OFFICER'S LIES SENT BLACKS TO PRISON

In tainted Texas drug sweep, corrupt agent went after blacks, and no one
stopped him

Tulia, Texas -- What happened here is not simply a study in black and white,
despite the skin colors of its characters. It is not purely a story of
ignorance and arrogance, though both are prevalent.

It is a tragedy of small minds and made-up crimes that eventually created
one of the worst miscarriages of justice in Texas history.

Thomas Roland Coleman, son of a locally famous Texas Ranger, drove into town
and cruised the battered roads where black people live.

For 18 months, beginning in 1998, he said he was T.J. Dawson, a laborer
whose girlfriend needed cocaine to get in the mood for sex.

He was really an undercover cop for a drug task force based in Amarillo.

Coleman was allowed to work alone for the Panhandle Regional Narcotics
Trafficking Task Force. He kept no written records. No photographs were
taken. No video was shot. No one observed his buys.

Every ensuing conviction relied on one thing: his word.

By the time he finished testifying, 38 people -- 36 of them black -- had
been convicted of selling small amounts of cocaine and sentenced to prison
for as long as 90 years.

For this, he was named Texas' outstanding narcotics officer in 2000.

Problem is, the star witness lied on the stand and several other places.

Another problem -- Swisher County District Attorney Terry McEachern, Sheriff
Larry Stewart and District Judge Ed Self, who heard most of the cases, knew
the witness had a tarnished record in law enforcement. That information was
kept from jurors and from defense attorneys.

The Tulia cases have languished for four years.

Last week, 12 people in state prison were released on their own recognizance
pending a ruling on their future from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
Most of those not covered by the release had already been paroled or
released on probation. Four others remain in custody.

Despite ongoing federal and state investigations, not one conviction has
been overturned, and no action has been taken against officials from Swisher
County or the task force.

'DEVIOUS, NONRESPONSIVE WITNESS'

The state appointed two special prosecutors earlier this year to hold
hearings to determine whether Coleman's testimony was indeed the sole basis
for conviction in four cases, and to find out whether the prosecution team
withheld information damaging to their star witness.

The answer to both questions: yes.

Retired Dallas District Judge Ron Chapman -- appointed after Self recused
himself -- stopped the hearings one day after Coleman took the stand, saying
Coleman was committing "blatant perjury."

A stipulation signed in May by the judge, the special prosecutors and
defense lawyers working pro bono for the NAACP said all 38 convictions
should be overturned, including 27 plea bargains signed to avoid lengthy
prison terms.

Coleman is "the most devious, nonresponsive witness this court has witnessed
in 25 years on the bench in Texas," the judge wrote.

Coleman also was a bigot who used the "n" word on the job, testimony showed.

Examples of Coleman's perjury, the document said, included testifying that
he'd never been arrested and that he'd left previous law enforcement jobs
"in good standing."

In truth, Coleman was arrested in August 1998, in the middle of the Tulia
investigation, on charges of theft and abusing authority while a deputy with
the Cochran County Sheriff's Office.

He'd walked off that job and skipped town owing more than $7,000 to local
stores that extended credit because he was a deputy, and had stolen more
than 100 gallons of gasoline from county pumps, documents and testimony
showed.

Charges were dropped when Coleman made restitution.

He'd also abandoned a previous deputy's post in Pecos County, just before he
was about to be fired for lying, documents showed.

In April, Coleman was indicted on three charges of aggravated perjury.

The 129-page finding also faulted Swisher County officials for:

- - Allowing Sheriff Stewart to testify that he hadn't received any negative
information about Coleman "despite the fact that he himself arrested
Coleman" on the Cochran County warrant.

- - Portraying Coleman in court as an exemplary officer with no criminal
record.

"It was a comedy of errors, it just wasn't one mistake," said Lubbock
criminal defense attorney Rod Hobson, one of the special prosecutors. "It
was the task force, McEachern, Coleman, everyone involved screwed up,
practically."

BLACKS TARGETED

Tulia, population 5,000 and dropping, isn't much more than a wide spot in
the road between Amarillo and Lubbock. Even now, some residents believe
drugs cause most problems here.

A depressed economy is the more likely cause.

Black residents, who number about 400, mostly work behind the scenes, in the
fields, the restaurant kitchens, and the nearby prison. Some can't work or
don't, and live on welfare in federally subsidized housing -- and it is from
these ranks that Coleman culled most of his cases.

Coleman first went after local troublemakers identified by the sheriff,
according to defense lawyers. The sheriff denied those claims.

Then Coleman went after their families and friends, until he had 46
indictments.

In July 1999, Coleman, flanked by other officers, rousted people from their
beds. No drugs or paraphernalia or money or guns were found during the
arrests.

The now-defunct local paper, the Tulia Sentinel, ran a headline declaring
"Tulia's Streets Cleared of Garbage."

Pig farmer Joe Welton Moore was the first to go on trial. He was the drug
kingpin of Tulia, authorities said. He lived in a shack with a dirt front
yard.

After a one-day trial, Moore -- who has a previous narcotics felony on his
record -- was sentenced to 90 years. He was among those released last week.