Pubdate: Wed,  4 Oct 2000
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2000 The Dallas Morning News
Contact:  P.O. Box 655237, Dallas, Texas 75265
Fax: (972) 263-0456
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W. TEXANS, NAACP RALLY AGAINST DRUG BUST

40 black Tulia residents jailed in '99 incident

AMARILLO (AP) Tulia residents and the NAACP held a rally Tuesday evening to
protest a 1999 drug bust that sent 40 black residents of the small farming
community to jail.

The rally was held in the wake of last week's federal lawsuit filed by the
American Civil Liberties Union, which alleged that civil-rights violations,
conspiracy and discrimination were "part of a deliberate plan ... (of)
removing (blacks) from the area using the legal system."

In all, 43 were arrested in the drug bust. According to the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 40 were black and three
had close ties to the town's tight-knit black community of fewer than 250.

"Sixteen percent of the black population was arrested in one operation,"
said the Rev. Charles Kiker, a white retired minister living in Tulia, which
is located about halfway between Lubbock and Amarillo.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Yul Bryant, who had a charge of
delivering cocaine dismissed when undercover officer Tom Coleman told
District Attorney Terry McEachern that he wasn't 100 percent sure he had
purchased cocaine from Mr. Bryant.

Mr. Bryant spent seven months in jail. His lawsuit names Mr. Coleman, Mr.
McEachern, Sheriff Larry Stewart and Swisher County as defendants.

Billy Wafer, who was among those charged, said he had never met Officer
Coleman until the night he was arrested.

Mr. Wafer said theft and abuse of power charges filed against the undercover
officer in May 1998 gave Officer Coleman a motive to arrest people who
weren't selling cocaine, which carries a stiffer punishment than the sale of
crack.

Defense attorneys for those who sought jury trials contend the trials were
one-sided and that Officer Coleman perjured himself.

Instead of crack, "it was powder cocaine sold in little old Tulia, Texas. To
deal cocaine it takes capital, and after going to Tulia, I can tell you, it
ain't there," said Ernest Barringer, vice president of the NAACP chapter in
Amarillo.
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