Tulia, Texas, July 23, 1999

By Suzanne Wills, Drug Policy Chair

suzy@dpft.org

When it was found that the Dallas police narcotics division and the District Attorney were prosecuting defendants for possession of pool chalk, people took notice. Newspapers reported it. The officers involved were put on leave, paid leave but leave none the less. Charges were dropped. But, would it have happened this way if Tulia, Texas, population 5000, had not had a drug scandal first?

In the early morning of July 23, 1999 police arrested more than 15% of Tulia’s black population and a handful of whites who had relationships with blacks, 46 people in all. They were paraded before waiting TV cameras wearing pajamas and underwear then charged with trafficking in powdered cocaine. A few were also charged with selling crack cocaine and marijuana. The accused “dealers” included a hog farmer, a forklift operator, unskilled laborers and several young women with children. While the defendants were being processed police searched their homes. They found no drugs, no money, no drug paraphernalia and no guns.

The local press was giddy with excitement. With a few notable, vocal exceptions Tulia’s white population was righteous in its indignation. How was Tulia able to rid itself of this huge group of cocaine traffickers? It was the work of one man, Tom Coleman.

Mr. Coleman had been hired18 months earlier by the Swisher County Sheriff after the county received a grant from the federal government through the Panhandle Regional Narcotics Task Force. Coleman was available for the job because he had left his previous job with Cochran County in the middle of a shift in the dead of night. The Cochran County attorney filed theft and abuse charges against Coleman. His supervisor, Sheriff Ken Burke, wrote to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement saying, “Mr. Coleman should not be in law enforcement.”

In Tulia, Tom Coleman worked undercover and alone. No other police officers were ever involved. He did not wear a wire. He conducted no video surveillance. He kept no written records except notes that he made on his leg.

That was enough for District Attorney Terry McEachern. He put Coleman on the stand as the sole, uncorroborated witness and convictions were swift. One of the few whites arrested, Cash Love, a man with a mixed race child, was sentenced to 300 years. The hog farmer was sentenced to 90 years. A third man, Kareem White, to 60 years. After these trials, panicked defendants began pleading guilty. Plea agreement sentences ranged from probation to 18 years. One man, Billy Wafer, was able to prove to a judge using employee time sheets and the testimony of his white boss that he was working at the time he was alleged to have been selling cocaine. The judge may also have been influenced by the extensive file Wafer’s attorney had compiled on Tom Coleman’s legal problems. This information was not made available to juries in the other cases.

Next month: Reprecussions of a drug sting.

To view a 23 minute video, "Tulia, Texas: Scenes from the Drug War" go to www.drugpolicy.org.