Posted on 04/25/2003 6:33:28 AM PDT by Pern
The undercover officer who ran a controversial drug investigation in Tulia four years ago was indicted Thursday on charges of lying under oath during recent hearings to determine if the convictions he obtained were legitimate.
A three-count indictment handed up by a Swisher County grand jury accuses Tom Coleman, 43, of making false statements about legal problems he faced in another county while working for the Panhandle Drug Task Force.
"These were the three strongest cases," said Rod Hobson, a Lubbock attorney who is working as a special prosecutor on the Tulia investigation.
Coleman could not be reached for comment.
In the summer of 1999, Coleman's 18-month sting operation ended with the arrest of 46 residents of Tulia, a small town of 5,000 about 50 miles north of Lubbock. Some charges were later dismissed, but 38 people were convicted and 13 remain in prison.
Because 39 of those arrested were black, charges that the sting was racially motivated arose, but that was only part of the controversy.
All of the convictions were obtained solely on the testimony of Coleman, who worked alone, kept few notes, and had no audio or video surveillance evidence to support drug buys. During the pre-dawn roundup of the suspects, no cash or drugs were found, raising questions about the task force's characterization of them as "major dealers."
And, after most of the convictions and plea bargains were obtained, details of Coleman's checkered law enforcement history surfaced. In fact, while the Tulia sting was in progress, he was charged with theft of gasoline in Cochran County, where he had previously worked as a deputy sheriff.
Appellate attorneys argued that Coleman's problems were not disclosed at the time of the trials and therefore could not be used to cast doubt on his testimony. If Coleman gave false testimony during those trials, he could not be prosecuted now because of the statute of limitations.
Last month, in evidentiary hearings ordered by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to determine whether the convictions should be reconsidered, Coleman was questioned about when he knew he was facing a criminal charge and his actions afterward.
The indictment alleges that he gave conflicting testimony. At one point, he testified that he did not learn of the Cochran County theft charge until August 1998, but other testimony indicated he knew about it three months earlier but continued working as an undercover agent.
The indictment also alleges that he lied about stealing the gasoline in Cochran County and about contacting the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education to notify it of the charge against him.
Those hearings were scheduled to resume April 1, with more testimony from Coleman, but were halted when prosecutors agreed with defense lawyers that his testimony was unreliable.
Retired Judge Ron Chapman then ruled that Coleman "is simply not a credible witness under oath" and said he would recommend that the Court of Criminal Appeals set aside all 38 convictions and order new trials.
Hobson has said the state would dismiss the cases rather than retry them because there is no evidence against the individuals except Coleman's testimony.
If convicted, Coleman, who is no longer in law enforcement, faces up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine on each of the three charges.
Your turn.
Says nothing about whether they did the crime or didn't do the crime.
Then why did you bring it up? My question was whether there was reason to believe they did the crime.
I'm guessing that you know about 1% of the details of this case
And you offer opinions only in threads where you are personally familiar with all the details?
Why are you asking me about their guilt?
Because you seemed to imply that they had done the crime.
Know of any FR threads that have led to any changes? Or is this a standard you apply only to drug threads?
"The war on drugs is over."
"Yeah, they lost the war on some drugs."
"When are they going to end this senseless was on some drugs."
"The war on drugs is over."
Me: "Dope is still illegal."
How is your reply relevant to my statement? Do you see it as somehow being a rebuttal?
There you go again. Relevent isn't much of an issue on these threads. Relevent is no matter what you post, no matter how many times you declare the war on drugs lost/won or whatever, it will still go on tomorrow and dope will still be illegal. That's relevent.
I'll ask again the questions you dodged last time: "Know of any FR threads that have led to any changes? Or is this a standard you apply only to drug threads?"
See #64 above.
That's the dodge I referred to, not an answer.
And I'll refer back to the same answer, which I'm sure you don't much like. Most issues and themes on FR have a relatively short life span. The dope of the morning threads don't; same ol' - same ol' every morning.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it. It's like tasting your first cup of coffee in the morning, enjoying a good sunrise or reading how a dope dealer has been put away. It just reaffirms my faith that everything is okay.
No, your question was, "What reason is there to think that any particular defendant was guilty as charged?" Guilt is determined by law.
Now, was there reason to believe they did the crime? Personally, I don't know. But those closest to the case, those that heard all of the evidence presented by the prosecution, those who were privy to the testimony given under cross-examination by the defense, decided unanimously that they were guilty. Of the 46 arrests, only 8 went to trial.
I did however, find a great deal of humor in the rantings of some fringe types who have never supported the President and who are all over those threads saying how they will not support him in the next election.
Remember the movie "Ground Hog Day"?
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