TULIA DRUG AGENT USED RACIAL SLUR

TULIA, Texas - The undercover agent whose work lead to what many say were
the racially motivated arrests of dozens of people defended his track
record Friday and testified that he occasionally used a derogatory word for
blacks as an endearing term.

Tom Coleman, who worked in the Tulia area in 1998 and 1999 as part of a
narcotics task force, took the stand for a second day to defend his work
and his credibility.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals returned to Tulia the cases of four
black men whose attorneys said were wrongly convicted because of racial
bias and on the sole testimony of Mr. Coleman. They also said that negative
information in Mr. Coleman's personal and work history was hidden by trial
prosecutors and could have been used to impeach Mr. Coleman's credibility.

When asked while under oath whether he had ever used a derogatory term for
blacks, Mr. Coleman said he had but that he didn't think it was inappropriate.

"It's kind of like a greeting," Mr. Coleman said to gasps in the courtroom.
"It would be like when a friend would come over to the house, and I would
open the door, and I would say, 'What's up, ...."

Mr. Coleman chuckled, and Mitch Zamoff, an attorney for one of the
convicted men, asked him why.

"I've been called that here in Tulia," Mr. Coleman said.

Mr. Coleman, who is white, denied that he was a racist or a member of the
Ku Klux Klan, charges made in an affidavit by his ex-wife, Carol Barnett.

Mr. Coleman's sting operations in Tulia, which he never tape-recorded, led
to the arrests of 46 people, 39 of them black. He provided no corroborating
evidence in any of the cases. The Waxahachie resident no longer works in
law enforcement.

Two of Mr. Coleman's supervisors at the task force testified this week that
they had admonished Mr. Coleman about using the derogatory term in their
presence.

Attorneys for the four defendants spent the week painting Mr. Coleman as
man who frequently had problems with law enforcement colleagues, resigned
or quit sheriff's deputy jobs because of personal reasons, and had left
behind debts and grudges with people in towns where he worked.

"I think we have exposed the misrepresentation that the state conducted in
these cases," said Vanita Gupta, a lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense and
Education Fund who is representing one of the four men. "He was lying. The
state knew he was lying when he was on the stand, and they protected him.
This was a fraud on the court."

Dallas attorney John Nation, the state's special prosecutor, expressed
concern about Mr. Coleman's use of the derogatory term, but he said the
state would put the statements into context when the proceedings resume
April 1.

"The defense was impeaching him pretty vigorously on private statements he
made," Mr. Nation said. "What we want to make sure is to flesh out things
and show the context of when statements were made to give the court a
better picture of what went on, and that will go a long way in assisting
our case."

Residents' reactions

The hearing has attracted Tulia residents to court this week, some
defending the sheriff and prosecutors involved in the drug busts and others
who were friends or relatives of the four men.

"Seeing him on the stand really brought back bad memories for me," said
Michelle Williams, who spent three years in prison after being convicted on
Mr. Coleman's testimony.

"I spent my time in jail praying to God to take my anger away, but seeing
him today reignited my anger and my hate, and I don't like it," said Ms.
Williams, who was wearing a black T-shirt with the words "Friends of Justice."

Retired rancher Robert Fulkerson, 81, said he attended several of the
original trials and was at the courthouse Friday out of curiosity.

"I'd like to see the town portrayed right down the middle," he said. "This
town has never been racist."

At Friday's hearing, Mr. Zamoff questioned Mr. Coleman about his undercover
work in Tulia. He said much of the cocaine Mr. Coleman said he bought from
suspects was less than 10 percent pure.

Mr. Coleman denied that he had used task force money to buy drugs in
Amarillo, had cut the drugs up, added fillers and labeled them as coming
from Tulia in order to justify his job in Swisher County.

"If that's true that your buys are correct, then we have 45 drug dealers in
a town of 5,000 people," Mr. Zamoff said.

"They are correct, and that's true," Mr. Coleman said.

Coleman's arrest

Mr. Zamoff spent most of the morning trying to get Mr. Coleman to admit
that he knew in May 1998 that Cochran County officials had issued a warrant
for his arrest and that he did not tell supervisors at the task force.
Officials there accused him of using a county credit car to buy gasoline
for personal use.

Had Mr. Coleman told his supervisors at the time, he would have been
arrested and the cases he had already worked could have been tainted, Mr.
Zamoff said.

Instead, Mr. Coleman's arrest stemming from the credit card case three
months later by Swisher County Sheriff Larry Stewart was never properly
recorded, and he never appeared before a magistrate. Mr. Coleman's
fingerprint records were never signed nor sent to state law enforcement
officials, testimony showed.

Mr. Coleman said the charges were bogus and that Cochran County officials
fabricated them to pressure him into paying more than $7,000 he owed to
merchants in the county. He said he paid the debts, including $64 for the
gasoline in question, in August 1998, and the charges were dismissed.

At times during his two days on the stand, Mr. Coleman was fluid with
information, but when pressed for specific dates or details of events, he
would say that he didn't recall or couldn't remember, including details
about a four-hour meeting with former supervisors a few weeks ago.

"You cannot remember a three- to four-hour meeting two weeks ago when you
can recall events 18 months ago and now when people's freedoms are at
stake." Mr. Zamoff asked him.

Retired State District Judge Ron Chapman of Dallas is hearing the case
because the trial judge removed himself after attorneys for the convicted
men questioned his impartiality. Last fall, the judge, Edward Self,
defended his supervision in the cases in an interview and in a letter to
the editor of an Amarillo newspaper.

The review is expected to take another week when it resumes April 1. Judge
Chapman will make a recommendation to the appeals court, which can order a
new trial or free the men, who are serving sentences ranging from 20 to 90
years in prison. A ruling is expected this year.