Posted on 09/13/2017 4:57:31 AM PDT by Elderberry
Christopher Jacob (Jake) Carrizal, a Bandido from Dallas charged with directing members of a street gang to commit murder and aggravated assault, will go on trial tomorrow at 9 a.m. in Waco, Texas before Judge Chad Johnson.
Carrizal was arrested after the Twin Peaks Biker Brawl 29 months ago. He was indicted in November 2015 and re-indicted last June. What he actually appears to have done is try to park his motorcycle when a group of Cossacks opened fire on his group of 12 Bandidos. Then at least three Waco policeman opened fire on everybody. The charges against Carrizal would not appear to be just. At least to the average, informed man in the street. But it is all perfectly legal.
Carrizal has had a couple of lawyers. The first was Landon L. Northcutt who advertises on his website that he is a lawyer with “15 Years Of Experience, Hundreds Of Trials” and who has been described in open court as “never being ready for a trial in his life.” Northcutt was replaced by a lady named Casie Lynn Gotro who has been fighting like a demon for the last week to try to get Carrizal a trial before a judge she thinks will be fair. Yesterday she managed to get Judge Ralph Strother recused. Tonight she is batting .500, which is pretty good for Waco.
One of the most notable details about all the “Twin Peaks cases,” as the McLennan County prosecutors describe them among themselves, is that three of the four defense attorneys most stubbornly arguing that these cases have been fixed from the beginning are women. One of them is a former prosecutor and judge from Galveston named Susan Criss. Another is Austin attorney Millie L. Thompson who described herself in court today as a “radical defense attorney.” The fourth is Dallas lawyer Clint Broden, who currently has three motions before Waco judge Matt Johnson and who has a little history with Johnson. Broden is going to have to wait for his motion hearing.
Oh Joy Johnson
About 7:30 tonight, a visiting judge named Robert Miller Stem ruled that Johnson will preside over the Carrizal trial. Assistant District Attorney Michael Jarrett promises it will be “shorter than O.J.’s.” He couldn’t be baited into saying how much shorter he thinks it will be. O.J. Simpson’s murder trial in 1995 lasted 135 days.
According his legal coordinator, a blunt woman named Paige Light, Johnson knew he was being assigned to try Carrizal before Gotro did.
Johnson set jury selection for 8:30 this morning. Gotro got there at nine, saw Johnson and immediately filed a motion to recuse him. Johnson, who was then, technically, off the case responded by forbidding anyone, including Gotro from leaving the room and if they tried he would have them jailed which is, technically, kidnapping. The threat epitomized the way Johnson has handled the Twin Peaks cases for the last two years.
Poof
As if by magic, a recusal hearing was arranged for noon with Stem presiding. Stem quacks like he is fair and impartial but he is no duck. The hearing sputtered and restarted for almost another full shift. The highlights were all feminine.
A blindingly blonde, born again bitch in a tight black suit and four inch stilettos named Amanda Dillon explained to Gotro why she had been in Strother’s recusal hearing the day before. “Frankly, I think a lot of people show up to see your behavior.”
Dillon is an assistant DA who has been so absorbed by the Twin Peaks cases that she has become a biker gang expert. It was her notion to divide every defendant in the case into the “Red and Gold Team” and the “Black and Yellow Team” on account of “a safety concern.”
She explained to fellow prosecutor Jarrett that “outlaw motorcycle gangs is all I have done for two years..” She is the beneficiary of “extensive training” and has “debriefed (outlaw motorcycle gang) experts across the country. “Based on” her “experience and training” she considers “the Cossacks and Bandidos to be criminal street gangs.” She has learned that “the Bandidos are at war with the Cossacks and the Kinfolk” motorcycle clubs.
Under Gotro’s cross examination it turns out her extensive training is comprised of a course that was sponsored by the Texas “Attorney General’s Office” and an annual conference sponsored by the Texas Gang Investigators Association.
The Anti Dillon
The anti Amanda Dillon was Thompson, a soft spoken, stubborn and astoundingly well spoken woman who Jarrett mercilessly tried to bully on the stand. Eventually he got her to admit that she didn’t think working people should have to attend multiple, capriciously scheduled hearings; that she was surprised to be summoned to court for service of a DNA warrant on her client, Paul Landers; and that she signed her letters “in resistance.” Thompson kept her composure while Jarrett relentlessly argued that she was a much less experienced and more callow attorney than he. The cross examination revealed much more about the prosecutor than the defender.
And then there was Gotro’s closing argument after it had already become obvious that she and Carrizal were stuck with Johnson. Gotro usually affects the persona of a little toughie. Her voice quavered with emotion and she genuinely seemed about to weep as she practically begged Stem for a “fair” trial.
Not in Waco, baby. Not in this case.
Kinda hard to feel for someone in a 1% MC.
Sometimes, there are no good guys.
Did you read the article?
I almost forgot, IBTG.
Eminent until the local government invents another way to postpone it.
Of course I did, why would I comment otherwise?
It's a sob story about how some criminal thug doesn't like the judge. In reality there's a ton of evidence against him and they're setting the table for the impending appeal.
Really? Do you have a link to the “ton of evidence against” HIM?
Also, do you think this article gives an actual fair accounting of the facts surrounding this case?
A blindingly blonde, born again bitch in a tight black suit and four inch stilettos named Amanda Dillon explained to Gotro why she had been in Strother’s recusal hearing the day before.
So you have no link to or documentation of the “ton of evidence against him”? You’re just ASSUMING the prosecutors must be good guys and must have the “tons of” evidence? There’s no possibility that they are Nifong (Duke lacrosse case) clones in your mind?
IBTG
You comparing it to the Duke Lacrosse case is completely wrong. There was no evidence of a crime in the Duke case. There's 9 people dead and 18 wounded in the Twin Peaks. No comparison.
Why are you assuming that they're innocent when every indicator, aside from a clearly agenda driven article, indicates the opposite?
Thanks for update
WACO, TX (KXXV) -By Estephany Escobar
The potential jurors who had been summoned for the first Twin Peaks trials have been dismissed.
Christopher "Jacob" Carrizal, the president of the Dallas chapter of the Bandidos, is the first biker expected to go on trial.
The potential jurors had attended court three times without the process of impaneling the jury starting.
The last two times they appeared in court, they were sent home after defense attorney Casie Gotro filed a motion to recuse judges Ralph Strother and Matt Johnson.
Strother was recused from Carrizal's trial. Johnson is expected to preside over the case.
On Wednesday morning, the defense attorney and the District Attorney's Office met prior the jury was requested to appear. At that time, they decided to dismiss the jury.
Gotro said the jury was dismissed because of a need for a pre-trial conference with Judge Johnson before moving forward.
The pre-trial conference is expected to take place on Monday at 9 a.m.
Another jury pool could be summoned for September 29.
http://www.kxxv.com/story/36356316/potential-jurors-in-first-twin-peaks-trial-dismissed
Bttt.
5.56mm
Do you even understand how criminal cases work?
I'm pretty sure you don't based on your statements.
Some folks are able to discern things from their experiences in life and can use them to draw logical conclusions.
Some can't and end up rooting for the long shot time after time, only to be proven wrong and learn nothing.
Is there an objective measurement system for that attribute of a Judge.
Is there an objective measurement system for that attribute of a Judge?
Yeah, I didn’t think you had anything.
LOL! 1%’erst are good guys? You live in a weird world!
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