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Truth, Justice, and the American Way.
Posted on 01/29/2016 2:46:50 PM PST by Elderberry
A state district judge denied a motion Friday to quash the engaging in organized criminal activity indictment against a founding member of the Escondido motorcycle group and an active motorcyclists' rights advocate.
Judge Ralph Strother rejected Thomas Paul Landers' request to dismiss the indictment after a brief hearing in 19th State District Court.
Landers, 59, of Georgetown, was among 106 bikers indicted Nov. 10 on first-degree felony charges of engaging in organized criminal activity, with underlying offenses of murder and assault.
Landers' attorney, Millie Thompson, of Austin, argued that the indictment should be thrown out because due process rights forbid the state from using "novel, umbrella offenses" that allege multiple offenses but fail to do so with the requisite degree of specificity.
The indictments, like the arrest warrant affidavits filed to support the 177 bikers arrested, are identical, alleging the same acts for all 106, who are alleged in the indictments to be members of a criminal street gang.
Thompson called the indictment defective and fundamentally unfair because it fails to provide specific notice of what is alleged.
Prosecutors Michael Jarrett and Andrew Erwin argued that the indictment is legally sufficient to provide notice of what Landers is charged with and tracks the language of the statute.
After the hearing, Landers, a board member of the National Coalition of Motorcyclists and chairman of its legislative task force, said he arrived at Twin Peaks May 17 prepared to give an update about the recent legislative session to the Texas Confederation of Clubs and Independents.
Landers said he and his groups, which include veterans, Christians and service-oriented groups, have worked closely with the Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Department of Transportation, legislators and other agencies to secure rights for bikers around the state.
"We are a grass-roots political movement so we have a voice in our affairs," Landers said.
Landers said State Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, spoke at a recent conference of biker organizations.
"I know he wouldn't have spoken at our conference if he thought that we all were members of a criminal street gang," Landers said.
Landers declined to describe the events at Twin Peaks that left nine dead and more than 20 wounded. He also declined to say where he was when the shooting started or what he did afterward.
The Escondidos are a support group of the Bandidos motorcycle group.
Nine indictments involving Twin Peaks defendants were returned under seal in November because those defendants had not been arrested. Those indictments have since been unsealed, as those bikers have also been arrested, bringing the total to 186 arrested in the case.
The indictments charge the defendants engaged in organized criminal activity by intentionally or knowingly causing the death of an individual, then names the bikers killed May 17. The indictments actually name 10 killed, but prosecutors have said that was a clerical error that will be corrected.
The charges allege the defendants killed the victims by "shooting and/or stabbing and/or cutting and/or striking" the victims.
The indictments also allege the defendants used or exhibited a deadly weapon, namely "a firearm and/or a knife or a sharp object and/or a club and/or an asp and/or a whip and/or brass knuckles and/or a chain."
The indictments also charge that the defendants caused bodily injury to the people injured and name 24 bikers who were either shot, stabbed, cut or struck.
They named 10 names. How is that a "clerical error"?
Do all the indictments (identical) include that "clerical error"?
Who was the other name named?
The whole thing still stinks on ice.
Truth, Justice, and the American Way.
Just another example of Texas’ “Just-Us System.” And you Texans continue to “tout” how ‘free” you are there! I guess if you’re a “white, good old boy” (excluding bikers of course), it works for you, but for others, not so much! Still looking forward to the day not too far in the future when Whacko gets a dose of legal reality along with lawsuits that will bankrupt the place.
William Anderson
Wilson speculated that prosecutors might have mistaken William Anderson for James Kenneth "Spaz" Anderson, a 53-year-old member of the Bandidos group who was wounded at Twin Peaks and was killed Sept. 3 in Nebraska when his motorcycle struck a deer.
If James Kenneth Anderson was wounded but survived to be killed months later in an accident, he shouldn’t have been listed either way among the dead on the indictments, either.
This is not surprising, in my opinion. I believe that the judge made the most narrow ruling that the law allows, and he does not want to be tarred with this brush. This is why one of many cases need to proceed to trial as soon as possible. The pinata of cases are going to self destruct once presented to a jury, IMO.
I just cannot believe that they charged all of them with practically identical indictments.
Here's one, for example: http://blog.bennettandbennett.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Waco-twin-peaks-indictment-1.pdf
No.
They have already self destructed at the point of the prosecution delivering all the materials to the defence as required by the Michael Morton Act.
Reyna isn’t going to do that.
Waco interest ping!
How long did it take them to line up their fill in the blank document and name list and squirt that out?
The DA has claimed that more evidence is forthcoming, bullet fragment analysis, ballistics analysis, and chicken bones and vampire blood analysis. These results could take years, in the interest of justice, of course.
They have to take years. What really can’t be released is all the video though. Reyna has to stall for time until he can be out of office before it is released or announced to be “lost.”
They will be released right after the hangings. Politicians can’t be harmed in the exercise of justice.
The video will never be released.
Therefore no one will go to trial.
They have to take years. What really can’t be released is all the video though. Reyna has to stall for time until he can be out of office before it is released or announced to be “lost.”
*****************************************************************************
Once a suspicious fire has destroyed all the video evidence then Reyna will be able to say he regrets he won’t be able to proceed against the evil bikers and must dismiss the charges. /sarc
DENVER — Nine people were reportedly taken to hospitals and at least one person has been confirmed to be dead after Denver police responded to reports of one stabbing and several shootings Saturday afternoon at a motorcycle show.
Technician Raquel Lopez of the Denver Police Department said the incident began around 12:48 p.m. as a disturbance at the National Western Complex, which was hosting the Colorado Motorcycle Exposition, and she said there were shots fired and at least one stabbing.
Initial reports indicated the incident was at the Denver Coliseum, which is less than a mile from the National Western Complex.
In a press conference around 2:30 p.m. streamed by KDVR’s Joe St. George, Lopez said at this time she could only confirm that one person was dead and numerous others were wounded and that no further information about the victims or their injuries were available.
Oh, that's right. You don't know how to do that, do you?
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