Pubdate: Sat, 23 Aug 2003 Source: Plainview Daily Herald (TX) Contact: 2003 Plainview Daily Herald Website: http://plainviewonthe.net/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/864 Author: Richard Orr FEDERAL LAWSUIT FILED OVER 1999 TULIA DRUG RAID 08-24-2003 A massive, 40-page federal lawsuit has been filed in connection with the infamous 1999 Tulia drug raid that ultimately backfired and ended in pardons last week for most of the suspects. The suit seeks monetary damages for alleged civil rights violations and was filed Friday in U.S. District Court Amarillo by Amarillo attorney Jeff Blackburn on behalf of Tonya White and Zuri Bossett - two of the 46 mostly black suspects arrested on the word of undercover agent and reputed racist Tom Coleman, who has since been indicted for perjury in the case. Defendants include Coleman, District Attorney Terry McEachern, Swisher County Sheriff Larry Stewart and a total of 29 cities and counties in the region, Swisher County among them. A number of law enforcement officers, officials and drug taskforce agencies and their boards of governors are also named as defendants. According to the complaint, plaintiffs White and Bossett were arrested in a July 23, 1999, pre-dawn raid that ended with nearly 10 percent of Tulia's black population charged with selling powder cocaine to Coleman during an 18-month period. "The only evidence linking the arrestees to the alleged drug transactions was the false and perjurious testimony of defendant Coleman - a white police officer whose statements were not corroborated by any credible independent evidence," the suit maintains. It further claims Coleman had a long, well-documented history of "theft, fraud and abuse of power in his law enforcement career, made racist comments" on and off the job, "carried a Ku Klux Klan membership card and regularly used the word 'nigger.' " The suit alleges that despite "knowledge of information that Coleman was dishonest, unreliable and racist, defendants still hired Coleman, placed him in the community without sufficient training or supervision and allowed him to continue with an investigation they knew was targeting African Americans." The indictment against Ms. White was dismissed by McEachern after a timed bank receipt showed she was in Oklahoma City on the day Coleman said she sold him drugs. "Likewise," notes the suit, "Ms. Bossett was not living in Tulia at the time of her alleged drug sale, and the State was never able to produce any reliable evidence of a crime. Thus (McEachern) dismissed the indictment against Ms. Bossett as well. (Defendants) are responsible not only for plaintiffs' arrest . . . but for the entire Tulia operation." According to the complaint, because of Coleman's checkered past in law enforcement, his applications to the Odessa Police Department and the Department of Public Safety were rejected prior to his employment as a drug agent by Swisher County - a background the suit claims "made clear - or certainly should have made clear - that Coleman was not fit to serve as a law enforcement officer, particularly as an uncorroborated undercover officer with little or no supervision." It maintains there were no witnesses to the alleged drug sales; that no audio or visual tapes were made; that Coleman refused to wear a wire and kept notes "solely by writing on his leg;" that no drugs or money were seized in the raid; and that "no forensic evidence was presented linking any of the accused in Tulia to the alleged drug transactions." The suit alleges conspiracy to violate civil rights, due-process violations, malicious prosecution, violations of "the right of the people to be secure in their houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures," and "intentional infliction of emotional distress." It seeks unspecified compensatory damages, punitive damages and attorney fees. McEachern and others have declined comment. A trial date is pending. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom