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.”
Sounds like judicial abuse, to me.
But who watches the judges?
And there you have it. Identical affidavits for 177 people. The public is being duped.
It may even be misleading to call it a shootout, depending on what actually happened.
The way this ridiculous thing is straining the local resources is already motivating officials to begin moving.
Registering the motion matters even if gets denied at the first level of consideration.
This is going to have burned a lot of people when it is over, not just the bikers.
“It may even be misleading to call it a shootout, depending on what actually happened.”
Every biker witness so far has the gangs killing at least the first three over a parking lot incident. At that point all hell broke loose and the witnesses were ducking for cover.
Sworn witnesses?
That in and of itself isn't all that unusual in a large conspiracy or RICO case. You see it all the time in the large Mafia prosecutions. But they still have to allege particular and specific overt acts (conspiracy) or predicate acts (RICO) on the part of each individual defendant in either situation. I have not read any affidavits in this case but some stories in the popular press say they are very broad and just contain a blanket list of acts and claim each defendant committed these overt/predicate acts. That will be very difficult to prove for 170+ defendants. If the coroners report ends up showing that all of the 9 dead were killed by 5.56 rifle rounds there will be hell to pay on the part of the State.
And what’s this “The gangs killing” nonsense.
That is begging the question.
A battle between a few people (and perhaps among those police in sympathetic shooting) has been blown up as though purposed by all present, a palpably ridiculous thesis not even backed up by unsworn witnesses.
Kudos to the Waco Trib for reporting this in an impartial manner.
Let’s say it turns the “probable” in “probable cause” into a joke. How about improbable cause?
“A battle between a few people “
Are you referring to the all-out gang war in a family plaza in Waco?
“Kudos to the Waco Trib for reporting this in an impartial manner.”
“In several interviews in recent days, the Cossack rider offered a different story. He said that the Cossacks were invited to the Twin Peaks patio that day — by a Bandido leader, who offered to make peace in a long-running feud between the two gangs. That invitation was a setup for an ambush, though, according to the Cossack. That’s why the dead included six Cossacks, one Scimitar (an ally of the Cosacks) and only two Bandidos.
On one hand, I am VERY interested and anxious for ballistics reports. On the other, I find myself questioning anything government does these days...
That’s an excerpt from the Washington (com)Post. It’s reads like low quality fiction. It’s not reporting by Waco Trib staff.
Correction: It reads like low quality fiction.
” But significant parts of his account square with police statements, as well as security camera videos obtained by the Associated Press.”
But this is directly Waco Tribune reporting about the embedded WaPost article. (same link)
“But significant parts of his account square with police statements, as well as security camera videos obtained by the Associated Press.”
I would go farther than that and say it turns the "sworn" part of "sworn affidavit" into flat out perjury.
If the AP has security camera videos why haven’t the videos been made public?
From the same Waco Tribune link:
“So when a biker from the Bandidos, the oldest gang in Texas and one of the largest in the world, ran into a young Cossack in the Twin Peaks parking lot last Sunday, everyone knew what was coming. First words, then fists, then guns. Within seconds, Richie, Diesel and Dog were dead.”
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