JUDGE WANTS TULIA DRUG CASES TOSSED

Defense, Prosecutors Faulted Witness In Racially Charged Trials

A judge said Tuesday that he would recommend that 38 drug convictions in
Tulia - most against black defendants - be thrown out after defense
attorneys and prosecutors agreed that an undercover officer on whose
testimony the cases were based was not credible.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had ordered a hearing to review the
cases of four black men whose attorneys said were convicted in 1999 solely
on the word of Tom Coleman, the former undercover officer. He admitted in
court that he used racial slurs and didn't possess corroborating evidence.

The state's top criminal court also wanted to know whether prosecutors
failed to turn over negative information about Mr. Coleman that could have
hurt his credibility.

"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withdrawn and new trials ordered.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.

Attorneys for the defendants, although cautious, said they were excited and
would work with prosecutors over the next few weeks to prepare summaries of
the 38 cases for Judge Chapman, who will review and forward them to the
Court of Criminal Appeals.

The racially charged cases in the community of 5,000 had drawn national
attention, although it was not the only proceeding in the state in which
mass convictions have been closely scrutinized.

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.

In Tulia, 46 people - 39 of them black - were arrested on charges of
possessing cocaine and rock cocaine. Eight of the cases were thrown out.
Out of the remaining 38 cases, eight went to trial and resulted in
convictions. Twenty-seven other defendants pleaded guilty and served prison
time or received probation. Three others went to prison because their
probations on other convictions were revoked.

Defendants in 35 of the 38 cases are black, two are Hispanic and one is
Anglo. Thirteen of the 38 are still in prison.

Those arrested represented about 16 percent of Tulia's black population.
Mr. Coleman, who is out of law enforcement and now lives in Waxahachie, was
due to resume his testimony Tuesday, but he was not in the courthouse. No
one answered the telephone at his home Tuesday.

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.

Amarillo police Lt. Michael Amos, who directed the investigation, declined
to comment Tuesday.

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.

On the witness stand, Mr. Coleman at various times appeared certain of
events and actions; at others he said he couldn't remember. He denied that
he was a racist but admitted that he often used a racial slur as a greeting.

"The state's agreement to go global is very unusual and we couldn't be
happier," one of the defendant's attorneys, Mitch Zamoff, said of Tuesday's
decision covering all 38 cases.

Mr. Coleman testified that he did not have video or audiotapes to support
his allegations because he feared for his life if he were searched. He
denied a charge by Mr. Zamoff that he used task force money to buy drugs in
another county and then diluted them to use as evidence for arrests in
Swisher County in order to justify his employment.

The U.S. Justice Department and the Texas attorney general's office are
investigating the cases.