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A gag order in a criminal case arising from a shootout at a biker gathering in Waco is unconstitutional, overly broad and should be lifted, attorneys for 16 media organizations argued in a brief filed Friday with a Texas appeals court. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 15 other organizations, including The Associated Press, filed the "friend of the court" brief in support of a motion by an attorney for one of 177 people arrested after the shooting.

A recusal hearing to address a complaint against McLennan County Justice of the Peace W.H. “Pete” Peterson related to the May 17 biker shooting at Twin Peaks will take place at 10 a.m. Thursday and be presided over by a Bell County judge, legal documents show. The complaint, filed with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct by Dallas attorney Clinton Broden, alleges Peterson violated several judicial ethical canons when he set the initial $1 million bonds for the 177 jailed bikers. Broden has said his complaint is based on comments Peterson made to the Tribune-Herald after the shooting. “I think...

Court officials would not let a Tribune-Herald reporter type or Tweet the hearing as it happened. Joe Carroll, senior judge of the 27th Judicial District Court, granted a motion to recuse McLennan County Justice of the Peace W.H. “Pete” Peterson from the Matthew Clendennen case.

The city is fighting to keep videos of the May shootout at the Twin Peaks restaurant out of the press, and still hasn’t confirmed how many victims were shot by police. Why is Waco, Texas, fighting to suppress multiple videos of the shootout that killed nine bikers at the Twin Peaks restaurant on May 17? Why are some attorneys in the case now prohibited from talking to the press? And why haven’t Waco officials revealed how many of the nine victims were killed by bullets from police officers’ guns?

Why is Waco, Texas, fighting to suppress multiple videos of the shootout that killed nine bikers at the Twin Peaks restaurant on May 17? Why are some attorneys in the case now prohibited from talking to the press? And why haven’t Waco officials revealed how many of the nine victims were killed by bullets from police officers’ guns? snip Here are two theories. One is the official explanation. Authorities say that this is a complex investigation that takes lots of time and that suppressing video evidence and issuing gag orders is necessary to prevent prospective jurors from being influenced by...

A Bandido from San Antonio who remains jailed after his arrest in the May 17 Twin Peaks shootout likely will be released soon after an agreement Friday morning between his lawyer and prosecutors. Joseph Ortiz, 35, a former Marine, should be free by Saturday after an agreement with prosecutors and 19th State District Judge Ralph Strother to reduce his bond from $100,000 to $20,000, according to Ortiz’s lawyer Jay Norton. Like the other 177 arrested bikers, Ortiz’s original bond was $1 million. He is one of four who remain jailed two months after the deadly shootout at Twin Peaks restaurant...

Police said a shootout between five rival biker gangs took place Sunday May 17th, 2015 in Waco, Texas, leaving at least nine people dead. This is footage of the police arriving on the scene. They has been nearby, as they were expecting trouble. The fight started at the Twin Peaks restaurant and moved into the parking lot, starting as a fist fight, then moving to guns. When the officers arrived, they engaged in the gun battle. Police spokesman Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said, "In my nearly 35 years of law enforcement experience, this is the most violent and gruesome scene...

In May, a fight between two rival motorcycle clubs turned into a bloodbath in Waco, Texas. Nine people were shot dead, and at least 20 were injured. In the end, 177 people were arrested and jailed on charges of engaging in organized crime. But many of them say they had nothing to do with these so-called outlaw motorcycle clubs — and nothing to do with the violence. Among them are Walt and Ester Weaver. Walt says he's stunned by the way authorities handled the situation. "Two months ago if you'd told me this could happen to this many people in...

One of the state district judges presiding over the Waco Twin Peaks bikers cases has reversed his decision to extend the term of a grand jury selected under the old method of selecting grand juries. The judge will now comply with a McLennan County, Texas, order that ends on July 8th, the much criticized practice of selecting “pick-a-pal” grand juries. This grand jury will likely decide the fate of some, if not all, of the 177 bikers arrested on May 17th after the Twin Peaks shootout. Although the judges and the McLennon County district clerk approved a plan on June...

The Waco secret of the day is the surveillance video shot by the Don Carlos Mexican Restaurant in the Central Texas Market Place in Waco on May 17. Dallas Attorney Clint Broden wants a copy. Recent escapees from Syrian prisons need to know that there was a big news event in that shopping center that Sunday around lunch time. Some arbitrary number of people, some number in the low two hundreds, were detained. One hundred seventy-nine people were arrested. A couple of them were let out of jail that night. Police announced there were about 160 arrests. Eventually, after a...

Abel Reyna (AR) and Sgt. Patrick Swanton must have been sweating cold as they blitzed the media with apocalyptic visions of SAMCRO and the Mayans stabbing, shooting, and raping their way across Central Texas Marketplace during church hour, with the heroic police saving the day. But it was showtime, and the news cameras were already rolling. And thus, the "biker shootout" meme was born.

All presumptive evidence of felony should be admitted cautiously; for the law holds it better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent party suffer.” Why Do The Due Process Concerns Of Innocents Outweigh The State Interest Of Convicting Those That Are Responsible For The Shooting In Waco? The Blackstone Ratio, a concept attributed to a famous jurist of the 1860’s named Sir William Blackstone, is commonly accepted as a cornerstone of civil liberties and a free society. Closely related to the idea that an individual is innocent until proven guilty, the Blackstone Ratio means that democratic societies do...

The city of Waco is seeking to quash a subpoena issued to the former Waco Twin Peaks franchise holder for video of the May 17 shootout that left nine bikers dead and 20 wounded. Dallas attorney Clint Broden, who represents Matthew Alan Clendennen, a member of the Scimitars Motorcycle Club, obtained a subpoena after speaking with Patrick Keating, a Dallas attorney who represents the Twin Peaks franchisee. Broden said he sought the video to help him prepare for an Aug. 10 examining trial set in Clendennen’s case in McLennan County Justice of the Peace W.H. “Pete” Peterson’s court. The subpoena...

Nuclear power plant technicians, senior military officers, FBI contractors and an employee of “a highly-secretive Department of Defense agency” with a Top Secret clearance. Those are just a few of the more than 100 people with sensitive military and government connections that law enforcement is tracking because they are linked to “outlaw motorcycle gangs.” A year before the deadly Texas shootout that killed nine people on May 17, a lengthy report by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives detailed the involvement of U.S. military personnel and government employees in outlaw motorcycle gangs, or OMGs. A copy of the...

One month after the deadly May 17 shootout at Twin Peaks prompted the unprecedented mass arrests of 177 bikers, officials are releasing limited information and say disclosure of certain evidence, including videos of the incident, would compromise their investigation. The incident was of such a rare scale and variety that McLennan County officials had never experienced anything like it. Their response after the shooting stopped has been criticized from some corners and spawned at least one federal civil rights lawsuit and a judicial complaint. Now, as the media, bikers and their relatives push for answers, many questions remain unanswered because...

If you thought violent biker gangs were a relic of the Altamont era, the shootout at a Waco, Texas, restaurant on May 17 might have come as a shock. A long-simmering beef between the Bandidos and Cossacks boiled over into gunfire. When police arrived at the scene, gang members shot at them too, leaving nine bikers dead, 18 people injured, and 170 suspects in police custody. Over 100 weapons have been confiscated. The scale of this incident dwarfs a typical urban gang confrontation, says Harold Pollack, co-director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab and an expert on gangs and...

WACO - On a recent Sunday, a Cossacks Motorcycle Club officer nicknamed Diesel sipped a Diet Dr Pepper on the patio of Twin Peaks and broke the news to his son, who was also a member. The 63 Cossacks and their supporters at the restaurant were not just waiting to have lunch with fellow bikers from around Central Texas. They had come for a special sit down with the Bandidos, to hash out an ongoing dispute. Before their meal arrived, Diesel was shot, execution-style, with two bullets to the back of his head. Cody Ledbetter, 26, survived the May 17...

Waco – It’s official, signed, sealed, delivered, and filed in the District Clerk’s office. Petitions involving vehicle forfeiture cases to seize 17 motorcycles, 8 pickups and two SUV’s reveal the extent of the Balkanization of alleged criminal enterprises in the Southwest and central Texas. When members of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club of San Antonio rolled onto the parking lot at the Twin Peaks restaurant shortly after high noon on May 17, Cossacks from chapters throughout the state were ready to rumble and waiting for them. Here’s why, according to an Associated Press pool report published by the local daily, which...

The black shroud the Waco Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives threw over the Twin Peaks Massacre 33 days ago leaks a little more light every day. The most interesting breaking information today comes from Dallas attorney F. Clinton Broden who has filed a civil rights lawsuit on behalf of Scimitar Motorcycle Club member Matthew Clendennen against the City of Waco and McLennan County, Texas. Today Broden released a search warrant and search warrant affidavit for Clendennen’s cell phone. The two documents contain information that directly contradicts statements made by Waco Police last Friday and...

Documents supporting the seizure of 27 vehicles from those reportedly involved in the May 17 Twin Peaks shootout reveal new details of the escalating turf war between rival biker gangs and their support groups that clashed with deadly results after a motorcycle association meeting was moved from Austin to Waco. Prosecutors filed notices Tuesday of their intent to seize and forfeit 17 motorcycles, eight pickup trucks and two SUVs, alleging the vehicles are contraband used during the commission of the noon-hour incident that left nine bikers dead, 20 wounded and 177 jailed on engaging in organized criminal activity charges. anip...