RALLY HELD TO PROTEST DRUG BUST

Protesters mark the second anniversary of a controversial drug bust that
led to the arrests of 43 people, 40 of them black.

A crowd of about 350 people rallied peacefully in a Tulia park Sunday night
to protest a 1999 drug bust they say was racially motivated.

All but three of the 43 people arrested in the bust were black. Tulia's
population is about 5,000, of which about 250 residents are black.

People at the rally listened to music and poetry readings, played
basketball and ate hamburgers and hot dogs as they waited for the speakers
to take the stage on a hot Texas night.

"We need to challenge the drug policy that led to what happened in Tulia
two years ago," said Will Harrell, executive director of the Texas ACLU.
"Tulia has become a symbol of what's wrong with our drug policy. It's got
to be a collective effort, and every one of us counts."

Jerry Epstein, president of the Drug Policy Forum of Texas, said
prohibition of drugs is the problem.

"Without prohibition, there is no drug war. Without prohibition, you do not
have people selling drugs," Mr. Epstein said. "How many black and brown
people do you have to put into prison to get white people to stop using drugs?"

'Freedom Ride'

The evening rally was part of a "Freedom Ride" to Tulia that began in
Austin at midnight Saturday. A group of Tulia residents calling themselves
Friends of Justice, along with members of the state and national chapters
of the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP and League of United Latin
American Citizens, made the trip on two chartered buses. During a midday
stop in Plainview, about 80 people marched outside a state prison where one
of the Tulia defendants is imprisoned.

A candlelight vigil was set for midnight at the Swisher County Jail.

Civil rights groups say the bust led to convictions based on flimsy
evidence: the uncorroborated testimony of the lone undercover agent whose
questionable past was barred from discussion during the trials. They say no
drugs, money or weapons were seized in the roundup, and there is no
information to back up the undercover agent's word that he bought drugs
from the accused.

Eleven of those arrested in Tulia were found guilty and another 17 accepted
plea agreements.

Swisher County Sheriff Larry Stewart and District Attorney Terry McEachern
deny allegations of racial bias and stand by the arrests and convictions.
So does the undercover drug agent, Tom Coleman, who no longer works in law
enforcement.

"I don't have no comment," Mr. Coleman said Friday from his home near
Waxahachie. "Everybody knows what kind of operation it was."

Mr. Coleman recently was dismissed from a spot on the Southeast Metroplex
Narcotics Task Force near Dallas for engaging in a "relationship that was
inappropriate," said Ellis County District Attorney Joe Grubbs.

New legislation

The Tulia case inspired successful legislation this year in Austin. A bill
sponsored by Rep. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen, prohibits Texans from being
convicted of drug charges based solely on the testimony of undercover
police officers. "This bill was supported by law officers across the
state," Mr. Hinojosa said last week. "They don't want to convict just on
the word of an informant without corroboration."

A second law made officers' personnel files no longer exempt from
disclosure under certain circumstances.

Mr. Harrell of the Texas ACLU said more can be done to prevent bad drug
cases from reaching prosecution. His group has asked that the Texas House
Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence review regional narcotics task forces.

Friday, the ACLU asked the Texas attorney general's office to investigate
whether racial profiling and civil rights abuses are part of the task
forces. The ACLU says that narcotics task forces target minorities in
low-income communities in order to bolster their arrest numbers to gain
grant money.

The letter was filed late in the day, and attorney general spokesman Mark
Heckmann said it would have to be reviewed before the office could comment.

Appeals are pending in the drug cases. The ACLU and NAACP have filed a
federal lawsuit against some Swisher County officials, and the Department
of Justice is investigating. An FBI agent based in Amarillo said Friday
that the probe could be complete in about a month.