Posted on 11/07/2016 4:02:53 PM PST by Elderberry
San Antonio attorney Tom Clarke is concerned that James Rosas will become a “lightning rod” as the first Twin Peaks biker to stand trial, but Clarke said his client didn’t do anything wrong and someone needs to draw a line in the sand.
Almost 18 months after the shootout between rival biker groups left nine dead and two dozen injured, Rosas has become the first of 154 bikers indicted in the May 17, 2015, incident to receive a trial date.
Judge Matt Johnson of Waco’s 54th State District Court set Rosas’ trial on first-degree felony engaging in organized criminal activity charges to begin Jan. 23 after Clarke announced he was ready for trial and asked for a trial setting.
The request comes as the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office continues to provide hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of pages of discovery materials to the bikers’ defense attorneys, including copies of police reports, hundreds of hours of audio and video recordings of the incident and subsequent interviews with bikers, 700,000 pages of cellphone records, tens of thousands of photographs and Facebook posts.
Rosas now is set for a pretrial docket appearance Jan. 6 and a status hearing Jan. 13. It is unclear if the DA’s office will announce whether it will be ready to take Rosas’ case to trial on Jan. 23 or if it will seek a postponement.
The remainder of the indicted bikers’ cases remain on what are known as announcement dockets in 54th and 19th State District Court and have not been moved yet to the courts’ trial dockets.
District Attorney Abel Reyna and his first assistant, Michael Jarrett, did not return phone calls from the Tribune-Herald seeking comment on the biker cases.
Clarke said Rosas, 48, a welder, is a hardworking married man who lives in Selma and likes to ride motorcycles with his buddies on weekends. Clarke said the only thing Rosas did wrong that day was to wear a vest as a member of the Valerosos motorcycle group, a support club of the Bandidos.
Clarke has tried calling the McLennan County DA’s office to ask what evidence it has against his client because he says he can’t find any as he pores over the reams of discovery evidence. He said no one returned his phone calls.
Circling the wagons
“I think they have gotten into a circle-the-wagons mentality over there in the DA’s office because of all the civil lawsuits being filed and the attempt to disqualify the DA from handling the cases,” Clarke said. “But to me, this case is strange because I can kind of understand them arresting everyone, but by now, they should have sorted them all out and said, ‘You can go. You didn’t do anything.’ I don’t see where that is justice here. If you have got something, show it to me.”
The case against Rosas, like many others, should be dismissed, Clarke said.
“There has been a lot of discovery released, and I slog through it and I don’t see anything on my client at all,” Clarke said. “They took his vest. He answered their questions. He didn’t have a gun. He didn’t have brass knuckles. He was riding in an SUV. He went there to go to a meeting, but that doesn’t make you guilty of organized crime.”
Rosas and a couple of friends had just gotten to Twin Peaks and were getting out of their vehicle when a “minor riot” broke out between the Cossacks and Bandidos, Clarke said.
“But my client had no foreknowledge of anything that was going on between those groups, and they didn’t go up there to participate in any violent outbreak,” Clarke said. “Honestly, I believe probably 100 or more bikers are in the same posture. Some may have gone up there with bad intentions, but I don’t think the majority did.”
Corsicana attorney John Jackson, a solo practitioner hired to represent Ronald Atterbury, a Cossack from Gatesville, said he might have to hire someone to assist him in reviewing the discovery as it continues to come in waves.
“I haven’t run across anything yet that applies to my client,” Jackson said.
Jackson and Clarke said defense attorneys involved in the Twin Peaks cases have been given five rounds of discovery from the DA’s office, which is required by statute to provide any and all evidence to the defense, regardless of whether the evidence points to guilt or innocence.
The DA’s office recalled the sixth round of evidence last month after it was discovered some of the bikers’ cellphone images that were released contained child pornography.
As a former Navarro County district attorney and former state district judge, Jackson said he appreciates the task Reyna’s office is dealing with because of the massive amount of evidence collected during the chaotic event.
“It would be completely debilitating,” Jackson said. “I don’t understand how they can do it. It is a massive undertaking.”
Jackson said other lawyers may be hesitant to push ahead to trial until they have had time to review all the evidence, including some that might tend to exonerate their clients.
Massive cost
In the meantime, county officials are contemplating how to fund the huge expense of prosecuting all the cases. McLennan County Auditor Stan Chambers said the county has paid $62,026 so far in court-appointed attorneys’ fees. That total will multiply dramatically as the cases drag on and as the 70 to 80 court-appointed attorneys continue to review the mountain of discovery at $75 an hour for out-of-court time and $80 an hour for in-court time.
As the first cases are tried in McLennan County, the potential remains for changes of venue for remaining defendants. Trying the cases away from Waco would double or triple the cost to the county, officials say.
As more bikers go to trial, their attorneys likely will feel the need to hire experts in a number of subjects, including ballistics, crime scene analysis, DNA and others, which also will increase the costs to the county.
And it has been suggested the DA’s office could upgrade the charges against a few of the bikers to capital murder and seek the death penalty in those cases. Capital murder cases are extremely expensive and include year after year of appeals if there are convictions.
Even 18 months later, it is not possible to say how much the entire prosecution of the Twin Peaks cases will cost McLennan County, officials say.
The guy on the right spooks me a little...
About 200 bikers showed up for a meeting. Somebody started shooting. Nine people ended up dead. Cops charged 177 with conspiracy to commit murder, most of whom had no previous criminal record. Cops aren’t saying who was killed by cops, who may have been killed by other bikers. Federal agents there. Lots of film on dozens of phones, plus federal and local police cams. Cops not walking back arrests or indictments on anybody, including those from peaceful biker groups, those with no weapons, those who did not display weapons, etc.
At least 100 should never have been charged, and enough camera and police witnesses, plus bullet matches to narrow down shooters to under 20 bikers. That’s what normal cops would have done, because it’s a lot cheaper for the city, and avoids expensive lawsuits.
One man's drug dealer is another man's freedom fighter. Or so the idiotic story goes that they sell.
A few links from one source here:http://www.wacotrib.com/news/twin-peaks-biker-shooting/
No.
You are way off base, and your comments seem to support the subverting of justice.
The cops and feds that day murdered people.
Almost IBTG.
Look at the autopsies. Every one was killed with a shot to the head by a rifle.
Another one of your lies:
(from the autopsies)
Manuel Issac Rodriguez, 40, Allen, one gunshot wound in the head and one in the back. Head: Medium Caliber NOT from police .223; Back: Medium Caliber NOT from police .223
Matthew Mark Smith, 27, Keller, one gunshot wound in the back and one in the abdomen.
Back: Medium Caliber NOT from police .223; Abdomen: Not Determined
Jesus Delgado Rodriguez, 65, New Braunfels, one gunshot wound to the head and one in the back. Head: Medium Caliber NOT from police .223; Trunk: Undertermined
Richard Matthew Jordan II, 31, Pasadena, one gunshot wound to the head. Head: Medium Caliber NOT from police .223
Richard Vincent Kirschner Jr., 47, Wylie, one gunshot wound to the top of the head, one to the left knee and one in the buttocks. Knee: Medium Caliber NOT from police .223; Buttocks: Small Caliber .223 or .22
Wayne Lee Campbell, 43, Fort Worth, one gunshot wound to the head. Trunk: Small Caliber .223 or .22
Daniel Raymond Boyett, 44, Waco, shot two times in the head. Head: Medium Caliber NOT from police .223; Abdomen: Medium Caliber NOT from police .223; Head: Undetermined
Charles Wayne Russell, 46, Tyler, shot once in the chest. Chest: Small Caliber .223 or .22
Jacob Lee Rhyne, 39, Ranger, shot once in the neck and once in the abdomen.Neck: Undertermined; Abdomen: Undetermined
Spaz. Arm: Not Available ... yet!
“The cops and feds that day murdered people.”
It’s called stopping a riot. Many here advocate lethal force to stop riots.
What a swarm of bullshit.
100% fact.
In your delusional mind.
I notice you are all about attacking the messenger but nothing refuting the message.
As a lifetime student of human behavior, I admit, I am fascinated by a mind that can conclude that because an entry wound that is measured to be “.250 cal.” made by a projectile that continues in it’s path to do severe trauma to such structures as the Petrous bone can conclude that this wound could NOT have been caused by a projectile of .223 cal. diameter but WAS caused by a projectile of 9 mm or .45 cal. at subsonic velocity.
A mind that is capable of such mental gymnastics is probably capable of amazing feats of delusion.
When the message is bullshit it does not need refuting.
As an occasional commercial truck driver ... I find the guy on the left a lot more predictable and easier to deal with than the guy on the right.
Your ignorance of medical autopsies is showing ...
My credentials in reviewing and indeed, contributing to, autopsies is light years beyond yours.
Then, how do you explain your misunderstanding of the autopsy facts?
But excellent mental gymnastics! You have gone from bemoaning an attack on the messenger to doing as much in two posts. Good work. Try a double back flip on the next bounce.
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