A narcotics agent whose testimony, now discredited, led 38 Texans to be
convicted of drug charges was found guilty yesterday of lying about his
own arrest record at hearings involving some of the defendants. Jurors
in a state court in Lubbock concluded that the former agent, Tom
Coleman, committed perjury in testifying that he had been unaware until
August 1998 that theft charges concerning the disappearance of gasoline
from a county motor pool had been lodged against him earlier in the
year, when he was a sheriff's deputy. The jury acquitted him of a
second perjury charge, of having falsely denied stealing the gasoline.
Mr. Coleman had made restitution in the theft case, causing those
charges to be dropped. Under Texas law, perjury is punishable by a
maximum of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. But soon after
issuing its verdicts, the jury returned with a recommended sentence of
seven years' probation. Judge David L. Gleason, who is expected to hand
down punishment on Tuesday, indicated in court yesterday that he would
accept the recommendation. Working
undercover in the Panhandle town of Tulia for a multicounty drug
investigation task force, Mr. Coleman arrested 46 men and women, most
of them black, on narcotics charges during an 18-month period beginning
in 1998. Ron Chapman, a state judge who
reviewed some of the evidence and convictions, concluded that Mr.
Coleman had engaged in "blatant perjury" and was "the most devious,
nonresponsive law enforcement witness this court has witnessed in 25
years on the bench in Texas." Disciplinary hearings by the Texas bar
are pending against Terry D. McEachern, a former district attorney who
prosecuted some of the drug cases and who is accused of concealing from
defense lawyers knowledge of the old theft charges against Mr. Coleman. [more]
Those arrested represented about 10 percent of Tulia's black community.
No drugs or large sums of money were found in the sting, but 38 of
those arrested were convicted. The other eight were not prosecuted.
Juries in rural Swisher County sided with the testimony of Coleman even
though there no evidence to back charges that the defendants
participated in a drug ring. Some of those convicted received up to 90
years in prison. Several defendants accepted plea bargains when faced
with the choice of a trial in the Texas county and long prison
sentences.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry in 2003 pardoned 35 of convicted
defendants. Last year, 45 of those arrested in the sting split $6
million paid to them as a settlement for civil rights violations by the
26 counties and three cities that took part in a federal drug task
force for which Coleman worked. [more] and [more] and [more]
So who is Tom Coleman? He's a former rodeo cowboy with a spotty record
in law enforcement, and no experience as an undercover narcotics
agent.Nevertheless, he was hired by the local sheriff in 1998 to rout
out drug dealers in Tulia, a desolate farm town of some 5,000 people
who have fallen on hard times. The money to hire Coleman came from the
U.S. Department of Justice, as part of a $500 million effort to fight
the war on drugs in rural America. [more] and [more]
Federal judge: Everyone liable for Tulia-style screwups [more]
