Posted on 09/14/2017 4:28:05 PM PDT by Elderberry
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,” Broden said. “The district attorney’s office should be ashamed of themselves.”
McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna did not return phone messages Thursday.
Judge Matt Johnson of Waco’s 54th State District Court has scheduled a pretrial hearing in Clendennen’s case for Friday morning. Clendennen, a former member of the Scimitars group, is set for trial Oct. 9, but that trial date could be changed because of the recent postponement of the Twin Peaks case involving Jacob Carrizal.
Reyna has indicated he wants to try Carrizal first and said Wednesday after Carrizal’s trial was postponed that the state’s preparation time thus far as gone toward Carrizal’s case.
“We are ready to go and expecting to go and demanding to go on Oct. 9, and we were promised we were going to go,” Broden said. “We were absolutely told they are bringing in a jury panel on the (Sept.) 29th on this case.”
Broden said he discovered Clendennen’s call to him from the county jail was recorded because a copy of the recording was turned over to him by the DA’s office along with a massive amount of other materials from the Twin Peaks investigations.
Like the other 176 bikers arrested after the May 2015 shootout, Clendennen was jailed under $1 million bond. He stayed in jail about three weeks until Broden negotiated a bond reduction to $50,000.
“My position is the jail isn’t supposed to turn those recordings over to the prosecution,” Broden said. “This happened in Hunt County, and the Court of Appeals in Texarkana said it is a clear Sixth Amendment violation.”
The Sixth Amendment, among other things, guarantees the right to those charged with crimes to be represented by counsel and the right to a speedy trial.
Another of Broden’s motions also seeks to have the charges dismissed because of a speedy trial violation.
“In short, in the face of a serious breach of the attorney-client privilege, the Hunt County District Attorney’s Office in Woodruff ultimately did the honorable thing and recused itself from Woodruff’s prosecution,” Broden’s motion states. “The district judge even recused himself from presiding over Woodruff’s case to ensure that the attorney-client privilege remained sacrosanct.
“While not expected, Mr. Clendennen hopes that the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office will follow in the footsteps of its brethren in Hunt County and also do the honorable thing now that its breach of the attorney-client privilege has been discovered.”
Baylor law professor Brian Serr, who teaches advanced criminal procedure and criminal law, said dismissal or disqualification normally are not how those matters are resolved.
“Generally speaking, when prosecutors and police officers are involved in evidence gathering that violates constitutional rights, the remedy imposed by the courts is exclusion of the evidence and not dismissal of the prosecution or disqualification of a prosecutor,” Serr said.
Broden said Clendennen called him from jail, and he warned Clendennen at the time that the calls likely were being recorded.
“I assume in most jails that the calls are being taped, but I don’t expect them to turn it over to the DA’s office,” Broden said.
Capt. Ricky Armstrong, McLennan County Jail administrator, said the jail has an attorney phone call system in place. With proper arrangements, attorneys can call into the jail to speak to a client without being recorded. The inmate is set up in a room to speak with the attorney privately, Armstrong said.
Outgoing phone calls from inmates to attorneys are recorded. At the beginning of those outgoing calls, both parties are notified by a recorded message that the phone calls are being recorded, Armstrong said.
Prosecutors sometimes use the content of those recorded phone calls as evidence at defendants’ trials.
Broden also has motions pending seeking to quash the indictments against Clendennen and to suppress evidence from what he contends was Clendennen’s unlawful arrest.
This just popped up!
Swamp here is as deep as in Washington
More grandstanding ..,
this is third world. This entire case in now tainted and worthless. Waco is just a big church town that forgot about self defense in a shoot out. They will prove nothing but how righteous they thought they were and Waco will bankrupt. They are so morally endowed by God that they fired the best college football coach in the nation even though he did absolutely nothing!! and now they cant beat a small Virginia college ( liberty?) or the San Antonio Day care center. Baylor has to be rated dead assed last in football.
More proof of the extreme corruption by the law in Waco. Shame. Shame. Shame.
With everything I have read on this so far, I am dumbfounded as to why the US Attorney hasn’t Charged The DA, Judge, and every thug with a Badge in this case with MURDER.
They set this whole thing up from the get go.
This is serious stuff. Wiretapping laws prohibit this taping. had a NJ Case in 1980’s where this made National News. Low man on totem pole went to jail.
This doesn’t make sense that the lawyer is just bringing this up now. Also under Attorney Client Priv. This is Prosecurial Misconduct. It is Felony wiretapping. It is a major civil rights violation. It also means the Prosecution and Sheriff are doing this on a daily basis and it is being covered up.
IATG
I swear, I dindu nothin!
I have zero sympathies for gangsters of any shade. They all need to be imprisoned. These morons also need a good range time so that next time they don’t miss while shooting at each other. Chicago gangsters don’t miss.
Lol
Well the gangsters here have badges.
It had been a spell since these same gangsters massacred the local religious kooks along with all of their children, so they needed a new target.
They have a lot of followers who aspire to the same sort of lawlessness, so they will probably get off.
Whacko has sewn the seeds of it’s financial ruin. It will not be long before the coming Constitutional lawsuits start sapping Whacko’s taxpayers.
“....This doesn’t make sense that the lawyer is just bringing this up now....”
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Well, the attorney didn’t know about it until the information was recently turned over among a massive amount of discovery material (most of which was likely worthless and served only to make ferreting out relevant material more difficult).
Of course you are correct. It did not say when this was disclosed. The defense lawyer was notified of this on X date. that means the prosecutor has been sitting on this for 2 years. Who wouldn’t. The Prosecutor is involved in the crime. It is also a coverup which involves several felonies. My question is why the Attorney is using the privledge argument. This is a clear Civil Rights violation and dismissal of all charges. This person stands to make $Millions.
FYI, It is a crime to tape a lawyer/Client conversation by a third party. It is another crime not to report same ASAP. If accidental, this had to be reported that day. Pile on the felonies of Official Misconduct, etc...
More total and complete legal BS. There is a sign, usually in about 10 languages, on the wall above every jail phone, notifying the jail inmate that calls are being recorded and may be shared.
More lawyer BS trying to get his very guilty drug-dealing motorcycle scum off from a very serious change.
“Outgoing phone calls from inmates to attorneys are recorded. At the beginning of those outgoing calls, both parties are notified by a recorded message that the phone calls are being recorded”
The operative sentence is shown above, and was in the last 10% of the story. The Constitution protects people against miscarriages of justice. It does not, as in the case, protect defendants against their own stupidity!
Read the story. Both lawyer and perp were notified call was being recorded before call took place.
Lawyer is doing everything he can to delay trial and to keep evidence from jury. One does not do that when one thinks he has chance at an acquittal.
It doesn’t matter if the client and lawyer were notified before the recording. You can’t tape and listen to an Attorney/Client conversation. Not anywhere in the USA. What these jerkwater Texans did was refuse a personal visit so they could tape the phone conversation. That is even worse. Look up State of NJ v. Sugar. Not sure of year(around 1981).
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