DRUG AGENT GRILLED ON RACIAL SLURS

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 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 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 sought to impugn Coleman's testimony Friday.

Coleman testified he hadn't contacted the Texas Commission on Law
Enforcement Standards and Education about having been arrested during the
drug operation on theft and abuse of official capacity charges out of
Cochran County, where he had worked previously.

He learned the commission required him to report the arrest, but only after
receiving a letter of reprimand last year over the issue, 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.

But 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 tainted his testimony.

Numerous times Coleman said 'I can't recall' when asked details of meetings
he'd had with supervisors while undercover, as well from a gathering Feb.
28 with Swisher County officials and District Attorney Terry McEachern, who
prosecuted nearly all of the drug cases.

"You don't recall anything about a meeting that lasted three or four hours
that happened two weeks ago, and you're testifying about what happened 18
months ago when these people's freedom is at stake?" Zamoff asked.

"I remember meeting the new lawyers, talking about the cases, the
supplements (reports), the pictures," Coleman testified.

Swisher County officials have stood behind the arrests and prosecutions.