Posted on 06/16/2015 5:07:40 PM PDT by don-o
Ester and Walter Weaver say they are not criminals.
“I don’t even have so much as a speeding ticket to my name. Ever,” said Walter Weaver, an analyst at Fort Hood. “I’ve been driving since 1975.”
But as they adjust to life after spending more than two weeks in jail following the May 17 Waco biker shootout, the Weavers are still reeling from their experience.
“I was in the parking lot,” Walter said. “I was looking for (Ester). I didn’t see anything occur. I just heard the bullets. I’ve been a soldier since I was 18 years old. My first thought was, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. This is like being in downtown Baghdad.’
“All I could hear was bullets going off. Then it was get down and get the wife down. It was astonishing that this was in the middle of Texas.”
Once the bullets stopped flying in the parking lot of Twin Peaks in Waco on May 17, the Weavers were swept up in a police dragnet 170 strong. Many attorneys have called the mass arrests unconstitutional and unprecedented.
“The sheer amount of people that they pulled in did surprise me,” said Lewis Giles, the Weavers’ attorney. “And the fact that it didn’t seem like they could have done any investigation into all of those people.”
As he sat on the curb next to his wife, Walter said he thought the police simply wanted to speak to witnesses.
“My impression was we were being detained so we could be witnesses to whatever we did or didn’t see,” he said. “I thought we would be questioned and ‘OK, what did you see?’ and we’d make some kind of a witness statement.”
But police weren’t interested in taking witness statements. Instead, the two were handcuffed and made to wait in the sun for hours before they were thrown in jail without being Mirandized.
“Last month, if you had told me that this could have occurred to us in the state of Texas, I would have called you a liar,” Walter said. “That just can’t happen.”
But it did.
As they sat in the sun before being whisked off to one of two McLennan County jails, Walter said police didn’t provide water or food to detainees for several hours. When food or water was provided, detainees had to eat with their hands cuffed behind their backs.
“I’m a soldier,” Walter said. “I’ve been in some pretty ugly conditions in some pretty crappy parts of the world. But to see (Ester) sitting over there flex-cuffed, trying to nibble on a piece of chicken — that was pretty horrible — having to sit there and watch that.”
As they were at Twin Peaks to eat lunch, Ester said they hadn’t eaten since dinner the previous day.
“I think it was about 10, 10:30 at night is when I finally asked if we could get something to eat because we hadn’t eaten anything,” she said.
‘No clue’ about charges
Once they got to jail, Walter said he was clueless as to what he was being charged with.
“‘Shut up. We don’t want to hear what you’re saying,’” Walter said McLennan County’s corrections officers told him. “You’d ask them ‘Why am I here? What am I being charged with? What’s going on?’ They just kind of (ignored us).”
Walter said he shared cells with businessmen from Dallas, weekend racers from College Station and two Bandidos club members who were “astonished and had no clue” as to why they were being detained.
“There were a whole bunch of people in there,” he said.
After insisting he be given a phone call, Walter said he simply picked Giles’ number at random off a list on the Internet. Giles was able to call Walter’s boss at work and put everything at ease.
“I have a very understanding boss and, again, I was extremely lucky to get Mr. Giles on the phone,” Walter said. “He called work and took care of everything for me. I was extremely lucky. Somebody was smiling when I grabbed (his) name off the Internet.”
Giles said his clients likely have many months, if not years, of legal wrangling to grapple with.
“I think if we went to trial, that’s the absolute safest bet because there’s no way they could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they did anything,” Giles said. “But that could take years. It could easily take a year, but it will probably take two or three years.
“It would also be safer to let several of the other 168 cases go to trial so that … you’re essentially seeing the same battle over and over again. If you see it enough, you can see what the DA’s going to do and you can make a plan around it. That’s safe, but it’s long term,” Giles said.
“Another example would be going in right now and waiving indictment and saying we want a trial next month. I don’t think that would ever be smart, but it would be an option. It would be over quick — 90 days, 180 days — but that’s not a whole lot of time to prepare. Even though I feel like they didn’t do anything, I still would want more time to prove to 12 very important people, at least in their lives, that they had nothing to do with it.”
‘What’s right’
Giles has a common saying in his line of work.
“I always tell people, there’s what’s right, there’s what’s legal and there’s what is and they don’t always match,” Giles said. “What is, is they basically got arrested for eating at a restaurant. What’s legal is they should have never been arrested because they weren’t doing anything wrong. And what’s right is this should have never happened.”
As a community volunteer who gives her time at nursing homes and has raised thousands for charity events with her women’s motorcycle club, Ester said she hopes Central Texans realize she and her husband are innocent.
“I learned a long time ago, never judge a book by its cover,” she said. “You never know who the person is just by looking at them. Yes, I was probably dirty because I was on the ground. I was hot and sweaty because I was in the sun all day. ... I didn’t look very pleasing. But you don’t know who I am.”
Walter said he hopes residents wait for the truth to come out before some make judgments.
“Wait until it’s over and see what the facts are before you judge,” he said.
Don, why no counterlawsuits?
I’d think there’d be scores of lawyers from across the state willing to take on what appears to be an open and shut case of civil rights violations.
There’s big money to be made. So why the crickets?
And no, that leftist kook lawyer from Austin does not count.
There at some lawsuits already in process. I will make it my business tomorrow to dig into that and maybe post a thread specifically on that subject.
After Waco I the government spin machine had me fooled for a while. The amount of deception the Feds can through out to the public through the media propaganda machine is amazing. Waco PD may be corrupt and/or incompetent, but the Feds are behind this.
I will!
Riiiiight.......
If it was so smart why was it stupid enough to show up at a Bandido Cossack shoot out?
A screen? Man, the last time I was in a poky they didn’t have any SCREENS, but there were a bunch of feebles.
Let’s dig further into this ‘screen’ you seem to have first hand knowledge about, I am sure you can explain to all us feebles the details of your referred to Jail Cell Screen where the inmates can surf the internet.
Until criminal excusing liberals take over completely, criminals can’t vote anyway.
I believe the 1 million dollar bail for this man was a bit excessive. Sue the F out of them.
Lots really doesn’t add up in your article. Sometimes stories don’t add up because they are false.
Got a simple question from the article. Be very interested in your reply.
“After insisting he be given a phone call, Walter said he simply picked Giles’ number at random off a list on the Internet”
If he was not given the opportunity to make a phone call, until finally insisting (insisting usually doesn’t work with Jail Staff) how was he able to get on the internet (before his phone call) to find the lawyer?
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I guess it never crossed your mind to think that in a jail they would have PRINTED lists of Attorneys from an Internet query of Local Attorneys? You know...as requested by a sheriff’s deputy or other jail employee.
I am convinced this was Fed inspired, directed and planned. And the DA and the DOJ are pursuing RICO charges on mass scale to apply asset forfeiture to victims. This is not a local screw up by Barney Fife. A screw up this big requires a Federal bureaucrap.
I just saw a article by Doug Giles about the Waco incident. He does not believe the police version either. ClashDaily.com with Doug Giles should be the link. If that don’t work, you are on your on. I am not computer literate enough to do it right.
I am convinced this was Fed inspired, directed and planned. And the DA and the DOJ are pursuing RICO charges on mass scale to apply asset forfeiture to victims. This is not a local screw up by Barney Fife. A screw up this big requires a Federal bureaucrap.
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Obama’s DOJ and BATF could create a massive screw up? I’m shocked, I tell you, I’m shocked!
I just saw a article by Doug Giles about the Waco incident. He does not believe the police version either. ClashDaily.com with Doug Giles should be the link. If that don’t work, you are on your on. I am not computer literate enough to do it right.
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Giles also links to this breitbart article.
http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2015/06/14/four-weeks-later-waco-police-narrative-unravels/
Yep, simply shocking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjbPi00k_ME
search: Loretta Lynch Asset Forfeiture
THAT will shock you.
What sort of reporting is this? A very long article and nowhere are the charges that these people are being held on listed. The lawyers talks about years of court but why? If there are no charges how do you go to court? If there are charges why not stated?
I am puzzled why a guy who is a soldier describes it as “bullets going off”. Odd turn of phrase.
Maybe you remember journalism, as I do. It's rare to find it these days. We who wish to know what is going on have to do our own digging. All 177 who were arrested on 5/17/15 and held (many still being held) under $1,000,000 bond are charged with violating this Texas law
That is the only charge that has been brought against anyone. It is a RICO type law.
Odd to me what seems odd to others.
Couple possibilities come to mind - He's and older guy. Perhaps his speech pattern has lost its military precision over the years.
Or
(I have not heard an audio) the reporter paraphrased him.
Or are you driving at something?
There was no biker gang convention.
There was a meeting of motorcyclists about legislation, many of whom are in clubs. And not all of the clubs are involved in criminal activity.
The motorcyclists did not rent exclusive use of the restaurant.
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