Pubdate: Sun,  8 Oct 2000
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Address: Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053
Contact:  2000 Los Angeles Times
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Author: Hector Tobar

DRUG BUST TEARS A RIFT IN A SMALL TEXAS CITY

TULIA -- The officers and deputies came in the morning. They arrested
pig farmers and warehouse workers, single mothers and lithe young men
who once were heroes for the town's pride and joy -- its high school
football team. Forty-three people in all.

The biggest drug raid in Swisher County's history was also the darkest
day in memory for Tulia's small, tight-knit African American
community. In a matter of hours that day in 1999, one of every six
black residents had been indicted on charges of selling cocaine.

At first, hardly anyone raised a voice in protest. The local paper
celebrated the roundup of the ``scumbags.'' Those few with doubts kept
quiet, except for one man -- a self-described ``hick farmer'' and
gadfly named Gary Gardner.

Thanks in part to his efforts, Tulia now stands divided by a
controversy that has thrust this Panhandle town of 5,000 into the
national debate about drugs, race and the criminal justice system.

Sentiment here began to turn following a series of revelations about
the white undercover agent who had set up the sting, a journeyman
deputy with a tainted past whose word was the only evidence against
most of the defendants.

That information led the American Civil Liberties Union last week to
file a federal civil-rights lawsuit against the county, charging the
arrests were racially motivated.

``I just worked the facts, and the facts show that a lot of these
people aren't guilty,'' Gardner said. ``It's like a 500-piece jigsaw
puzzle you dump on the floor, and years later it begins to make sense.''

In the past year, Tulia's one-bench courthouse has been the site of 11
drug trials, each one ending with a conviction, most without a single
black juror.

Many of those convicted have received Texas-size sentences for selling
relatively small amounts of cocaine -- crimes big-city prosecutors and
judges likely would punish with a few years probation.

The most recent trial ended last month with the conviction of Kareem
Abdul Jabbar White, who got 60 years for selling one-eighth of an
ounce of cocaine -- which has a street value of about $150.

The district attorney and sheriff have defended both the drug raid and
the aggressive prosecution. ``We're not a lynching county,'' said
Swisher County District Attorney Terry McEachern. ``This is a
community that's tough on drugs.''

So many people were arrested and put on trial that the county had to
raise its property tax 5 percent to pay for it all.

No one denies that Tulia has a drug problem. Rural communities have
the nation's fastest-growing rate of cocaine and heroin use. But to
some here it seems that, at best, the local authorities rounded up a
bunch of small-time users -- many had previous arrests in petty
offenses -- and treated them as if they were million-dollar drug kingpins.

``These are the young people we're supposed to be trying to help,''
said Charles Kiker, a retired Baptist preacher and one of a small but
growing circle of citizens who have denounced the raid as
government-sponsored ``ethnic cleansing.''

``It's not the drugs they're after,'' said Mattie White, a guard at a
nearby state prison who had three adult children arrested in the raid,
including Kareem White. ``They don't want these kids in this town.''

Most are upset over reports that the county's first-ever undercover
narcotics officer himself had been arrested halfway through the sting
on a theft warrant. Tom Coleman had run afoul of authorities in nearby
Cochran County, where he had worked as a deputy. The sheriff there
accused him of stealing gasoline from the county. Coleman also owed
more than $6,900 in unpaid debts to local merchants.

His boss in Swisher County, Sheriff Larry Stewart, had Coleman
fingerprinted and then released him on bond. A few weeks later,
Coleman cleared his debts and paid restitution. He denied stealing the
gas. The matter was quietly dropped.

William Harrell, executive director of the Texas ACLU, calls the Tulia
case ``the most blatant example of police and prosecutorial misconduct
I've seen in my entire career.'' Harrell has petitioned federal
authorities to launch a criminal investigation.

In response to such charges and a flood of critical publicity, local
residents are organizing a rally Monday to thank the sheriff ``for
making Swisher County a safer place to live.''

Stewart said he is ``worn out'' by months of questions.

``There was never any attempt to target a specific group,'' he said.
``We wanted to attack the drug problem. These are the ones that got
caught.''
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