so much for the right to a speedy trial...
Posted on 06/16/2016 7:17:42 PM PDT by Elderberry
WACO, Texas – Texas' highest criminal court reversed a gag order Wednesday in the case of one of the nearly 200 bikers arrested after a police-involved shooting last year outside a Waco restaurant that left nine dead.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals released the decision a year after a lawsuit was filed by Matthew Clendennen against the city of Waco, the local district attorney and the Waco police officer who drafted a warrant for his arrest. Clendennen, a landscape-lighting designer from nearby Hewitt, argued that the warrant lacked probable cause.
The gag order, which was requested by prosecutors, barred parties in the case from speaking about it publicly. Sixteen news organizations, including The Associated Press, told the court last summer they supported Clendennen's request to overturn the gag order — which investigators have repeatedly cited when declining to comment on ongoing investigations related to the shooting.
Prosecutors did not return messages Wednesday seeking comment on the court ruling, but police suggested they would continue to be cautious in discussing the shooting.
"We don't want to possibly hinder the court process by discussing further evidence or information about the case," Waco police spokesman Sgt. Patrick Swanton said.
Prosecutors and Swanton gave a flurry of news conferences and interviews in the initial weeks after the shooting, which authorities have described as a melee between rival biker gangs. But at least two of the nine people killed were fatally wounded by the same caliber of rifle fired by Waco police, according to a review of ballistics evidence by the AP late last year.
Investigators have largely stayed silent since then about the criminal investigation. Since November, a grand jury has indicted 154 people on charges of engaging in organized criminal activity,
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
how did this INCREDIBLE, ILLEGAL and OUTRAGEOUS thing just disappear from the news?
If it was bloods and crips, we’d be hearing about it for years.
Maybe this was a test run before the really big roundups
My question has always been, why would a large gathering of bikers start a gunfight when they could clearly see groups of LEO’s standing outside with guns at the draw ?
In before TG and the Waco PD PR team.
Well, we still have no idea of how many Undercovers there were.
Sh&t Homey,I’m still waiting to hear about the Gay Amtrack conductor that derailed and killed people.
P.S. Go BILLS
no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He’s back. :)
did the jets even sign fitz yet?
Yeah. Right. The cops have no problem with talking to the Press whenever they figure that they can cook the trial or taint the jury pool.
The people going to Harvard need to realize how privileged they are.
They seem to be doing a pretty good job of it through our universities.
They seem to be doing a pretty good job of it through our universities.....
Commies in office also.
A dropped gag order promises that the handwringing and howling begins on all sides. Especially from those quarters filled with those who were not even there.
so much for the right to a speedy trial...
Am I the only one here that would like the headline written in plain English without double negatives:
“Texas’ top criminal court blocks Waco biker case gag order”
It should be either “court lifts gag order” or “Gag order remains”.
I’m guessing the court lifted the gag order.
The whole point of this shucking and jiving by the DA and the courts is to delay action in all public venues. No "speedy trial" (an indefinite time period, can be as long as ten years), no public statements by witnesses.
Well, not the whole point. The other point is to use the legal system to impose punishment by process, without any finding of guilt. It is emotionally damaging and financially expensive to be formally accused. The DA will ruin as many of these people as he can, and the courts will help. There is no recourse, there are "clever ways" to bypass the protections that people think the law provides, in a case of false prosecution. The DA has near absolute immunity, and the judges do have absolute immunity.
In all likelihood, one per gang.
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