Pubdate: Thu, 01 Aug 2002
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2002 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Bob Herbert
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1414/a05.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/tulia.htm (Tulia, Texas)

'LAWMAN OF THE YEAR'

The state agency that monitors standards for law enforcement officers in 
Texas had already been warned about Tom Coleman when he was hired to 
conduct a bizarre one-man undercover drug operation that targeted the black 
population in Tulia, a small town on the Texas panhandle.

Dozens of black people, and a handful of whites who had relationships with 
blacks, were arrested on July 23, 1999, after an 18-month "investigation" 
by Mr. Coleman that at times was as farcical as a Jim Carrey movie.

Mr. Coleman, who is white, was a clownish and inept officer who threw away 
important evidence, made terrible mistakes when identifying suspects, 
routinely used racist language and on at least one occasion discharged his 
weapon accidentally. And yet, on his uncorroborated, unsubstantiated 
testimony, defendant after defendant was convicted of selling drugs, and 
some were sentenced to prison terms of 20 years, 60 years, 90 years and more.

For his exploits in Tulia, Mr. Coleman was given a state "Lawman of the 
Year" award.

But even before the curtain rose on the Tulia farce, the sheriff in another 
jurisdiction, Cochran County, had complained to the Texas Commission on Law 
Enforcement about Mr. Coleman's conduct.

In a letter to the commission dated June 14, 1996, the sheriff, Ken Burke, 
said, "It is my opinion that an officer should uphold the law. Mr. Coleman 
should not be in law enforcement if he is going to do people the way he did 
in this town."

Officials in Tulia said they didn't know about that complaint when they 
hired Mr. Coleman. But in the middle of his Tulia operation, Mr. Coleman 
was hit with misdemeanor charges of theft and abuse of his official 
position in Cochran County, where he had run up thousands of dollars in 
debts before abruptly leaving. Mr. Coleman's boss in Tulia, Swisher County 
Sheriff Larry Stewart, conveniently allowed his undercover cop to put his 
investigation on hold, giving him time to borrow money and resolve the 
Cochran County charges.

Mr. Coleman's investigation in Tulia was incredibly shabby, but it led to 
the arrest of more than 10 percent of the town's black population.

Erick Willard, a lawyer who defended two women accused by Mr. Coleman, said 
he had been stymied in his efforts to get Mr. Coleman's original, 
handwritten accounts of individual arrests. In some cases, said Mr. 
Willard, "The way he would record it was he'd lift up his pants leg and 
he'd write it on his leg."

Notes committed to paper were just as difficult to come by. Mr. Willard 
said that during the discovery process he learned that secretaries had 
supposedly typed some of Mr. Coleman's reports from notes that were then 
"thrown away in a trash Dumpster."

He said he was never able to find out who the secretaries were.

Mr. Coleman liked to brag that he was "deep undercover," and that no one 
knew where he was or what he was doing, "not even the police."

Mr. Willard's clients insisted they were innocent. Both took polygraph 
tests and, in Mr. Willard's words, "passed with flying colors." But lie 
detector tests are not admissible in court and the district attorney's 
office would not dismiss the charges.

Both women pleaded no contest. They were sentenced to time already served, 
fined and released.

Top officials in Tulia acknowledged that drugs were also sold and consumed 
by white and Hispanic residents, but Mr. Coleman focused almost exclusively 
on blacks. In a videotaped interview, parts of which were aired on a local 
television station, Mr. Coleman said he used the term "nigger" both on the 
job and in casual conversations with friends and family. He said he 
believed the word was no longer "as profane" as it once was.

Mr. Coleman eventually packed up and left Tulia, but he soon found himself 
in trouble again - this time in Ellis County. Joe Grubbs, the district 
attorney of Ellis County, whose office had hired Mr. Coleman, told me that, 
among other things, Mr. Coleman had engaged in contact with a woman that 
was "inappropriate." He would not give details.

He said Mr. Coleman had also accidentally discharged his weapon during a 
drug raid, but no one had been injured.

There were other problems, a "multiplicity" of problems. Said Mr. Grubbs: 
"He, in effect, put me in a position where I had to discharge him, and I did."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jo-D