Pubdate: Sat, 07 Sep 2002
Source: Amarillo Globe-News (TX)
Copyright: 2002 Amarillo Globe-News
Contact:  http://amarillonet.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/13

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.
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