy Wafer embodies
everything that was wrong with the Tulia drug sting. He's a good man who was
falsely arrested. He suffered tremendously because of it, and he was
eventually cleared in a court of law."

Stewart's attorney, Charlotte Bingham, said she was unwilling to comment on
specifics of the lawsuit, but she said that the withdrawal of Bryant's suit
is telling.

"Needless to say, we're quite pleased with (the withdrawal of Bryant's
suit)," Bingham said. "It was our position that Mr. Bryant's suit was not
meritorious, and it will also be our position that there was no racial
motivation in Mr. Wafer's prosecution."

Telephone calls to Stewart and Coleman's attorney were not returned
Thursday.

Wafer's suit is nearly identical to Bryant's, except that District Attorney
Terry McEachern is not named in the latest suit. Blackburn said the decision
not to sue McEachern was made because prosecutorial immunity is nearly
ironclad, which would make naming McEachern a useless act.

The lawsuits stem from an 18-month undercover investigation that resulted in
the 1999 indictment of 46 people, 39 of whom were black. After the arrests,
charges of racism were raised, and Tulia was thrust into the national
spotlight as a symbol of racial intolerance.

Wafer first appeared in a Swisher County court for a hearing on a motion to
revoke his probation stemming from a 1990 possession of marijuana charge.

After a short trial, District Judge Ed Self refused to revoke probation,
saying he was not convinced by a preponderance of the evidence that Wafer
was guilty.

Self refused to drop the charges against Wafer, however, so Wafer's
attorney, Brent Hamilton, appealed to the 7th District Court of Appeals. The
appeals court tossed out Wafer's charge after it found that the probation
hearing amounted to a trial, preventing Wafer from being tried a second time
under double jeopardy rules.

Wafer said he and his family have paid a terrible toll for his arrest. Wafer
said he lost his job while he was in jail, and the family lost a loan on a
home they were planning to buy.

But Wafer chose to downplay what he went through, instead pointing to the
dozen or so of his fellow defendants who are still in jail.

"This whole deal has been nothing but a nightmare for all of us," Wafer
said. "This (lawsuit) is just part of the process for finally getting
justice for everyone involved."