Posted on 11/07/2017 5:57:12 PM PST by Elderberry
Two and one-half years after the bloody shootout between rival biker gangs at the Twin Peaks Restaurant in Waco, Texas on May 17, 2015 is no closer to resolution today than it was in 2015. As this blog is being written, only one case has proceeding to trial and even it has yet to reach its conclusion. This case is a mess…
Outlaw Biker Gang or Biker Club
According to state and federal law enforcement allegations, Texas has two primary “outlaw biker gangs”—the Bandidos and the Cossacks, with the Bandidos being the largest and dominant of the two.
Prosecutors claim the issues that led to the violent Twin Peaks shootout that left 9 people dead and 20 others wounded developed in 2013 when a “state of war” was declared between the two biker gangs. Attorneys for the leaders of the biker clubs deny the allegations and have responded that the charges against most of the charged defendants are very thin.
Bikers Welcome
There are many restaurants and other venues, as well as numerous salons and “beer joints,” throughout the state of Texas that post “Bikers Welcome” signs outside their establishments. That’s because Texas has a large law-abiding biker population, many of whom are not affiliated with any motorcycle club, much less an “outlaw gang.” Those who do belong to biker clubs argue that most of the “outlaw biker gangs” have gone legit and are legal enterprises run for bike enthusiast.
So it was not unusual when the Twin Peaks Restaurant, which had only been opened slightly more than a month before the violent melee, agreed to host a “Bike Night” on May 17, 2015 that would be attended by the Bandidos and Cossacks. There had been a similar gathering shortly after the restaurant opened that had went off without incident.
Waco PD Surveil Twin Peaks
But for some reason the Waco Police Department either suspected or anticipated there would be a violent confrontation between the two rival gangs at the May 17 confab. The department deployed 18 of its officers and its militarized SWAT team to take up position around the Twin Peaks Restaurant. This law enforcement contingent was augmented with four officers from the Texas Department of Public Safety.
An assortment of videos—some from restaurant surveillance cameras and others from police cameras—show a physical altercation between the two biker gangs turning into a violent shootout. It would later be established that four of the ten people killed were shot with one rifle from the Waco police and two other people had mixed wounds from police weapons and other guns. An ensuing search of the restaurant and surrounding area found 475 weapons, 151 of which were firearms (including 12 long guns), and the rest was an assortment of brass knuckles, batons, knives, and the like.
DA Takes Lead of Investigation
Immediately after the shootout McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna and two of his assistants showed up the scene and, as evidence would later reveal, inserted themselves into the police investigation. The police immediately detained 239 “bikers”—of which 62 were released shortly afterwards.
It remains unclear to this day whether DA Reyna or the Waco police chief ordered the detention of the remaining 177 people taken into custody that day. Bail was set for $1 million for each of the individuals held in custody, all of whom had been charged with, per Reyna’s instructions, engaging in organized criminal activity with various predicate offenses.
Excessive and Unreasonable Bail
While many of the 177 people arrested and placed under excessive bail were indeed members of the rival outlaw biker clubs, there were a number of these individuals who had nothing to do with a biker club. That was an insignificant matter from DA Reyna’s political perspective. He had a law-and-order gold mine before him—and he intended to extract as much political mileage as he could from it.
Local judges had to send out emergency calls to a half dozen surrounding counties trying to find enough qualified attorneys to represent those faced with the serious first-degree felonies Reyna had brought against them.
During the ensuing six months after the Twin Peaks shooting, scores of federal civil rights lawsuits were filed by individuals wrongfully arrested and detained in connection with the violent melee.
Criminal Justice Crisis
Defense attorneys immediately filed motions for bail reduction hearings and motions trying to have gag orders lifted that had been imposed by local judges. It quickly became evident that the McLennan County legal system—not to mention the staggering costs for the incarceration, prosecution and defense of the 177 defendants the county was incurring—was faced with a growing criminal justice crisis.
Rather than address the crisis, DA Reyna fueled it with his heavy-handed treatment of the accused. This prompted defense attorneys to undertake the arduous legal task of trying to have all the local judges, Reyna, and his office disqualified from either trying or prosecuting the case. Houston visiting Judge Don Shaver rebuffed these disqualification efforts.
Waco PD Detective Presides Over Grand Jury
In October 2015, local Judge Matt Johnson oversaw the empaneling of a grand jury to hear the 177 Twin Peaks cases. The problem with this process was that a former 34-year veteran of the Waco Police Department—a detective named James Head—was selected to preside over the grand jury proceedings.
DA Reyna did nothing to resolve this obvious conflict of interest.
Less than two weeks later the Texas Attorney General’s Office ruled that Reyna had violated the Texas Public Information Act by not disclosing text messages he had sent and received on the day of the Twin Peaks shooting while he was on the scene, actively taking part in the police investigation then under way. Two more attorney general rulings and complaints from defense attorneys ultimately pried this information out of Reyna.
The James Head grand jury was disbanded and a new grand jury empaneled in November 2015. Roughly 150 indictments were returned in connection with the May 17 shootings. A February 29, 2016 trial date was set for the defendants.
Speedy Trials Requested
Attorneys for the defendants had already begun pushing for speedy trials for their clients. Reyna resisted these efforts. Local judges had denied the motions, and their decisions were upheld by an area court of appeals that refused to get involved in this pretrial issue.
Hiding behind the Michael Morton Act—which requires the State of disclose all information, good or bad, to the defense—the district attorney said it would take a year to examine all the evidence to determine what was subject to disclosure.
Reyna had also taken the extraordinary step of telling defense attorneys that before he turned over any evidence to them, the attorneys would have to sign nondisclosure forms—an unnecessarily hostile request by the DA given that the discovery act limits disclosure in its very terms.
Defense Attorneys Move to Disqualify DA
These stalling, heavy-handed tactics prompted attorneys to file additional motions to have the district attorney and his staff disqualified from handling the case. One attorney, Abigail Anastasio, based her motion on the fact that Reyna would be called as a witness because he had not only inserted himself into the police investigation at the scene but had assumed control of it in many respects. In effect, the district attorney had made himself a witness in his own investigation.
In March 2016, 48 new indictments were returned in the case—one of the victims had been killed in a motorcycle accident after he collided with a deer on a Nebraska highway, causing confusion as to number of people killed in the 2015 melee.
The following month in another bizarre twist in this tragic case, a former McLennan County sheriff’s deputy named Jennifer Gufaston was arrested and charged with a third-degree felony for having provided gang members with police information two months prior to the Twin Peaks shootout.
First Trial Begins
The criminal trial against Jacob Carrizal, the first defendant to stand trial of the 154 bikers indicted in the Twin Peaks shootout began on October 11th and is now entering its fourth week. DA Renya has argued that the dispute between the rival clubs began when the Cossacks refused to show respect for the Bandidos and failed to ask for permission to exist as a criminal bike gang in Texas. The final straw, according to Renya was the wearing of the Texas rocker, the badge used to indicate a club’s territory, without consent from the Bandidos.
Houston criminal defense lawyer Casie Gotro began the defense case by stating that while the Bandidos might have been a criminal bike gang in decades past, the Dallas based chapter led by Carrizal is not. Gotro has maintained for months that the DA’s office has violated discovery rules and has not turned over discoverable material as required by law. The case was stalled by recent revelations that the DA failed to disclose recorded statements to the defense, forcing the court to grant a brief continuance. During the break, the Texas Department of Public Safety disclosed that it also has materials that have not been disclosed to the defense, including reports generated by the Texas Rangers during its investigation of the 2015 shootout. These violations will raise additional questions about the prosecutions willingness to adhere to discovery rules and the special ethical duties of all prosecutors. Gotro has said the DA’s behavior is criminal.
DA Reyna Disqualifies Self from Case
On October 26, 2017, Reyna voluntarily disqualified himself from the next case set for trial against Matthew Clendennen, who’s lawyer has doggedly fought for the DA’s recusal from the case. This decision was probably influenced by the fact that a federal district judge (Sam Parks) overseeing the multiple civil rights lawsuits said during the discovery process in these cases that the district attorney likely had a conflict of interest in the prosecution of the Twin Peaks case. When a federal judge discerns a conflict, it is best to step away from the case as Reyna did, taking his entire office out of the prosecution equation.
Reyna should have made this decision a long time ago. Clendennen’s defense attorney (Clint Broden of Dallas) has insinuated that the district attorney only disqualified himself because he is under FBI investigation for his handling of the case.
Defiant, Reyna has vehemently denied that either he or anyone else in this office had engaged in any kind of “politically motivated prosecution,” and that no one connected with the district attorney’s office knew anything about a federal investigation.
Judge Recused Self from Case
Reyna disqualification decision came three weeks after trial Judge Matt Johnson recused himself from hearing the Clendennen case. The judge made his decision after attorney Broden called his attention to the fact that the judge had once been law partners with Reyna. Texas law prohibits a judge from trying case if he was a law partner with the prosecutor and the prosecutor is a material witness in a case before the judge. Broden had already subpoenaed Reyna as a material witness.
After Judge Johnson stepped aside, Senior Judge Doug Shaver, from Harris County was appointed to hear the case. Judge Shaver has now appointed three Houston lawyers, Brian Benken, Feroz Merchant and Brian Roberts, as special prosecutors on the case against Matthew Clendennen. These lawyers have vast and varied experienced in criminal law and will bring a fresh perspective that is sorely needed in this case that has roared off the tracks.
Special Prosecutors Have Hands Full
The Twin Peaks case involves thousands of pieces of evidence, documents, photos and numerous videos that a new prosecutor will have to digest. There remains154 defendants indicted in the case. The new special prosecutors will have to assemble new assistants, paralegals, investigators, and clerical staff to prepare for the presentation of these cases to local juries. This prosecutorial undertaking will be daunting. Especially if they start from scratch, ignoring the investigative findings and legal conclusions of their predecessor, which under current circumstances, would be advisable.
It seems unreasonable and an apparent abuse of prosecutorial authority to have cast such a wide net, arresting and indicting individuals many of whom had nothing to do with the shootings, and then holding them on what amounted to a no bond. We can only hope that cooler heads, with no dog in this fight, will prevail and that most of the cases be dismissed.
There's some news. Who was that shooter?
More News to me.
The next witness is April Kendrick, supervisor of the firearm and tool mark section at the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences. 3:20 PM - 30 Oct 2017
Of the 12 .223-caliber rounds fired by Waco police, seven were found in the location where officer Michael Bucher said he was set up. 4:22 PM - 30 Oct 2017
Four were found in the area closest to where Heath Jackson said he was and the 12th round was found in a truck bed on the other side of TP. 4:24 PM - 30 Oct 2017
She said projectiles or fragments from Bucher's rifle were recovered from Richard Lockhart, Richard Kirchner, Jacob Rhyne, Daniel Boyett. 4:36 PM - 30 Oct 2017
So, was officer Michael Bucher aware of the Cossack-WacoPD collusion?
four of the ten people killed were shot with one rifle from the Waco police “ <<
at least let let trained killers from their Govt training go
Remarkable - this case looks worse with every new detail.
More defense lawyer marketing blather.
If they had a legitimate case, they would be defending their clients, rather than attacking the DA.
Regarding defense lawyer websites being posted a news, I would remind you that, according to their lawyers, OJ, Bowe Bergdahl, Major Hassan, Casey Anthony, The DC snipers, Manuel Noeiega, El Chapo, the Rosenberg’s, the Underwear Bomber, the Unabomber, all the terrosts in Guantanimo, and every murderer, rapist and terrorist in every American prison... they are all 100% innocent!
Just ask their lawyers..... like this guy.
Sorry, this is not news. This is simply some scummy defense lawyer’s client-seeking website.
By the way, in his next posted blog entry, this lawyer spends the entire time attacking President Trump and Paul Manafort.
Do we really need to know more about this guy?
marked for later
Doesn't even know basic facts about the case...this guy is full of crap.
The whole thing is nothing more than a bad marketing blog. As a criminal defense lawyer, he is hoping to get even more criminals to believe they can pay him money and he will prevent them from paying for their crimes.
Lon HOruchi?
Who knows?
Did the WACO PD turn on their Cossack “buddies”?
It had nothing to do with Waco shootout
WACO — A deputy jailer with the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office is accused of providing classified information to a suspect in the Twin Peaks shooting investigation.
Lt. Jennifer Guftason Howell, 40, is charged with misuse of official information. According to Sheriff Parnell McNamara, Howell was texting with one of the bikers charged in the case.
According to the arrest affidavit, Howell admitted to being romantically involved with the biker in question. She allegedly texted him the license plate number of a vehicle that had allegedly run a member of the biker’s gang off of the road. She also texted the biker the name and address of the driver of the vehicle.”
Nothing to do with shootout.
Who did Michael Bucher kill and why?
Who did he main and why?
Who directed him to do so?
In the timeline when did he shoot?
Apparently the Waco PD had some kind of association with the local Cossacks as the PD had embedded secret agents and likely plans to entrap the Bandidos.
Possibly to make a presentation on successful techniques at the upcoming Midwestern Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Investigators Association in Waco.
Who in Waco are members of the MOMGIA? Participants?
Signs of collusion between the Waco PD and the local Cossacks.
maime
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Waco_shootout
On September 14, 2016 three Waco police officers were cleared of wrongdoing in the shootout by a grand jury. A McLennan county grand jury reviewed the cases and chose not to charge Waco officers Andy O’Neal, Michael Bucher and Heath Jackson.
SEPTEMBER 14, 2016 / 2:40 PM / A YEAR AGO
No charges for three police officers in deadly Texas biker shooting
Jon Herskovitz
2 MIN READ
The McLennan County grand jury “no billed,” or did not bring charges, against Andy O’Neal, a 15-year police veteran, Michael Bucher, an 11-year-officer, and Heath Jackson, a 9-year officer, the Waco Police Department said.
“These officers acted professionally under very difficult circumstances,” interim Chief Frank Gentsch said in a statement. He added the three had also been cleared following an internal investigation and would be immediately returning to full duty...
Grand jury clears 3 Waco officers in Twin Peaks shootout
From staff reports Sep 14, 2016
...Four of the people killed in the shootout and one of the wounded were struck with bullets from .223-caliber rifles, the only type of firearms police used at the scene, according to an Associated Press report. Two of the bikers killed also were struck with other types of bullets, according to the AP report...
...Brent Stroman, Waco’s police chief at the time of the shootout, has said three officers fired a total of 12 shots. No other law enforcement officers fired their weapons, Stroman has said, and the rifles were used in a semiautomatic setting during the shootout, not fully automatic...
I saw another article last month that listed which officer shot the 4 men dead (including one armed with a chain, not a firearm, who wasn’t even wailing it at a person or object while he raged).
This same officer observed the initial gunshot and did not kill that shooter (who is the man on trial currently, no?).
At least one other biker who killed another execution style was observed and not shot by officers.
Why stand down on those shooters?
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