Posted on 09/19/2018 5:36:32 PM PDT by Elderberry
Law license of former Twin Peaks attorney temporarily suspended
Attorney Casie L. Gotro, of Houston, who was honored in June by the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association for her representation of a biker charged in the deadly May 2015 Twin Peaks shootout hasn’t been eligible to practice law in the state since Sept, 1, the State Bar of Texas confirmed Tuesday. Gotro’s dues, which were due on June 1, have not been paid, a State Bar spokesperson said Tuesday.
She was given a three-month grace period in which to pay and was sent several notices, but the State Bar did not receive the payment by the Sept. 1 deadline, the spokesperson said. Gotro was scheduled to defend a Bandido whose trial begins later this year in Tarrant County, but has been removed from the case, officials confirmed. Gotro represented Christopher Jacob Carrizal, the ex-president of the Dallas chapter of the Bandidos motorcycle group, in November 2017 in Waco in the first trial of a biker stemming from the May 17, 2015 shootout between rival biker gangs and law enforcement officers at Waco’s Twin Peaks restaurant that left nine bikers dead and 20 injured.
The trial ended in a mistrial after jurors reached consensus on one of three counts, but told the judge they could not agree on the other two. Gotro requested and was granted permission to withdraw from the case after the mistrial was declared. Calls to Gotro Tuesday weren’t answered and calls to her office weren’t returned. In June, the Criminal Defense Lawyers Association honored Gotro and a second Twin Peaks defense attorney, F. Clinton Broden of Dallas, as its Percy Forman Lawyers of the Year. Broden defended Hewitt resident Matthew Alan Clendennen. A special prosecutor dismissed the case against Clendennen in April. Gotro is a 2004 graduate of the University of Houston Law Center.
The attorney who won a mistrial in the first Twin Peaks trial no longer wants to be an attorney. Casie Gotro represented Jacob Carrizal against charges connected to the 2015 deadly Twin Peaks shootings. This case ended in a hung jury almost a year ago. When FOX44 heard the State Bar of Texas suspended Gotro’s license, we called her and found out she has decided to stop practicing law. “After what I saw in Waco, and it’s not just in Waco, I’ve seen the same in Tarrant County. I’ve lost a whole lot of faith in the justice system. It’s not working like its supposed to. You walk into something like Waco, or you walk into Tarrant County, and those fights are not fair. I want to be crystal clear about that,” Gotro says. Gotro says her next step might be to get a counseling license
trying not to post the lawyer jokes . . .
“A lawyer walks into a bar....”
Actually, it looks like she has enough integrity to be disgusted with the corruption and just walk away from the profession.
Actually, he took in stride.
Thanks for update
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