Posted on 06/04/2015 10:24:13 AM PDT by Prolixus
Senior Judge Doug Shaver of Houston denied a motion to recuse McLennan County judges Matt Johnson and Ralph Strother from hearing cases involving the bikers who were arrested after the shootout.
Shaver also encouraged local officials to expedite bond hearings for the bikers who remain jailed. As of Thursday morning, prosecutors and defense attorneys said they had negotiated the release of 58 of the bikers on reduced bonds.
Return here for updates and read the full story in Friday's Tribune-Herald.
Earlier
Nine bikers held on $1 million bonds after the May 17 shootout at Twin Peaks restaurant are seeking to replace McLennan County’s two felony court judges at a hearing Thursday morning.
Senior Judge Doug Shaver of Houston will decide if 19th State District Judge Ralph Strother and 54th State District Judge Matt Johnson will be replaced based on accusations from Austin attorney Adam Reposa that they have displayed bias.
Reposa alleged in his recusal motion, filed May 25, that the $1 million bonds are unreasonably oppressive and the judge who set them - Justice of the Peace W.H. “Pete” Peterson - and the two district judges, who at that time did not reduce them, should be recused.
Since the motion was filed, Strother and Johnson have approved bond reductions after negotiations between lawyers for the bikers and the district attorney’s office. So far, at least 32 bikers have been released after their bonds were reduced, while three posted $1 million bonds to gain their freedom.
Reposa represents Jimmy Pond, Thomas Paul Landers, Justin Garcia, Reginald Weathers, Gilbert Zamora, William Redding, Marcus Pilkington, Ares Phoinix and Eliodoro Munguia at Thursday’s hearing.
He asks that Johnson and Strother be recused because they approved the high bonds and mandated that only they would entertain motions to reduce bonds, Reposa’s motion says.
Strother and Johnson declined comment on the recusal motions but are seeking to quash subpoenas they were served Wednesday morning ordering them to appear at the hearing.
In seeking to dismiss the charges against his clients, Reposa alleges the identical arrest warrant affidavits filed in all 177 cases fail to allege the elements of an engaging in organized criminal activity case, paint all defendants with an overly broad brush and rely on nothing more than “guilt by association.”
You seem to have a vested interest in this event, what is it?
What about this security camera video that the AP has? Why hasn't it been made public?
This is usually a get tough on crime crowd. Sounds like the meaning of IS.
Why were the police hiding in the shadows with high powered rifles?
If they wanted to keep the peace they would have had uniformed officers in the restaurant's parking lot.
Hiding in the shadows? Haven’t heard it.put like,that yet.
This is so wrong! Its almost like Texas dislikes organized crime gangs that run dope for the cartels and most of the prostitution in the state!
Can’t a crook get a little respect?
It doesn’t matter how it’s “put”: If the police were there to keep the peace why were they not conspicuous?
The police are visible in all public sporting events, from high schools to professional venues. Hiding would defeat the core purpose of public safety, ie; crowd control. Imagine law enforcement hiding so as to perpetuate an ambush, and give the hooligans space to act badly.
It was a shootat massacree.
Remember that the BATFE and FBI were there too. No words about their part in the planning stages of this event.
They are on all these threads too... Look around.
I have 100% confidence that when the smoke clears on this whole episode atleast one Lon Horuchi wannabe is exposed.
I don’t know that they weren’t unless they were following arch criminals for.some.reason.
I guess the cops could have sat at the table and had a nice after church chat.
HillBill seem to get plenty of respect.
They most certainly could have went into the restaurant in force and ordered meals, even without the intention of joining the bikers for an after church chat.
The LEOs could have found their own seating arrangements, or stood in line and ordered meals to go, or went out to the patio, or lingered outside in full view with all of their battle rattle adornments on, sparkling for all to see.
In fact, they could have been in all of those positions at the very same time.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of 5.56mm ammo, right?
It's hard to ambush someone, if you are not first in an ambush position. Occam's Razor. ;0)
The AP has seen the video, which we have not. Even conservativetreehouse states that the Cossack testimony is consistent with the video accounts per the AP viewing.
“Why were the police hiding in the shadows with high powered rifles?”
They were not hiding, their presence was known.
“why were they not conspicuous?”
They were conspicuous. The SWAT team was held back until / unless needed, but marked police cars were on the scene.
Also, shouldn't there be multiple videos? Cellphone cameras are everywhere now.
“Cellphone cameras are everywhere now.”
Yes, and there were witnesses and the cops could not have gotten all their cell phones, e.g. the one (and only one) video posted on conservativetreehose. I certainly do not know. I do not know why there are not more interviews published of eye witnesses. Surely they are out there.
If I were a licensed PI, if I were an investigative reporter, and there in Waco, I can think of any number of people to interview. I could spend hours at the Court House getting any and all public records.
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