BIG TROUBLE IN TULIA

A surreal court case in the Texas Panhandle that came to a head in
June with the release from jail of 12 men throws light on the
continuing problems with race relations in America.

The men were arrested in a drug sweep in Tulia (pop. 5,000) in July
1999 that netted 46 people, 40 of them black; 22 people went to prison.

What is astonishing about this story is that they were all arrested
and convicted on the uncorroborated evidence of one white undercover
narcotics officer, Thomas Coleman, who has a criminal history that
includes bad debts, a restraining order from a former wife, failure to
pay child support and illegal ownership of a machine gun.

Such has been the controversy about the case that Texas Gov. Rick
Perry signed a bill permitting the release on bail of the remaining
defendants. They have not yet been exonerated, but a state District
Court judge has recommended that all the cases be thrown out.

In his order, Governor Perry noted: "A recent review by the trial
court concluded that the key witness, an undercover agent, was not
credible."

Indeed. Only a year before the arrests, Mr. Coleman's own sheriff had
had to arrest him on charges filed by the sheriff of another county
for stealing gasoline. Mr. Coleman settled the charges by repaying
$7,000.

It gets better. Some of Mr. Coleman's original cases in the Tulia
sweep fell apart because they had been so clearly fabricated. One
woman was out of state at the time that Mr. Coleman testified he had
bought drugs from her; another defendant proved he had been at work,
and another case fell apart when the man Mr. Coleman had described as
a tall man with bushy hair appeared in court as a short, balding man.

But despite all common sense, the black community of a dusty farm
village was treated as though it was a hotbed of drug dealing. And
following the arrests, the state named Mr. Coleman Lawman of the Year!

Now, four years later, the court has been hearing testimony about Mr.
Coleman's dubious past, including charges that he was always
untrustworthy and possibly racist. And even Mr. Coleman has sounded
evasive on the witness stand, often at a loss to explain discrepancies
in his own reports.

How was this allowed to happen? And why has it taken so long to
resolve? One can only assume that deep-seated, perhaps unspoken racial
prejudice prevented anyone in Tulia's establishment from raising
serious doubts in the first place. (Not everyone in the town agrees
that there may have been some injustice perpetrated; one woman was
quoted recently as saying that her neighborhood is a lot quieter now.)

Previous relations between the town's 400 or so African-American
residents and the rest of the community were described by one black
resident as "a calm kind of segregation."

No longer. And the more we hear of Mr. Coleman and his fantastic
undercover methods, the more it seems that many of those residents are
owed a big apology, and possibly very substantial damages.