Pubdate: Sat,  2 Nov 2002
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2002 Houston Chronicle Publishing Company Division, Hearst Newspaper
Contact:  http://www.chron.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/198
Author: James Kimberly

ACLU FILES FEDERAL SUIT OVER HEARNE DRUG BUST

In a federal lawsuit filed Friday in Austin, the American Civil Liberties 
Union accused Robertson County authorities of violating the civil rights of 
28 people from Hearne arrested in a drug sting.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court and accuses Robertson County 
District Attorney John Paschall and members of the South Central Texas 
Narcotics Task Force of targeting people for drug investigations based on 
their race. The lawsuit also alleges authorities charged innocent people 
with drug offenses and locked them up.

Paschall and Joe Davis, drug task force commander, denied the accusations.

"We don't target any race or any specific drug," Davis said.

The lawsuit accuses the county and the task force of a pattern of 
discriminatory practices. It cites the Hearne drug busts as an example of 
the behavior.

In November 2000, 28 people from Hearne were arrested on charges of 
possessing or distributing crack cocaine. The arrests followed a six-month 
undercover investigation involving a confidential informant.

Eleven of the defendants pleaded guilty. Ten received probation, and one 
went to prison. Charges against the remaining 17 defendants were dropped 
after Robertson County authorities discovered the confidential informant 
had stolen some of the drugs and money.

Graham Boyd, director of the ACLU Drug Litigation Policy Project, said the 
Hearne arrests should never have happened.

"If you just scratch the surface at all, any reasonable person would have 
some serious doubts about believing the word of . . . the informant in this 
case. And yet . . . they were willing to arrest people and take away their 
freedom based on just the word of one person," Boyd said.

Hearne is a community of 5,000 people just north of College Station.
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