Posted on 05/14/2017 6:12:43 PM PDT by Elderberry
Forty-seven bikers arrested after the Twin Peaks shootout, including a retired 32-year police veteran, have added their names to a growing list of those claiming in lawsuits that they were jailed without cause under excessive bonds in the May 2015 melee.
The bikers claim their civil rights were violated when city and county officials decided to arrest 177 bikers on identical charges and place them under $1 million bonds after the May 17, 2015, shootout in which nine bikers died and dozens were injured.
The latest two lawsuits were filed Friday evening in an Austin federal court on the bikers’ behalf by Dallas attorney Don Tittle, who previously had filed suit for 31 bikers in the same court. Of the previous 31 bikers, only seven are under indictment on first-degree felony engaging in organized criminal activity charges.
Tittle added three of the 47 new plaintiffs, Richard Dauley, Justin Waddington and James Venable, to existing lawsuits this week. Those three are not indicted, and the 44 other new plaintiffs all are indicted.
Included in this group of plaintiffs is Martin D.C. Lewis, who is identified in the lawsuit as a retired 32-year veteran of the San Antonio Police Department whose father was a San Antonio police officer for 27 years.
Wednesday will mark two years since the shootout and the deadline to file civil suits within the statute of limitations. Sept. 1 stay
U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks extended a stay until Sept. 1 in the civil rights lawsuits filed by the unindicted bikers. Sparks had ruled previously that the criminal cases in McLennan County of the 155 bikers indicted would take precedence over the civil lawsuits.
Attorneys for bikers who were arrested but not indicted asked Sparks to lift the stay in their cases, but the judge, in a ruling last month, left the stay in place until at least Sept. 1.
The previous lawsuits named as defendants former Waco Police Chief Brent Stroman, Waco police Detective Manuel Chavez, McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna, the city of Waco and McLennan County.
The new lawsuits include those defendants and also added Waco Assistant Police Chief Robert Lanning, Waco police Detective Jeffrey Rogers, Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton, Texas Department of Public Safety Lt. Steven Schwartz and DPS agent Christopher Frost.
While extending the stay in the civil cases, Sparks warned McLennan County and city of Waco officials that after Sept. 1, he would need more than their assurances that cases against the unindicted bikers “remain under investigation” to convince him to keep the stay in place.
“Despite the fact that no evidence whatsoever indicates that any of them were engaged in anything other than completely lawful conduct, defendants Stroman, Reyna and Chavez recently stated in legal pleadings filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas that ‘these individuals have not been absolved of criminal wrongdoing’ and remain very much under investigation,” Tittle wrote. “This suit seeks to correct the miscarriage of justice and assault on the United States Constitution perpetrated by these defendants.”
No biker has gone to trial in the criminal case, and several trial dates that were set have been postponed.
Reyna conferred with Stroman by telephone and with Stroman’s top assistants at the scene of the shootout before the decision was made to arrest the bikers en masse.
Waco police officials already had interviewed and identified a busload of bikers and allowed them to leave Waco before Reyna arrived and conferred with Stroman. After that, every biker with ties to the Cossacks or rival Bandidos went to jail, including some bikers who weren’t at Twin Peaks when the shooting started.
Sparks instructed the defendants in the case that if the plaintiffs again ask him to lift the stay in cases involving unindicted bikers, they should “describe with specificity the status of its criminal investigation into plaintiffs and its expected duration.”
An effort to disqualify Reyna from overseeing the prosecution of the biker cases remains pending in Waco’s 10th Court of Appeals.
The lawsuits allege authorities relied on “identical, fill-in-the-blank” arrest affidavits that did not allege specific facts against the plaintiffs “that would in any way establish probable cause” for their arrests. The indictments allege the bikers acted as members of a criminal street gang, which the lawsuits dispute.
Reyna and police officials decided to arrest the bikers en masse “based entirely on their presence at Twin Peaks, the motorcycle club that defendants presumed an individual was associated with and/or the clothing they were wearing” at the time of the incident, the suit alleges.
“Rather than investigating the incident and relying on actual facts to establish probable cause, defendants theorized that a conspiracy of epic proportion between dozens of people had taken place, and willfully ignored the total absence of facts to support their ‘theory,’ ” according to the suits.
Thanks for posting this.
These situations where wrongful actions by public servants (and I don’t know if that is the case) always results in payouts by taxpayers, instead of from those directly involved.
Guess that also means Chip and Joanna Gaines' business plan for the HGTV show becomes questionable in the same area.
Could be, which is too bad. They have done a great job, whether intentional or not, of counter-balancing the ugly Twin Peaks situation. It also is too bad because, honestly, I have met some of the nicest, most caring people in my life in our short time here. And prayer still happens in at least one public school in certain settings. A Waco PD policeman was my daughter's basketball coach at the YMCA - tremendous, Christian man. The power-play leaders suck, but there really are great, regular folks here.
His own lawsuit may have a bit more impact:
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2017/04/28/fixer-uppers-chip-gaines-sued-by-former-business-partners-for-fraud.html
Thank you for posting my friend. I hope the wheels are about to fly off this crap lawsuit. Not going to be pretty for McLennan County.
Here is the amazing one:
Four Twin Peaks bikers seek $1 billion in civil lawsuit
Wonder if this would have happened at all if said Bikers were meeting antifas or muslims?
Elections have consequences. Let the taxpayers pay for their votes. They still haven’t fired those involved.
Make illegal government, at least pay for the right to upend any reasonable law.
IBTG and it’s a miracle!
IBTG! Miracle #2!
#3 falls in line
Incident occurred Dec. 12, 2014, at Gator's Jam Inn II on Race Street, Ft. Worth.
Brady was a Ghost Rider, from Arlington. Not a criminal --- that I know of.
Absolutely unconfirmed 'street' rumor has it two ways; it was a hit, but the intended target wasn't there (at Gator's) and;
it was a hit that got the guy they were after. I doubt the second version of the rumor far more than I doubt the first...(since the first way sounds sorta', kinda' plausible)
I failed to get the District Court number, but intend to bring the information here before Monday after next...
The way Tarrant County has their online information arranged, it's near to impossible to find what one is looking for unless you already know where it is(!)
Can't find any mention of the trial in online searches. I wonder if there will be any mentions of this in the news, late in this upcoming week.
Court records listing witnesses already sworn in have no listing for jolly 'ol dread-locked Nicholas.
Zombie is out there, somewhere, on the loose. No billed (for having a firearm in a bar-- when the other two guys were charged with conspiracy -- what's up with that, anyway?)
That lawsuit poses some interesting questions to me:
- What informational responsibility does each partner owe the others?
- What efforts had the other two partners made to increase the value of the partnership?
- Since part of the gain of value comes from a non-partner, Joanna, how/why should the real estate partners be compensated?
I’m not a Texas lawyer, so I have no opinion as to the merits of the lawsuit. And if there was a written partnership agreement, it could well have an impact. But, generally, under the common law, one partner would have a fiduciary duty to the other. So if one partner learned of an opportunity within the scope of the partnership, that partner might well have a duty under general principles of law to bring that opportunity to the partnership rather than keeping it for his own personal benefit. (Again, Texas law may differ and I have no knowledge of the law or facts of this case).
District Court 396 6th floor. Take the elevator(s). 396th is @ Southeast corner of 6th floor...
Metal detectors at street level entrances. Be prepared to take off any belts, and/or steel-toed shoes. Put contents of pockets in tubs for x-ray. No knives (and no guns! -- not unless you're a cop?).
https://www.versustexas.com/parking-for-tarrant-county-court/
As of last Wednesday, trial was still scheduled as noted. Any changes in scheduling -- not my problem. Check into it before traveling.
Defense attorneys -- Kyle Whitaker for defendant Robert Stover, Jim Lane for defendant Howard Wayne Baker (phone number found for attorney Lane ---if I dialed correctly ---has been disconnected. He may be retiring(?) or something...he's been around for a long while, I take it.
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