SETTLEMENT RELEASED IN WAFER CIVIL RIGHTS SUIT

Terms of the settlement in a civil rights lawsuit filed by one of 46 people
arrested in a controversial 1999 drug sting in Tulia were released
Thursday. Attorneys for plaintiff Billy Wafer and defendants Tom Coleman,
Swisher County Sheriff Larry Stewart and Swisher County reached a
settlement in Wafer's lawsuit and the case was dismissed from U.S. District
Court, according to court records.

Wafer will receive $5,000 cash in hand plus $25,000 for attorneys' fees in
the settlement, records show.

The settlement is in no way an admission of liability, fault or wrongdoing
on the part of any defendant, according to the settlement.

Wafer was one of 46 people -- 39 of whom were black -- indicted in 1999
after a 1-year investigation by Coleman, an undercover agent.

The arrests and subsequent trials generated a firestorm of controversy that
pushed Tulia into the national spotlight as a battleground in the fight
over the country's drug policy.

Wafer was charged with delivery of a controlled substance in the sting. The
charges against Wafer were tossed out later by the 7th Court of Appeals.

Wafer filed the lawsuit in February, alleging that his civil rights were
violated by Swisher County, Stewart and Coleman.