ACLU SUES OVER TEXAS DRUG ARRESTS

AUSTIN, Texas -- The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit
Friday alleging that an East Texas drug sweep in which 28 blacks were
arrested was racially motivated.

The 28 were arrested in Hearne in November 2000 on felony charges of
possessing or distributing crack cocaine. Eleven pleaded guilty and
prosecutors later dropped charges against the 17 others.

The lawsuit seeks compensation and an end to what it calls a pattern of
exclusively raiding the town's black community, even though other
neighborhoods have drug problems.

In the drug bust, one woman was accused of buying drugs at a time she was
in the hospital giving birth. Others had time cards and witnesses to show
they were at work at the time they were accused of committing crimes.

"Our clients have experienced a gross miscarriage of justice," said Graham
Boyd, Director of the ACLU's Drug Policy Litigation Project and lead
attorney in the case. Named in the lawsuit are Roberston County and the
city of Hearne, county District Attorney John Paschall, Sheriff Gerald
Yezak, Police Chief Michaell Fisher and members of the South Central Texas
Regional Narcotics Task Force. Paschall denied race had been a factor.

"I don't see how race is involved other than the defendants were black and
the informant our task force used was black," Paschall said. "Are they
saying we should not arrest black drug dealers?"

The arrests were based on the word of informant Derrick Megress, who was
facing burglary charges. Charges against 17 defendants were dropped after
Megress failed a polygraph test.

The lawsuit accuses authorities of coercing Megress into fabricating
evidence and giving false testimony by threatening him with a long prison
sentence.

The ACLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of 12 people whose charges were
dismissed, two who pleaded guilty and one man who was detained but never
charged.