Posted on 01/27/2019 5:31:23 AM PST by Elderberry
After the annual holiday slowdown and monthslong delays while waiting for a changing of the guard in the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office, judges are poised to handle a number of high-profile criminal cases that have long been pending.
February is going to be a busy month in Judge Ralph Strother’s 19th State District Court, with a capital murder trial, a sexual assault trial of a former Baylor University football player and hearings involving 2015 Twin Peaks shootout defendants scheduled.
After Barry Johnson defeated two-term incumbent Abel Reyna in the March Republican primary to become the new district attorney, the wheels of justice slowed considerably, with judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys all willing to postpone cases to give Johnson a chance to review them and to decide how to proceed.
Johnson said he spent part of this week in conference with Tom Needham, his executive assistant; Nelson Barnes, his first assistant; and prosecutors Hilary LaBorde and Robert Moody poring over voluminous Twin Peaks case files.
Johnson has asked Strother and 54th State District Judge Matt Johnson to give him until the first of April to get a grip on the Twin Peaks cases and to formulate a plan about how to proceed.
Reyna dismissed all but 27 of the original 155 indicted cases against the bikers before he left office in December. Three of the cases are being handled by special prosecutors from Houston, who dismissed one of the cases assigned to them because one said there was no probable cause for the May 2015 arrest.
A status hearing with the special prosecutors and attorneys for bikers William Aikin, Ray Nelson and Billy McCree is set for Feb. 8 in Strother’s court. Judge Johnson has 16 Twin Peaks cases pending in his court, while the others are in Strother’s court.
(Excerpt) Read more at wacotrib.com ...
Wasn't there something in the Constitution about the right to a speedy trial? Is four years speedy?
Yes, it’s been a long time. Renya could or would not find a way to extricate himself and the County from a total mess they created. (with Federal help in my opinion)
In the beginning, I think the total number of arrests was 177. Insane. All with same charges brought with same probable cause statement. To anyone giving honest examination of the events, it was clear from the beginning that there would be few if any convictions as charged and that this would drag on for many years. The more they used the ability to examine communication evidence as a tool to pursue this, any pattern simply disappeared.
Courts should judge based on evidence and render as close to possible a just verdict. There was no evidence that was the intent or method that they used in this case in Waco. Almost 4 years afterward, quite a few are dead by natural causes. Many lives have been destroyed financially. And for what?
Headshake. Do you blame Renya? The Waco Courts? Law Enforcement? Federal Involvement? The Bikers themselves? If the Bikers, which ones?
Mass arrests like this are not apt to give just rulings.
Do you blame Renya? The Waco Courts? Law Enforcement? Federal Involvement? The Bikers themselves? If the Bikers, which ones?
*********
This never should have happened... In this case we have the FBI infiltrating the gangs and having a trap set with dozens of agents armed with rifles that were responsible for the majority of deaths... You can’t ignore that the CIA is hip deep with the same gangs and MS-13 in importing and distributing drugs in this area... Was this a CIA/FBI turf war? Why should there be any trials if the feds won’t come clean as to their role?
“Reyna dismissed all but 27 of the original 155 indicted cases against the bikers before he left office in December. ”
Did not see that on the local news.
Reyna is the one who should be procecuted!
What a damn rat!
The LEOs, on every level from the feds on down, who participated should be in prison.
I don’t blame them all. I do blame their motives from top down to some level. This is what happens when an agenda takes over an investigation and nobody seems to have enough sense to decide what is important.
177 people had their lives destroyed. As far as I can tell or remember, not real criminals have been convicted or punished. And it is approaching 4 years.
INSANE!
Thanks for updates
Yes, yes, and yes. No to the remaining questions.
Thank you.
Priority Calendar
25-Mar Carrizal, Christopher Jacob
https://www.co.mclennan.tx.us/DocumentCenter/View/1834/Priority-Trials
Thank you much for update, have no words
Thanks for the update. My only substantive comment is “maybe”.
Thanks for this post
Think they’ll have any better luck?
We no longer have a Constitution. It died when the Usurper was, with the approval of the Republican Party, was inaugurated. If we were still under the Constitution, the crap that is going on in D.C. would not be taking place.
On a positive note, Hillary’s fascist propagandists who spent a couple years here telling us the murdered bikers got what they deserved have finally shut their obamaholes.
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