A Lubbock County jury has found Tom Coleman guilty on one count of aggravated perjury and not guilty on another.
Posted on 01/14/2005 12:57:25 PM PST by george wythe
The lone undercover agent in a sting that sent dozens of black people to prison on bogus drug charges was convicted Friday of one of two perjury counts.
Tom Coleman was acquitted of testifying falsely in a 2003 hearing that as a sheriff's deputy he never stole gas from county pumps, but he was found guilty of saying that he didn't learn about the theft charge against him until August 1998.
Jurors were to begin hearing evidence in the penalty phase of the trial later Friday. The perjury charge carries a maximum 10-year sentence and $10,000 fine.
Coleman arrested 46 people, most of them black, in the small, mostly white farming community of Tulia. He worked alone and used no audio or video surveillance, and no drugs were ever found, but 38 defendants were convicted or reached plea deals
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Last year, 45 of those arrested split a $6 million settlement of a civil rights lawsuit against Coleman and the 26 counties and three cities involved with the drug task force for which he worked.
Retribution isn't going to be pretty for this man.
A Lubbock County jury has found Tom Coleman guilty on one count of aggravated perjury and not guilty on another.
It was actually June 1998.
Yeah, let's lock him up for 10 years because he guessed wrong and was off by 2 months.
He's going to really enjoy prison.
The Texas district attorney who prosecuted many of the now-discredited 1999 Tulia drug arrests was found guilty of drunken driving and sentenced to two days in jail.More on ex drug agent Coleman:
In April, Tonya White proved she was in Oklahoma at the time she supposedly sold drugs to Coleman in Tulia. Bank records showed that White had made a deposit at her bank in Oklahoma the same day that Coleman said she sold drugs to him in Tulia. - http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/072402/reg_0724020068.shtml
Bryant’s case, like virtually all of the cases in the sting, rested almost entirely on the testimony of undercover agent Tom Coleman. But Coleman’s physical description of Bryant in his report was nowhere near accurate, and the district attorney was forced to drop the charges - http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=719
Another defendant, Billy Don Wafer, was able to prove — through employee time sheets and his boss's testimony — that he was working at the time he was alleged by Mr. Coleman to have been selling cocaine. - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/723818/posts
11 were convicted by a jury of their peers, and 27 pleaded guilty.
How many of them are you saying were innocent of any wrongdoing?
How many wrongful convictions is OK with you? It is sad that there are people, like you (apparently), who think that some folk have no rights!!!
The "perjury" charge was not connected with the drug case.
All 38 were innocent, huh? Then you're saying there was no drug problem in Tulia to begin with?
I'm quite familiar with the case, thank you.
Don't let the facts obstruct Mr. Paulsen's view. His religion is the War on Drugs, & there is noting--not even the Constitution itself--that can get in his way. The anti-drug jihad is all that matters in his world.
He deserves more than 10 years, IMHO. Lying fleabag of a law officer.
46 lives ruined. Kill the animal that did it.
Civil rights for some, but not for all? Fair trial by jury not withstanding? No thanks. I'll stand with the innocent and the constitution.
In RP's anti-drug utopia, there is NO SUCH THING as a wrongful conviction against the infidel druggies...it's never enough, bring on the total police state, & imprison all until they are proven to be drug-free.
"Arbeit Machen Frei!"
He'll get what's coming to him once he's behind bars...& he deserves every bit of it!
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