Posted on 04/19/2018 5:13:05 PM PDT by Elderberry
With the McLennan County District Attorney's Office in a state of flux, the county's two felony court judges have summoned about 50 Twin Peaks biker shootout defendants to court in coming weeks to try to determine how the 128 or so remaining cases will proceed.
Judge Ralph Strother of 19th State District Court and Judge Matt Johnson of 54th State District Court have scheduled status conferences for many of the Twin Peaks defendants. Strother has summoned 27 defendants for April 27, while Johnson's conference with about 25 defendants is set for May 4.
All of the defendants directed to be in court on those days are or were affiliated with the Cossacks motorcycle group. Nine bikers were killed and more than 20 were injured in the May 17, 2015, shootout between the Cossacks and Bandidos that played out before a lunch crowd at Twin Peaks in Waco.
Since then, only one defendant, Jacob Carrizal, has gone to trial. Carrizal, 36, president of the Dallas Bandidos chapter, remains free on bond after his trial ended in November in a mistrial when jurors deadlocked.
Barry Johnson defeated McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna in the March Republican primary, and two of Reyna's assistants who participated in Carrizal's trial confirmed this week they are leaving the office for other jobs.
Attorneys for bikers tried to conduct hearings in recent months in an effort to disqualify Reyna from handling the Twin Peaks cases. They subpoenaed Reyna and current and former assistants to testify at the hearings.
However, Reyna dismissed 26 Twin Peaks cases and refused 32 others that had not been indicted, effectively putting an end to the hearings at which testimony damaging to Reyna was expected. Since then, activity in the Twin Peaks cases has stagnated.
(Excerpt) Read more at wacotrib.com ...
Why? too Document how WACO PD destroyed some folks lives?
I hope it is so they can make an excuse for dismissing the overwhelming majority of the remaining cases.
Why only Cossacks?
I wonder when the thug Reyna will be subjected himself to the justice system. And I wonder when Reyna’s MANY co-conspirators will be brought to justice.
IBTG and other Statist boot & leather worshippers
........I’ve had a lot of business in Waco and live just a hundred miles south on 281 from there but for the life of me I cannot figure out “WHY” Waco brought all this bs down upon themselves.
There were a handful of truly bad people and the rest should have been tried on misdemeanors and let go.
Now, the rest of Texas taxpayers are going to be picking up Waco’s mess.
They should have gotten all of the shootings straightened out.
7 more years...
Agreed.
Lot of lives financially messed up with on a sting gone wrong.
They can't try anybody at all without releasing the full autopsies, the full ballistic reports, and the complete audio and video recorded at the scene.
since they can't afford to do that, the only hope at all they ever had was to get somebody to plead out without a trial.
Since Waco's last fiasco the area has attracted a lot of competent council. None of those arrested had a complete idiot for a lawyer, and that was the only chance Reyna ever had. Now it will be a drawn out process of dropping all the cases since none of them can be allowed (by the county) to go to trial.
Do things fall into place enough for you now, or do you want the conjecture as to how the Feds (who instantly appeared on the scene as if teleported) fit into the genesis of the debacle?
Sounds like the judges may be willing to drop some charges.
.......well, you make some truly informed points.
My “point” is that charges should never have been brought against the vast majority of these folks because, as you indirectly allude to, there was no plan (staffing or financial or evidentiary) to go from A to Z with 170 odd prosecutions.
Inexperienced prosecutors and judges (relatively speaking, there’s not a lot of crime in McClennan County), under political pressure from uber conservatives in McClennan County, ran a bluff and some pretty good lawyers and tough minded bikers called it by simply saying........”uh.....we’ll go to trial”.
The filing of charges on around 170 people at one time was, on it’s face, all things weighed and considered, dumb as all get out.
Appreciate the update
However, the police and prosecutor’s “arrest them all and let God sort them out” policy, followed by their stubborn refusal to reassess their approach to the whole affair, really hurt their chances of bringing any real criminals to justice, in my opinion.
Should have been: “I do not doubt...”
I reassert my assessment that they detirmined that they could not afford to go to trial with any case whatsoever by about three hours after the shooting stopped. All the kabuki show - mass arrest, high bails, etc have been a shell game to buy time in order to reduce the damage from wrongful death liability.
Reyna really thought all that crap would persuade somebody to cop a plea, and he had to buy time to breathe in case video footage surfaced which the police thought deleted at the scene.
You could be right.
Then why did they go to trial with the Jake Carrizal case?
They floated a failed attempt to withhold much of the discovery.
It didn’t fly.
Remember, part of what hung the jury was the obviously missing footage and ballistics.
What hung the jury though was a ringer on the jury that prevented a not guilty verdict.
Jake didn't shoot anyone, so I don't see that ballistics was an issue.
Jake testified he fired his derringer in self defense. None of his shots struck home. And the police shot the biker he was defending himself from.
Obviously self defense.
There was testimony about two of the 3, or was it 4, police shooters. And their weapons. And who they shot.
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