STATE BAR GOES AFTER PROSECUTOR IN TULIA DRUG BUST

TULIA (AP) -- State Bar of Texas officials intend to file a lawsuit seeking
sanctions against the prosecutor in the controversial 1999 Tulia drug bust.

The case against Terry McEachern will be heard in a Panhandle district
court and could range in punishment from a public reprimand to loss of his
law license, if the finding goes against him, said Dawn Miller, chief
disciplinary counsel with the State Bar of Texas.

"Without going into any details, you can assume that if a case has gotten
to a point where a lawyer has elected to have the case heard in district
court, that means an investigative panel of a grievance committee found
just cause to believe a lawyer had committed misconduct," Miller said.

The suit will be filed in Texas Supreme Court in the next couple of weeks,
she said.

McEachern declined to comment about the suit due to secrecy rules, but said
he still believes in the prosecutions.

"I still feel the same way I did back then," McEachern told the Amarillo
Globe-News in Wednesday's editions. "Of course, looking back, I would have
done some things differently. But it's easy playing Monday morning
quarterback."

McEachern, who lost his bid for re-election in the Republican primary
earlier this month, prosecuted all the cases in the since-discredited
undercover drug investigation in Tulia that netted 46 people, 39 of them
black, and brought controversy and an international spotlight to Tulia.

The State Bar opened an investigation into McEachern's conduct during his
prosecutions in July.

The bar alleged McEachern attempted to bolster the testimony of Tom
Coleman, the lone undercover agent whose uncorroborated evidence led to
imprisonment for many of those arrested, according to a letter from Swisher
County's insurance carrier, Professional Claims Managers Inc., the Lubbock
Avalanche-Journal reported in Wednesday's editions.

Also alleged was that McEachern failed to disclose certain elements of the
investigation and of Coleman's background, made false representations
during the criminal trials and failed to turn over evidence that could have
been beneficial to the defendants, according to the letter.

In August, Gov. Rick Perry pardoned 35 of those prosecuted. The city of
Amarillo earlier this month settled a civil right lawsuit for $5 million
and agreed to effectively disband the task force to which Coleman was
assigned. Other entities in the suit are continuing settlement talks.

Coleman is set to go to trial in May on perjury charges that stemmed from
testimony he gave at evidentiary hearings in March 2003.