Posted on 09/06/2017 6:14:55 PM PDT by Elderberry
A hearing initially set for Thursday morning to determine if 19th State District Judge Ralph Strother should be recused from the first Twin Peaks biker case set for trial was canceled late Wednesday because neither the biker nor his attorney could attend the hearing.
Houston attorney Casie Gotro, who represents Bandidos Dallas chapter President Christopher Jacob Carrizal, notified the court Wednesday evening that she and Carrizal were given inadequate notice of the hearing and won't be able to attend.
No new date for the recusal hearing is set, but Senior Judge Dan Mills, appointed to hear the motion, has suggested 1:30 p.m. Friday.
Gotro could not be reached Wednesday evening and had not responded to the court's email about the alternate hearing date.
The hearing Thursday would have been held eight days after a visiting judge recused Strother from hearing the cases of three bikers arrested at Twin Peaks.
Gotro filed a handwritten motion to recuse Strother on Friday as Strother was preparing to impanel 180 potential jurors in Carrizal's case and ask them to fill out background questionnaires to aid in jury selection.
Jury selection in Carrizal's trial is set to start Tuesday. However, if Strother is recused again, it could put Carrizal's case on hold until regional administrative Judge Billy Stubblefield sorts through the litigation limbo.
Stubblefield appointed Mills, who presided over a court that covered Blanco, Burnet, Llano and San Saba counties, to hear Gotro's recusal motion.
The hearing was set because Strother declined to recuse himself, despite the fact that Gotro incorporated the same set of allegations attorneys for the three bikers used to get the judge recused.
"Judge Ralph Strother should be recused from this case," a supplemental motion filed later by Gotro states. "His comments and his actions have demonstrated he is either unwilling or unable to remain fair and impartial in this case.
"Further, Judge Strother's blatant bias for the state and equally blatant animus for the defendant and his counsel have reached fever pitch and are so extreme they have resulted in an outright denial of defendant's rights to counsel, effective assistance of that counsel, due process and due course of law."
Strother has presided over several heated hearings in which Gotro has accused prosecutors of lying and not providing her the evidence to which she is entitled, putting her in a precarious position of demanding a speedy trial for Carrizal but saying she can't be ready until the state provides the evidence.
McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna has said his office wants to try Carrizal first. He and assistant Michael Jarrett continually have assured the court they have provided all materials they have available to Gotro, adding that when some DNA and ballistics evidence that Gotro wanted retested returns, they will provide that as soon as possible.
Gotro charges in her recusal motion that Strother ignored her pleadings to present evidence regarding the existence of police audio and video recordings made at the May 2015 Twin Peaks shootout that left nine dead and dozens injured.
"When defense counsel was finally able to locate enough independent corroboration proving the evidence existed, the state finally produced the evidence — to include an additional hour of video footage from one police car and nine audio recordings of witness statements — all of which have been in the exclusive possession of the state for two and a half years and all of which are now known to be favorable to the defense," the motion states.
"Judge Strother has failed to make a single inquiry of the state regarding this material and favorable evidence," according to the motion. "Rather he continues to blindly accept the state's illogical and preposterous excuses."
Mills was appointed in 2005 to be the first judge of the newly created 424th District Court. Before that, he served as a federal prosecutor in Austin for the Western District of Texas, which also includes Waco, for 18 years. Prior to that, he worked eight years as an assistant attorney general.
In removing Strother from cases involving bikers Thomas Paul Landers, Rolando Reyes and George Bergman, Judge James Morgan of Bosque County wrote the average man on the street might say, "Judge, you're are just not being fair."
No. Statement of fact. You make up a couple of names aND post them with no explanation. Stupid!
Gee.... I thought you were the big expert on the case who knew everyone involved and that they were all guilty.
----------------------------------------------------------
Michael Lynch was at Twin Peaks on May 17. He belongs to a local motorcycle club known as the Los Pirados. A Waco-area plumber, Lynch had done contracting work for McLennan County Constable Walt Strickland. Before the shooting started, Lynch sent a message asking Strickland to call him immediately, saying there was a “bad situation” with a large number of Cossacks and Bandidos pouring into the restaurant.
Strickland responded that he notified the Waco police department, and was told police were “unaware” of any problems at Twin Peaks. It’s unclear whether that information was relayed through the proper departmental channels, or if certain parts of the department were unaware of an undercover police presence on the scene. But emails, operations orders and notes would show that police were already conducting a long-orchestrated surveillance operation that had already unearthed several warning signs.
Michael’s wife Sandra, who was also there that day, confirms the messages were sent. Sandra Lynch, who regularly attends biker gatherings on weekends, was setting up a table to sell t-shirts and merchandise at Twin Peaks. She says that soon after she set up shop, about 75 Cossacks entered the restaurant. Lynch said she tried to stop them from entering but she was unsuccessful. “After they got off their bikes, about six to eight surrounded me, yelled at me for getting in their way, kicked me, spit on me, call me a c***,” she says. “I looked around for a policeman and thought to myself, ‘Where is a cop when you need one?’”
Lynch said she and her husband reached out to the constable after Michael arrived. “Walt called him back and told him that Waco [police] said it was all taken care of, they said it was under control,” Lynch says. Moments later, gunfire erupted, leaving nine people dead and 18 wounded.
Lynch was separated from her husband during the barrage. “It felt like I was in Afghanistan,” she says. “It felt like I was in a war.”
Both Michael and Sandra Lynch, along with nearly 200 others, were rounded up and arrested. Charges for both of them would eventually be dropped.
Leaked Docs Show Waco Police Knew ‘Potential For Violence’ ... Was ‘Very High’
APPARENTLY, you know a lot less than you think you do. I hope being accosted with the TRUTH and FACTS doesn't hurt your feelings.
What facts ? Hearsay, innuendo and personal opinions of yours are not considered facts.
That's because GOOGLE bases it's search results on your browsing history.
Just kidding. : )
It wasn't stupid, it was designed to make you ask who they were. Which you did.
So, are you willing to admit there were some people there who were not part of the mass murder plan ?
I’m going to be gone for a few hours, so I won’t be able to respond to you until later today.
Later, I would like to ask you about some of the real factors of this case (because I do believe you have a fair amount of knowledge about it).
I think I have proved my point about there being SOME innocent bystanders, so I’m ready to go on to more important issues if you are.
“I think I have proved my point about there being SOME innocent bystanders, “
Posting a couple of made up names with no links is proof of nothing.
“Gee.... I thought you were the big expert on the case who knew everyone involved and that they were all guilty.
Michael Lynch
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
LOL! So now you finally get the names correct and you claim to be the big expert.
OTOH, Are the Lynch’s under arrest? NO! So bringing their names up is not relevant.
“I think I have proved my point about there being SOME innocent bystanders, so I’m ready to go on to more important issues if you are.”
DUH! No one disputed that there weren’t innocent bystanders. If you go back to your earlier posts it was about good decent people that rode with the bandidos and Cossacks and were arrested.
Neither apply to the Lynch’s.
I knew all that. That is why I bugged you for mixing up the names!
“She says that soon after she set up shop, about 75 Cossacks entered the restaurant. Lynch said she tried to stop them from entering but she was unsuccessful. “
Interesting. Why would an innocent bystander try to stop the Cossacks from entering?
“She says that soon after she set up shop, about 75 Cossacks entered the restaurant. Lynch said she tried to stop them from entering but she was unsuccessful. “
Interesting. Why would an innocent bystander try to stop the Cossacks from entering?
“So, are you willing to admit there were some people there who were not part of the mass murder plan ?”
don’t know where you are coming from. I never said such.
Wow. You are correct. I will have to search because I copied those names directly from a source. Later, when I found WHAT I THOUGHT was the same article, I posted that section. I didn't go back and verify that the names matched.
MY BAD ! I apologize for the mistaken comments towards you.
I still would like to go back and discuss some other more salient points of interest, if you want.
I don't really know. Maybe she thought a fight would start and that would be the end of her 'sales' of t-shirts .
NP. It was fun.
My original comment: "Some of these bikers are good decent people. Some of them are the scum of the Earth. This particular one has a scum of the Earth Lawyer, so maybe it’s a ‘match’ for them."
Your response was "WHICH ONES?"
I think both of us read more into those original comments than was there.
I wasn't limiting it to the Bandidos and Cossacks. You were.
The Lynch's were bikers and belonged to a club. There may have been others in the same situation, and I am still searching for the article which mentioned the Stricklands.
My point was that there were some 'bikers' there that were arrested who were good decent people. I think they were way outnumbered by the scum, but there were a few. The cops arrested EVERYONE.
That was all I was trying to say.
I never claimed to be a big expert, and I think I proved that I'm not.
: )
I found where the name Strickland came from. It was the same article and Strickland is the McLennan County Constable( Walt Strickland).
Somehow I picked up his last name and put it with their first names. Haste makes waste. Again, my fault.
“My point was that there were some ‘bikers’ there that were arrested who were good decent people. “
YES. If you go back to your earlier post you narrowed it to the subset of those arrested.
I am still waiting for an example ...
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