Pubdate: Tue,  3 Oct 2000
Source: Ft. Worth Star-Telegram (TX)
Copyright: 2000 Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas
Contact:  http://www.star-telegram.com/
Forum: http://www.star-telegram.com/comm/forums/
Author: Pam Easton
Bookmark: Tulia clippings http://www.mapinc.org/find?BK=Tulia

AGENT'S PAST QUESTIONED IN TULIA DRUG BUSTS

Details Of Career Emerge In ACLU'S Federal Lawsuit

TULIA -- The undercover agent who helped build 43 drug cases against mainly 
black residents of this small Panhandle town, leading to a federal civil 
rights lawsuit last week, has a questionable past himself.

District Attorney Terry McEachern says racial prejudice played no role in 
the busts, which resulted in 17 guilty pleas and 11 guilty verdicts. But 
the Texas American Civil Liberties Union sued in federal court Friday 
alleging civil rights violations, conspiracy and discrimination "intended 
to accomplish the forbidden aim of cleansing Tulia of its black population."

All but three of those accused of selling drugs to undercover agent Tom 
Coleman are black. Tulia, midway between Lubbock and Amarillo, is a town of 
5,000 with 250 black residents.

Coleman is a Texas Ranger's son who had been a Pecos police officer and 
Cochran County sheriff's deputy but left law enforcement in 1996 under 
questionable circumstances. In late 1997, he came to Tulia and worked as a 
welder before being hired in 1998 as an undercover drug agent for the 
Swisher County Sheriff's Department.

"I told him to go wherever his investigation led him," Swisher County 
Sheriff Larry Stewart testified.

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

Burke said he had to garnishee Coleman's wages for 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, about five months into his undercover assignment. The 
charge was dismissed after he paid $6,950 in restitution.

In addition, Coleman's ex-girlfriend, Carla Bowerman, complained in 
November 1996 to Marion County authorities that Coleman constantly called 
and drove by her home. She didn't pursue charges but wanted the complaint 
on file "in case he ... causes trouble."

At the trial of Kareem White, state District Judge Jack Miller did not 
allow the allegations about Coleman into evidence.

He did permit Burke and a prosecutor from Fort Stockton to testify that 
they knew Coleman to be "untruthful." But Sheriff Stewart and several other 
officers followed, swearing to Coleman's honesty.

Critics suggest that Stewart led 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 an affidavit. He "said that this was how all of these 
people had come to be indicted."

White's trial was a "judicial lynching," Texas ACLU executive director Will 
Harrell said. "I haven't ever seen such a clear case of prosecutorial and 
police misconduct."

But McEachern remains satisfied with Coleman's role in the drug busts.

"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.

Several defendants accepted plea bargains after the first few trials 
resulted in prison terms of up to 99 years.

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."
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