TULIA - No matter the stance on a controversial drug bust here in 1999, one thing is clear among many residents in this small West Texas town - they're ready for the glare of the national spotlight to be shined elsewhere. The spotlight has shown brightly on this town of 5,000 since a massive drug bust in which an estimated 10 percent of the town's black population was arrested. Last week, retired appeals court justice Ron Chapman from Dallas said he would recommend to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that 38 de fendants in the cases get new trials. [continues 671 words]
TULIA - Thirty-eight people convicted of selling cocaine to an undercover officer in 1999 moved closer toward eventual vindication Tuesday when retired justice Ron Chapman recommended that they all receive new trials. Chapman, a retired appeals court justice, has been presiding over evidentiary hearings in Tulia to determine if four men convicted in the drug cases received fair trials. The hearings were scheduled to resume Tuesday but were halted after Chapman declared that Tom Coleman, the controversial undercover officer who built the cases against the drug defendants, lacked credibility as a witness. [continues 1095 words]
TULIA - Lt. Mike Amos, with a narcotics task force in Amarillo that worked in conjunction with Swisher County officials to oversee a now infamous drug bust in 1999, testified Tuesday that the lone undercover officer in the case had a bad temper, discipline problems and was reprimanded after using a racial slur against blacks. Since the massive drug sting that resulted in the arrests of 46 people, 39 of them black, undercover officer Tom Coleman's credibility has come under attack. [continues 487 words]
TULIA - Sheriff Larry Stewart twice asked a state agency to seal documents relating to the law enforcement background of officer Tom Coleman, who conducted an 18-month undercover drug operation resulting in the arrests of 46 people, 39 of them black, in 1999. Stewart testified during hearings Wednesday in Tulia that he asked that Coleman's file be sealed for the officer's protection. Stewart said he didn't want anyone to use that file to locate Coleman while he was working undercover. [continues 487 words]
TULIA - Tom Coleman, the controversial undercover officer who made drug cases against 46 people here in 1999, testified Friday he wasn't prejudiced and considered it an acceptable greeting to use a derogatory word to describe blacks. When asked if the word was a term of racial prejudice, Coleman said, "It might not be OK." Coleman's former wife said in a sworn statement that Coleman was a card-carrying member of the Ku Klux Klan. She said Coleman was "openly prejudiced" against blacks and Hispanics. [continues 457 words]
TULIA - Tom Coleman testified here Thursday that except for his word, there was no corroborating evidence to support drug buys he made during an 18-month undercover operation which culminated in July 1999. Evidentiary hearings began Monday to determine if four black men arrested during the bust received fair trials. When the undercover operation came to fruition in July 1999, 46 people were arrested, 39 of them black. Last year, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals asked the trial court for clarification on whether the four defendants were convicted solely on the word of Coleman, an undercover officer. [continues 468 words]
Zuri Bossett, the final defendant in a controversial 1999 drug bust in Tulia, could breathe a sigh of relief Tuesday after drug charges against her were formally dismissed. Her attorney called the case another example of deceitful police work by a former undercover agent whose testimony led to charges against 43 people, 37 of whom are black. Of the other six, three are Hispanic and three are white. Bossett, 23, of Amarillo had been accused of selling cocaine to undercover officer Tom Coleman three years ago. [continues 445 words]
TULIA - Drug charges against a black woman from Tulia were dismissed Tuesday after overwhelming evidence shot holes in criminal allegations brought against her by a police undercover agent. Jeff Blackburn, an attorney for Tonya White, said the evidence that proved her innocence also casts doubt on the trustworthiness of Tom Coleman, a white drug agent whose operations in 1998 and 1999 led to the arrests of 43 people, 37 of whom are black. Special FBI agent Tim Reid in Amarillo said Tuesday that he will add White's dismissal to his investigation of the Tulia arrests, which already has been sent to the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., for review. [continues 578 words]
TULIA - Drug charges against a black woman from Tulia were dismissed Tuesday after overwhelming evidence shot holes in criminal allegations brought against her by a police undercover agent. Jeff Blackburn, an attorney for Tonya White, said the evidence that proved her innocence also casts doubt on the trustworthiness of Tom Coleman, a white drug agent whose operations in 1998 and 1999 led to the arrests of 43 people, 37 of whom are black. Special FBI agent Tim Reid in Amarillo said Tuesday that he will add White's dismissal to his investigation of the Tulia arrests, which already has been sent to the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., for review. [continues 579 words]
The father of a Tulia high school student will not support a policy that subjects his son to random drug testing at school. Alan Bean expressed those sentiments during a school board meeting Tuesday. Bean told the board that he feels it's unconstitutional to subject his son and other students to drug testing in order to participate in athletics. Bean's son, Amos, a 15-year-old sophomore, plays football and will refuse the school district if it requests him to submit to a random urinalysis for drug screening, his father said. [continues 304 words]
Rally To Commemorate Drug Bust Anniversary During the six years that Dorothy Gaines, a 43-year-old widow with three children, spent in prison on drug charges she said were trumped-up, her mother died and her children suffered, she said. Her only son, Phillip, sought trouble, trying to go to prison to be with his mother, she said. "It was like a domino game. Everything fell, and I lost everything," Gaines said. "They sentenced my kids when they sentenced me." [continues 361 words]
An undercover narcotics officer whose 1999 drug operation in Tulia resulted in the arrest of about 10 percent of the city's black population has been fired from his job as an undercover agent south of Dallas. Tom Coleman, 41, was fired about three weeks ago from the Southeast Metroplex Narcotics Task Force for engaging in "a relationship that was inappropriate," said Ellis County District Attorney Joe Grubbs. Coleman was working in Waxahachie, about 25 miles south of Dallas. Coleman's work in Tulia inspired a set of bills known as "The Tulia Proposals," one of which was signed Tuesday by Gov. Rick Perry. The bill allows for the release of information pertaining to criminal activity when those actions result in an officer's termination. [continues 398 words]
TULIA - Despite a drug testing policy that has given the school district plenty of attention, Tulia native Ken Miller said he's up for new challenges when he takes over as superintendent. The former drug testing policy, which was mandatory for students in grades seven through 12, was ruled unconstitutional and is in the appeals process. The school district continues to test students, but only those in athletics or who volunteer at the school. The drug testing policy is something Miller said he will support. [continues 280 words]
LOCKNEY -- The school board here met Thursday to discuss a recent ruling by a federal judge who said its drug testing policy is unconstitutional; however, the board made no decision on whether to appeal the decision. After the meeting, which lasted more than two hours and was closed to the public, Supt. Raymond Lusk referred all questions to the district's attorney, Don Henslee of Austin. Henslee said a decision about an appeal may be announced Monday. He would not discuss why the board is waiting to make a decision. [continues 133 words]
LOCKNEY - U.S. District Judge Sam Cummings ruled Thursday in favor of a parent who sued the Lockney Independent School District claiming its mandatory drug-testing policy was unconstitutional. Larry Tannahill refused to allow his son to be tested when the school first began drug screening students and faculty in February 2000. With help from the American Civil Liberties Union, Tannahill sued the school district claiming that its policy violated his son's rights under the Fourth and 14th Amendments, which protect against unreasonable searches and seizures. [continues 549 words]
A lawsuit filed Thursday claims law enforcement officials targeted blacks in a 1999 drug bust in Tulia. At the same time, another suit alleging similar claims was dropped. During the drug bust, 43 people were arrested — 40 of them black. The arrests were based on an 18-month undercover investigation conducted by officer Tom Coleman, who claimed he bought drugs from those arrested. Coleman worked alone and used no surveillance equipment. Billy Wafer, a black man arrested during the bust whose charges later were dismissed, filed the suit Thursday against Coleman, Swisher County Sheriff Larry Stewart and Swisher County. [continues 332 words]
National Attention Could Speed Justice Department Probe TULIA - It could be a year before the U.S. Justice Department concludes its investigation into a controversial 1999 drug bust here that sent dozens of members of the community's black population to prison. The FBI in Amarillo is handling the investigation for the Justice Department and has interviewed nearly all of the 43 people arrested during the bust, an FBI spokesman said Wednesday. Of the 43 people arrested, 40 are black. The FBI spokesman said these types of investigations typically move along slowly, but he expects that this particular case will proceed faster because of national media attention. [continues 204 words]
TULIA - In a pivotal move that may shed some doubt on the credibility of an undercover officer involved in a controversial 1999 drug bust here, the 7th District Court of Appeals in Amarillo dismissed charges this week against a man arrested during the bust. The court's ruling will prevent Billy Wafer, 41, from being tried on charges that he sold drugs to an undercover officer during the 1999 bust. Of the 43 people arrested during the bust, 40 of them were black. [continues 425 words]
It wasn't a traditional wedding. The office was cold and stale. No paper wedding bells dangled from the ceiling. No crepe paper adorned the walls. There was no cake, no bouquet to be thrown and no limousine to carry the newlyweds to their honeymoon destination. The bride, Chandra Vancleave, 21, wore a skirt and nice shirt. The bridegroom, Kareem Abdul Jabbar White, 24, wore his orange uniform issued by the Swisher County Jail. To the couple, it didn't matter much that they recently were married inside a small office at the Swisher County Jail. It mattered only that they were able to get married, just like they had planned before an undercover drug bust sent White to jail for 60 years. [continues 239 words]
LUBBOCK - Both sides of a lawsuit involving drug tests of students in Lockney have asked U.S. District Judge Sam Cummings of Lubbock to rule on the case without a jury. Larry Tannahill, in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union, sued the Lockney Independent School District for implementing a mandatory drug-testing policy in February for students in grades 7-12. Tannahill's son, now a seventh-grader, is the only student who was not allowed by his parents to be tested. [continues 187 words]
