Free Republic

A senior judge who presided over a hearing two years ago in which nine Twin Peaks defendants sought to remove McLennan County’s two primary felony court judges, was appointed Tuesday to preside over the case of former biker Matthew Clendennen. A day after 54th State District Judge Matt Johnson agreed to step down from hearing Clendennen’s case, regional administrative Judge Billy Ray Stubblefield appointed Senior Judge Doug Shaver, of Houston, to hear Clendennen’s case. A panel of 600 potential jurors has been summoned to report to court Oct. 27 in Clendennen’s case. The trial is set to start Nov. 6....

A federal judge today dismissed the wrongful death civil lawsuit brought by Branch Davidians, clearing the government of any wrongdoing in the deaths of about 80 members of the religious sect during the disastrous 1993 standoff at the group's compound near Waco, Tex. The judge, Walter Smith Jr. of Federal District Court in Waco, issued an order that found that federal agents had acted legally and could not be held liable for the deaths. His ruling ended a legal battle that lasted nearly seven years and came after an advisory jury in the case and a special counsel, former Senator...

Judge Matt Johnson, of Waco’s 54th State District Court, who was set to preside over the trial of the first Twin Peaks case next week, removed himself Monday from hearing what is set now as the second Twin Peaks shootout trial next month. Johnson’s decision to step aside came after Dallas attorney Clint Broden, who represents former Scimitars motorcycle club member Matthew Clendennen, filed a motion Monday seeking to recuse Johnson from further involvement in Clendennen’s case. Johnson was formerly law partners with McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna. Broden’s motion states that, according to the Texas Rules of Civil...

Twin Peaks defendant Matthew Clendennen wants to reopen the discussion about disqualifying McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna, but this time, he wants another judge to hear the motion. Clendennen's attorney, Clint Broden, filed a motion Thursday asking to reopen his request to disqualify Reyna from prosecuting Clendennen's case and seeking to recuse 54th State District Judge Matt Johnson only from rehearing the disqualification motion. Johnson rejected a similar motion from Broden last October. That ruling was upheld by Waco's 10th Court of Appeals. But while Broden is seeking a similar result, he is asking this time on different grounds...

Speculation about how many police fired their weapons into the panicked crowd at the Waco Twin Peaks on May 17, 2015 and who killed whom waxes and wanes. From the beginning, the official reporting of this case has been so twisted and Byzantine that it has been impossible not to see conspiracy. A mountain of evidence points to a clandestine conspiracy but it does not lead to where many people hope it will. There may very well be concealed evidence that shots were fired by police snipers. But if there was a sniper he fired only one shot. If there...

A small circle of hired and unpaid volunteer attorney’s in the Twin Peaks Biker Brawl case in Waco, acting to satisfy their consciences rather than their wallets, continue to chop away at the prosecution. According to Tommy Witherspoon of the Waco Tribune-Herald there are about 70 court appointed attorneys in the case. All of them seem to be adhering to what the Obama Administration used to call “strategic patience.” Last Friday Millie L. Thompson, the Austin lawyer who represents motorcycle rights activist Thomas Paul Landers, filed a motion to disqualify the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office from prosecuting her client’s...

As the first case involving the May 2015 Twin Peaks shootout appears heading to trial, McLennan County officials continue to plan for the potential astronomical costs related to the one-of-a-kind legal proceedings. Houston attorney Casie Gotro, who represents biker Jacob Carrizal, has announced she is representing the Bandidos Dallas chapter president for free. So that will save the county money, along with other bikers who have hired their own attorneys instead of relying on county-funded, court-appointed attorneys. About 70 of the 154 indicted bikers have court-appointed attorneys, but the majority of those attorneys haven’t sent bills to the county yet,...

A biker under indictment in the May 2015 Twin Peaks shootout is seeking to disqualify McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna’s office, in part, on grounds that Reyna has a financial stake as a defendant in civil rights lawsuits and because he could be called as a witness in the case. Austin attorney Millie Thompson, who represents Thomas Paul Landers, a founding member of the Escondido motorcycle group and an active motorcyclists’ rights advocate, filed a motion Friday asking 54th State District Judge Matt Johnson to disqualify Reyna’s office from prosecuting Landers’ case. Attorneys for other bikers have tried to...

Prosecutors and an attorney for Bandidos Dallas chapter president Jacob Carrizal continued to discuss evidence in the case Tuesday as the trial of the first Twin Peaks shootout defendant draws closer. Carrizal, 36, is set to be the first of 154 indicted bikers to stand trial in the May 17, 2015, shootout at Twin Peaks in Waco between rival biker groups that left nine dead and dozens injured. Judge Matt Johnson of Waco's 54th State District Court, who took over Carrizal's case after 19th State District Judge Ralph Strother was recused last month, waded through a number of pretrial discovery...

All four of the Twin Peaks Biker Brawl cases taken away from McLennan County Judge Ralph Strother over the last two weeks are being turned over to Matt Johnson, Judge of Texas’ 54th Judicial District and District Attorney Abel Reyna’s former law partner. Strother was recused, which is how lawyers spell removed, from three cases on August 30: George Bergman who is represented by Dallas attorney Clint Broden, Rolando Reyes who is defended by former Galveston judge Susan Criss, and Paul Landers, a bikers rights activist who has Austin attorney Millie L. Thompson trying to keep him out of the...

A Hewitt man indicted in the Twin Peaks shootout alleges his confidential relationship with his attorney was violated two years ago when their phone conversation was recorded at the McLennan County Jail. Dallas attorney Clint Broden, who represents Matthew Alan Clendennen, 32, has filed a motion asking that the indictment against his client be dismissed or that the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office be disqualified from prosecuting the case for the alleged violation of attorney-client privilege. “In my 30 years of practicing law, it is one of the most egregious violations of the attorney-client privilege that I have ever seen,”...

Christopher Jacob “Jake” Carrizal’s trial is off again. Casie Gotro, the Houston attorney who had a contentious relationship with Ralph Strother, the previous judge in the case, got Strother involuntarily recused two days. She thought Strother and Assistant District Attorney Michael Jarrett were cooperating to withhold potentially exculpatory evidence from her and had conspired to rush her into what she repeatedly called an ambush trial. That was obviously true but it was not all. Her biggest problem with Strother might have been that he tried to keep so much of the pretrial maneuvering off the record. She had to move...

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...

Police had reason to believe violence would occur, but failed to intervene. Twin Peaks management didn’t take proper precautions to protect customers. One state law enforcement agency was kept completely in the dark. It’s been more than two years since one of the deadliest criminal shootouts in American history. But the bloody clash involving motorcyclists at a Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco continues to be shrouded by a veil of secrecy. Criminal trials are scheduled to start next week, and thanks to a trove of leaked documents obtained by the Texas Standard, we now gain a fascinating insight into the...

So now, after stalling, twisting and strangling justice for 844 days and snickering about it, the scalawags who run Texas’ Third Administrative Judicial Region appear to have decided that this Casie Gotro person is begging to be put in her place. Gotro, as many or most or all of the McLennan County jury pool already knows, is not from Waco. She is from Houston which the Lord God recently washed for its wickedness. Somehow Gotro survived His wrath. And not only is she not from Waco. She is the impudent malapert who is attempting to clear the reputation of known...

A hearing initially set for Thursday morning to determine if 19th State District Judge Ralph Strother should be recused from the first Twin Peaks biker case set for trial was canceled late Wednesday because neither the biker nor his attorney could attend the hearing. Houston attorney Casie Gotro, who represents Bandidos Dallas chapter President Christopher Jacob Carrizal, notified the court Wednesday evening that she and Carrizal were given inadequate notice of the hearing and won't be able to attend. No new date for the recusal hearing is set, but Senior Judge Dan Mills, appointed to hear the motion, has suggested...

“I WILL…NOT BE VOLUNTARILY RECUSING MYSELF FROM HEARING THIS CASE (BANDIDO JACOB CARRIZAL) Six Shooter Junction – When Judge Ralph T. Strother announced over the noon hour on Tuesday to the local CBS outlet, KWTX Channel 10, that he will defy a recusal motion by the defense counsel of Bandido Jake Carrizal, he sent lawyers all over the state into a pow wow by fax, phone, and text. Only one of three attorneys who had previously obtained his recusal in other cases was available for comment. Former Galveston District Judge Susan Criss, who is defense counsel for Rolando Reyes, was...

Waco – At the heart of an alleged criminal conspiracy to withhold key exculpatory evidence in the Twin Peaks cases is the man in the cat bird seat. A supplemental motion to recuse 19th Criminal District Court Judge Ralph T. Strother filed on Friday, September 1 – after the McLennan County District Clerk’s Office had closed at five minutes to five p.m. on the day the long Labor Day weekend begins – contains the threads of the story. Filed by Houston defense attorney Casie Gotro on behalf of her client Bandido Jake Carrizal, president of the Dallas Chapter of that...

Whether Abelino Reyna, Michael Jarrett, Amanda Dillon and the rest of the humanoids in the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office like it or not, Michael Jarrett now has about as much chance to “do” Dallas Bandido Jake Carrizal first as he has to do Britney Spears. One hundred ninety-two criminal cases resulting from the probably police provoked, completely preventable, Waco Twin Peaks Biker Brawl in May 2015 have lingered for 838 days because three D League politicians have been stalling what should be the normal course of justice. The arrests were unconstitutional. The bails were unconstitutional. The grand jury deliberations...

A retired judge ruled Wednesday that 19th State District Judge Ralph Strother should be removed from presiding over the cases of three Twin Peaks bikers, saying he thinks the average man on the street might say, “Judge, you’re just not being fair.” Judge James Morgan of Bosque County recused Strother from hearing the cases of bikers Thomas Paul Landers, George Bergman and Rolando Reyes. Morgan conducted a hearing on the recusal motions Aug. 16, telling the parties before adjourning the hearing that they had given him a lot to think about. Dallas attorney Clint Broden, who represents Bergman, a member...