Posted on 09/22/2015 8:49:25 AM PDT by Robert Teesdale
A member of the Desgraciados Motorcycle Club named George Bergman appeared at an examining trial last Friday in Waco. Bergman had just arrived at the Twin Peaks restaurant last May 17 and was walking to the Don Carlos restaurant on the other side of the parking lot to use the bathroom there when he heard a gun shot.
He was detained, found to be in possession of two, small, legal knives incarcerated for hours and finally arrested. He spent 20 days in jail before being released on $80,000 bail. He lost his job and continues to suffer from injuries suffered during his incarceration. Last Friday he asked that the charges against him be dismissed because there was no probable cause to believe that he was guilty of participating in organized criminal activity.
A judge named James E. Morgan refused to dismiss the charges so Bergman’s nightmare will continue. But before he left the court he read the following statement into the record.
(snip)
"I then saw one police officer in front of me just shooting wildly toward the crowd at Twin Peaks with a rifle..."
I post pdfs all the time.
Thank you!
If I take you up on that...I'll try to make it only something you would likely have some interest in.
Meanwhile, I suppose I should fiddle around and try to learn something. Like, how to use the online programs, without getting roped into paying a subscription fee.
TEXAS COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS _________________________ CASE NO. WR-83,719-01 _________________________ IN RE STATE OF TEXAS EX REL. ABELINO REYNA Relator ________________________________ Trial Cause No. 2015-1955-2 In the 54 District Court, McLennan County th Honorable Matt Johnson, Presiding Appellate Cause No. 10-14-00235-CR 10 Court of Appeals th Waco, Texas ________________________________ EMERGENT MOTION BY REAL-PART-IN-INTEREST MATTHEW ALAN CLENDENNEN TO VACATE STAY BASED ON RELATOR’S UNCLEAN HANDS ________________________________ F. CLINTON BRODEN TX Bar No. 24001495 Broden, Mickelsen, Helms & Snipes, LLP 2600 State Street Dallas, Texas 75204 (214) 720-9552 (214) 720-9594(facsimile) Attorney for Matthew Alan Clendennen I On August 7, 2015, the Tenth Court of Appeals entered its unanimous opinion conditionally granting a Writ of Mandamusin this case in the event the District Court did not withdraw its unconstitutional gag order by August 14, 2015. On August 13, 2015 and upon Relator’s opposed motion, this Court stayed the Court of Appeals’ Writ of Mandamus and ordered the partiesto brief three questions. After the filing of the briefs in this case, Relator has continued to violate the very gag order he requested this Court to consider in his Petition for Writ of Mandamus to this Court. II “Mandamus is an extraordinary remedy, not issued as a matter of right, but at the discretion of the court. Although mandamus is not an equitable remedy, its issuance is largely controlled by equitable principles.” Riverfront Associates v. Rivera, 858 S.W.2d 366, 367 (Tex. 1993). Indeed, this Court has noted that “equitable principles are necessarily involved when we consider whether mandamus should issue.” Smith v. Flack, 728 S.W.2d 784, 792 (Tex. Cr. App.1987). Of course, it is also wellsettled that “a party seeking an equitable remedy must do equity and come to court with clean hands.” City of Fredericksburg v. Bopp, 126 S.W.3d 218, 220 (Tex. App. – San Antonio 2003). In fact, the law recognizes that 2 “the doctrine of unclean hands applies to a litigant whose own conduct in connection with the same matter or transaction has been unconscientious, unjust, marked by a want of good faith or violates the principles of equity and righteous dealing.” Id. at 221.1 In sum, “Texas courts have held that, because mandamus is governed to some extent by equitable principles, a party that comes before the court with unclean hands is not entitled to issuance of a writ of mandamus.” In re Simon Property (Delaware), Inc. 985 S.W.2d 212, 215 (Tex. App .– Corpus Christi 1999) (emphasis added), citing, Axelson, Inc. v. McIlhany, 798 S.W.2d 550, 552 n. 2 (Tex.1990). III It appearsthat, on September 18, 2015, Relator, Abelino Reyna, again violated the very gag order he is asking this Court to uphold. Indeed, KWTX News in Waco, Texas reported: McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna, in a brief statement, said “someone violated their ethical and legal obligations” in making the material available to AP. “Our focus in the Twin Peaks matter will remain on the facts and the law and not it,” he said. See also Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, 483–484 (1928) (Brandeis, J. 1 dissenting) (Regarding unclean hands: “The court's aid is denied only when he who seeks it has violated the law in connection with the very transaction as to which he seeks legal redress”). 3 Attachment A hereto (emphasis added). 2 Mr. Clendennen agreesthat, if itwas a defense attorney who released discovery materials to the AP, that attorney may very well have violated his/her “ethical and legal obligations.” On the other hand, Mr. Clendennen strongly disagrees that 3 Relator Reyna’s focus has been on the “facts and the law” of this case and submits that Relator has fully contributed to “the ridiculousness that is occurring all around” the case. IV Mr. Clendennen continues to submit that what has occurred and what is occurring in relation to the gag order is very transparent to even the casual observer. Immediately after the May 17, 2015 incident, Relator, personally, along with other state actors sought to fill the public’s mind with pictures of roving “outlaw biker gangs” and, only when they believed that they sufficiently accomplished that task, Relator requested a gag order. But it seems like even that is not enough for Relator. This is not the first time Relator Reyna has violated the gag order he seeks this Court to 2 enforce using equitable principles. On or about July 8, 2015, Mr. Reyna gave a press interview discussing the selection of the grand jury foreperson for the grand jury that could possibly consider Mr. Clendennen’s case. See Appendix 1 to Mr. Clendennen’s September 14, 2015 brief. During that interview, Mr. Ryna told the media: “That’s the system. He was chosen totally at random, like. the law says.” Of course, the person who released the material may very well be a conscientious 3 whistleblower from Relator’s own office or from a law enforcement agency associated with the case. 4 Relator apparently believed he was creating a situation where Mr. Clendennen and his attorneys were denied their free speech rights under the United States and Texas Constitutions but he was free to continue to make statements to the press. As explained in Mr. Clendennen’s September 14, 2015 brief, the ruling by the Waco Court of Appeals was not an abuse of discretion for several reasons. First, the district court did not have jurisdiction to enter the gag order. Second, there was no “imminent or irreparable harm” or even a “substantial likelihood of prejudice” to justify the extraordinary broad gag order. Third, there was no indication that the District Court in this case considered any less restrictive means of preserving the rights to a fair trial- a trial that would be at least a year in the future- instead of imposing blanket restrictions on free speech rights. Fourth, a gag order in a case involving 177 defendants in different courts, involving related civil litigation in state and federal court, and involving judges who give their own press interviews is unworkable as a practical matter. To compound all of this, it is now abundantly clear that Relator comes to this Court with unclean hands. Mr. Clendennen has been denied his free speech rights for more than two months and Relator has succeeded in persuading this Court to issue a stay and thereby continue the denial of such rights while, at the same time, Relator goesright on making statementsto the media. For that reason alone, Mr. Clendennen 5 submits that the stay issued by this Court was improvidently granted and requests the Court to dissolve the stay as soon as practical. Respectfully submitted, /s/F. Clinton Broden F. CLINTON BRODEN TX Bar No. 24001495 Broden, Mickelsen, Helms & Snipes, LLP 2600 State Street Dallas, Texas 75204 (214) 720-9552 (214) 720-9594(facsimile) Attorney for Matthew Alan Clendennen
I download the pdfs anyway, if it's a case or issue I'm interested in, then convert using a command line program named "pdftotext." I either have to insert paragraph breaks by hand, or place the text between <pre> - </pre> HTML code.
I can post links to web pages, or else images, and know how to bury an page link within an image also...
But I don't have the software that automatically renders pdf's into text, or html.
.
>> “But I don’t have the software that automatically renders pdf’s into text, or html.” <<
.
Word Perfect does that easily, and also the reverse.
You’re probably using microsoft stuff, which is designed to confound the user if possible.
This is the most moronic of your plethora of dumb-assed posts. Why haven't we seen the videos ? Why haven't we seen the autopsy reports ? Why the multiple gag orders ?
ALL evidence indicates you make sweeping moronic statements with no credibility whatsoever.
Fellow Freepers, this incident is completely unlike my experience with Texas law enforcement personnel, who have always been courteous and professional towards me.
Yep, I do think most police are ok. OK enough, anyway.
It's not all uniformly "ok" though, when it comes to how the laws are applied, in Texas, and elsewhere at times and places also.
Civil forfeiture laws have been abused in many locales throughout the nation.
Just recently, in Texas, the Legislature was going to try to do something about it, but were talked out of it by law enforment agencies.
Meanwhile, New Mexico just passed laws all but entirely doing away with civil forfeiture lacking formal charges, and possibly trial -- and convictions too?
I should read up on that. Get a hold of it. Try to get a Texas conservative, Tea Party sort of politico to sink their teeth into it, before the near-faithless Democrat Party grabs the issue and makes it all their own --- and then ruins it, makes it less than effective, in the process, whining all along the way about how cruel and evil law & order conservatives are.
Enough about transcription and conversion of documents.
What of the contents of the document, the Court filing itself?
It would seem to me that even though the defense presented the link to the AP article...which mentioned a 742 page arrest report, among an 8,000 plus pages document dump -which was seemingly not given to AP by Broden- but which must have(?) come from the prosecutorial/law enforcement side of things, then the horses have alreadyleft the barn. It's too late now to shut the door, saying that must be done in order to keep them from leaving...
What now? Would it be equitable to enforce a gag order on only one side, and in that, with only one defense attorney (among possibly a great many) be made to stand around looking at empty stalls, while the guy who has been accused can't even utter a peep, maybe not even " but I'm NOT GUILTY!"???".
Does the gag order extend all the way to Associated Press?
AP would likely as not resist telling who it was that gave them the files, although if pressed may go so far as to make a sworn statement they didn't get them from Broden.
AP also may have received those from a source, conditionally, that they would not divulge the identity of that source, and would likely not desire to, or else that source of free information (ever heard of freedom of the press?) would dry up.
Regardless...there has been a breach.
There is good reason to suspect the breach was not Broden, or else the guy has brass plated brass of significant dimension.
And then there's the part about Renya having made comments to the press. If he could not resist, could not hold to strict 'no comment' then it is not equitable arrangement to allow the gag order to continue.
And then there is the Morton Act...
Renya shouldn't be getting his own way in all of this, but instead, should allow whatever evidence there is (or there is not) to speak for itself.
If they've already decided to not fully pursue the charges against some number --- how's about letting defendants know about that, instead of persist in hanging sword of Damocles over the heads of persons who are not in power?
The various swords (of the law) are hanging over his head too. He could reduce the risk of some loose blade nicking the twines holding up the one's which are over his own head by streamlining the caseload which is now cluttering McLennan County DA's offices.
And this gag order?
I can't imagine how a just Court could continue it. Renya has so far not shown good faith. In one sense, being that much info came out that was mostly all negative about "bikers", and most all of it coming from LE and the DA's offices --- oh, wait -- and judges who have granted personal interviews to the press(!), it matters not if the AP did not get the file directly from Renya's own hands, for those hands are less than clean otherwise, while a huge steaming pile of a heaped-up wagon load of horse-droppings left the barn with most all the horses.
We might be able to imagine things could be a little tense within various governmental offices in Waco, right about now, and more so when the news has had a little time to circulate better.
Who da' mole? Who to strike and whack at with the mallet?
Waco area LEO agencies have already proven they can be vindictive, and play games within games within power-tippin' LEO ego trip games...
Watch for who may show up soon with (some kind of) a black eye?
The Ballmead allstar team, and any other 'team' in that league... are they at bat, and will they be bashed with bean-ball pitches, and even bats?
Inquiring minds are dying to know...
Not Ballmead but Bellmead allstar.
You're kidding. Actually, you're serious. You're that far removed from reality, you're that malleable and brainwashable, that distant from your fellow Americans, a stranger in a strange land. Just amazing and pitiful.
Lol
We have seen the autopsy reports
And the bikers did most of the killing
Reyna responds to claims he violated gag order
http://www.kxxv.com/story/30094230/reyna-responds-to-claims-he-violated-gag-order
WACO -
The attorney for one of the Twin Peaks bikers filed a motion in court accusing McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna of violating the gag order he requested in the Matt Clendennen case. Reyna responded to that accusation Tuesday night.
Lol
We have seen the autopsy reports
And the bikers did most of the killing
WOW!! Now you are psychic! The autopsies indicated who the killers were? Don’t remember that in any of the reports.
Probably won't overcome the desire of some to interpret it in a lurid, sensationalist, stupid and false manner - but well put nonetheless.
Thank you for your kind reply.
All I could hope for is that my reply would serve to point out the insipid nature of the original comment... But I do half-expect someone to reply that "Anyone who wears a Rebel flag is a card carrying member of the 'Klu Klux Klan', Doncha' know..." Such is the nature of the drama queens that so often inhabit these threads.
You can buy them books, and buy them books, but all they will do is eat the covers. : )
Reyna released a statement after the AP story was released, saying, "The fact that someone violated their ethical and legal obligations and the fact that the ultra-liberal AP is printing that material is evidence to me that my office is alone in trying to protect these individual's constitutional right to a fair trial."
That takes chutzpah.
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