Remember the nationally

infamous case of drug prosecutions in Tulia, Texas, in which police in the

Texas Panhandle were accused of racism and civil rights violations for

arresting and charging dozens of black folks with drug dealing? New York

Times columnist Bob Herbert crusaded against the cops, and — to make a very

long story short — Texas Republican Governor Rick Perry pardoned those

convicted, and a $6 million civil suit settlement was paid to these people.

Well, guess what? In a major scoop, Fort Worth CBS station KTVT reveals that

separate investigations by the FBI and the Texas Attorney General’s office

have found no grounds to the civil rights violations

charges.

According to this new report: CBS-11 has learned that civil rights investigations by the FBI and one by the Texas Attorney General’s office were closed after nearly a third of the 40 defendants interviewed by federal agents implicated themselves and others of actually dealing drugs in Tulia. Gov. Perry, under enormous pressure from national civil rights

organizations, pardoned those convicted of drug crimes thanks to the

investigative work of undercover agent Tom Coleman, who was vilified in the

national media as a racist. Perry and the state pardons board which

recommended this action, either ignored or did not seek out the

investigative work by law enforcement agencies that would have shown these

people did not deserve pardons.

Channel 11 apparently got a leaked copy of the FBI report. Both the FBI and

the Texas AG’s office have fought to keep these documents private. Marcus

Norris, the city attorney for Amarillo, which settled the civil suits with

the Tulia defendants for millions, said that after the governor’s pardons,

there was no way the city could hope to win in court. From the CBS-11 story:

“The FBI was not going to come out publicly and say there was no racial

bias because everyone in the media was convinced of that, and the

politicians, too,” Norris said. “Everyone had it built up in their mind it

was all racism.

“I’m telling you the whole thing was so politicized and media-sized we did

wonder what kind of jury verdict we were going to get. We could not handle a

$60 million hit. It would have bankrupted our city.”

This is a major national story. Let’s see who covers it.