Posted on 06/16/2015 5:07:40 PM PDT by don-o
Ester and Walter Weaver say they are not criminals.
“I don’t even have so much as a speeding ticket to my name. Ever,” said Walter Weaver, an analyst at Fort Hood. “I’ve been driving since 1975.”
But as they adjust to life after spending more than two weeks in jail following the May 17 Waco biker shootout, the Weavers are still reeling from their experience.
“I was in the parking lot,” Walter said. “I was looking for (Ester). I didn’t see anything occur. I just heard the bullets. I’ve been a soldier since I was 18 years old. My first thought was, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. This is like being in downtown Baghdad.’
“All I could hear was bullets going off. Then it was get down and get the wife down. It was astonishing that this was in the middle of Texas.”
Once the bullets stopped flying in the parking lot of Twin Peaks in Waco on May 17, the Weavers were swept up in a police dragnet 170 strong. Many attorneys have called the mass arrests unconstitutional and unprecedented.
“The sheer amount of people that they pulled in did surprise me,” said Lewis Giles, the Weavers’ attorney. “And the fact that it didn’t seem like they could have done any investigation into all of those people.”
As he sat on the curb next to his wife, Walter said he thought the police simply wanted to speak to witnesses.
“My impression was we were being detained so we could be witnesses to whatever we did or didn’t see,” he said. “I thought we would be questioned and ‘OK, what did you see?’ and we’d make some kind of a witness statement.”
But police weren’t interested in taking witness statements. Instead, the two were handcuffed and made to wait in the sun for hours before they were thrown in jail without being Mirandized.
“Last month, if you had told me that this could have occurred to us in the state of Texas, I would have called you a liar,” Walter said. “That just can’t happen.”
But it did.
As they sat in the sun before being whisked off to one of two McLennan County jails, Walter said police didn’t provide water or food to detainees for several hours. When food or water was provided, detainees had to eat with their hands cuffed behind their backs.
“I’m a soldier,” Walter said. “I’ve been in some pretty ugly conditions in some pretty crappy parts of the world. But to see (Ester) sitting over there flex-cuffed, trying to nibble on a piece of chicken — that was pretty horrible — having to sit there and watch that.”
As they were at Twin Peaks to eat lunch, Ester said they hadn’t eaten since dinner the previous day.
“I think it was about 10, 10:30 at night is when I finally asked if we could get something to eat because we hadn’t eaten anything,” she said.
‘No clue’ about charges
Once they got to jail, Walter said he was clueless as to what he was being charged with.
“‘Shut up. We don’t want to hear what you’re saying,’” Walter said McLennan County’s corrections officers told him. “You’d ask them ‘Why am I here? What am I being charged with? What’s going on?’ They just kind of (ignored us).”
Walter said he shared cells with businessmen from Dallas, weekend racers from College Station and two Bandidos club members who were “astonished and had no clue” as to why they were being detained.
“There were a whole bunch of people in there,” he said.
After insisting he be given a phone call, Walter said he simply picked Giles’ number at random off a list on the Internet. Giles was able to call Walter’s boss at work and put everything at ease.
“I have a very understanding boss and, again, I was extremely lucky to get Mr. Giles on the phone,” Walter said. “He called work and took care of everything for me. I was extremely lucky. Somebody was smiling when I grabbed (his) name off the Internet.”
Giles said his clients likely have many months, if not years, of legal wrangling to grapple with.
“I think if we went to trial, that’s the absolute safest bet because there’s no way they could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they did anything,” Giles said. “But that could take years. It could easily take a year, but it will probably take two or three years.
“It would also be safer to let several of the other 168 cases go to trial so that … you’re essentially seeing the same battle over and over again. If you see it enough, you can see what the DA’s going to do and you can make a plan around it. That’s safe, but it’s long term,” Giles said.
“Another example would be going in right now and waiving indictment and saying we want a trial next month. I don’t think that would ever be smart, but it would be an option. It would be over quick — 90 days, 180 days — but that’s not a whole lot of time to prepare. Even though I feel like they didn’t do anything, I still would want more time to prove to 12 very important people, at least in their lives, that they had nothing to do with it.”
‘What’s right’
Giles has a common saying in his line of work.
“I always tell people, there’s what’s right, there’s what’s legal and there’s what is and they don’t always match,” Giles said. “What is, is they basically got arrested for eating at a restaurant. What’s legal is they should have never been arrested because they weren’t doing anything wrong. And what’s right is this should have never happened.”
As a community volunteer who gives her time at nursing homes and has raised thousands for charity events with her women’s motorcycle club, Ester said she hopes Central Texans realize she and her husband are innocent.
“I learned a long time ago, never judge a book by its cover,” she said. “You never know who the person is just by looking at them. Yes, I was probably dirty because I was on the ground. I was hot and sweaty because I was in the sun all day. ... I didn’t look very pleasing. But you don’t know who I am.”
Walter said he hopes residents wait for the truth to come out before some make judgments.
“Wait until it’s over and see what the facts are before you judge,” he said.
Why do they pick Waco when they want to introduce America to new levels of police insanity? What is it about that place that makes “them” say, “okay, we burn another part of the Constitution here”? Is it hexed, or what?
No arrest without probable cause, no search and seizure without probable cause or a warrant, no unlawful detention, speedy trial, etc. etc.?
In this, the 800th year of Magna Carta, justice in the USA looks like whatever the government wants it to look like...
I am not defending any bikers with the following statement. Someone needs to pay and pay dearly for making the above statement to them. Every single individual who answered that way would be terminated and barred from law enforcement for life. And, that would just be the beginning.
The more I read about Waco II, the more it looks like an other gubmint foul (to be polite) up.
I have not seen any reports of Wounded, just killed. THAT in it self makes this the strangest firefight in the history of gun fights.
Usually something like 3 - 5 wounded to each killed. That should translate to somewhere around 35 gunshot wounds that I have never seen reported
It is a shame that you have to preface your post with that. A shame, but understandable.
We have a cabal of halfwits around here who refuse to look even a half inch deep into this thing.
18 wounded iirc
Texas hexes?
When rogue governments overstep their authority and ignore the law, this is inevitable the result. Among some of those arrested may be a murderer or two and may be some of whom are involved with organized criminal activity. But, when the Gestapo also rounds up innocent because they can, our country is out of control.
This couple should stand their ground and take every penny the courts will award them. It will be up to the voters to exact retribution on the local government authorities and the police chief for throwing away taxpayer money so that they can play Nazis.
And for all those law enforcement supporters who defend what happened in Waco, I will just say that I took an oath to defend against this sort of tyranny and will continue to speak out against this sort of behavior. Protection of the innocent trumps the use of government power to deal with criminals.
It seems an irony of destiny that Waco has taken on the name of two infamous government moves.
Something spiritual afoot, without a doubt. We can’t see into the realms into which devils, and angels, and God see. But we can see consequences.
Perhaps part of it is a fallen religiosity... I hate to say that about bible belt, but it is more and more true.
and still no coroner’s report...
Excellence in Posting!
Thanks for joining the conversation.
Lots really doesn’t add up in your article. Sometimes stories don’t add up because they are false.
Got a simple question from the article. Be very interested in your reply.
“After insisting he be given a phone call, Walter said he simply picked Giles’ number at random off a list on the Internet”
If he was not given the opportunity to make a phone call, until finally insisting (insisting usually doesn’t work with Jail Staff) how was he able to get on the internet (before his phone call) to find the lawyer?
Shown a list of attorneys on a screen... wow you are feeble tonight.
I know. I was subjected to such 'half-wit' mentality when I raised objections about how honest citizen's rights appeared to have been trampled on with sheer impunity and absolutely no direct evidence of involvement other than wearing "guilty" clothes at the wrong place at the wrong time. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3298854/posts?page=19#19
Keep pointing that out!
“We have a cabal of halfwits around here who refuse to look even a half inch deep into this thing.”
You are so right. Again thank you for keeping us posted with this on going story.
And you are the first half-wit (see don-o’s Post #6 above) to make an appearance in this thread. I REALLY wish you’d take Senator Cruz’ name out of your “tag” — you (who is most definitely NOT a typical Cruz supporter) are giving Cruz supporters a bad name. Of course, perhaps that’s one of your goals besides trolling.
If Ester reads the Waco threads, she will get her feelings hurt. She will learn that a good many consider her to be a subhuman. That she and her husband deserved what they got, and that they are guilty, guilty, guilty.
When I first heard the police version, I believed it. Then the more I learned about it, the more I realized that the police version was bullshit.
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