Texas Judge Doubts Drug Convictions

The cocaine-trafficking convictions of 38, mostly black, defendants arrested during a 1999 drug sweep in Tulia, Texas, should be overturned because the single undercover officer involved is not believable, a Texas judge said Tuesday.

The case generated a swell of skepticism at the time among blacks living in the predominantly white farming community of 5,000 between Lubbock and Amarillo. But local newspaper editorials and many residents applauded the sweep for cleaning up their community. The investigator, Tom Coleman -- who is white -- was named “Outstanding Lawman of the Year” by the Texas Narcotic Control Program for conducting the 18-month sting operation.

However, Tuesday’s finding by retired state District Judge Ron Chapman, following a three-year legal battle that challenged Coleman’s investigation, was supported by both defense attorneys and state prosecutors; all agreed that Coleman’s testimony was unreliable.

“It is stipulated by all parties and approved by the court that Tom Coleman is simply not a credible witness under oath,” Chapman said. His recommendation that the defendants be given new trials will be forwarded to the state appeals court, which assigned him to handle the defense appeals.

Testimony during the hearing showed, according to attorneys, that Coleman had manufactured investigative reports and, in one case, was out of town at the time he claimed to have purchased drugs from one of the suspects. Witnesses also testified that Coleman used racial epithets. He was characterized by former employers as unreliable and dishonest.

Defense attorneys said they expected the appellate court to rule quickly on Chapman’s recommendation, and said they did not expect prosecutors to retry the cases. Thirteen of the defendants are still in prison, some serving sentences of 90 years or longer.

Convictions brought by Coleman’s investigations in other Texas counties will also be reviewed, defense attorneys said.

In all, 43 people were arrested in Tulia based on Coleman’s undercover work for a regional, federally funded drug task force. The officer provided no audio or video tapes of his investigation, and offered no corroborating evidence from other detectives. When police swept through the community on July 23, 1999, to arrest the suspects based on Coleman’s investigation, they found no evidence of cocaine.

Five of those originally arrested were not prosecuted, and the 38 others were either convicted by juries based solely on Coleman’s testimony or pleaded guilty -- fearful, their attorneys said, of “Texas-size” sentences.

“None of us dreamed three years ago that we would ever achieve the kind of victory that is now clearly within our grasp,” said attorney Jeff Blackburn, who assisted the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in appealing the convictions.

“Coleman was a rural cop who was assigned [by the task force] to Swisher County. But in fact, he roamed all over the Texas Panhandle doing these kinds of jobs -- creating the largest number of arrests and convictions possible,” Blackburn said.

Defense attorneys blasted Coleman’s case from the beginning. Based on the arrests, “16% of the adult black population in Tulia were cocaine dealers,” said William Harrell, executive director of the ACLU of Texas. “If that was the case, then who was doing the drugs?”

Swisher County Dist. Atty. Terry D. McEachern had prosecuted the cases, but he recused his office when Coleman’s truthfulness came into question in subsequent appeals.

“I had serious questions about his testimony that hadn’t been raised before,” McEachern said.

The Texas attorney general’s office assigned special prosecutor John Nation to handle the appeals.

“We’re pleased that justice has been done,” he said after Tuesday’s action. He would not say whether the state would drop the charges against the 38 defendants, noting that the appellate court still needed to act on Chapman’s recommendation.

The controversy surrounding the Tulia prosecutions has prompted two bills before the Texas Legislature -- one to abolish regional drug task forces and another to ban prosecutions that rely on the uncorroborated testimony of undercover officers who work alone.

“It took three years to get a court to say that the uncorroborated testimony of one undercover officer was unreliable,” Harrell said. “People will argue that the system works but to me, it shows that the system is flawed and needs to be fixed. These [defendants] are people whose lives have been disrupted. They lost their livelihood and their faith in the system.”

Defense attorney Ted Killory, who represented one defendant sentenced to 90 years in prison, said: “We’re one step closer to justice for all the people who have suffered through this.”