Pubdate: Fri, 17 Nov 2000
Source: Texas Observer (TX)
Copyright: 2000 The Texas Observer
Section: Political Intelligence
Contact:  307 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701
Website: http://www.texasobserver.org/
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n850/a01.html

HERE COME THE FEDS

The U.S. Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into 
possible civil rights violations by law enforcement authorities in Tulia, 
Texas. This is the latest development in the story, first broken in these 
pages last summer ("Color of Justice," by Nate Blakeslee, June 23), of a 
racially-tainted undercover drug sting, which resulted in the arrest of 
over ten percent of the small Panhandle farming town's black population. 
According to sources in Tulia, federal agents have already interviewed at 
least two of the men on the hot seat: Swisher County Sheriff Larry Stewart, 
who hired the undercover narc and arranged the operation, and District 
Attorney Terry McEachern, who prosecuted the cases, many of which ended in 
enormous jury verdicts for delivery of relatively small amounts of cocaine.

At issue is not only the targeting of the sting-35 of 41 suspects arrested 
were black-but also the quality of the evidence.

The undercover agent, Tom Coleman, has had a less-than-stellar law 
enforcement career, including one assignment as a deputy that ended with a 
West Texas sheriff eventually seeking an indictment against him. Coleman 
did not wear a wire during the sting, nor did the prosecution provide video 
evidence or the testimony of corroborating officers, as is common practice 
in similar operations in most major cities.

At press time, it's unclear whether the G-men have questioned Coleman, but 
he is undoubtedly next on the list.

One silver lining in the dark cloud over Tulia is that a "Tulia package" of 
bills will be filed by the Texas ACLU when the Legislature convenes in 
Austin in January. According to Central Texas ACLU board member Kathy 
Mitchell, the package tentatively will include a provision requiring some 
sort of corroborating evidence that a controlled buy has been made by an 
undercover agent.

This would prevent cases from being made solely on the word of one officer, 
which has in the past led to some disastrous results in cases involving 
dishonest undercover agents.

A second Tulia bill in the works would strengthen the watchdog role of the 
state's licensing agency for peace officers, the Texas Commission on Law 
Enforcement Officer Standards-Education (TCLEOSE). At the time he was hired 
in Tulia, Coleman had a very damaging letter in his TCLEOSE file from a 
previous employer, a sheriff in Cochran County, who warned that Coleman 
should never be employed in law enforcement again. Yet it's unclear how 
accessible that information was to Swisher County authorities, whether they 
had an obligation to review the file, or whether TCLEOSE should have been 
required to ensure that they did. Public access to the contents of an 
officer's file is also restricted, something an ACLU bill may seek to rectify.
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