State Group's Report Says Task Forces Target Minorities Regional narcotics task forces like the one that led to the ill-fated roundup in Tulia five years ago should be disbanded and their funding used to enhance other aspects of law enforcement, according to a new report. The 18-page "Flawed Enforcement" study by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas also charges that the task forces ignore the stated mandate of the federal agency that funds them of focusing on "violent crime and serious offenders." [continues 555 words]
This is not the first instance of alleged abuses of task force money. In June 1998 then-Governor George W. Bush's office stopped funding for the Permian Basin Drug Task Force amid allegations of falsified meal tickets, doctored quarterly reports on confiscations and other irregularities. The task force was abolished that summer. "Some of them are run well. Some are not run well. It's very political," says former task force officer Barbara Markham. "And it's definitely not money well spent." [continues 2283 words]
Millions in federal tax dollars are being spent by narcotics task forces in Texas to nab low-level users and dealers. Is this any way to wage a drug war? Just over a year ago, the small Texas Panhandle town of Tulia made national headlines when police rounded up more than 10 percent of the city's African-Americans and jailed them on drug charges. All of the arrests and charges were based on the uncorroborated word of one officer: Deputy Tom Coleman of the Swisher County sheriff's office. [continues 5112 words]
Narcotics task forces in Texas spend millions of dollars each year busting low-level users and dealers. Is it money well spent, or are officers just addicted to easy cash? Just over a year ago, the small Texas Panhandle town of Tulia, located in Swisher County, made national headlines when police rounded up more than 10 percent of the city's African-Americans and jailed them on drug charges. All of the arrests and charges were based on the uncorroborated word of one officer: Deputy Tom Coleman of the Swisher County sheriff's office. Coleman was a lawman with a checkered past. He had been charged with theft in Cochran County before signing on with Swisher County, where he was working as an undercover narcotics officer. He was also known as a "gypsy cop," a sort of hired gun who bounced from one law enforcement agency to the next -- usually one of the dozens of federally funded regional antidrug task forces that have sprung up around the state since they began forming in the late 1980s. At the time of the Tulia busts, Coleman, through his employment with the sheriff's office, was once again working for a regional antidrug outfit, the Panhandle Regional Narcotics Task Force. First chronicled in the Texas Observer, the arrests soon were reported by newspapers and television and radio stations around the state as well as by the likes of The New York Times and The Washington Post. But the events that occurred last summer in Tulia did not happen in a vacuum. Nor was the targeting of minorities and the poor a tactic employed by only the Panhandle task force. [continues 7352 words]
Ben Guillory helped the DEA bust some east Houston dope dealers. But he says the agency's cavalier approach has left him a marked man in his old neighborhood. Ben Guillory is a nervous wreck. Sitting in a purple chair around the blond wood conference table at the Houston Press offices, Guillory fears for his life. He is a desperate man who sees the paper as his last hope. It's early February, and Guillory has just come from the law office of Dick DeGuerin. The high-profile criminal defense attorney told Guillory there was nothing he can do for him except advise him to hide in plain sight -- convince some journalist to write a story about his situation. [continues 3668 words]
A Plan To Bring Drug Courts Here Has Real Teeth For several years, state Representative Senfronia Thompson tried to persuade Harris County officials to create special drug courts to oversee intensive supervision of those convicted of using illicit substances or abusing alcohol. Each time she tried, the Houston legislator's efforts were rebuffed. Now, as a bill authored by the longtime Democrat sails through the legislature, Thompson finally has the county's attention by threatening a hefty portion of its law enforcement funding. [continues 1048 words]
For several years, state Representative Senfronia Thompson tried to persuade Harris County officials to create special drug courts to oversee intensive supervision of those convicted of using illicit substances or abusing alcohol. Each time she tried, the Houston legislator's efforts were rebuffed. Now, as a bill authored by the longtime Democrat sails through the legislature, Thompson finally has the county's attention by threatening a hefty portion of its law enforcement funding. Last month the Texas House of Representatives passed Thompson's House Bill 1287, which would force Harris, Bexar, El Paso, Hidalgo and Tarrant counties to create the special drug courts. The measure is now in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee. [continues 1009 words]
Once burdened by debt and internal politics, a rejuvenated Texas ACLU is back mixing it up with those who dare to trample on the U. S. Constitution. On a bitterly cold night in December, comedian Paula Poundstone takes the stage at La Zona Rosa, seven blocks south of the Texas Governor's Mansion in Austin where George W. Bush waits -- like most everyone else in the country -- for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether he will be the next president of the United States. [continues 4232 words]
His body was riddled with police bullets. The case against the cops also may be riddled with holes. The year 2000 was another very good one for the already successful civil litigation firm of Richard Mithoff and Tommy Jacks. In April a Houston jury ordered Columbia Kingwood Hospital to pay more than $40 million to a Mithoff client in a medical malpractice suit. And just last month 54-year-old Mithoff and his wife, Ginni, were honored with the Ben Taub Humanitarian Award for their financial contributions to health care in Harris County. [continues 1184 words]
The police killings of Pedro Oregon, Ida Lee Delaney and Bryon Gillum By Steve McVicker The man in the sport coat didn't look like a revolutionary, but he sounded like one. Standing in the hallway of the Harris County Courthouse, Aaron Ruby was fuming for the press corps gathered to cover the latest chapter in the police killing of Pedro Oregon. In court, a police informant had just explained that Oregon's brother was a drug dealer. That, Ruby declared, was "clearly a fabrication by the prosecution in order to cover up the fact that [the police] murdered a young man, shooting him twelve times from behind, after illegally breaking into his apartment." [continues 2937 words]
In the latest chapter of Snitch Vs. Snitch, two of the city's top defense lawyers are prevented from representing a client By Steve McVicker One of the hallowed precepts of the American justice system is that a defendant is entitled to the counsel of his choice or at least the best counsel that he can afford. For Dan De La Garza, a Woodlands [Texas] businessman facing federal moneylaundering charges, that was Kent Schaffer and Dan Cogdell, two of Houston's premier criminaldefense attorneys. [continues 1746 words]
Feature Story Snitch vs. Snitch In the drug world, you can't trust anybody especially a federal informant Jorge Arroyo's head appeared to be on a swivel. From his vantage point in the burgundy leatherette booth, he constantly monitored the other patrons of Houston's: Was anyone in the Kirby Drive restaurant watching him? He'd spent much of the past two decades as a paid informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. In the snitching business, you watch your back. [continues 4292 words]
