10 FROM TULIA COULD BE DENIED CASH FOR JAIL TIME

Some Stuck In Legal Limbo; Abbott's Opinion Sought.

On Monday, Kareem White, one of 35 Tulia drug defendants pardoned by
Texas Gov. Rick Perry three years ago, got the first half of $100,000
from the state for being wrongly imprisoned.

In all, 20 residents of the tiny Panhandle town that was rocked by a
drug sting gone wrong have filed claims of more than $1.3 million
against the state. However, 10 of them are in a legal limbo that
could delay - or prevent - them from collecting for the prison time
they served.

Almost 50 people, most of them black and poor, were arrested in the
town of 5,000 people during an early morning raid in the summer of
1999. They were arrested on felony drug charges on the word of one
undercover officer whose testimony could not be substantiated later.

Charges against some were dropped, but 35 were convicted or pleaded
guilty in the face of vigorous prosecutions. They were later pardoned by Perry.

At issue now are 10 former defendants who were already on probation
or parole for other crimes when they were wrongly accused in 1999 of
selling cocaine and who were accused of violating their parole or
probation because of the drug arrests.

State law allows people who are wrongly convicted and serve jail time
to receive compensation from the state - $25,000 per year. But it
prohibits paying a person for being wrongly imprisoned on one crime
if he or she is serving a sentence concurrently on another charge -
in this case, the probation or parole violations.

Brent Hamilton, who is representing 19 of the Tulia clients, said it
is unfair to penalize people who might never have violated their
parole or probation and gone to jail if not for the trumped-up drug charges.

"These people were on probation or parole and were doing fine when
they were (wrongly) arrested," Hamilton said.

Earlier this month, Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, whose job
includes paying claims against the state, asked Attorney General Greg
Abbott how to handle those 10 claims, which account for almost half
of the $1.3 million.

"Although I am fully satisfied that a great injustice occurred in
Tulia and that equity clearly justifies full payment, there is a
statutory issue that I am compelled to present to you for your
opinion," Strayhorn wrote Abbott.

Strayhorn framed the issue around the case of Jason Paul Fry, who was
serving a probated term for a drug-possession conviction when he was
arrested in the Tulia raid.

"Technically, this statutory language appears to disqualify Mr. Fry
from entitlement to any compensation," Strayhorn wrote. "However, the
inequity is that it was his wrongful arrest and conviction for the
Tulia drug charge that caused his probation . . . to be revoked."

The Tulia defendants who were convicted of selling small amounts of
cocaine received sentences of up to 90 years, and many served up to
four years before they were pardoned.

For any of the 20 claims to be paid, District Attorney Wally Hatch
was required by state law to write letters to the comptroller
explaining that the defendants were legally entitled to the money.

Hatch, who became the prosecutor for Tulia six years after the raid,
said the controversy - and the national spotlight that it brought -
still burns some residents.

"I think the general consensus is: There may have been some mistakes
made, but there were some crimes committed as well," Hatch said.

In his letters, Hatch avoided saying anyone was innocent and just
noted that the people filing the claims had been pardoned by Perry.

The undercover officer who was responsible for the bogus drug charges
worked alone and used no audio or video surveillance. No drugs were found.

Some groups charged that the raid was racially motivated.

Hamilton, whose law firms have represented some of the Tulia
defendants since the initial drug raid, said he understands Hatch's reluctance.

Hamilton said that parts of Tulia might have had a drug problem but
that "things were exaggerated" in the investigation.

"It's sort of like driving 80 miles per hour in a 70 miles-per-hour
zone, and the trooper wrote you a ticket for 100 miles per hour,"
Hamilton said. "Unfortunately it resulted in problems for the
defendants, for the taxpayers, and for the district attorney. It's
been tough on everyone out here."