TULIAN OFFERS DIFFERENT VIEW ON TV REPORT, ARTICLE

Richard Orr's article in last Sunday's Herald ("Not so innocent after
all" regarding the controversial 1999 drug sting in Tulia) summarized
the findings of Todd Bensman, an investigative reporter with the CBS
affiliate in Dallas.

Bensman reports that, according to an FBI report mysteriously obtained
from an undisclosed source, eight Tulia defendants admitted that they
sold drugs to Tom Coleman. The implication is that Governor Perry, had
he only known, would never have pardoned the Tulia defendants nor
would attorneys for the City of Amarillo have sanctioned a $6 million
settlement.

Curiously, no one is asking why eight alleged drug dealers would be
willing to damn themselves when it would have been so easy to lie?

The true child of God, King David tells us, "sweareth to his own hurt,
and changeth not." (Psalm 15:1)

Tom Coleman was paid with Byrne Grant money distributed through the
federal Department of Justice. Asking the feds to investigate Tulia
was like hiring the fox to check into a disturbance down at the
henhouse. By the autumn of 2000, the Department of Justice had already
ignored two civil rights complaints filed in connection with the Tulia
sting. Only when the story hit The New York Times did the feds agree,
albeit grudgingly, to launch an investigation.

According to the CBS report, Alberta Williams "boasted" to the FBI
officers that she sold Tom Coleman "more drugs than she was prosecuted
for." Ms. Williams was not boasting; she was looking for answers. If
Coleman failed to turn in evidence, he was in violation of the law.

A legitimate narcotics agent once told me that getting a crack addict
to sell you drugs is "like shooting fish in a barrel." The desperate
desire for drug money eventually converts users into dealers if the
narcotics agent keeps begging long enough. Police officers call it,
"making a crook"; the technical term is "entrapment." Either way it's
illegal.

Many weekend users had become full-blown crack-heads by the time Tom
Coleman's money-machine shut down in July of 1999. Coleman spent 18
months and thousands of your tax dollars funding the addictions of
indigent Tulia residents. Nice work, if you can get it!

Poor drug dealers smoke tiny "rocks" of crack cocaine that can be
purchased on the street for between $5 and $20. Powder cocaine is
known as a "rich man's drug" because it costs well over a hundred
dollars to buy a little baggie of powder the size of your thumb. Poor
users turn to crack because they can't afford to buy powder cocaine.
You can't sell what you can't afford to buy.

Tulia defendants told the FBI that Tom Coleman bought little rocks of
crack cocaine then filed powder cases in Amarillo. If they were right,
Coleman was tampering with evidence. Defendants swore to their own
hurt because it was the only way to implicate Coleman. Admissions of
innocence wouldn't have done the trick.

Economic reality suggests that indigent crack addicts were falsely
accused of selling Tom Coleman powder cocaine. But that's just the
beginning.

Tanya Michelle White proved she was in Oklahoma City when Coleman said
she was selling him drugs in Tulia.

An aging hog farmer named Joe Moore identified Coleman as "the law"
the minute the pony-tailed white man hit the streets. On more than one
occasion, Joe ran Coleman off his front porch in front of witnesses.

Defendants like Freddie Brookins Jr., Michelle Williams and Vincent
McCray never met Coleman until the day they were arrested.

The sloppy undercover man, by his own admission, misidentified a long
list of defendants.

Tulia defendants swore to their own hurt because they knew Tom Coleman
had fingered innocent people.

In March of 2003, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals requested that
evidentiary hearings be held in Tulia. Tom Coleman's credibility
collapsed under a heap of strange and conflicting testimony. A long
series of credible witnesses testified that Coleman was dishonest,
incompetent, corrupt, irrational and racist.

After a week of this testimony, the State of Texas threw in the towel.
A month later a Swisher County grand jury filed three counts of
aggravated perjury against the Texas Lawman of the Year.

The remarkable honesty of selfless citizens lent integrity and
credibility to a long, mystifying struggle. Viewed in the full light
of day, the admissions of eight men and women demonstrate that Judge
Ron Chapman, attorneys representing the State of Texas, Governor Rick
Perry, and the City of Amarillo called it right.

Some would call those who swear to their own hurt foolish or naive.
King David calls them children of God. My better angels are inclined
to agree.

(An ordained minister, Dr. Alan Bean serves as executive director of Friends
of Justice, a Tulia-based criminal justice reform organization.)