Posted on 06/06/2016 6:33:05 PM PDT by Elderberry
Three more bikers arrested after the Twin Peaks shootout in Waco filed a civil rights lawsuit Friday, claiming they were improperly arrested and denied due process.
Thereon Rhoten, Jonathan Lopez and Ryan William Craft, all members of the Vice Grip Motorcycle Club from Travis County, bring the total of bikers who have filed civil lawsuits to 13.
All 13 filed suit in federal court in Austin and all are represented by Dallas attorney Don Tittle, who successfully represented nine sheriff’s deputies who sued McLennan County and Sheriff Parnell McNamara on claims they were retaliated against for backing McNamara’s political opponent. “These three guys have not been indicted, nor should they,” Tittle said. “These are guys who love building and restoring old bikes. They are not members of a gang. They are defined by their love of vintage motorcycles and everybody out there that day remembered them because they were in love with their old bikes. I don’t know why they decided to arrest them and I don’t think my clients have any idea, either.”
The lawsuit names McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna, Waco Police Chief Brent Stroman, Waco police Detective Manuel Chavez and an unnamed Department of Public Safety agent as defendants.
All defendants previously have declined to comment on the lawsuits.
The suit alleges unlawful arrest and due process violations and claims the plaintiffs were arrested with no evidence that they committed any crimes or had any ties to warring biker groups the Bandidos or the Cossacks.
“Despite a total lack of particularized evidence relating to specific individuals, defendants Stroman, Chavez and Reyna determined that individuals would be arrested and charged with engaging in organized criminal activity based entirely on their presence at Twin Peaks, the motorcycle club that defendants presumed an individual was associated with, and/or the clothing they were wearing at the time of the incident,” the suit alleges. “Rather than investigating the incident and relying on actual facts to establish probable cause, defendants theorized that a conspiracy of epic proportion between dozens of people had taken place, and willfully ignored the total absence of facts to support their ‘theory.’ ”
The suit claims that the arrest warrant affidavit, which was identical for all arrested that day, falsely alleges that the bikers all were members of a criminal street gang. The document was drafted by the DA’s office and obtained by Chavez.
“That statement is categorically false,” the lawsuit says. “It is an indisputable fact that defendants did not possess any reliable, particularized information to indicate that plaintiffs themselves were members of a criminal street gang on or before the date such fact was sworn to by defendant Chavez.”
Biker Ray Nelson filed a motion to disqualify Reyna from prosecuting the cases because of his role in the investigation and his decision to charge the wide array of bikers. A hearing on that motion is set for June 13. His attorney charged that Reyna “commandeered” the investigation after Waco police detectives had already processed a busload of bikers, identified them and allowed them to go home that evening.
“In the aftermath of the incident at Twin Peaks, defendants apparently concluded that the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution ceased to apply and could be ignored given what they perceived as an immediate need to announce the re-establishment of law and order in their town,” the suit alleges.
They wear MC and 13.
How much do they pay the bandits for that?
Does anyone know how long these suits will take to get to trial?
Been busy, but just updated and read all the posts from last month. Does seem like we are getting a whole new perspective on Law enforcement the last few weeks, makes you go back and refresh what happened there, and see that corruption runs deep in these places. Just saying makes you go hmmmmm corruption in law enforcement nah couldn’t be.
It wouldn't surprise me if it drug on for ten years.
Yeah, when the entire “legal system” of Whacko/McLennan County are corrupt and guilty of malfeasance, running out the clock is their only course of action. But like Mike Nifong, Abel Reyna will get his eventually. I just hope that when it's finally over, the “good people” of McLennan County have to eat beans to pay off the bikers. because they elected these charlatans.
If Trump is not Elected We will not be here in 10 years.
That's a defeatist attitude.
If Trump is not Elected, then the time is ripe to start the New American Revolution!
Think Positive!
Be ready for any contingency.
It's a possibility.
“If the plaintiffs tragically die in prison the suits might never make it to court.
It’s a possibility.”
If I’m not wrong, all of them are out of jail (finally). Of course they are out on bail so you may be right. The bikers may retalliate and put out a “contract” on Reyna, et.al. if any of their number fails to remain above room temp for the duration of the litlgation however.
good for them i’m glad they are doing this it was a setup by the feds
W-A-Y too long, as usual.
Texit....
--------REFRESH-----------
Cossacks quickly jumped to the prospect’s defense, he said: “Guys were saying, ‘You’re disrespecting us,’ or, ‘We’re not backing down.’ ”
v In a blink, it started, he said: “Two punches: One from them, one from us.”
A Bandido with a patch identifying him as sergeant-at-arms of the same chapter threw a punch at Richard Matthew Jordan II, 31, known as “Richie,” who was from Pasadena, Tex. Jordan punched the guy back.
“At that point in time, the sergeant in arms shot Richie point-blank,” the Cossack said.
Police said Jordan died of a gunshot wound to the head.
“Then all the Bandidos standing in the parking lot started pulling guns and shooting at us,” he said. “There were maybe 60 or 70 of us in the parking lot. . . . We took off running. We scattered. Three of our guys went down instantly. They caught a couple more that tripped and fell, and Bandidos were shooting at them.”
He said that the second man to die was Daniel Raymond Boyett, 44, known as Diesel, a “road captain” in the Cossacks from Waco. Police said that Boyett died from gunshot wounds to the head.
The third man down was “Dog,” whose real name is Charles Wayne Russell, 46, of Winona. Russell’s cause of death was listed as a gunshot wound to the chest.
The Cossack said that he believes the Bandidos had no intention of making peace that day.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/richie-died-then-diesel-then-dog-an-eyewitness-to-the-waco-biker-brawl/2015/05/23/00db6436-1a8a-469b-9d6f-d2283234d281_story.html
Your story has nothing to do with the plaintiffs in this action.
Nice try.
L
In the end, by the time that the staged biker cases go through court and fail, and the civil lawsuits come to a conclusion....just in legal costs alone, I would take a guess that the county will shell out twenty million dollars. If the bikers win their cases...figure at least fifty million. I don’t know about the financial status of this particular county but for most rural counties in the state...it’d destroy their finances for at least a decade.
If I lived there...I’d be putting the house up for sale and intend to move beyond the county line. Property taxes at a minimum....will triple when reality hits the pocketbook.
All the bikers were hit with a million dollar bond. They must all be very rich. Right, our constitution means nothing these days.
“Your story has nothing to do with the plaintiffs in this action.”
It was a direct reply to a request to refresh on the situation.
“All the bikers were hit with a million dollar bond. They must all be very rich.”
Most went to bond hearings and got reduced bond.
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