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WACO, Texas (AP) — A former top assistant to a Texas district attorney whose office is prosecuting dozens of cases stemming from a deadly biker shooting says the DA dismissed unrelated criminal cases for friends and campaign donors. The Waco Tribune-Herald reports that former McLennan County prosecutor Greg Davis made the claim in a sworn affidavit filed Friday. Davis was first assistant to District Attorney Abel Reyna until 2014, when he resigned because he objected to preferential treatment that Davis says was given to Reyna's friends and political supporters.

The state and the defense close their cases. The judge recessed the jury until 9 a.m. Thursday so the parties can work on the court charge. 1:51 PM - 8 Nov 2017 The charge is the court's instructions to the jury and will be long and complicated in a case like this. 1:52 PM - 8 Nov 2017 The state is requesting at least an hour to close. The judge has not decided how long he will give the attorneys for summations. The court is mindful that Friday is a county holiday and the courthouse will be closed.

Speculation about how many police fired their weapons into the panicked crowd at the Waco Twin Peaks on May 17, 2015 and who killed whom waxes and wanes. From the beginning, the official reporting of this case has been so twisted and Byzantine that it has been impossible not to see conspiracy. A mountain of evidence points to a clandestine conspiracy but it does not lead to where many people hope it will. There may very well be concealed evidence that shots were fired by police snipers. But if there was a sniper he fired only one shot. If there...

Whether Abelino Reyna, Michael Jarrett, Amanda Dillon and the rest of the humanoids in the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office like it or not, Michael Jarrett now has about as much chance to “do” Dallas Bandido Jake Carrizal first as he has to do Britney Spears. One hundred ninety-two criminal cases resulting from the probably police provoked, completely preventable, Waco Twin Peaks Biker Brawl in May 2015 have lingered for 838 days because three D League politicians have been stalling what should be the normal course of justice. The arrests were unconstitutional. The bails were unconstitutional. The grand jury deliberations...

San Antonio attorney Tom Clarke is concerned that James Rosas will become a “lightning rod” as the first Twin Peaks biker to stand trial, but Clarke said his client didn’t do anything wrong and someone needs to draw a line in the sand. Almost 18 months after the shootout between rival biker groups left nine dead and two dozen injured, Rosas has become the first of 154 bikers indicted in the May 17, 2015, incident to receive a trial date. Judge Matt Johnson of Waco’s 54th State District Court set Rosas’ trial on first-degree felony engaging in organized criminal activity...

Two more bikers arrested after the Twin Peaks shootout in Waco filed a civil rights lawsuit Friday, claiming they were improperly arrested with no evidence of wrongdoing and denied due process. Christopher Eaton and Owen Bartlett, both members of the Los Pirados Motorcycle Club, bring the total of bikers who have filed civil lawsuits to 15. The lawsuit lists Eaton as a Dallas County resident and says Bartlett is from McLennan County and names McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna, Waco Police Chief Brent Stroman, Waco police Detective Manuel Chavez and an unnamed Department of Public Safety agent as defendants....

McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna should be disqualified from prosecuting cases arising from the Twin Peaks biker shootout because he overstepped his authority by “commandeering” the investigation, a Houston attorney said Tuesday. “There is a big difference between advising and commandeering,” attorney Abigail Anastasio said. Anastasio represents Ray Nelson, 42, president of the Hill County Cossacks and one of 154 bikers indicted in the May 17, 2015, shootout at Twin Peaks in Waco that left nine bikers dead and more than 20 wounded. She filed a motion Tuesday in Waco’s 54th State District Court seeking to disqualify Reyna and...

A Houston lawyer contends that all criminal charges have been automatically dropped against a Brenham couple and nearly 40 other bikers who were arrested following the deadly May melee at the Twin Peaks in Waco. They were not indicted as of midnight Thursday, the deadline for grand jury to have completed its work, he said. "It timed out," said Paul Looney, who represents Morgan and William English, who were arrested for allegedly engaging in organized criminal activity and originally were held on $1 million bail each, as were all others in the case. "Pop the champagne." Looney, who was speaking...

Patriotic Bikers, from all across the United States are planning to show up at ALL future TRUMP rallies to make sure that any paid agitator protesters don’t take away Mr. Trump’s right to speak. Or interfere with the rights of Trump supporters to safely attend. WE SHALL NOT BE SILENCED! Nichole Mittness thought about 100 people would respond to a Facebook page inviting a protest of Donald Trump’s Janesville appearance. As of midday Saturday, 1,200 had pledged to be there, and Mittness figured that meant 1,000 or so would show up on Tuesday. “It’s really overwhelming. I was not anticipating...

Attorney Robert Callahan called the release of information from the McLennan County District Attorney's Office a victory. Callahan withdrew his request Tuesday from the court to compel the prosecutors to release evidence in his client's case, as required by the Michael Morton Act. Callahan filed the motion last week after saying he had attempted on multiple occasions to get the information against his client, William Aikin, a biker charged in the May 17 Twin Peaks shootout. The DA's office was asking defense attorneys in the case to sign a release form related to public disclosures before getting evidence against their...

The criminal-justice system in Waco, Texas, continues to boggle the mind. Last month, a grand jury in McClellan County held a marathon session to consider whether District Attorney Abel Reyna had presented enough evidence to justify indictments in the shootout at a May gathering of bikers where nine people were killed. In the wake of those killings, 177 bikers were arrested. Many proclaimed their innocence, and local authorities faced criticism for jailing so many individuals using fill-in-the-blank paperwork that didn't differentiate among the jailed. Still, the November grand jury session returned 106 indictments at the end of one day, some...

About 150 people, mostly bikers and their supporters, attended a rally Saturday on the south steps of the Capitol to denounce the treatment of the 177 people arrested in connection with a May shootout in Waco that left nine dead and 20 injured “That’s how tyrannies usually start: by throwing people in jail because of their association,” said Clint Broden, who is representing Matthew Clendennen, one of the arrested bikers, in criminal and civil lawsuits.

More than four months after nine bikers were killed May 17 during a shootout outside the Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco, troubling questions stand before us, while clarity remains elusive. The mass arrest of 177 people has created a legal morass, and complicated an already complex investigation. An overly broad gag order is feeding suspicion that more than complexity is delaying the release of information about the investigation. And while autopsy reports on the nine bikers killed were released in August, ballistics testing reportedly continues. Without ballistics evidence the question of who shot whom increasingly generates harmful speculation. The embarrassing...

The Associated Press has analyzed evidence from a May shootout in which nine members of motorcycle clubs were killed outside a Waco restaurant and concluded some were hit by police bullets, a Friday AP report reveals. “The AP reviewed more than 8,800 pages of evidence, including police reports, dash-cam video, photos and audio interviews related to the May 17 confrontation,” the report explains. “Four months later, authorities have released little information about what sparked the fight or how the gunfire played out, and no one has been charged with any of the deaths.” . . . That goes directly to...

A bullet removed from the arm of a biker wounded May 17 at Twin Peaks and killed four months later in a traffic wreck will be analyzed by federal investigators. Jason Chambers, an investigator in the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office, obtained a search warrant last week to extract a bullet from the arm of James Kenneth “Spaz” Anderson, a member of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club from Henderson. Texas Ranger Jake Burson executed the search warrant for the bullet at a funeral home in Henderson on Friday, the day before Anderson’s funeral. Anderson, 53, was killed Sept. 3 when his...