Hearne, Texas: Scenes from the Drug War

A 23-minute advocacy film. Color. 2005.

In 2005, Off Center Media made an advocacy video about wrongful drug arrests and convictions in Hearne, Texas for the ACLU Drug Law Reform Project.

Regina Kelly v. John Paschall, was filed by the ACLU on behalf of 15 African-American residents of Hearne who were indicted in November 2000 on drug charges after being rounded up in a series of unlawful paramilitary drug “sweeps.”  The case closely resembles the notorious 1999 drug bust scandal in nearby Tulia, where 45 people — all but three of them African-American — were arrested and indicted on bogus drug charges.