JUDGE WANTS TULIA DRUG CASES TOSSED

Defense, Prosecutors Faulted Witness In Racially Charged Trials

"It is stipulated by all parties and approved by the court that Tom Coleman
is simply not a credible witness under oath," retired state District Judge
Ron Chapman of Dallas, who presided over the hearing, said Tuesday. He said
the parties agreed that all 38 convictions linked to Mr. Coleman be
withdrawn and new trials ordered.

There is no time frame for the high court to take action once it receives
Judge Chapman's recommendation.

Because the cases hinged on Mr. Coleman's testimony and evidence he
gathered, there was doubt among many associated with the proceedings that
Swisher County prosecutors would retry the cases if they are overturned.

"I hope this helps things, but it's going to be hard to forget things that
have happened," said Pattie Brookins, whose son Freddie was sentenced to 20
years on a drug conviction. "I can forgive, but I can't forget what they
did to our children.

"They took four years from Freddie's life that he will never get back and I
felt that I didn't have a right to be happy because my child was locked up.
What kept me going was his positive attitude," she said.

Special prosecutor John Nation, a Dallas criminal defense attorney hired to
represent the state in the hearing, did not return telephone calls seeking
comment. After Mr. Coleman's second day of testimony on March 21, Mr.
Nation said he looked forward to presenting the state's case. Among those
on the witness list was District Attorney Terry McEachern, who prosecuted
the cases in 1999.

Dallas County prosecutors last year tossed out more than 80 Dallas police
narcotics cases after lab tests revealed that they contained gypsum or
minute traces of drugs. The cases involved mostly Hispanic defendants and
were the product of two officers and their paid informants.

"We are thrilled. This is big news, unprecedented," said Vanita Gupta, an
attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, representing
one of the Tulia defendants. "We have to remain cautious, though, because
this is not over, but we are working to make sure this becomes the final word."

Brian Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative of
Alabama in Montgomery, Ala., said the Tulia case is nationally significant.

"The disclosure that this agent [Mr. Coleman] was not a credible witness is
important because the criminal justice prosecution means that they
[authorities] have an obligation to see the truth, not to get a
conviction," he said.

"When there is evidence that agents or police informants or officers acted
unfairly, or as in this case, in a racially motivated manner, the state has
the obligation to protect the victims of that discrimination and bias,"
said Mr. Stevenson, whose organization represents poor minorities and
handles death penalty cases in the Deep South.

Testimony in March focused on Mr. Coleman's credibility as several of his
supervisors at the Panhandle Regional Narcotics Trafficking Task Force and
Swisher County Sheriff Larry Stewart took the stand. They defended his work
as an undercover officer, but admitted that some of his background was not
given to defense attorneys during the original trials.

"I think Tom Coleman was a pawn in his own way and Mr. McEachern was a
pawn, as well," said Jeff Blackburn, an Amarillo attorney representing one
of the defendants.

Mr. Coleman admitted on the stand that he had a seesaw career as deputy
sheriff in various Texas counties in which he frequently feuded with
colleagues and resigned positions abruptly because of personal problems. He
was hired by the regional task force early in 1998 to work as an undercover
narcotics officer in Swisher County.

He had a case pending against him in Cochran County, where he was accused
of theft and abuse of office. He was arrested on that charge in August
1998, he testified, by Sheriff Stewart in Swisher County, but the paperwork
on his arrest was never sent to state law enforcement officials. State
officials, Mr. Coleman said, would have revoked his peace officer's license.

By that time, attorneys for the defendants argued, Mr. Coleman already had
made some drug buys and his cases would have been compromised.

Mr. Coleman said the charges in Cochran County were "bogus" and were being
used by county officials to pressure him into paying more than $7,000 that
he owed to Cochran County merchants. He said the cases were dismissed after
he made restitution.