COLLEAGUES BLAST EX-TULIA DRUG COP

TULIA -- A former undercover agent whose testimony was used to convict four
defendants in the 1999 Tulia drug busts was portrayed Monday as
untrustworthy, racist and prejudiced.

The testimony about Tom Coleman came from a district attorney and other law
enforcement officers as evidentiary hearings began for the four defendants
in Swisher County.

The convictions of the four men, whose sentences ranged from 20 to 90
years, were upheld on direct appeal.

However, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals last year asked the trial
court for clarification on whether the four -- Jason Jerome Williams,
Christopher Eugene Jackson, Freddie Brookins Jr. and Joe Moore -- were
convicted solely on Coleman's word.

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

Civil rights groups say the arrests were racially motivated.

District Attorney Ori White, whose district includes Pecos County where
Coleman worked at the sheriff's department, testified he didn't believe
Coleman was trustworthy.

Representing Coleman's wife in their divorce case, White said, "I was
concerned enough that I wore a bullet-proof vest to the final hearing."

Coleman fell behind on support payments and eventually relinquished
parental rights,

White told defense attorney Desmond Hogan he would have given the same
testimony at the time of the trial.

Former Pecos County Sheriff Bruce Wilson also testified he considered
Coleman untrustworthy and was about to fire him when Coleman walked out in
the middle of a shift.

The defendants all sat quietly, occasionally leaning forward to better hear
testimony, the Amarillo Globe-News reported in its Tuesday editions.

Sam Esparza, a criminal investigator for the Fort Stockton Police
Department, said Coleman acted inappropriately and disobeyed orders the two
times Esparza worked with him in the late 1980s.

At the time, Coleman as a peace officer in Fort Stockton, the county seat
of Pecos County.

"I felt like there was something wrong with this guy," Esparza said.

In one incident, Esparza said that Coleman, while riding in his patrol car,
laughed and said, "'You just don't sound like a Mexican. You don't act like
one. You don't even look like one.' After that, I didn't want him with me
any more."

"I don't condone the type of behavior that this man displays as a peace
officer," Esparza said in a story in Tuesday's Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.

Juan Castro, now chief of police in Fort Stockton, said Coleman was a
"paranoid gun freak."

Coleman, who is no longer in law enforcement, worked alone and used no
audio or video surveillance. Little or no corroborating evidence was
introduced during the trials.

The drug sting resulted in the arrest of 46 people, 39 of them black.