TASK FORCES ACCUSED OF TARGETING BLACKS IN DRUG BUSTS

Rights Groups Add To Complaint; DA Says Officers Pursued Dealers

LUBBOCK - Civil-rights violations and racial targeting aren't isolated to a
Panhandle drug bust that became the focus of a Justice Department
investigation, the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP say.

Such violations occurred in a bust carried out in Hearne by a Texas
Regional Narcotics Task Force, the two groups said in an amended complaint
filed Wednesday with the Justice Department.

The November drug bust in Hearne, about 20 miles northwest of Bryan-College
Station, resulted in the arrests of 38 people, all of whom are black, on
charges of felony possession or delivery of a controlled substance.

Robertson County District Attorney John Paschall said the bust didn't
specifically target anyone but drug dealers.

"The task force had somebody trying to purchase drugs from anybody willing
to sell them," he said of the task force for which he worked as a project
director until about two months ago.

Will Harrell, executive director of the Texas ACLU, said the ACLU and the
NAACP are looking into complaints lodged in six other Texas cities, where
race has allegedly played a role in recent drug busts. He would not
identify the cities but said they would eventually be added to the federal
complaint.

"This goes beyond similar incidents or circumstances around the state," he
said. "This is how the regional drug task forces operate. They compete for
funding against one another, and the one thing they show to get the funding
is numbers. The incentive is to get higher numbers with higher sentences."

Mr. Harrell said the easiest way to get higher numbers is to go after those
who are most vulnerable to the justice system: impoverished minorities.

"These task forces selectively enforced the law on the basis of race," Mr.
Harrell wrote of the South Central Regional Drug Task Force in the
amendment, which will be added the original complaint involving the
Panhandle Regional Narcotics Task Force.

A bust conducted by the Panhandle task force resulted in the arrests of 40
blacks in Tulia in 1999. The bust has brought national attention and
questions about the way the state's regional narcotics task forces conduct
investigations. About 250 blacks live in Tulia.

After the first jury trial resulted in a 60-year sentence for one of the
defendants, 17 people entered guilty pleas. An additional 10 were later
found guilty at trials based solely on the testimony of undercover Officer
Tom Coleman, who himself was charged with theft and abuse of power during
his 18-month investigation. The charges against Officer Coleman were later
dropped.

The Justice Department is investigating the bust and the roles of Officer
Coleman, Swisher County District Attorney Terry McEachern and Sheriff Larry
Stewart. Some in Tulia alleged Sheriff Stewart provided Officer Coleman
with a list of suspects to target.

Gov. Rick Perry will await the outcome of the federal investigation before
taking any action, spokeswoman Kathy Walt said.

"The governor believes the drug task forces perform a valuable function,"
she said. "He believes that authorities must do what they can to eliminate
illegal drug use and trafficking."

Convict Helped Case

The Hearne cases were built against the defendants by a black man who
previously had been convicted of selling cocaine. He faced a burglary charge.

The man was offered probation by Mr. Paschall in exchange for the
implication of 20 blacks in drug deals, the complaint states. Mr. Paschall
said no such deal existed, and the informant's burglary case is still pending.

Mr. Paschall said that in the past year, including the November bust, 71
people in Robertson County have been indicted for felony possession or
delivery of a controlled substance. He said of those 71, 46 are black, 22
white and three Hispanic.

"You can't look at one isolated drug bust," he said. "You have to look at
the whole picture."

And as far as hiring a person accused of a crime to locate other criminals,
Mr. Paschall says the reason is simple:

"We have a hard time getting the Baptist preacher and the Catholic priest
to go buy drugs for us," he said. "Drug dealers are not going to sell drugs
to someone they don't know or someone they think might be a police officer."

Mr. Paschall said it is up to a jury to decide whether an informant is
credible. The first case against a suspect accused in the November bust
resulted in a hung jury last month.