Posted on 09/20/2016 6:28:48 PM PDT by Elderberry
A decision about whether McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna will be disqualified from prosecuting Twin Peaks biker cases likely will be delayed because Reyna refuses to answer questions about who is picking up his legal tab for civil lawsuits.
Attorneys for two bikers indicted in the May 17, 2015, shootout between rival groups filed a motion Tuesday asking 54th State District Judge Matt Johnson to compel Reyna to answer the questions or to hold another hearing to resolve the dispute.
Johnson ordered the parties to get together after a hearing in August to work through questions that Reyna would not answer at the hearing and deferred to his attorney, Thomas Brandt, of Dallas.
The attorneys, Clint Broden and Abigail Anastasio, are seeking to disqualify Reyna from the cases, asserting he has a financial conflict of interest because he is a named defendant in 10 federal civil rights lawsuits filed in Austin by bikers arrested after the Twin Peaks shootout.
“Simply put, Mr. Reyna’s career and financial well-being are in jeopardy because of his flagrant disregard of well-settled law,” the motion states. “Nevertheless, if he is able to obtain a conviction in this case, he reduces his personal financial exposure for the false arrest he caused when he overruled decisions made by the ‘upper chain of command’ in the Waco Police Department.”
Neither Reyna nor Brandt returned phone messages Tuesday from the Tribune-Herald.
The motion claims that Reyna and Brandt asserted attorney-client and attorney-work product privileges as reasons they would not answer the questions posed during and after the hearing about Reyna’s potential financial exposure in the civil suit.
“It is certainly suspect that Mr. Reyna purports not to know definitively whether he will be covered in full for any civil rights judgments against him, or whether, as he put it during his testimony, he will be forced to ‘take food out of my son’s mouth’ in much the same way his actions took food out of the mouths of sons and daughters of almost 200 motorcyclists,” the motion states.
“Nevertheless, based on Mr. Reyna’s repeated claims that the defendants should ‘talk to his attorneys’ and/or ‘talk to county officials’ to get definitive answers to simple questions, the defendants attempted to do just that.”
Johnson has given parties on both sides until Sept. 30 to submit briefs outlining their arguments in the disqualification matter. If he has to conduct another hearing to resolve the motion seeking his order to force Reyna to answer the questions, it likely will delay a ruling in the disqualification dispute.
There are no trial dates set for any of the 154 bikers indicted on first-degree felony engaging in organized crime charges.
“I continue to be disappointed with the lack of transparency with the district attorney’s office,” Broden said Tuesday. “They are straightforward questions with relatively straightforward answers, and they chose to delay and obfuscate.
“I think we are going to get the answers at the end of the day. It is just a matter of how many hoops they want us to jump through. Meanwhile, their legal bills are piling up, and courthouse resources are being expended when they can’t come up with answers to simple questions,” he said.
Broden represents Matthew Clendennen, a Scimitar from Hewitt, and Anastasio represents Ray Nelson, a Cossack from Gholson.
Reyna testified at the August hearing that he is not concerned about the federal civil rights suits because he did the right thing and will continue to do the right thing.
Reyna said he doesn’t think he is liable personally for any potential judgments against him or for his legal fees, testifying that the Texas Association of Counties risk pool, of which McLennan County is a member, will pick up the first $500,000 and, presumably, county taxpayers would pick up anything more than that.
AS always has a financial interest in every case.
I wonder what the citizens of McLennan County think about that?
Tick tick, tick tick .... just as the clock eventually ran out for Mike Nifong (of the infamous Duke Lacrosse false prosecutions) so the clock will eventually run out on this malicious action being carried out by Reyna and his Obama regime ATF/DOJ co-conspirators. Justice will eventually prevail although the persecuted bikers (and their families) will never be able to recover from their unjust sufferings. HE should pay for his transgressions instead of the Texas taxpayers.
“Justice will eventually prevail although the persecuted bikers (and their families) will never be able to recover from their unjust sufferings. HE should pay for his transgressions instead of the Texas taxpayers.”
And while they are about it,they need to impeach this a$$hole “judge” Matt Johnson. A sewage treatment plant smells better than a courtroom in McLennan County, Texas! I just wished that the “citizens” of Whacko, would have to pony up ALL THE MONEY the bikers are going to get at the end of the day. After all, they elected these disgraceful people.
Thank you for keeping this story in the public eye.
Reyna needs to be executed for his crimes; after a trial, of course.
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