Ex-undercover agent faces perjury trial

[Judi Lynn]

Sunday, January 9, 2005 · Last updated 12:37 p.m. PT

Ex-undercover agent faces perjury trial

By BETSY BLANEY
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

LUBBOCK, Texas -- The former undercover agent responsible for the discredited Tulia drug busts that put dozens of people in prison using false evidence goes on trial Monday for lying under oath.

Tom Coleman, who is no longer in law enforcement, faces three charges of aggravated perjury stemming from a 2003 hearing to determine if some of the 46 people arrested during the late 1990s in the small farming town of Tulia received fair trials.

If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine on each felony charge.

Coleman, 45, used no audio or video surveillance to substantiate drug buys he said he made while working in Tulia as an undercover agent for the Panhandle Regional Narcotics Trafficking Task Force. No drugs or money were found during the arrests.
(snip/...)

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Tulia%20Drug%20Busts

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. 46 people and he faces THREE charges???

What utter crap!

[kitkatrose]

2. Well, we can hope that he gets the max

and spends thirty behind bars for the charges. He'll be 75 when he gets out. But this is Texas, so there isn't too much hope. :(

[UpInArms]

3. Tulia is a nowhere little town in the plains of the Texas panhandle

here's the guy that defended those arrested (I know him and I can say he's one of the few good attorneys I know)

http://www.truthinjustice.org/blackburn.htm

Jeff Blackburn: Tulia Defender

In 1999, nearly half of the black adult population of Tulia, in the Texas Panhandle, was arrested for dealing in cocaine, based on the word of an undercover police officer with a questionable past.

National attention has put a spotlight on the dubious veracity of those 46 arrests in a town of 5,000, but it didn't stop almost all of the people from going to jail.

In the last two years, Jeff Blackburn, a solo practitioner in Amarillo, Texas, has been working with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Legal Defense Fund and a handful of other lawyers to get some of the accused off and others, already convicted, out of jail. It's taken more than 2,000 hours and about $39,000 of his own money.

The informant, Tom Coleman, worked for the federally funded Panhandle Regional Narcotics Task Force. He spent 18 months in Tulia.

He was ordered suspended from law enforcement by the state because his previous employers in Cochran County charged him with misconduct involving theft and abuse. But he continued to work in Tulia. Coleman's accusations were based entirely on his own testimony, with no drugs, money or other corroboration. State and federal authorities are investigating the Tulia arrests.

...more...

here's some more on Coleman (what a piece of shit)

http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/cops_others/tom_coleman/4.html?sect=18

Tulia, a small, declining farming community with a population of a little more than 5,000 residents, was an unlikely place to find such a well-organized and prosperous drug-ring. Many of the black residents lived at the lower end of the socio-economic level, earning an average of $9,000 to $11,000 a year. Even though they earned relatively meager incomes, most had rich family lives and a strong sense of faith and community.

This being the case, it was difficult to imagine that a tenth of Tulia's black population was swept up in drug dealing. What was even more surprising was that they were allegedly dealing cocaine, one of the most expensive drugs on the black market. Donnie Smith asked the questions that were on everyone's mind, "Where's the drugs, where's the big houses, where all the gold teeth?" The fact was that there wasn't sufficient evidence of drug dealing, nor was there adequate evidence to secure the convictions. It was just Coleman's word against the defendants and in most cases his word prevailed.

Consequently, 38 of the "Tulia 46" were imprisoned or serving probation on drug related charges, whereas the eight remaining cases, including Tonya White's, were eventually dismissed. It was clear that the problem was not just with Coleman, but also with the entire judicial system. It was up to a small group of lawyers and several organizations from across the country to right the wrongs that devastated Tulia's black community and threatened the civil rights of an entire nation.

...more...

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

4. Thanks for the links...I've been following this story since it broke a

few years back...I was very impressed with that atty....Texas has some of the WORST advocates in criminal law so he caught my eye. Frankly I think the scum out to get ten years for every day someone else wrongfully spent making Wackenhut and CCR wealthier

[UpInArms]

5. you're welcome

I was sitting here trying to remember which columnist (he wrote a series of articles for the NYTs) that brought this story into the national spotlight.

I was proud of him for making sure that this got the attention that it deserved also.

Jeff is a fine attorney and he has been a strong advocate for civil rights as long as I have known him - more than 30 years.