GROUPS FILE COMPLAINT IN DRUG BUST

Blacks Were Targeted, Justice Department Told

AUSTIN Two civil-rights groups on Friday filed a complaint with the
Department of Justice over a 1999 drug bust in Tulia that some say was
racially motivated.

The complaint by the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union was
announced at news conferences in Amarillo and Austin.

Of the 43 people arrested, 40 were black and the other three are said to
have ties to the black community. Tulia is a farming community of about
5,000, of which approximately 246 are black, in Swisher County south of
Amarillo.

"To have these numbers in a town of 246 African-Americans, to have 40 adults
... that have allegedly engaged in drug trafficking would suggest something
to you about Tulia that we know is not true," said Gary Bledsoe, president
of the NAACP of Texas. "We don't think Tulia is the drug haven of the
world."

The complaint alleges that Swisher County Sheriff Larry Stewart and other
officials targeted black residents in the sting. Sheriff Stewart could not
be reached for comment.

The arrests, all at dawn on July 23, 1999, came after an undercover police
officer alleged that he made more than 100 purchases of illegal narcotics,
mainly cocaine, the complaint said.

But no drugs, money or weapons were seized in the roundup, the complaint
said. The complaint noted that there is no information to back up the
undercover agent's word that he bought the drugs.

The agent, Tom Coleman, did not wear a wire, no video surveillance was
conducted and no other officer backed up his reports, the complaint said.

"The result has been the ethnic cleansing of young male blacks of Tulia,"
the complaint said. "Dozens of children have been left parentless and are
being raised by other family members."

Of those arrested, 17 have pleaded guilty and 11 have been convicted.

Last month, the ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of Yul Bryant, who was
arrested in July 1999, accused of selling cocaine just a few months earlier.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Amarillo, accuses Swisher County
District Attorney Terry McEachern, Mr. Coleman and Sheriff Stewart of
falsely arresting, imprisoning and prosecuting Mr. Bryant, who is black, for
a crime he did not commit. Swisher County also is accused in the lawsuit.

Mr. Bryant's criminal case was dropped after Mr. McEachern found out that
Mr. Coleman was not 100 percent sure that he had purchased cocaine from Mr.
Bryant.

Mr. Bryant is seeking $2 million in damages in the suit. It alleges that
Sheriff Stewart prepared a list of local residents and others he considered
"undesirables" before enacting a policy to strong-arm them out of Swisher
County. Most of the people listed are black, the lawsuit claims, and Mr.
McEachern was part of Sheriff Stewart's plan.

Mr. Coleman was put to work as an "undercover agent" to try to help Sheriff
Stewart, the lawsuit said.

The drug arrests have become an increasing source of tension in Tulia.

Earlier this week, about 230 people showed up for a "thank you" rally in
appreciation of law enforcement's efforts to arrest drug offenders. On the
same day and one day during the previous week, critics of the drug arrests
rallied to protest the police actions.