Posted on 07/06/2015 11:08:21 AM PDT by don-o
Attorneys for Don Carlos Mexican Restaurant in Waco are seeking to block a subpoena that would require restaurant officials to turn over security camera videos from the May 17 shootout in advance of a biker’s examining trial.
Attorney Clint Broden, who represents Hewitt biker Matthew Clendennen, subpoenaed the video from Don Carlos, whose business is adjacent to the former Twin Peaks restaurant, where nine bikers were killed and 20 others were wounded.
Bret Griffin, a Houston attorney who represents Don Carlos, said in a motion to quash the subpoena that Broden is on a “fishing expedition for non-party’s surveillance footage and is threatening the non-party with orders of contempt and arrest. Such conduct is improper and must be stopped.”
Justice of the Peace W.H. “Pete” Peterson has scheduled an examining trial in Clendennen’s case for Aug. 10. Those seeking examining trials hope to prove there is insufficient evidence to indict them.
Peterson has not set other hearings in the case, including one to consider the motion to quash the subpoena.
Griffin alleges in the motion to quash that the subpoena will unduly burden Don Carlos’ officials, whom he said would have to review hundreds of hours of surveillance footage from 16 different positions in order to comply.
Also, he alleges, the manager of the Waco Don Carlos is no longer in possession of the hard drives containing the surveillance because Waco police officials took them as part of their ongoing investigation.
The motion suggests Broden ask prosecutors to turn over the video.
“Finally, this surveillance footage is evidence in an ongoing criminal investigation and in an unrelated civil proceeding to which a gag order has been placed,” the motion to quash says. “To require a non-party to disseminate this information would be unfair and prejudicial and potentially be in conflict with the gag order.”
If the subpoena is not quashed, Don Carlos officials ask the video to be placed under a protective order, barring its public release.
In a response to the motion to quash, Broden called Don Carlos’ arguments “gobbledygook.”
He notes that 54th State District Judge Matt Johnson last week ordered Twin Peaks to comply with an almost identical subpoena on a Twin Peaks franchisee. The judge placed the video under a protective order, preventing Broden from releasing it publicly.
“Twin Peaks has offered transparency to the citizens of McLennan County while, at the same time, recognizing the importance of due process rights of those charged with criminal offenses by agreeing to produce its surveillance videos pursuant to a subpoena,” Broden’s response says.
“On the other hand, Don Carlos seeks to keep McLennan County citizens in the dark and to deny citizens an opportunity to fully prepare their defense. Thus, it should hardly surprise Don Carlos that McLennan County citizens might choose not to patronize a restaurant that acts with such disdain toward public transparency and basic constitutional rights.”
Don Carlos is suing Twin Peaks in Dallas for loss of business as a result of the May 17 shootout.
I agree! I’ve long said that the police NEVER keep it a secret when they do something right.
Never.
I looked up “high powered rifle” and there’s no agreement as to what it means, except “not a .22 rimfire rifle.”
I agree with that. I was just saying that some of these may drag on long enough, that judges other than the charging magistrate and "keep em in the clink" judge will ask the state to produce some evidence that THIS accused person participated in a gang conspiracy, beyond "he was a member of the gang."
If gang association is enough, without more, then howcome ALL the MS-13 isn't in jail on charges, when there is one killing. They are all members, and in this case, the state is arguing that membership=conspirator. Conspiracy is enough.
“If gang association is enough, without more, then howcome ALL the MS-13 isn’t in jail on charges, when there is one killing. They are all members, and in this case, the state is arguing that membership=conspirator. Conspiracy is enough.”
Oh come on, that just isn’t true. They didn’t go round up all the Bandidos and Cossacks members in the state and arrest them simply for being members of the organization. They arrested people who were on the scene of a violent crime. So there is, at the very least, two parts to this conspiracy case, that they were part of a criminal organization AND that the police caught them at the scene of a violent, apparently gang-related incident.
Thank you. The kind words mean a lot.
That is my intention, despite the effort of one to convince The Boss to forbid us from even discussing Waco 5/17. Like all that that troll posts, it was epic fail.
This is true. But that fact does not establish gang conspiracy either.
Well then, what is your answer to #99? Sounds like AR-15 clones.
Thank you. My first comment is I wish I could be similarly armed. The question of ‘high powered rifles’ remains. Based on that post, I suspect that the Waco PD has a variety of other weapons, sniper tools etc that likely use a round that makes it to the ‘high powered’ realm. Has any use of these weapons been noted?
No report or insinuation of .308, or 30-06, etc.
Rifles that fire pistol ammunition are not high powered. That would include submachine guns.
In the military we went by the rules of engagement.
In most cases with people in civilian clothing that tended to be that if we weren’t taking fire ourselves and couldn’t tell who was who we were to hold our fire until we could.
In the absence of specific instructions given for this operation I would imagine that there is a state law or department regulation to that effect that should have been applied here.
I think someone panicked.
I'd add that being "on scene" is not a prerequisite for conspiracy either. If the gang conspires to beat somebody up, or kill them, or beat or kill some random member of the other gang, then the conspiracy element exists in fact.
See Godfather, who orders the hit, but isn't at the scene of the crime. He's still in on the conspiracy.
I'd also add that having a generally disagreeable attitude and propensity for using force of violence doesn't constitute a conspiracy either.
I haven't heard a peep from the authorities that amounts to a coherent accusation of conspiracy.
I know that. Subguns use pistol ammo, assault rifles use an ‘intermediate round’, although AR-10 clones would likely be ID’ed as assault rifles.
“I’d add that being “on scene” is not a prerequisite for conspiracy either.”
True, but in this case they do have that element present for those arrested.
“I haven’t heard a peep from the authorities that amounts to a coherent accusation of conspiracy.”
They’ve laid out the beginnings of that case, at least against the Bandidos members, showing that they rescheduled the COC meeting to Waco and called up members from all over the state who wouldn’t normally attend that district’s meeting. All they really need now is a witness to flip and connect the dots by saying that was done specifically to prepare for violence against the Cossacks.
It really isn't, 1300 ft/lbs at muzzle twice as much as a .357. 7.62x39- 1537, 7.62x51 (.308) - 2802. For comparison 30.30 - 1600-1900 depending on load.
Yeah, I would tend to agree, you do not think of that when you hear the phrase. However, they are classed as “high power rifles” for competitive shooting, so I think technically you could call them that. Probably one of those instances where technically it is correct, but in general usage it would be confusing.
A couple points on that.
Dude! What you are saying there is roughly an admission that some of the accused are being held without evidence to support the charge! And if it comes out later, the timing of this new evidence, those held in the interim have a solid deprivation of rights claim.
Not that "our" government is above this, but the fairy tale the government pedals to the rubes is that you can;t be held without evidence that constitutes evidence of committing a crime.
The other point is that you've only attempted to justify holding the Cossacks.
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