Posted on 09/29/2015 7:07:22 PM PDT by Elderberry
McLennan County commissioners on Tuesday approved paying almost $17,000 toward a liability insurance deductible because of a Twin Peaks-related lawsuit that named the county as a defendant and has since been dismissed.
The court agreed to pay $16,971.87 to its insurance company, the Texas Association of Counties Risk Management Pool, in a case filed by Hewitt biker Matthew Clendennen, who was mong the 177 arrested following the May 17 Twin Peaks shootout that left nine dead and 20 injured. The court also approved a payment Tuesday of more than $1,160 toward its deductible because of an unrelated case that was also dismissed.
Clendennen, the owner of a local landscaping business, claimed in his lawsuit that he was wrongfully jailed and that his business suffered because of his arrest.
Dustin Chapman, the county’s legal counsel, said the county must meet a $50,000 deductible before its risk-management pool coverage kicks in.
County leaders are compiling information to apply for $250,000 to $270,000 from the governor’s County Essential Services Program to help cover costs associated with sheriff’s deputies’ overtime and the housing and feeding of inmates after the Twin Peaks melee.
Chapman and Waco attorney Mike Dixon, who represents McLennan County and its officeholders, said Clendennen’s lawsuit is thus far the only one related to the Twin Peaks shootout that names the county as a defendant.
“We’re cautiously optimstic with what we’ve seen with regards to lawsuits,” Commissioner Ben Perry said. “This was a huge event involving hundreds of people, and I think for me to sit here and tell you we’re not concerned or worried at all is pretty shortsighted.”
County Judge Scott Felton said it’s not uncommon for municipalities and county governments to be sued, and county leaders are aware of that as they handle budget requests.
“Many of them have no basis, but you still have to defend yourself in them,” Felton said. “You still have to show up and be counted.”
Yes, thank you. I saw that it was earlier this year after I posted.
All those actions by a “Justice of the Peace”?
Justice Courts
http://www.txcourts.gov/courts/overview/about-texas-courts/trial-courts.aspx
The Texas Constitution requires that each county in the State establish between one and eight justice of the peace precincts, depending upon the population of the county. Also, depending on the population of the precinct, either one or two justice of the peace courts are to be established in each precinct.
Justice of the peace courts have original jurisdiction in Class C misdemeanor criminal cases, which are less serious minor offenses. These courts also have jurisdiction of minor civil matters. A justice of the peace may issue search or arrest warrants, and may serve as the coroner in counties where there is no provision for a medical examiner. These courts also have jurisdiction over small claims matters.
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But in this case, a JP Court signed off on this whole mess. Major felony charges and $1 million dallar bail on everyone “detained”.
This really smells bad
Can’t they bring charges without a Grand Jury?
Waiting to see the first “No Bill”. I expect many.
No and yes.
First the "no" explanation. All are accused of committing a felony. Under the Texas constitution, indictment on a felony can only be done via grand jury.
... no person shall be held to answer for a criminal offense, unless on an indictment of a grand jury, except in cases in which the punishment is by fine or imprisonment, otherwise than in the penitentiary, in cases of impeachment, and in cases arising in the army or navy, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger.However, the DA can charge whatever he wants, where the punishment for the offense is fine or imprisonment other than the penitentary.
I don't think there will be any announcement of those. The accusations go stale unless the grand jury brings an indictment, and the DA wants to keep the accused, accused, as long as possible. Informing the accused of a no bill removes the accusation, and relieves them of bail and attending bail conditions.
Just letting the accusations go stale shifts the burden to the accused, to bring the case up to the court and get the bail lifted.
Penn says accounts from the rival gangs were surprisingly consistent - police involvement was much greater than had been reported. Conspiracy theories are still circulating that undercover officers may have instigated the confrontation.One of Penn's interviewees, who he says is cooperating with police, witnessed the first shot and says he still has not recognized that first shooter, out of all the mug shots Waco police have shown him. Any video that may have been taken at the meeting is in the hands of the police, Penn says.
"We began this story thinking it was about Texas gang culture," Penn says. "It turned out to be a story about the Waco justice system."
I went here:
http://kut.org/post/reporter-interviewed-22-bikers-waco-shootout-heres-what-he-learned
and listened to the audio.
It was well worth listening to.
Same link as yours.
Justice in Waco has something missing.
Themis has no scale. Fitting statement.
Headshake.
You said: “I (mostly) use a text-only browser”
You are not alone. I still use Lynx to view Drudge. Got tired of all the scripts and garbage. Works pretty well. Not modern software, but very fast.
I use lynx for about 90% of my browsing. Firefox for sites that depend on javascript or otherwise reject connecting with lynx. I've spoofed the "User Agent" field so sites think I'm using Firefox when I'm really using lynx, but that won't get around the javascript.
I prefer the text-only presentation. It's fast in a few ways. Websites load quicker, rendering is more or less instant, and reading is smoother without the distraction of odd paragraph layout.
I have a pseudo-tab arrangement for lynx too. I open four instances of lynx under one invocation of screen, and switch between the lynx instances with "Alt-number."
Almost a Luddite ;-)
I appreciate efficient code. (I’m non programmer)
I remember how it was when I built my first PC back in 1982.
You gave a command and it was instantly executed. Now you have to wait on WinDoz. (running Debian with XFCE on this box now)
First ran Linux back in 1994. Was an UMSDOS version of Slackware. Non-GUI version. Very fast, very efficient. You set all the configuration up with an editor. Back in dark ages. hee hee hee
In 1982 I had my first computer. A SYM-1 6502 cpu, 1 MHz, with 4k of ram. I added a VT100 terminal and a 300 baud modem to log into the school’s network.
My 1st PC was a Z80 Model I Radio Shack pieced together from units with problems. I built the power supply for it and the 2 8” floppies and the enclosure for the floppies. And hard wired stacked CPU chips on the motherboard, did not use the expansion interphase (was big issue with them). Hand wired the strobe pulse to each stacked CPU chip.
Had a monochrome green phosphor monitor and a tape drive for mass storage. It actually worked pretty well. I still have it somewhere in my shop.
That had to be the noisiest computer ever built. Don’t put a receiver anywhere near it. No shielding. I’m a Ham Op and the two interests with that PC were incompatible.
But I had a lot of software for it. I spent more on the printer than the rest of the PC. Had a wide carriage dot matrix Epson printer. Paid $625 for it back then.
I was living in NM then. I had previously drooled over the MIT Computers ( http://pc-history.org/altair.htm ) made in Albuquerque. Still have a couple of new enclosures that I bought surplus for one of those machines. Pretty nice boxes. I bought them for a receiver project I was working on. Never used them.
Interesting how all this played out.
I had bought the SYM-1 for a computer applications class. It used an audio backup scheme to cassete tape.
After that I didn’t have a PC for years. I worked as a NASA contractor and when I heard a co-worker had a PC at home, I’d ask what they did on it. I’d get answers like: keep recipes on it, Maintain my checkbook information, etc. etc.
It wasn’t until I learned I could access the library systems with one, that I saw the need. Access to information!
Using Archie and Gopher and bulletin boards was such a pain, but I was hooked.
Up to today, I have home built every PC I have ever had.
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