STATE PROCEEDS WITH TULIA PROBE

HARLINGEN (AP) - The state is moving as quickly as possible in its
investigation of the controversial 1999 Tulia drug bust, Assistant Attorney
General Howard Baldwin said Friday.

Baldwin discussed the arrests in Tulia during the state's first briefing on
the investigation to the House Committee on Judicial Affairs.

"We're going to move through this as quickly as we can, but we're going to
be very thorough and we'll see where the investigation leads," he said
during the briefing, which was held in Harlingen.

Prosecutors and investigators are poring over records of the busts in the
Panhandle town in which 46 people were arrested, 39 of them black.

Attorney General John Cornyn said on Aug. 26 that he was concerned the
federal investigation had gotten "bogged down" and he was initiating a
state review to see if any Texas laws were broken.

Attorney Jeff Blackburn, who leads the local Tulia Legal Defense Project,
told the committee the bust involved "a lot of system failures." He said
the busts violated basic due-process tenets and scared defendants into
accepting exorbitant prison terms.

While only the courts can reopen the cases, Blackburn said he was
encouraged by the state's interest.

"I'm very glad the Legislature is paying attention," he said. "It's still a
little too little and too late, but we'll take what we can get."

He said the project was planning to launch a "major legal offensive during
the next few weeks."

The undercover agent who made the Tulia cases, Tom Coleman, has denied
making arrests based on race, saying a disproportionate number of black
people were arrested because he started the sting in the black part of town.

"Tom Coleman just came in and wrecked a lot of lives," testified Mattie
White, who had three children convicted in the sting.

One of White's children is serving a 60-year sentence; one, a 25-year
sentence; and one was sentenced to 12 years. The charges against a fourth
child, Tanya White, were dropped because she was able to produce evidence
showing she was in Oklahoma City at the time she was accused of selling
drugs in Tulia.

Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, acknowledged the committee has little
power over the cases, and can only oversee or put pressure on the attorney
general's office.

"If the courts don't do anything to turn this around, then we're just
whistling in the wind," she said.

Swisher County Sheriff Larry Stewart and District Attorney Terry McEachern
have denied allegations of racial bias and stand by the arrests and convictions.