TEXAS GOVERNOR PARDONS 35 IN TULIA DRUG CASE

Panhandle Defendants Cleared Four Years After Wrongful Arrests By David Pasztor

Thirty-five people convicted in the now-discredited 1999 Tulia drug sting
were pardoned by Gov. Rick Perry on Friday, even as lawyers for those
wrongfully charged in the cases launched a major legal assault against the
police departments and government officials involved in their arrests.

Accepting a unanimous recommendation from the Texas Board of Pardons and
Paroles, Perry said pardons for the 35 Tulia defendants were "appropriate
and just."

Perry also wiped clean the records of 25 others in unrelated cases,
including former Texas A&M University Regent Ross Margraves, who was
convicted of official misconduct in 1993 for using taxpayer money to fly to
his son's college graduation in Louisiana.

The Tulia pardons close one chapter in a tumultuous saga that has drawn a
harsh international spotlight to the Texas criminal justice system.

Almost 50 residents of the Panhandle town of about 5,000 were arrested in
early morning raids on July 23, 1999. Most were black and poor. They were
charged with drug violations based solely on the word of undercover law
officer Tom Coleman, a Swisher County deputy sheriff working for a regional
narcotics task force.

Charges were dropped against some of those arrested, but the 35 pardoned by
Perry were either convicted at trials or pleaded guilty in the face of
vigorous prosecutions.

Legal proceedings since then have concluded that much of Coleman's
testimony could not be substantiated.

Coleman now faces perjury charges, accused of lying during special legal
proceedings to review the cases. Swisher County District Attorney Terry
McEachern, who prosecuted the cases, is being investigated by the State Bar
of Texas for possible misconduct.

Most of the Tulia defendants who had been jailed were freed on bail earlier
this year after the Legislature passed a law specifically to allow their
release.

The Court of Criminal Appeals was considering whether to throw out the
convictions on the recommendation of a special judge appointed to review
the case. The pardons end the criminal cases and make further court action
unnecessary, defense lawyer Jeff Blackburn said.

Lawyers for those arrested hailed the pardons but said they remain intent
on peeling away the layers of the law enforcement system that conducted and
condoned the Tulia raids.

"(The pardons) are great, but for us this is not the end of the war that we
are going to keep fighting," said Blackburn, an Amarillo lawyer who has
spearheaded the defense of the Tulia defendants.

The opening salvo in the next battle came Friday in the form of a federal
lawsuit filed in Amarillo against Swisher County officials, supervisors of
the Panhandle Regional Narcotics Trafficking Task Force, and 30 cities and
counties that belong to the task force.

The suit was filed on behalf of two Tulia defendants whose charges were
dropped after they proved they were not in Tulia when Coleman claimed to
have purchased drugs from them.

The suit will almost certainly be expanded later to include more
defendants, Blackburn said. Swisher County already has paid $250,000 to
those who were jailed.

Among other things, the suit claims civil rights and constitutional
violations for false arrest and unreasonable searches and seizures.

It claims that the drug task force, based in the Amarillo Police
Department, hired Coleman despite a checkered law enforcement past that
included allegations of theft and official misconduct in previous jobs.

The suit argues that the task force was negligent in hiring Coleman and
setting him loose with little supervision to conduct an 18-month undercover
operation.

The suit also claims that task force and Swisher County officials conspired
to violate the civil rights of those arrested and mishandled prosecution of
the cases. It seeks an unspecified amount of damages.

McEachern said he could not talk about the suit. A secretary at the task
force's office said Cmdr. Michael Amos and all other officials were out of
town and could not be reached.

Swisher County Sheriff Larry Stewart, also named in the suit, did not
return a call seeking comment.

Will Harrell, executive director of the Texas branch of the American Civil
Liberties Union, said he hopes the lawsuit will draw more attention to
abuses in the system of regional drug task forces.

The task forces are funded by the federal money funneled through Perry's
office, and operate outside many of the traditional rules and processes of
other law enforcement agencies. A task force that included Travis County
was disbanded recently after a series of controversial raids.

Blackburn and Harrell argue that the task force structure fosters rogue
operations like the Tulia drug sting.

State Rep. Terry Keel, R-Austin, a former Travis County sheriff and
assistant prosecutor, agrees with that assessment and tried unsuccessfully
during the regular legislative session to cut off their funding.

Although allegations of misconduct have surfaced against other task forces
in the state, the lawsuit targets just the Panhandle operation.

"It is our ambition to eliminate this task force as a law enforcement
agency," Blackburn said.

Perry's pardons also included a defendant in another high-profile case.
Thomas Lamar Bean, a Houston-area businessman, had been convicted of taking
285 rounds of ammunition into Mexico in 1998.

Bean served prison time, then tried to have his gun rights restored.
Ultimately, he was rebuffed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Perry's pardon clears Bean's record. Since he is no longer a convicted
felon, Bean presumably can now regain his rights to own weapons.