Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/tulia.htm (Tulia, Texas)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?118 (Perjury)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/racial.htm (Racial Issues)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Tom+Coleman) (Coleman, Tom)

OFFICER ADMITS USE OF EPITHET IN TULIA SCANDAL

Hearing Is Held In Tulia Scandal

TULIA (AP) -- The use of a racially charged epithet doesn't reveal
prejudice, testified Tom Coleman, the man who worked undercover in Tulia
and built drug cases against 46 people -- 39 of whom were black.

Coleman, who told the court Friday that the epithet doesn't in "this day
and time" indicate racial prejudice, also admitted during evidentiary
hearings for four of the black men convicted as a result of Coleman's
18-month operation that he has used the epithet, as have his friends.

"It's kind of a greeting," Coleman testified. "When my friends would come
over, I'd open the door and they'd say, 'What's up, (racial epithet)?' A
greeting."

He later denied information contained in an sworn affidavit by his ex-wife
that she had seen a membership card to the Ku Klux Klan in Coleman's
wallet. "That's false," Coleman testified. "I don't have one."

"You don't now but did you back then?" defense attorney Mitchell Zamoff said.

"No, sir, I didn't have one," Coleman testified.

The hearings adjourned early Friday afternoon and were set to resume April 1.

It was Coleman's uncorroborated testimony that led to prison sentences for
many of those arrested in the July 1999 busts, which civil rights groups
have claimed were racially motivated. Sixteen remain in prison.

Coleman worked alone in Swisher County and used no audio or video
surveillance, often writing notes on his leg about drug buys he'd made.

Zamoff also tried to impeach Coleman's testimony Friday. Coleman testified
he had not contacted the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer
Standards and Education about having been arrested during the drug
operation for theft and abuse of official capacity charges out of Cochran
County, where he had worked previously.

He learned he was required by the commission to report the arrest himself
but only after receiving a letter of reprimand last year for failing to
report the arrest, Coleman testified.

Zamoff, though, played a portion of a videotaped interview Coleman did last
year with a reporter from an Amarillo television station.

"I even called TCLEOSE and told them what happened," Coleman is heard
telling the reporter on the videotape.

The convictions of the four men, whose sentences were as long as 90 years,
were upheld on direct appeal. However, the appeals court last year asked
the trial court for clarification on whether Jason Jerome Williams,
Christopher Eugene Jackson, Freddie Brookins Jr. and Joe Moore were
convicted solely on Coleman's word.

The court also wants to know whether the state failed to turn over
information from Coleman's background that may have impeached his testimony.

Swisher County officials have stood behind the arrests and prosecutions.

Vanita Gupta, an attorney for the defense with the NAACP Legal Defense
Fund, said the proceedings have shed light on the four men's trials.

"We've been able to expose the active misrepresentation that the state
engaged in each of these trials," she said.

"Thinking that the word (racial epithet) doesn't express prejudice, it's
enough to put in the question of justice in Swisher County."