STING PROSECUTOR FACES LAWSUIT FROM STATE BAR

State Bar of Texas officials announced Tuesday they will file a
lawsuit seeking sanctions against the prosecutor from the
controversial 1999 Tulia drug bust. The case against 64th District
Attorney Terry McEachern will be heard in a Panhandle district court
and could result in anything from a public reprimand to McEachern
losing his law license if convicted, according to Dawn Miller, chief
disciplinary counsel with the State Bar of Texas.

The case is in a sort of legal limbo between the previously secret
State Bar investigation and the upcoming public trial, so Miller was
limited in the amount of information she could provide about the matter.

"Without going into any details, you can assume that if a case has
gotten to a point where a lawyer has elected to have the case heard in
district court, that means an investigative panel of a grievance
committee found just cause to believe a lawyer had committed
misconduct," Miller said.

McEachern said he could not comment about the suit due to secrecy
rules, but he still believes in the cases he prosecuted.

"I still feel the same way I did back then," McEachern said. "Of
course, looking back, I would have done some things differently. But
it's easy playing Monday morning quarterback."

McEachern prosecuted all the cases generated by the since-discredited
undercover narcotics investigation in Tulia that netted 46 people, 39
of them black, and brought a whirlwind of controversy to Tulia.

McEachern secured convictions and long sentences in many of the cases
and plea bargains in most of the rest, but things started to go bad in
the following years.

All of the defendants still in prison were freed in June, and Gov.
Rick Perry handed down pardons for nearly everyone arrested in the
sting shortly after.

Meanwhile, the undercover agent who conducted the investigation, Tom
Coleman, was indicted on three counts of aggravated perjury for
testimony he gave in appeal hearings.

McEachern lost his bid for re-election in the Republican primary
earlier this month.

The action against McEachern is still secret enough that Miller could
not confirm it was related to Tulia, but it has been public knowledge
since August that McEachern was fighting a State Bar grievance in the
Tulia matter.

McEachern's opponents have said he unethically withheld evidence about
misdeeds in Coleman's background during the trials, a charge McEachern
has repeatedly denied.

Miller said most State Bar grievances are worked out through an
agreement with the attorney and the grievance committee. With no
agreement, McEachern chose to go with a civil suit in district court,
rather than a hearing in front of the grievance committee.

State Bar attorneys will file suit with the Texas Supreme Court in the
next couple of weeks, Miller said.

The high court usually takes about two months to assign a judge from
outside the district, then the case will be filed in McEachern's home
county, meaning Swisher or Hale counties.

A trial will be conducted in which the judge or a jury, if requested,
will decide if a preponderance of the evidence shows McEachern
committed misconduct.

If the answer is yes, the judge will then decide what sanctions to
hand down.

The defense attorneys who have fought bitterly against McEachern's
cases for years said they were not overjoyed by the State Bar's
decision, although it does lend credence to their long-held claims
that the trials were not conducted fairly.

Amarillo lawyer Jeff Blackburn said he and his fellow lawyers were
seeking to clear their clients not to personally harm anyone from the
other side.

But Blackburn said the trial could have a positive outcome if it
results in a reaffirmation of the ideal that district attorneys must
not yield to public pressure to secure convictions at all costs, even
in a part of the state where people believe deeply in law and order.

"Prosecutors are charged under our laws with seeking justice, not just
convictions," Blackburn said. "One of the problems in Tulia was that
this law was broken and that the prosecution just got caught up in the
desire to convict.

"On the other hand, I understand the pressures somebody like Mr.
McEachern comes under. But a lot of times, the district attorney has
to be the person who stands up for the law and against popular sentiment."