ACLU FILES LAWSUIT OVER MASSIVE DRUG BUST IN TULIA

AUSTIN (AP) - A lawsuit was filed Friday against two law enforcement
agents, a district attorney and Swisher County for their role in an arrest
stemming from a much-criticized drug bust in Tulia in 1999.

Forty-three people were arrested in the bust. Forty were black, and the
other three, two whites and a Hispanic, are said to have ties to the black
community.

About 40 residents of the northwest Texas town of 5,000 rallied at the
steps of the Capitol as Will Harrell, executive director of Texas American
Civil Liberties Union, announced the lawsuit.

They were joined by dozens of others from a group called Journey for
Justice, which has been traveling across the state, calling for an end to
the war on drugs.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Yul Bryant, who was arrested in July
1999 for allegedly selling cocaine just a few months earlier.

His case was dismissed, however, when Swisher County District Attorney
Terry McEachern found out that undercover agent Thomas Coleman was not 100
percent sure that he had purchased cocaine from Bryant.

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

"These unlawful actions were part of a deliberate plan, scheme and policy
of targeting members of the African-American community of Swisher County,
Texas and removing them from the area using the legal system," the lawsuit
claims.

Bryant is seeking $2 million in damages.

The lawsuit claims that Stewart prepared a list of local citizens 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 McEachern was part of Stewart's plan.

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

Stewart would not comment on the lawsuit. Coleman did not immediately
return telephone calls made by The Associated Press.

McEachern, who prosecuted many of the drug cases, says he does not believe
that he did anything wrong and that he dismissed the case as soon as he
found out Coleman was not sure Bryant had sold him the drugs.

"I don't seek to prosecute somebody that my undercover agent isn't
absolutely 100 percent sure," McEachern said. "He told me he was 90 percent
sure but that's not enough for me."

Of those arrested in the same drug bust as Bryant, 17 have pleaded guilty
and 11 have been convicted.

LaWanda Smith, one of those arrested who has since entered a plea, said the
whole situation is unfair because the cases against most of the 43 people
rest solely on Coleman's word. She, and many others, say he cannot be trusted.

Smith, who was at the rally, said she pleaded guilty to one count of
delivering a controlled substance because she was afraid of the sentence
she might receive if she went to trial, but she denies selling drugs to
Coleman.

"I have never met the guy," she said. "Not ever."

Sammy Barrow, a 48-year-old truck driver from Tulia, was at the rally
because his two brothers were arrested in the bust.

"I'm beginning to wonder now who's on the second list. Am I?" Barrow asked.
"Do we need to be getting out of town?"