9 dead, 20 wounded, and 7 years later - there has only been one trial, and all the cases against bikers have been dropped. But there are 130 cases filed against the former DA, Reyna, for civil rights violations.
No one has been convicted of any crime.
The Time article takes about 20 minutes to read, and when you're done, you still won't feel you've learned anything new that has an analytical, or over view approach to why the cops were sitting in sniper seats, ready to shoot and kill. You won't get the feeling you've got a handle on what's going on with Texas bikers gangs, or what's next in the court cases that were the result of a couple hundred bikers getting arrested for I still don't know what... being in Texas with a gun, where that's not only legal, it's normal in church.
"the police refused to allow the CCTV video to be released or used by the defense teams of those arrested. Total nonsense. Initially CTH graphed out hundreds of shell casings and it was clear the heavily armed police just opened fire into the crowd from three positions. Some victims were shot while they were cowered in corners."
So, after the elections... if you see what I mean. That shooting happened in May 2015, and those law enforcement leaders, the district attorney, and anyone else that joined in to appear tough on crime - while bringing a massacre to a lunch meeting of bikers, did so to get elected based on the most likely results of arresting 175 bikers with weapons.
Yet, only one trial happened, the jury reached no verdict, it was a mistrial... and there you have it.
9 dead, about a hundred in jail waiting to go to trial, and then, the newly elected DA set the matter to rest declaring that "With the video evidence and the forensic evidence that's available, it's simply not possible to establish proof beyond a reasonable doubt [of] who fired the shots that killed people." other than the 4 dead which evidence proves was by Waco police dept snipers
As of May 2018, the county reportedly had spent $1.2 million on expenses related to the shootout.
More than 130 bikers have filed civil rights lawsuits against city and county authorities, the Tribune-Herald reports; many of them allege false arrest. Many of the 177 arrested spent weeks in jail on $1 million bonds.
Just how fast the next of kin will sue the city or county is yet to be seen, how that results in costs that will most likely by settled out of court by the county cutting checks, will probably not show up in the news.
The jury deliberated for 14 hours before telling Judge Matt Johnson it was hopelessly deadlocked.
Bandidos Pres Carrizal was charged with directing the activities of a criminal street gang and two counts of engaging in organized criminal activity with the underlying offenses of murder and aggravated assault. (no mention in any new of the cops sharpshooting and killing 9 bikers)
McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna declined to comment after Johnson declared a mistrial, so it was not clear if Bandidos Pres Carrizal will be tried again.
All the defendants were charged with engaging in a criminal activity because the County District Attorney invoked the state's organized crime statute, being certain that even those who didn't punch, kick or shoot were guilty by showing up and adding to their side's show of force. Regardless, Texas intends to persecute the bikers to dissuade any future re-occurrences of any biker feuds
Defense lawyers fumed, claiming that Reyna was charging their clients without any evidence other than their attendance.
Bandidos Pres Carrizal was the test case. A conviction would have put the other defendants on notice that prison was a real possibility. Acquittal would have put pressure on Reyna to start dropping charges. Now, even if Reyna decides to retry Carrizal, other cases likely will come to trial first.
170 bikers were arrested, 60 are still in jail, and two and a half years later, are no closer to getting a trial to determine if they can be found guilty or innocent of charges of engaging in organized criminal activity or assault, but certainly, the local and area law enforcement win simply by getting the bikers in jail.
Another news source says it will be delayed, because of a change in lawyers, or and that May 22nd was to be the first trial, but now there is no given date for the trial to begin (Same newspaper and writer)
Judge Ralph Strother, of Waco's 19th State District Court, released a panel of 186 potential jurors Friday, who had reported to fill out questionnaires for the trial.
Christopher Jacob Carrizal was set to be the first biker tried
Northcutt said Friday he might have to seek another continuance because he still is waiting for the McLennan County District Attorney's Office to provide him with more discovery materials in the case.
"We will have to see, but when you don't have your discovery, it is hard to have a trial," Northcutt said. "We are still waiting, and there is just so much that I don't have at this point."
9 dead guys, 150 charged, and 23 months go by before anyone gets a day in court.
WTF? Are they purposely delaying a trial so cops can retire with benefits before they get their testimony examined as to why they shot people who weren't handling weapons, and why they had sharpshooters surrounding a restaurant ready willing and ipso facto going to kill people
Federal authorities prosecuting top national officers of the Bandidos motorcycle group in San Antonio have information that relates to the May 2015 shootout at Twin Peaks in Waco, but they will not share it with McLennan County prosecutors until after the federal trial, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas said. http://www.theeagle.com/news/waco_shooting
it focuses it's perspective on the Cossacks and the Bandidos, while no boyscouts, and their clash over the "Texas" rocker argument. A matter I don't give a shit about. It's theme is that this was a shootout between biker gangs, not bikers shot and killed by cops.
It's strange to read this view of a police vs biker massacre which doesn't ask why police were surrounding a restaurant meeting, with SWAT and lots of markmen sharpshooters who aimed for the head (Correct me if I'm wrong, but 2 bullets center mass and re-evaluate... ain't that the police procedure far and wide? Supposedly?) and murdered and injured with furious shooting without a care for collateral injuries to restaurant staff. (bullets have a habit of going through windows and walls)
Read for yourself, let me know if you think it's extremely strange way to tell the facts (it's a news organization) about a slaughter, when it's 90% about the patches, and never mentions the # of dead.
However, over at AgingRebel.com, the details were found about some of the shooters. So far, Waco Swat has been given a pass, and though having killed at least 4 of the 9, aren't even going to be seeing the inside of a court room.
192 people who are not police officers will face prosecution, cops who killed won't.
A different aspect... the seizure of the bikes and vehicles...
" in the days after the arrests scores of vehicles were impounded, Most of them were released within a month, often because the people who drove or rode them to the restaurant that day didn’t have clear title to them.
“I received a 2007 Harley Davidson motorcycle for possible forfeiture involving this case at Twin Peaks,” a Waco cop named Vincent Glenn wrote in June. “During my investigation, I discovered the motorcycle has a lien on it. I confirmed the validity of the lien through the lien holder, Unity One Credit Union. I released the vehicle on 6-10-15."
Four hundred eighty-five days after the event, Waco police are still holding 16 motorcycles and 10 trucks seized from people who have never been proven to have committed any crime."
The official police narrative quickly became that this was an entire gathering of organized criminals who were wildly killing each other and shooting at cops, and the arrest of so many people there was buttressed with initial one million bonds set for everyone. And likely in order to justify that crazy, and soon reversed, decision:
The Texas Department of Public Safety did its part to ramp up hysteria, leaking a “confidential bulletin” to CNN alleging that Bandidos in active military service were arming their chapters with grenades and C4 explosives so that they could retaliate against the police. One of the DPS's sources was a club called the Black Widows, which does not exist except in the 1978 movie Every Which Way But Loose. In response, one biker blog jeered: “Waco Police Now Claim They Are Being Attacked by Clint Eastwood and An Orangutan Named Clyde.”
“The city of Waco is looking at paying out hundreds of millions of dollars,” says Michael White, Wilson's attorney. “I don't think we've ever seen something on the scale of 175-plus people being arrested for something they did not do.” To survive the storm, the city's legal strategy seems to be to pressure the Waco 177 into pleading guilty to minor infractions for time served; this would preclude the bikers from being able to sue for wrongful imprisonment.
The judge in the case, Matt Johnson, is the former law partner of district attorney Abel Reyna. Incredibly, the foreman of the first grand jury to be convened, James Head, is a Waco P.D. detective.
There are over 100,ooo residents in Waco, and they cannot find a Grand Jury Foreman not tied into the prosecutor’s office or the Waco Police Department?
Asked why he'd permit an active police officer to lead a grand jury investigating possible police misconduct, state district judge Ralph Strother said, “I just thought, ‘Well, he's qualified. He knows the criminal-justice system.’ ”
No trial dates have been set for the 157 people later indicted, despite pleas from defense lawyers for their day in court.
Authorities still have not spelled out who among the bikers is believed to have shot, stabbed or punched another, and who may have been killed or wounded by police.
The names of the officers involved in the shooting remain secret, and officials won't say if their actions were ever reviewed by internal affairs or a grand jury.
Even where and how trials would be held is unclear.
The first wave of indictments came in November, a federal indictment followed in December in San Antonio, charging the Bandidos' top three national leaders with racketeering and other crimes.
None of those charged was at the Twin Peaks shootout, however, and while the indictment outlines a series of attacks by Bandidos against Cossacks, it does not include the Waco clash.
Houston lawyer Paul Looney, who represents a Waco man facing state charges, said he suspects McLennan County prosecutors are purposely dragging their feet in hopes the cases will be pulled out of their hands and into the expanding federal investigation.
Looney has gone all the way to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court, to force the Waco judge to set a trial date for his client.
There has been no response from the appeals court - not even a request for a briefing, he said.
There isn't much, just enough to keep me pissed off about this whole situation.
So May 17th was the shooting, and it's now been over 3 months, and we have learned nothing about the facts.
Why?
The local judge was asked by his DA to impose a gag order.
He did
Because, he used to work for the law office of the DA's dad.
Johnson and Reyna’s onetime partnership extends back until at least 2001, when Johnson joined the Reyna and Reyna law firm, which was owned by Reyna’s father, former McLennan County district attorney and state appeals court judge Felipe Reyna.
Johnson and Abel Reyna stayed in practice together when the firm later became Reyna, Johnson and Reed, said former partner Damon Reed, who still practices in Waco.
Johnson left the firm when he was first elected to the bench in 2006.”
Chief Justice Tom Gray of the 10th Court of Appeals, an intermediate appellate court, found that Judge Johnson had abused his discretion by shutting out press coverage. Gray ordered Johnson to vacate the protective order.
The first examining trial related to the Waco shooting concluded with the judge finding sufficient probable cause for the arrest and charge of a married couple present at the Twin Peaks on May 17, 2015. There was no evidence presented of either individual committing an actual crime. The judge found probable cause to arrest Mr. And Mrs. English as parties engaging in organized criminal activity. Their association with one of these groups, displayed through a support patch, was determined to be sufficient probable cause to send the question to a grand jury to consider an indictment. It was also asserted that members of criminal street gangs do not have the legal right to carry weapons even if they have a concealed carry permit.
Looney said Monday he was told by the district attorney’s office that they would present the biker cases to a McLennan County grand jury between October and December.
Morgan was appointed to hear the examining trial of Matthew Clendennen after the Hewitt man’s attorney, Clint Broden, was successful in having McLennan County Justice of the Peace W.H. “Pete” Peterson recused from hearing the case.
Waco Tribune-Herald courts reporter Tommy Witherspoon covered the examining trial
Waco Sgt. Patrick Swanton declined to comment, citing a gag order in the criminal case of Matthew Clendennen, one of the 177 people arrested and jailed following the May 17 shootout on allegations of engaging in organized criminal activity.
All but two of the 177 have been released, and no one has been formally charged.
The autopsies were performed by the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Science in Dallas.
The reports found that:
Daniel Boyett, 44, was shot twice in the head and once in the abdomen.
Wayne Lee Campbell, 43, died from a gunshot wound to the head.
Richard Matthew Jordan, 31, suffered one gunshot wound to the head.
Richard Vincent Kirschner Jr., 47, was shot three times.
Jacob Rhyne, 39, died of gunshot wounds to the neck and abdomen.
Jesus Rodriguez, 65, died from gunshot wounds to the head and trunk.
Manuel Rodriguez, 40, died of gunshot wounds to the head and back.
Charles Wayne Russell, 46, was shot once in the chest.
Matthew Smith, 27, was shot in the back and in the abdomen.
The news and police are trying to cast the bikers in the worst way in the publicity, mentioning toxicology showing drugs and alcohol in the blood of several of the dead.
yeeeah, not to mention death by lead poisoning you stupid clowns. It's that obvious that the cops effed up, that they haven't charged a biker yet, and can't mention how 18 people were shot, and 9 killed.
Sounds to me like the cops are letting the calendar play out hoping to dilute the effect of the facts over the longest possible period of time
With only two of 177 bikers who were arrested on engaging in organized criminal activity charges remaining in the McLennan County Jail, and the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office releasing some of its evidence to defense attorneys, the scheduled examining trials don’t have the sense of urgency they once did.
Retired State District Judge James Morgan has been given the authority to hear the cases. McLennan County Justice of the Peace W.H. “Pete” Peterson, who was recused in one case, will allow Morgan to hear 16 others filed in Peterson’s court.
Judge Morgan was appointed to hear the examining trial of Matthew Clendennen after the Hewitt man’s attorney, Clint Broden, was successful in having Peterson recused from hearing the case. Broden withdrew his request for an examining trial on Clendennen’s behalf earlier this week, Peterson said.
Examining trials are normally for those who remain in jail, have not been indicted and who challenge the sufficiency of evidence backing their arrests.
Primarily, the hearings are used by defense attorneys to get a look at the evidence against their clients.
A Waco criminal court judge has issued a gag order in the Twin Peaks biker case preventing lawyers and prosecutors from talking to the media. He also shielded a Twin Peaks restaurant surveillance video from release to the public.
Last week, an attorney for one of the bikers, Clint Broden, procured a subpoena for the Twin Peaks restaurant’s May 17th surveillance video.
In his motion to enforce the subpoena, Broden argued that the video would support his client’s argument that there is no probable cause for his arrest and that he should not be held on restrictive bond conditions.
In response to the issuance of the subpoena, the City of Waco filed a motion to stop its release
Broden responded to the Asst. DA saying that the surveillance video was not “state’s evidence.” He urged that it belongs to the Twin Peaks restaurant chain. He also reportedly accused the DA’s office of being in violation of the Michael Morton Act by fighting the disclosure.
The Michael Morton Act provides that a prosecutor must produce and permit the inspection and copying and photographing of evidence by the criminal defense. The Act is named after a case where a prosecutor, who later became a judge, was found to have had knowingly withheld evidence of Morton’s innocence. DNA evidence exonerated Morton of his wife’s murder 25 years later. The judge lost his law license and served jail time.
With regard to the District Attorney Abel Reyna’s request that a gag order be signed in this case, Broden cited a case about gag orders written by former Tenth Court of Appeals Justice Felipe Reyna. Justice Reyna is the father of DA Reyna who was asking for the gag order.
Broden said he intends to appeal the protective order and the gag order to Waco’s 10th Court of Appeals.
Reminder, Waco police, who rounded up about 170 people, charged bikers with felony engaging in organized criminal activity and set their bonds at $1 million for attending a meeting (constitutional right to assemble, see amendment #1) in a restaurant in Waco Texas. 9 were shot by SWAT, Waco PD, DSP and killed with multiple head, neck, and torso bullet wounds, 20 were injured.
In a nutshell, the rumor is that there was a shoving match in the restaurant, this prompted a fist and knife fight, and when the bikers spilled outside the restaurant, the police opened fire. I expect that eventually, when the evidence is aired in court, we might find that the whole thing was due to undercover cops provoking the situation, ergo, bringing up a reason for law enforcement to stomp on bikers they've been trying to keep out of Waco.
The fight resulted from a long simmering dispute between members of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club and the Cossacks and the Scimitars Motorcycle Clubs. The Scimitars are in the process of patching over to the Cossacks.
Other clubs in attendance at the Sunday brunch included the Blackett Arms MC, Gypsy MC, HonorBound Motorcycle Ministry, Renatus MC, Escondidos MC, Sons of the South MC, Los Pirados MC, Leathernecks MC, Vietnam Vets/Legacy Vets MC, In Country MC and the Tornado Motorcycle Club.
The Texas Region One COC and Independents meeting was scheduled to begin at one p.m. The fight began about 12:15.
Local police had urged the restaurant, a Hooters knock-off called Twin Peaks, to refuse service to bikers. Waco police claim the violence could have prevented if Jay Patel, the operating partner at the independently owned Waco franchise, had simply banned the Confederation of Clubs from meeting there.
When the restaurant refused to ban the Confederation of Clubs, police stationed at least 22 cops including ten Swat officers from the Waco P.D. and the Texas Department of Public Safety in the parking lot outside the restaurant.
The shove in the bathroom became a scuffle in the restaurant. When about 30 Bandidos, Cossacks, Scimitars and other bikers spilled into the parking between the Twin peaks and the Don Carlos Mexican restaurant next door, the police were waiting for them. The scuffle became a knife fight and several men were stabbed. When one of the combatants produced a gun the Swat team opened fire with automatic weapons.
A lot more at http://www.agingrebel.com/12873 but this is the short version without a lot of quotes from the cops and restaurant manager
The motorcycles were confiscated as part of the massive law enforcement investigation and sources say they likely will be seized and forfeited by McLennan County through civil forfeiture procedures and sold at auction.
At least 12 Waco officers, including a SWAT team, and other DPS troopers were at Twin Peaks or in the immediate area when the incident broke out.
Waco police officers moved in and did fire rounds during the incident, Swanton said, praising their quick response.
“There were maybe 30 guns being fired in the parking lot, maybe 100 rounds,” said Michelle Logan, 37, who was at Twin Peaks at the time of the shooting and said she knows some of the victims.
“They just opened fire.”
Logan said she saw several people injured by the shooting.
“There’s a lot of people in the hospital, a lot of people shot,” she said, adding that people scattered after the shooting began.
The incident did not appear to be random, Logan said.
“It was a set up,” she said.
The meeting between the two biker gangs was being monitored by police before the incident started, Swanton said, after officials became aware that the gangs were frequenting the establishment.
Swanton said management at the restaurant was not cooperative with police until after the shooting Sunday.
Officers quickly had bikers at gunpoint after the altercation moved into the parking lot. Suspects were being held at bay as far from the doors of Twin Peaks as the Interstate 35 access road.
