Posted on 07/19/2016 5:01:31 PM PDT by Elderberry
Two Dallas-area lawyers who represent bikers in the pending Twin Peaks shootout trial are asking two judges to disqualify the district attorney and appoint a special prosecutor.
Nine bikers died and 20 more were injured in the May 17, 2015 shootout between rival biker gangs and law enforcement officers at Waco’s Twin Peaks restaurant.
Attorneys Clinton F. Broden and Mick Mickelsen both says District Attorney Abel Reyna should be disqualified from hearing the cases because he has a financial interest in the case, Broden said in a news release Monday.
Reyna wasn’t immediately available for comment.
Broden is representing Matthew Alan Clendennen and Mickelsen represents Burton George Burgman, both of whom are charged with engaging in organized criminal activity, as are all the Twin Peaks defendants.
In the motion for recusal, Broden claims Reyna has a personal financial interest in the prosecution of the cases because both men already have named Reyna in a lawsuit.
“Reyna has a clear personal financial incentive to pursue the misguided prosecutions…,” Broden said Monday.
“Reyna’s pursuit of the cases against Mr. Clendennen and Mr. Bergman despite the fact that video evidence reveals their innocence is a due process violation,” Broden said.
One of the motions is filed in Judge Matt Johnson’s 54th District Court, the other in Judge Ralph Strother’s 19th District Court.
“In pursuing my client’s prosecution, it is clear that Mr. Reyna is being influenced by his own personal, financial interests and that these interests compromise the performance of his public duty,” Broden said in the release.
The pleadings in the two motions are basically identical.
Broden presents as fact that “members of the district attorney’s office became fact witnesses in this case when they involved themselves in the investigative decisions made in the cases, even going so far as to overrule decisions made to release most of the motorcyclists” on the day of their original arrests.
The petitions claim that on the day of the arrests Waco police interviewed dozens of potential suspects and, at the end of the day, had decided to release many of them.
But later in that process, according to the petition, Reyna and others from the DA’s office forced police to suspend their interviews and charge all 177 defendants under a blanket arrest affidavit.
Broden’s complaint also states Reyna “showed his colors” during statements he made to the media about the shootings.
Clendennen and several other bikers arrested have filed federal civil rights lawsuits against Reyna, Waco police, McLennan County Sheriff’s deputies and members of the Texas Department of Public Safety but none of those cases have yet been to court.
Broden points out in the pleading that if Reyna tries and successfully convicts Clendennen and others in the criminal case, that would significantly lessen the likelihood that a civil remedy against Reyna would be forthcoming.
The pleadings ask both judges to set the matter for hearing, saying that without a hearing it would never be known which of the individuals involved made decisions about the issues or whether any of them might be considered material witnesses in the case.
“At any rate, I’ve seen you get sore more than once about the fact that one of these groups was hogging (no pun intended) the “rights to wear colors.””
You made that up. You have NEVER seen me ‘sore’.
“If colors means narsty bikers, why would anyone be complaining that narsty bikers are in charge of the colors? “
The Cossacks complained and got a bunch of them killed.
“Isn’t that kind of like complaining that rapists are controlling the calling cards of Jack the Ripper?”
Come again?
“Sure you’ve complained about it. And now you act clueless?”
You said I had been sore. Now you move the goalposts to ‘complain’.
Please cite a complaint.
“give one contrary example where universality was never claimed”
That ‘one’ was one more than you cited for your position.
“Why would you give a care for something that you would never want?”
Come again?
You want another?
Wow TG! I’m impressed. I figured a far left DU loon like you would have been banned from FR long ago.
I guess you know how to ride a razor thin wire... so far. It’s just a matter of time until those who pay attention to such things take notice and fix this ongoing problem of you being here at all.
Regardless of what happens here; you will always be you and I can’t imagine a worse punishment for any living human anywhere.
“Wow TG! I’m impressed. I figured a far left DU loon like you would have been banned from FR long ago.”
Anti-gang makes me a far left DU loon? Only in your imagination ...
“Regardless of what happens here; you will always be you and I can’t imagine a worse punishment for any living human anywhere.”
Retired living on less than income. Gated community. House with pool. Wife has a 2015 Lexus and my 2016 has 650 hp ...
If this is punishment, bring it on!
"we shouldn't bomb the Japs, cuz then we'd have to bomb Americans as well..." "we can't put rapists and drug dealers in prison because we'd have to put all the law abiding citizens in prison too..." "we can't execute murderers because we'd have to execute your gradma too, even if she isn't one..."
Hell's Angel convicted of torturing and disembowelling three witnesses to Hells Angels crimes.
If this is punishment, bring it on!
This right proves my point. You are under the illusion material wealth prove you are a good person. Neither is true but trying to explain that to someone such as you is impossible just like you being a mole here FR and trying to make you understand why your far left ideology is damaging to my country.
You are much more than anti-gang. Your hatred of anyone on two wheels is and was very apparent. You really should go back to DU and stay there.
“You are much more than anti-gang. Your hatred of anyone on two wheels is and was very apparent. You really should go back to DU and stay there. “
Perhaps you missed the many posts where I said I had been a biker since 1961 and have owned about a dozen different bikes over my lifetime.
Sad that you can find no better way to counter my posts than to lie about me.
I still don’t know why these dudes have such a love-fest with biker gangs ...
I've been following these discussions for a while now. In a previous life I was embedded in the 'biker' lifestyle. I learned from first hand experience that although everyone is a unique individual, there are generally 2 kinds of 'bikers':
1. the ones that must follow the orders of a chain of command, or else.
2. all of the others
I think that much of these discussions don't take this into account.
With your history; I don’t believe a word you say.
Indeed, fanboys (and fangirls) of criminal gangs are far more reliable.
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