Pubdate: Sat, 30 Sep 2000
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 2000 Associated Press
Author: Pam Easton
Cited: ACLU http://www.aclu.org/
Related: Tulia clippings http://www.mapinc.org/find?BK=Tulia

WEST TEXAS DRUG BUST RAISES QUESTIONS OF RACIAL PREJUDICE,OFFICER'S CREDIBILITY

TULIA, Texas (AP) - Kareem Abdul Jabbar White sat across a courtroom table 
from the Swisher County district attorney, hoping he'd be found innocent of 
drug charges, but knowing the odds were against him.

Ten people tried in the past 10 months, including his older brother and 
younger sister, had been convicted of delivering cocaine to the same 
undercover officer.

That officer, Tom Coleman, spent a year and a half building drug cases 
against 43 people in this West Texas farming community, which boasts of the 
"richest land and the finest people."

What raised eyebrows is that 40 of those Coleman alleged sold him drugs are 
black. Convictions that followed have rested largely on Coleman's 
testimony. His own questionable past was barred from the trials.

District Attorney Terry McEachern says racial prejudice played no role in 
the busts, noting that two whites and one Hispanic were arrested. And Tulia 
residents are pleased with the subsequent 17 guilty pleas and 11 guilty 
verdicts, he said.

"I don't think there are a lot of people who disagree with the sentences," 
he said.

The American Civil Liberties Union did find fault, filing a lawsuit Friday 
in Amarillo, alleging civil rights violations, conspiracy and 
discrimination "intended to accomplish the forbidden aim of cleansing Tulia 
of its black population."

Texas ACLU executive director Will Harrell called what he saw during 
White's trial a "judicial lynching."

"I haven't ever seen such a clear case of prosecutorial and police 
misconduct," he said. "If it is the last thing I do, I will see justice 
done in this case. Mr. McEachern and Tom Coleman will pay retribution for 
the things that they have done to the lives of the African-Americans in 
Tulia, Texas."

Coleman, who is working undercover in another Texas city, declined to be 
interviewed by The Associated Press.

Coleman came to the West Texas town midway between Lubbock and Amarillo in 
late 1997. Tulia has just under 5,000 residents, about 250 of them black.

A Texas Ranger's son, Coleman had been a Pecos police officer and Cochran 
County sheriff's deputy, but left the profession in 1996.

After working as a welder in Midland, Coleman was hired as an undercover 
agent for the Tulia Police Department through the Panhandle Regional Drug 
Task Force.

"His assignment was to come into the community as an undercover agent and 
locate sources of narcotics, make buys and make cases," Sheriff Larry 
Stewart testified. "I told him to go wherever his investigation led him."

Critics have suggested that Stewart guided Coleman to target specific 
residents.

"Sheriff Stewart told me that he had a list of black people in town he 
wanted investigated," Mattie White, a prison guard who is Kareem White's 
mother, said in a sworn affidavit. "(He) said that this was how all of 
these people had come to be indicted."

Under questioning from Kareem White's attorney, Dwight McDonald, Stewart 
was asked if he remembered telling Mattie White that more black residents 
were arrested because "black people do drugs in the streets and the parks 
and white people do them in their home."

"That is something that might have been said," Stewart answered.

A slender, white man with long, scraggly hair, Coleman first had to get 
himself known in Tulia's tightly knit black community. He got started in 
January 1998 by befriending Eliga Kelly, a 61-year-old who is known around 
town as "Man."

"He bought me beer a few times," Kelly testified. "I introduced him to a 
few people. ... He asked me about cocaine."

On July 23, 1999, the drug task force swept through town, pulling suspects 
from their beds. Still in their nightclothes, the suspects were paraded 
across the courthouse lawn in front of television cameras on the way to jail.

Billy Wafer swears he had never spoken to Coleman before his arrest.

"I can't say all 43 people were innocent," said Wafer, 42. "I imagine there 
were some in there who were dealing drugs, but there were a lot who weren't."

For his part, Coleman took great pride in the bust, for which the Texas 
Narcotic Control Program later named him ``Outstanding Lawman of the Year."

"I walked in there with 'police' written across my vest and pulled off my 
mask and they just stared at me with their mouths open," he told the 
Amarillo Globe-News. "A lot of them just kept saying, 'I can't believe 
you're a cop. No way you're a cop.' It was just perfect."

Not everyone thought Coleman should be a cop.

In a 1996 letter to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer 
Standards and Education, Cochran County Sheriff Ken Burke reported that 
Coleman quit without notice in the middle of a shift, leaving behind debts 
and a patrol car parked in his driveway.

Burke also noted that he was forced to garnish Coleman's wages because he 
owed back child support.

"It is in my opinion that an officer should uphold the law," Burke wrote. 
"Mr. Coleman should not be in law enforcement, if he is going to do people 
the way he did this town."

Cochran County authorities filed charges of theft and abuse of power 
against Coleman in May 1998, about five months into his undercover 
assignment. The charge was dismissed three months later, after he paid 
$6,950 in retribution to Cochran County.

Coleman's ex-girlfriend, Carla Bowerman, also complained about the man who 
followed her from Iraan, Texas, to Petoka, Ill.

In November 1996, Bowerman reported to the Marion County Sheriff's 
Department that Coleman was calling and driving by her home constantly. She 
wasn't pursuing charges, she said, but wanted the complaint on file "in 
case he ... causes trouble."

Miller refused to allow the allegations about Coleman into evidence. He did 
permit Burke and Ori White, the district attorney in Fort Stockton, to 
testify at White's trial that they knew Coleman to be "untruthful."

A number of Texas Rangers, Sheriff Stewart and drug task force members 
followed, swearing to Coleman's honesty.

Defense attorneys howled.

"Mr. Coleman has made numerous inconsistent statements through these 
trials, and that's to put it politely," said Van Williamson, attorney for 
defendant William Cash Love. "And there's no credible witness to back any 
of what he has to say."

Under questioning, Coleman said he would buy drugs from a suspect, drive 45 
minutes to the Amarillo Police Department, weigh the drugs and spend 45 
minutes writing his report. He never bought drugs from two suspects in a 
row, he testified.

Coleman said he conducted his investigation with no backup and no recording 
devices because Tulia was too small and dangerous to take chances with 
electronics.

"Working undercover, I have to be real careful," Coleman testified. "Things 
can get real rough."

District Attorney McEachern remains satisfied with Coleman's role in making 
the cases.

"If I didn't have complete confidence that the law had not been broken and 
that he was not telling the truth, then I would be the first one to dismiss 
all of these cases," McEachern said. "There is always something in 
somebody's life that a person is not going to be proud of."

After the first few trials resulted in prison terms of up to 99 years, a 
number of plea bargains followed.

Attorney Erick Willard said he advised two clients to accept a deal 
"because they did not believe and I did not believe they could get a fair 
hearing ... and that is a sad statement."

McDonald, however, took his client's case to a jury. He pointed out that 
Coleman said he bought drugs from one man 55 minutes before buying from 
White - which would be impossible with a drive to Amarillo in between.

"Any way you look at this case, it boils down to ... do you believe Tom 
Coleman or not?" McDonald asked jurors.

Brian Gore, who helped find White guilty, said Coleman's testimony was 
credible.

"I'm going to go into law enforcement," he said, "and it's usually if (the 
officer) said he sold it, he sold it."

AP-WS-09-30-00 0147EDT
- ---
MAP posted-by: Thunder