CIVIL RIGHTS LAWSUIT IS SETTLED IN HEARNE

Years Of Narcotics Raids Were Motivated By Race Bisa, ACLC Alleged

HEARNE -- Robertson County and the American Civil Liberties Union
announced a settlement today in a civil rights lawsuit over a narcotics
raid that has been compared to the discredited drug busts in Tulia.

The suit, filed in 2002 by the ACLU, accused Robertson County District
Attorney John Paschall and the South Central Texas Narcotics Task Force of
engaging in racially motivated drug sweeps of Hearne's black community over
15 years.

Terms of the settlement between the county and the plaintiffs were
confidential, said Bryan F. Russ Jr., an attorney for Robertson County. The
plaintiffs agreed to dismiss from the suit all the individuals that were
named in it, including Paschall.

Mr. Paschall did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.
Douglas Becker, his attorney, said he could not comment because of a
judge's gag order in the case.

Both Russ and ACLU attorney Graham Boyd said they were pleased with the
agreement.

"The time for blame and recrimination is over, and we hope this settlement
will be the first step of many toward improvement in relations between law
enforcement and the community," Mr. Boyd said.

In November 2000, 28 people from Hearne, a town of 4,500 about 60 miles
southeast of Waco, were arrested on charges of possessing or distributing
crack cocaine. The arrests followed a six-month undercover investigation
involving a confidential informant working with the task force, which
included officers from Robertson and Limestone counties.

The ACLU contended that the defendants were targeted because of their race.

Five of the people pleaded guilty and received probation, Becker told the
Houston Chronicle last month. The other cases were dismissed after the
trial of one defendant ended in a hung jury.

Becker said Paschall asked the judge to dismiss the charges because he
suspected the informant was unreliable. Task force officers thought the
informant had added baking soda to narcotics recovered as evidence in one
of the cases, he said.

In Tulia, a law enforcement officer worked with a drug task force to arrest
46 people, most of them black. Thirty-eight defendants were convicted or
reached plea deals.

Gov. Rick Perry later pardoned 35 defendants after an investigation
launched amid allegations the arrests were racially motivated.

Last year, 45 of those who were arrested shared a $6 million settlement in
a lawsuit.