Posted on 06/07/2015 5:06:07 AM PDT by don-o
Video of the deadly May 17 Twin Peaks shootout between rival biker gangs shows “Bandidos executing Cossacks and Cossacks executing Bandidos,” a prosecutor said Friday at a bond-reduction hearing for a Cossack from Northeast Texas.
The revelations from First Assistant District Attorney Michael Jarrett during Laurance Kemp’s bond-reduction hearing were among the first detailed glimpses provided by authorities of what occurred during the incident that left nine bikers dead, 18 wounded and 177 arrested.
In arguing against reducing Kemp’s bond to an amount that would allow him to be released, Jarrett said Kemp traveled 3 1/2 hours from his home in Bogata in Red River County that Sunday morning, proudly wore his Cossacks colors and associates himself with a group law enforcement considers a “criminal outlaw gang.”
After hearing testimony from the 40-year-old Kemp’s fiancee and her mother, 54th State District Judge Matt Johnson reduced Kemp’s $1 million bond to $250,000. His family said after the hearing that they would not be able to raise the money to secure his release.
Jarrett said video from the incident showed a group of Cossacks arriving at Twin Peaks and “spreading out across the patio in sentry positions,” obviously keeping close watch on their surroundings.
Later, video shows Cossacks looking in their vests and checking their holsters for weapons, Jarrett said. As a line of Bandidos rode through the parking lot, Cossacks scramble over patio railings as the shootout ensues, Jarrett said.
“The video clearly shows Bandidos executing Cossacks and Cossacks executing Bandidos, some at point-blank range,” Jarrett said. “The facts and circumstances of this case are so extraordinary and so different from anything we have ever dealt with, we believe adequate bonds need to be in place to ensure the safety of this community.”
Kemp’s attorney, Lawrence Johnson, argued that there is no evidence that Kemp did anything wrong that day and he shouldn’t be held on excessive bond just because of his biker affiliation.
Kemp’s fiancee, Julie Harrison, the mother of his 20-month-old twins, said one of the twins is disabled and that Kemp, who works for a road construction company, is the family’s sole breadwinner.
She said her 95-year-old grandmother has offered to help pay a portion of Kemp’s bond, but said $2,500 would be the maximum amount her family could raise.
The family would have to pay $25,000, or 10 percent, to make Kemp’s new bond.
Wiping away tears after the hearing, Harrison said her son has brain cysts that cause seizures and the family needs Kemp at home. With Kemp in jail, her family is suffering financial hardships, she said.
Harrison testified that the Cossacks group Kemp is associated with are good people who raise money for charities and who helped her family when their twins were born prematurely.
In other developments in the bikers’ cases Friday, two attorneys have petitioned the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin on behalf of 144 bikers, seeking a “prompt and efficient administration of justice.”
The petition asks the court to order Judge Billy Ray Stubblefield, the regional administrative judge, to assign visiting judges to McLennan County to conduct immediate bond hearings for the bikers still in jail.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys for the bikers have negotiated lower bonds in about 70 cases, with about 53 of the 177 bikers being released after negotiating reduced bonds.
There were other bond reduction hearings set for Friday, but they were canceled after negotiated reductions.
More bond hearings are set for every Friday in June and several in July.
Or, maybe those who don’t think that all bikers are outlaws were out working to support their families?
Whatever happened to guilty until proven innocent and other rights of accused persons in this country?
You just toss them out because those caught up in this event somehow don’t meet your expectations of law abiding citizens?
Sorry to burst your bubble, but they have rights and those who are actively working to subdue or deny them will eventually have their own day in court unless people like you support them in their suppression and denial of the rights of citizens.
As for me, I was dressed up in leathers riding with a large group of American Legion Riders. Honorably discharged Veterans who choose to ride. We met people like you throughout the day who derided us based on our appearance and gave not a moments worth of thought to the reason for our ride or what we have accomplished.
The real THUGS in this thread are those who refuse to believe that any of those accused may be innocent until proven guilty, or that any statement by a Government official is the unvarnished truth, and that all those caught up in this event need to be pushed under the jail until the Criminal Justice system can come up with something to justify their denial of rights to those arrested in the event.
Outrage at criminals shooting up a public place is what we are ALL about here. Some of us just think we might want to consider the possibility that some of those criminals also had badges. It has happened before. If it turns out that of the shall we say 150 bullets fired that only 4 or 5 were by LE and they were all instantly fatal head shots on Bandidos I will personally throw a party and buy the drinks. From day one it has been clear that the probability of that is vanishingly small and today I could add “for all FReepers and throw in Lobster and Tbones” and my meager savings would be pretty safe. I don’t judge folks by how they look but by the “content of their character”. From my personal experience with Bandidos some 35 years ago I would say sociopath is a requirement. Just because someone rides a Harley and wears a vest doesn’t make him anything but a Harley rider with a vest. Some of you anti biker folks really are quite prejudiced.
Matthew Alan Clendennen Scimitars released 100,000
http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/305884171.html
among other sources for this small business owner, a “poster child” of the innocent caught up in the aftermath of the Waco shootout. I do not doubt his credentials.
Yet, who betrayed him?? WHO encouraged him to ride with the Scimitars, a recognized support group of the Cossacks, personally unarmed although the Cossacks were armed, into what the Cossacks (the recognized superiors of the Scimitars) knew would be a provocation to the Bandidos, even if not (as the assistant DA testified) an armed Cossack confrontation of the Bandidos?
WHO led the sheep to slaughter? In his case, it was his riding buddies the Cossacks. The insider Cossacks in this version apparently knew what was going down, but did not inform their “lesser” riding buddies, the Scimitars. Hence luring their buddies into a dangerous situation with no warning of the danger they would be facing. No warning, to a family man and small-business owner, of the potential dangers he was inherently accepting by . . . riding with the Scimitars and Cossacks to Waco.
He is lucky he was not killed, and thankfully he was not.
He was on the patio with the Cossacks. He didn’t know what was going down. The Cossacks apparently did in this version.
Why would the cops not have initially arrested a Scimitar, wearing the support colors of the Cossacks, if this account is true?? For the truly naively innocent, yes the wheels of justice grind slowly. But at least he is alive, and released on a reduced bond, although he was wearing the colors of Cossacks support.
Clendennen is a victim of his riding buddies the Cossacks. Tell me, if they drew him to ride into what they knew or suspected could have been a shoot out, they are not the ones who set up his subsequent fate?
Tell me that the cops are the ones who harmed his livelihood and reputation, more than the Cossacks, who set him up to ride with them. WHY? I do not know. Superiority in numbers? Cover of the regular bikers for their own nefarious plot?
Servus.
As I have said before I go out of my way to avoid Bandidos or Pagans based on my experience with them. I also go out of my way to avoid the police as much as possible. I am sure they are mostly great guys but I want nothing to do with anyone who could ruin my day or kill me by mistake.
Thank you for riding today.
Got what was coming to him. Right? That’s basically what all those words sound like.
Anyone who makes any unwise choice and makes associations - not commits crimes, but makes association, assembles even...with unapproved persons (subhumans?) has ipso facto forfeited his 4th and 14th Amendment rights?
Isn’t that about right?
Respectfully, no. That is not my message. Servus of course.
No, thank those who exhibited no prejudices as to how we were dressed and instead paid attention to the cause that we were supporting.
“ruin my day or kill me by mistake”
This and other of your comments demonstrate your courage and common sense.
It is a sad day now in our Great Republic. That honest citizens have to, if not fear LE, at least comport ourselves rigorously so that they can understand, we are indeed honest citizens and present no threat. And WHY do we have to do so?
THAT is because, there are now sadly any number who would shoot a cop at a routine traffic stop.
Because of the increase in criminality, the cops have to suspect everyone. SUCH a sad time for our Great Republic.
Ride free and safe, give the criminal gangs no quarter.
Servus!
I think it may have been about two years ago now the wife and I were out on the Road King and as I came up the on ramp a state cop was exiting his vehicle at a stop. Looked pretty routine but he was wearing a dang flak vest. Not under the shirt body armor (I assume they all do). When we got home I asked her if she had noticed and she hadn’t. It really started me thinking. Like I told her then, “They must really feel it’s them against us nowdays.” Not good. I know you and are are on different sides on this Twin Peaks shooting and in this case I believe it to be honest difference of opinion which is fine. As Mark Twain said, “It is why they have horse races.” No need to be uncivil. One thing that I think speaks to the evidence that says the police are covering up is the aggressive viciousness of the trolls that flock to each thread on this.
Appropriate and well said.
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