Pubdate: Sat, 23 Aug 2003
Source: Ft. Worth Star-Telegram (TX)
Copyright: 2003 Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas
Contact:  http://www.star-telegram.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/162
Author: Adam Liptak, The New York Times
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/tulia.htm (Tulia, Texas)

PERRY PARDONS 35 DEFENDANTS IN TULIA BUSTS

Gov. Rick Perry pardoned 35 people on Friday who were arrested in Tulia in 
1999 on the word of a white undercover agent who has since been indicted on 
perjury charges.

Thirty-one of those pardoned are black.

"Questions surrounding testimony from the key witness in these cases 
weighed heavily on my final decision," Perry said, referring to the agent, 
Tom Coleman. The arrests in Tulia, the Swisher County seat of 5,000 
residents between Amarillo and Lubbock, attracted national attention, in 
part because the Swisher County sheriff invited the media to photograph 
disheveled suspects being rounded up early on the morning of July 23, 1999. 
Of the 46 people initially charged, 40 are black. They were accused of 
dealing cocaine in the small Panhandle farming community. Drug trafficking 
is often lucrative, but none of the suspects appeared to be living beyond 
his or her means. Eventually, 38 people went to prison, meaning that one of 
every 11 African-Americans in Tulia was behind bars based on one man's 
uncorroborated word. Freddie Brookins Jr., 26, served 3 1/2 years of a 
20-year sentence.

He has been free since June, when Perry signed legislation allowing 14 
people who were still in prison to be released on bail while he and the 
courts considered their cases. "It really takes a lot off your mind," 
Brookins said of the pardon. But bitterness mixed in with his relief. "What 
hurt the most was that the people in the courtroom and on the jury knew me 
and knew I hadn't done it," he said. "All of it had to do with race. It's a 
stupid way to try to get people out of town." Jeff Blackburn, an Amarillo 
lawyer who represents many of those pardoned Friday, said indiscriminate 
spending in the so-called "war on drugs" was the reason for the false arrests.

He was especially critical of the Texas Panhandle Regional Narcotics 
Trafficking Task Force, a federally financed consortium of 26 Texas 
counties, based in Amarillo. "The government agency that caused the Tulia 
fiasco was the task force," he said. "They were the group that hired 
Coleman. They were that group that allegedly supervised Coleman. We believe 
it was this group that encouraged him to make the largest number of cases 
using whatever methods he chose.

The more productive he appeared to be, the more funding money they could 
get." Task force officials did not respond to messages seeking comments. At 
a Tulia hearing in March, Coleman and other witnesses testified about his 
troubled law enforcement career, unorthodox methods, pervasive errors, 
combustible temperament and apparent racism.

Coleman blithely conceded that he made routine use of an offensive racial 
epithet. Coleman also testified that although most of the drug transactions 
that he swore to took place in public places, he did not wear a recording 
device, arrange for video surveillance, ask anyone to accompany him, ask 
anyone to observe the deals or fingerprint the plastic bags containing the 
drugs. He worked alone and did not tape record his drug buys. Instead, he 
said, he would jot down information on his leg. No drugs, weapons or large 
sums of cash were found during the arrests. Among the people arrested but 
not pardoned on Friday were seven whose cases had been dismissed before 
trial; two who were on probation at the time of their arrests and so 
ineligible for pardons; one whose conviction is not final; and one who has 
died. Coleman pleaded not guilty to perjury charges in April. His phone is 
disconnected, and his lawyer did not return a call seeking comment. The 
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is considering a recommendation from the 
judge who supervised the March hearing that all of the Tulia convictions be 
overturned. It is not clear what effect the pardons will have on those 
proceedings. The pardons will, however, open the way for civil lawsuits by 
those charged in the cases. "We're planning on exhausting every single 
remedy available to our clients," said Vanita Gupta, a lawyer with the 
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which represents many of the 
Tulia defendants. The first civil suit arising from the Tulia arrests was, 
apparently coincidentally, filed on Friday in federal court in Amarillo. It 
was brought by two women against whom charges were brought and then dropped 
before trial, as Coleman's evidence started to unravel. The suit says that 
the people and agencies responsible for Coleman's supervision violated the 
plaintiffs' civil rights by sending him into the field and trusting his 
information when there was plenty of evidence that he was unreliable. The 
suit seeks unspecified damages and a court order prohibiting more drug 
stings targeting African-Americans in Tulia. One of the plaintiffs, Tonya 
White, was lucky.

She had, according to court records, an unbeatable alibi.

On the day that Coleman said she sold him cocaine in Tulia, she was more 
than 300 miles away, in Oklahoma City. She had visited an Oklahoma City 
bank at almost the precise time of the supposed drug deal, and she had a 
time-stamped check to prove it. The task force's background check on 
Coleman in 1997 revealed, the suit says, that his boss in a previous law 
enforcement job said Coleman had disciplinary and "possible mental 
problems;" and that one of his references said he "needed constant 
supervision, had a bad temper and would tend to run to his mother for 
help." The suit adds that a more diligent check would have revealed Coleman 
had stolen gas and run up bad debts in another law enforcement job before 
leaving town abruptly in the middle of a shift.

His boss there had told the Texas agency that licenses peace officers that 
Coleman "should not be in law enforcement." Eight months into the 
undercover investigation, Coleman's supervisors received a warrant calling 
for his arrest for stealing gasoline.

They arrested him, let him out on bail and allowed him to make restitution 
for the gas and other debts of $7,000. The undercover investigation then 
continued. Many of the Tulia defendants have agreed to a settlement of 
$250,000 in exchange for an agreement not to sue local officials.

But they remain free to sue the task force and are expected to do so. White 
and the other plaintiff in the suit filed Friday, Zuri Bossett, were not 
part of that deal, and they have sued several officials including Coleman 
and the Swisher County district attorney and sheriff. The district 
attorney, Terry McEachern, said Friday that he had not seen the suit. "I 
don't think there is any merit to it whatsoever," he said. Kizzie White, 
who served four years of a 25-year sentence before being released in June, 
described her reaction to being pardoned. "Today is just a wonderful day," 
she said. "It's wonderful to be free. I just feel like screaming my guts 
out." She expressed hope for Tulia's future. "I'm just glad that justice 
was done," she said, "and I pray that everyone can come together and put 
this behind us."
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