Keyword: waco
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De Oppresso Liber? We Shall See This is addressed first and foremost to the entire U.S. military, but especially to the military Special Operations Command and community. Secondly, it is addressed to federal LEOs, and especially to their SRTs, such as the FBI HRT (many of whom are former military special operations). This comes from combat arms and special operations veterans, along with veteran Sheriffs and police officers, within the Oath Keepers organization: Critical Warning: The Ammon Bundy led occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon must be handled as a normal, non-crisis, law enforcement matter, and preferably...
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This week, Harney County Fire Marshall Chris Briels resigned after discovering undercover FBI agents posing as militia members near the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, which has been the site of a standoff for weeks now. According to Briels, he found FBI agents who were impersonating militia members lurking around the town’s armory. When he inquired about the undercover operation with county Judge Steve Grasty he was told to back off. Just before this discovery was made, there were reports of people who looked like militia harassing locals, which is uncharacteristic of the protesters who initially assembled at the refuge. It...
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Two more bikers indicted two months ago in the May 17 Twin Peaks shootout pleaded not guilty Tuesday during brief court hearings. Two others had scheduled arraignments Tuesday in Waco's 54th State District Court, but one waived his court appearance and the fourth had his arraignment postponed while he seeks to hire an attorney. Judge Matt Johnson approved a request from Rene Cavazos, 47, a member of the Bandidos motorcycle group from Frisco, to have his GPS ankle monitor removed after no objection from prosecutor Amanda Dillon. Dusty Alan Oehlert, 32, of Hudson Oaks, also pleaded not guilty during his...
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efore retiring to dry heat and a second career in politics, Arizona state Sen. John Kavanagh arrested criminals in Times Square and other New York-area transit areas -- and one heroin bust 40 years ago, he says, inspired his new, instantly controversial bill to criminalize close-up filming of police in public. The legislation would require people to be at least 20 feet away while recording “law enforcement activity†or farther if officers decide that’s needed. Recording inside private buildings such as homes would be allowed from “an adjacent room or area†unless an officer objects. Violations would be petty offenses...
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A judge declined to throw out an indictment Friday against a biker who saw his stepfather killed May 17 at Twin Peaks and claims to be a crime victim rather than a criminal defendant. Houston attorney Paul Looney, who represents Cody Ledbetter, a member of the Cossacks group from Waco, also failed in his attempt Friday to have a trial date set for Ledbetter after asserting for the third time his client's demand for a speedy trial. Looney alleged that Ledbetter's case should catapult to the top of Judge Ralph Strother's 19th State District Court felony docket because Ledbetter is...
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WACO -- A Houston-based attorney representing a biker indicted in the Twin Peaks case was denied a request for a trial date Friday. According to Paul Looney who represents a member of the Cossacks, Cody Ledbetter, 26, Judge Ralph Strother refused to give his client a trial setting and denied making the District Attorney’s Office tell him what his client did wrong in the Twin Peaks incident on May 17th that left nine bikers dead. Looney claims the thousands of pages of discovery documents fail to reference anything his client did wrong at that time. "In fact, he told me...
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The events now unfolding at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge have been compared and contrasted many times with the 1993 siege in Waco. Here is one significant difference: It's not nearly as hard to find different perspectives on the Oregon conflict. From the most high-minded political essays to the dumbest Facebook memes, the debate over the Oregon occupation has been open to a wide range of ideas about the case that set off the conflict, the goals of the people involved, and how the government ought to react. Six days into this saga, I've seen a lot of bloodthirsty garbage,...
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Attorney Robert Callahan called the release of information from the McLennan County District Attorney's Office a victory. Callahan withdrew his request Tuesday from the court to compel the prosecutors to release evidence in his client's case, as required by the Michael Morton Act. Callahan filed the motion last week after saying he had attempted on multiple occasions to get the information against his client, William Aikin, a biker charged in the May 17 Twin Peaks shootout. The DA's office was asking defense attorneys in the case to sign a release form related to public disclosures before getting evidence against their...
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The tragedy last May 17 in Waco. Texas was a rock that fell from the sky into the ocean. Now the rock is buried fathoms deep and only the ripples remain - spreading farther and farther. The local authorities, most notably District Attorney Abel Reyna. know exactly how those nine men died. Video At a glance, this is not a complicated case. The actual bloodshed was captured on multiple video cameras. A mere 42 seconds elapsed from the very first overhand right until the moment a Cossack named Wayne Lee Campbell made the mistake of trying to shoot it out...
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Three top leaders of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club, considered an outlaw gang by U.S. authorities, have been arrested on charges of racketeering, assault and drug distribution that could bring up to life in prison, prosecutors said on Wednesday. The arrests are expected to send shock waves through the Bandidos, who have about 1,500 to 2,000 members in the United States, prosecutors said. The Bandidos, one of the biggest U.S. motorcycle gangs, with branches overseas, are suspected of being involved in a shootout last May in Waco, Texas, between rival gangs that killed nine people. The three named in a grand...
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Discrimination against motorcycle clubs is well documented and irrefutable. Incidents of criminal activity are sensationalized and used to mischaracterize an entire class of people based on stereotype and appearance. It seems that no motorcycle club is immune. Not even those dedicated to the service and protection of abused children. Indeed, from Waco to New Mexico motorcycle organizations dedicated to the protection of children have been the victim of motorcycle discrimination and denied basic civil liberties solely because of expressing their associations. In New Mexico, the Guardians of Children were denied entrance into the Bernalillo County Courthouse unless they turned inside...
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CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - The Nevada Supreme Court has ordered a new trial for a man convicted of assassinating a Hells Angel leader in a 2011 shootout between rival motorcycle clubs at a Reno-area casino. The high court issued its ruling Thursday overturning the conviction of Ernesto Gonzalez, 57, saying the district court abused its discretion by not answering a jury question about a conspiracy charge. Justices also said the lower court failed to split up decisions about guilt and whether Gonzalez should get a harsher penalty for gang involvement. "The cumulative effect of these errors deprived appellant of...
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In some parts of the country this seems to be a settled question but it’s still cropping up in a disturbing number of places. We’re seeing incidents where court cases are popping up over instances where private citizens out on public property wind up in court with the cops after filming the activities of police on the streets. This can go one of two ways: the citizen is in trouble for doing the filming and faces charges or the cops are on the stand because of how they reacted to the filming. Neither should be showing up on the docket,...
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An attorney for a biker charged after the May 17 Twin Peaks shootout is challenging the McLennan County District Attorney's requirement that he sign a release form to receive the prosecutors' evidence in the case. A hearing date has been set for 11 a.m. Jan. 15 before Judge Matt Johnson of Waco's 54th State District Court for a motion filed by Robert Callahan, whose client William Aikin was among the 106 indicted in the case so far. The noon-hour shootout left nine people dead and 20 wounded. Callahan's motion states he has not been able to receive the information after...
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A Houston lawyer, representing a biker charged in the Twin Peaks clash, traveled to Waco Monday with a bold offer that might be too intriguing for a judge not to indulge him. The plan, described in a motion filed in McLennan County, stands to save the 105 other defendants as well as prosecutors, police, and dozens of other lawyers and courthouse personnel from a massive, expensive legal boondoggle. As lawyer Paul Looney sees it, there is no way the county can handle the cost, time and logistics of prosecuting 106, and maybe more bikers, especially if most of them refuse...
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The criminal-justice system in Waco, Texas, continues to boggle the mind. Last month, a grand jury in McClellan County held a marathon session to consider whether District Attorney Abel Reyna had presented enough evidence to justify indictments in the shootout at a May gathering of bikers where nine people were killed. In the wake of those killings, 177 bikers were arrested. Many proclaimed their innocence, and local authorities faced criticism for jailing so many individuals using fill-in-the-blank paperwork that didn't differentiate among the jailed. Still, the November grand jury session returned 106 indictments at the end of one day, some...
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A 66-year-old minister for the Bandidos motorcycle group pleaded not guilty Monday to charges related to the May 17 Twin Peaks shootout among rival bikers. Lawrence Raymond Yager, of Buda, who also has said he serves as chaplain for two veterans groups, was arraigned Monday in Waco's 54th State District Court. Yager is on his third attorney since his examining trial in August. He was represented Monday by Austin attorney Franklin Bynum. Four other bikers were set for arraignments Monday, but they waived their court appearances. Bynum declined comment Monday. Yager is among 106 bikers indicted last month on first-degree...
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ABILENE, Texas - A jury found Jack Lewis, the former president of the Abilene chapter of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club, not guilty of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon late Wednesday afternoon. Lewis, 48, was on trial for stabbing Timothy Shayne Satterwhite, who is a member of the Cossacks Motorcycle Club. It's all related to a fight in the Logan's Roadhouse parking lot in November of 2013. Wednesday afternoon Lewis took the stand in his own defense. He said he never stabbed anyone. A fellow Bandido MC member, Wesley Mason, testified he stabbed Satterwhite and another member of the Cossacks...
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WACO -- McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna acknowledged Friday that a clerical error resulted in a 10th dead biker's name to be included among some of the indictments returned against 106 bikers in the Twin Peaks shooting. Only nine bikers were killed in the shootout on May 17th. The nine bikers killed are all listed on the indictments. That list is made up of Delgado Rodriguez, 65, Richard Matthew Jordan, III, 31, Jacob Lee Rhyne, 39, Richard Vincent Kirshner, Jr., 47, Wayne Lee Campbell, 43, Daniel Raymond Boyett, 44, Manuel Issac Rodriguez, 40, Matthew Mark Smith, 27, and Charles...
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While authorities have said for months that nine bikers died in the May 17 Twin Peaks shootout, indictments in the cases attribute a 10th death to the melee. The names of the nine bikers killed in the clash of the rival groups have been widely reported. But it wasn't until recently, when the indicted bikers appeared in court for arraignments and the indictments were read aloud, that the inclusion of a 10th biker, identified in indictments as William Anderson, was noticed. Waco police and McLennan County prosecutors did nothing Thursday to help clear up the discrepancy. District Attorney Abel Reyna...
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