ONE MESS LIKE TULIA IS ENOUGH; LET'S PREVENT ANOTHER

This cop had issues: He had been accused of kidnapping his child; was
arrested for theft; falsified reports; used racial slurs on the job; and
was ineligible for rehire by two law enforcement departments in separate
counties because he needed constant supervision, was dishonest and walked
off jobs without notifying supervisors.

That zero was Tom Coleman.

He became a hero in 1999 after busting 46 Tulia residents -- 39 of them
African Americans -- for drug trafficking. "Justice" was swift and
sweeping. Thirty-eight were convicted of drug felonies, and many were sent
to prison on sentences ranging from 20 years to 90 years. At this writing,
13 still are suffering in prison.

It's incredible, given Coleman's dubious career history and disregard for
truth, that Tulia residents were ever convicted. All the convictions hinged
solely on Coleman's testimony -- about as credible as Jayson Blair's
stories in The New York Times. There was no corroborating evidence, no
witnesses nor any surveillance to back up the allegations of a cop out of
control.

Even so, Swisher County District Attorney Terry McEachern prosecuted Tulia
defendants based on Coleman's say-so, and jury after jury convicted Tulia
residents on the same basis.

The Tulia cases have thrust the tiny Panhandle town into the glare of a
national spotlight because of the enormity of injustice inflicted on a
hapless community of African Americans. The Texas Legislature had a
remarkable opportunity to prevent another Tom Coleman from hijacking
justice in the event that prosecutors failed to do so. But that chance,
contained in Senate Bill 515 by Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, has nearly
slipped away.

"It's dying a slow and painful death on the Senate floor," said Will
Harrell, director of the Texas American Civil Liberties Union, which helped
draft the measure along with the Texas NAACP.

The bill would require a judge to instruct a jury that it should not
convict a person of a drug felony on the basis of uncorroborated testimony
of a peace officer unless the jury believes beyond a reasonable doubt that
the uncorroborated statement is true.

House and Senate versions of the bill were approved by committees before
running into a roadblock of district attorneys in the Senate. The House
version -- HB 2625 -- was sponsored by state Reps. Glenn Lewis, D-Fort
Worth, and Suzanna Gratia Hupp, R-Lampasas.

Texas prosecutors have several objections to the bill, said Shannon
Edmonds, a spokesman for the Texas District and County Attorneys Association.

"Bad facts make bad law," Edmonds said, noting that his organization
doesn't speak for every Texas district attorney but for prosecutors in
general. "Prosecutors think the Legislature should be careful before
creating a (law) that says peace officers are less credible than the drug
dealers they are trying to arrest."

Edmonds conceded that law officers, such as Coleman, sometimes overstep
legal lines, sometimes fabricate or flat-out lie to make cases. But most
law officers stay within legal bounds, he said. I agree.

Law officers perform a tough, often thankless job. I'm grateful for their
presence -- overtly and covertly. I understand how drug-dealers degrade
neighborhoods, how such activity imprisons people in their own homes. I
know what it is to be frightened of walking your own street at night or
having your children play alongside dealers conducting business in local
parks. I've nothing but disdain for people, and particularly black folks,
who hawk poison to our children. As a former resident of central East
Austin, I advocated for greater police presence to remove the black dealers
and thieving junkies who preyed on working families.

But Coleman has changed the landscape. The extent of his fabrications and
tainted history are summarized by District Judge Ron Chapman in an appeals
court document.

"Coleman -- whose testimony in (Tulia defendants') trials and this
proceeding was absolutely riddled with perjury and purposely evasive
answers -- is the most devious, nonresponsive law enforcement witness this
Court has witnessed in 25 years on the bench in Texas."

Coleman targeted African Americans apparently for no other reason than to
feed a shattered ego. As one defense lawyer put it, Coleman used the Tulia
drug sting to go from "zero to hero." He was successful in large part
because it was more plausible for all-white juries to believe the
unsubstantiated word of Coleman and the district attorney, both of whom are
white, over alibis of their neighbors, who were African American. Coleman
has been indicted on felony perjury charges.

SB 515 would help stop a future Coleman. The Legislature shouldn't allow
this opportunity to slip by.