Records Expunged in '99 Texas Drug Sting

[Eugene]

Records Expunged in '99 Texas Drug Sting


Wednesday November 2, 2005 11:31 AM

By BETSY BLANEY

Associated Press Writer

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) - Thirty people convicted in a discredited drug
bust that sent dozens to prison on bogus charges had their criminal
records wiped clean.

Visiting Judge Ron Chapman ordered the records expunged Tuesday. At
an evidentiary hearing in June 2003, the judge called the undercover
agent who built the cases, Tom Coleman, "simply not a credible
witness under oath."

Coleman arrested 46 people, most of them black, in this small,
predominantly white farming community, leading civil rights groups
to question if the busts were racially motivated.

Coleman worked alone and no drugs were ever found, but 38 defendants
were convicted or reached plea deals.

<snip>

More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-5386827,00.html

[Demeter]

1. Good!

Too bad we can't bring the Iraqi dead back to life, too.

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. So was Tom Coleman ever punished?

or is he still an 'undercover' agent finding new ways to enforce his special brand of racism?

[acmejack]

4. Yes but not enough IMO

In April 2003, Coleman was indicted on three counts of aggravated perjury by a Swisher County grand jury for lying under oath. At the time of his indictment, a majority of the defendants cases had been dismissed or on probation. However, 14 of "Tulia's 46" still remained in jail even though Chapman recommended that the all the cases be thrown out. Yet, those who were imprisoned would not languish behind bars for much longer.
snip>
In the meantime, Tulia residents await Coleman's trial, which was initially scheduled for May 24, 2004. However, a judge has granted a continuance and no new date has yet been set. If he is found guilty of the three counts of perjury, he could receive up to 10 years in prison. Many of those previously convicted hope that justice moves swiftly in Coleman's case. They want to be sure that what happened in Tulia will never occur again.

http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/cops_others/tom_coleman/6.html

[0007]

12. Wasn't John Cornyn connected intimately with the prosecution

or the hearings that sent these people to prison?

[Missy M]

3. "Thirty eight people were convicted or reached plea deals"...

even though no drugs were ever found. How can that possibly be called a drug bust. What kind of a jury would convict anyone when no drugs were found.

[LostinVA]

6. Read the book "Tulia," Missy -- a jury composed of racists

and religious conservatives... I say the latter, because the DA and the Sheriff were members, along with most of the juries, at the same Fundamentalist church. Also, the original judge wouldn't allow info about Coleman into court.

[LostinVA]

5. Great Book just came out on this: "Tulia"

I just read it last week... a must read.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. Hallelujah!

[skooooo]

8. Didn't Bush also pardon some drug offenders..

..not too long ago?

[nolabels]

9. * is either on some or needs to take some very long ago

:hi:

[uncle ray]

11. yes, but in no way related

* pardoned some cronie types, these people in texas were wrongfully busted by a racist cop who wanted to run blacks out of his town. this was a long time coming.

[Javaman]

10. And just who was governor then? Hmmmm, let me think...

[NorthernSpy]

13. what do false witnesses deserve?

The charges could not be expunged until the State Bar of Texas finished its case in July with former prosecutor Terry McEachern. He was accused of withholding information from defense attorneys about Coleman's criminal history.

The bar allowed McEachern, who was defeated in a March 2004 re-election bid, to keep his law license but placed him on probation until June 2007.

(...)

Coleman was convicted in January of perjury and sentenced to 10 years probation. He is appealing.

Why aren't the Christian conservatives out for blood on this case? The Bible prescribes the death penalty for acts of false witness. So why aren't they all over this? Where's their outrage when things like this are done?

Early on the morning of July 23, 1999, cops burst into homes all over this tiny town in the Texas panhandle. Forty-six people—a few whites and almost half the town's black adult population—were indicted for drug trafficking. Dozens of children became virtual orphans as their parents were hauled to jail. In the coming months, 19 people would be shipped to state prison, some with sentences of 20, 60, or even 99 years.

The last trial ended in the fall of 2000, but this chapter in Tulia history has certainly not closed. Ever since the arrests, prisoners' relatives and friends have been struggling with the aftermath: destroyed families, traumatized children, townspeople's cold stares. The ripple effects of a large drug bust may be the same everywhere, but they are especially apparent in a small town, where there is none of the frenzy of urban life to hide the damage.

Mattie, a 50-year-old mother of six, was never accused of selling drugs, but she too has been punished. The undercover drug operation snared her two sons, one daughter, one brother-in-law, two nephews, one son-in-law, one niece, and two cousins. Now Mattie struggles to raise her daughter's two children and juggle two jobs, including one as a prison guard. (Her ex-husband took in a few other grandchildren.) About the undercover drug operation, Mattie says, "It has made my life miserable. My whole world seems like it fell down on me."

Make no mistake: this was a judicial pogrom. And the local media cheered it on:

Shortly after the arrests, The Tulia Sentinel ran a story on its front page with the headline "Tulia's Streets Cleared of Garbage." A reader skimming the newspaper might have thought the article had something to do with local sanitation efforts. In fact, the first paragraph stated that the arrests of the town's "known" drug dealers "had cleared away some of the garbage off Tulia's streets."

Coleman received a state "Lawman of the Year" award for his actions.


In the end, the 45 victims in this case were awarded $6 million. No, not each. That's just six million to be split among the lot of them. A pittance compared to the settlements that whites routinely get for suffering far less serious wrongs.

And their oppressors -- because oppressors is what these men literally are -- get probation for these crimes? Their black victims were originally sentenced to up to 99 years in prison purely on a white man's say-so -- but the white men who perpetrated this vicious act get probation? Even though one of those oppressors already had a prior criminal record?


All of this illustrates why international scrutiny and oversight will be necessary if the Katrina victims are to be helped. Southern society lacks any real will to justice, and America as a whole lacks any real will to impose justice on the South.

[AlCzervik]

14. I remember this story becasue Blow O'Lielly was all over this one

"Lock em up, throw away the key"