More news on the Twin Peaks biker fight indictments:
Frustrated by a lack of movement in the Twin Peaks cases, a judge set trial dates Friday for three bikers, while McLennan County prosecutors dismissed 13 more cases involving those indicted in the May 2015 shootout.
Judge Matt Johnson of Waco’s 54th State District Court summoned six members of the Cossacks motorcycle group or their support groups to court Friday to get updates on how their cases will be moving forward.
On Thursday, prosecutors dismissed 15 cases against bikers who had been summoned to court Friday, leaving a much smaller group at the hearing in Johnson’s court. Prosecutors also formally refused an unindicted case involving Donald Fowler on Thursday.
After the hearing, prosecutors presented Johnson with 13 new dismissals, most of them involving members of the Bandidos group or their support clubs.
Cases dismissed Friday involve Justin Garcia, Cory McAlister, Jimmy Pond, Jason Dillard, Kenneth Carlisle, Richard Donias, Gilbert Zamora, Ronald Warren, Richard Smith, Phillip Sampson, Christopher Rogers, Rolando Reyes and John Martinez.
The dismissals this week bring the number of pending cases to 98, down from 155 bikers indicted after the shootout in which nine were killed and 20 were wounded and injured.
Since District Attorney Abel Reyna was defeated in the March Republican primary, his office has dismissed 56 indicted Twin Peaks cases and refused prosecution on 33 others. Special prosecutors appointed to handle four cases in which Reyna recused his office dismissed one indicted case this week.
Reyna did not attended Friday’s hearing, nor was he at a similar hearing 19th State District Judge Ralph Strother held last week.
Johnson set Wesley McAlister’s case for Sept. 10 as a backup case to the retrial of Jacob Carrizal, the Bandidos Dallas chapter president whose trial ended in November with a hung jury and a mistrial.
Carrizal has a new attorney, and the judge said if he is not ready to try the case on Sept. 10, Wesley McAlister will take that trial slot. A jury panel has been summoned to report to court Aug. 24 to fill out questionnaires in the case.
Johnson also set trial dates for early November for Jacob Reese and Timothy Shayne Satterwhite.
Dallas attorney Clint Broden, who represents Richard Luther, asked the court to set a trial date, but said he will file a motion to recuse Reyna that would require a hearing because he thinks Reyna is a material witness in the case.
The judge agreed to set Luther’s trial date after the first of the year, when Reyna will be out of office and the potential conflict will be resolved.
It’s hard to think of such a high-profile modern criminal prosecution, following an incident in which so many people dead, where the prosecution of the case was so badly bungled. (Feel free to suggest alternate candidates in the comments below.) It’s almost as though all the mass indictments and endless delays were monuments to Reyna’s inability to actually indict specific individuals for the murders of other specific individuals, and now that he’s out of the way, maybe some actual justice can be salvaged from the ruins of his incompetence…
(Hat tip: Dwight.)
Tags: Abel Reyna, Bandidos Motorcycle Gang, Christopher Jacob Carrizal, Cossacks Motorcycle Gang, Crime, Judge Matt Johnson, McLennan County, Ralph Strother, Texas, Twin Peaks, Waco, Wesley McAlister