AG'S OFFICE TO SHARE DOCUMENTS FROM TULIA BUSTS

TULIA, Texas (AP) -- Documents and other materials gathered by the Texas
attorney general's office during its investigation of the Tulia drug busts
will be shared with prosecutors who are handling perjury cases against Tom
Coleman, the lone undercover agent in the controversial cases, a news
release from the AG's office said Friday.

A grand jury in Swisher County on Thursday indicted Coleman, 43, on three
counts of aggravated perjury for allegedly lying under oath during
evidentiary hearings last month in Tulia. The statute of limitations for
potential instances of perjury during trials at which Coleman testified has
expired for most of those cases.

Material from the AG's probe includes diagrams and time lines prepared by
investigators, three boxes of documents, court filings and transcripts of
dozens of interviews, including one with Coleman, the release states.

The AG began its investigation in August 2002 and it is not yet completed,
Jane Shepperd, spokeswoman for Attorney General Greg Abbott, said. The U.S.
Department of Justice also has an investigation ongoing.

Earlier this month, a judge appointed to preside at the hearings announced
he was recommending to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that the
convictions of 38 mostly black defendants be thrown out and new trials
ordered. Rod Hobson, a special prosecutor assigned to assist the state, has
said he will dismiss cases if the appeals court orders new trials.

Forty-six people - 39 of them black - were arrested in 1999 after Coleman's
18-month undercover operation during which he worked alone and used no
audio or video surveillance. It was his uncorroborated testimony that led
to convictions at trials. Others who took plea agreements did so because
they saw the lengthy sentences - one as long as 90 years - meted out in the
initial trials.