“Rapidly accelerating climate and biosphere collapse is not somewhere on the horizon, it is here, now.”
Tsunamis, cyclones, hurricanes and complications of storm surge are a mere and puny reality from the past. Add to it managed rainfall, and you’ve got a terrifying scenario of a world spun out of control.
This video journalist says massive weather manipulations are performed by contractors who use strong electronic signals to force storms to go where they are engineered to go.
RECUSAL MOTION IN BANDIDO JAKE CARRIZAL’S CASE “STILL WAITING TO BE FILED,” SAYS LEGAL DEFENSE TEAM…
Waco – Retired Visiting Judge James Morgan of Comanche granted a motion by three defendants in the Twin Peaks murder conspiracy trials to remove 19th Criminal District Judge Ralph Strother.
He applied the test prescribed by law, and found that the average man on the street would say, “Judge, you’re just not being fair.”
In a grueling day-long hearing held earlier, two veteran judges, former Court of Criminal Appeals Justice Charlie Baird, and State District Judge hammered at Strother’s performance in the issuance of a search warrant to seize body tissue in DNA testing from 72 defendants charged and indicted in his court.
Strother admitted on the witness stand that he had no idea exactly how his order was carried out, “They appeared because I wanted them to.”
In exacting cross examination the two elder judges held his feet to the fire until he admitted that he had signed no actual instrument of search or affidavit of probable cause. Furthermore, his answers indicated that during a period of ill health, he made the arrangements through phone conversations with the lead Court Coordinator on his staff while juggling medical appointments and hospital visits.
In corroborating testimony by the official, Ellen Watson, and attorneys who objected to the alleged lack of due process, the Court learned that the arrangement was made on behalf of the staff of District Attorney Abel Reyna.
At one point, defense attorney Millie Thompson testified that Lead Prosecutor Michael Jarrett threatened when she insisted she must see a signed order or warrant issued by the Court, “What do you want us to do, come out and kick his door down in the middle of the night to serve the warrant?”
At the end of the long day, Judge Morgan expressed the opinion, “I was all ready to come in here and get this done today, but I see now that I’ve got to give this some thought.”
His judgment was to be based on a lot of moving parts.
So far as it is known, the selection of jurors for the first of the trials, that of Bandidos Chapter President Jake Carrizal, will begin on September 12, with presentation of evidence and testimony to follow the examination of some 600 prospective called in a special venire.
The defense attorney in that cause, Casie Gotro of Houston, said in open court during a status conference to work out the “mechanics” of jury selection held last week, “I can’t face two prosecutors” – meaning both the DA and the Judge – “and see to it that my client gets adequate legal representation.”
Carrizal has been charged engaging in organized criminal activity at Twin Peaks Restaurant on May 17, 2015, that allegedly led to the capital murder of 9 persons, and the aggravated assault with a deadly weapons of an additional 20. A first degree felony, it carries a possible sentence of not less than 20 years to not more than 99 to be served in the penitentiary.
In a superseding indictment, he is charged with directing the activities of an organized criminal gang from the seat of his Harley-Davidson Motorcycle as he and his fellow motorcycle enthusiasts arrived for a political meeting called by the Confederation of Clubs to review the activities of legislators considering motorcycle safety funds amounting to millions of dollars collected from registration fees, open carry of handguns, and proposed legislation that would prohibit law enforcement officers targeting what the governments of states and the U.S. Department of Justice have termed “outlaw motorcycle gangs.”
The practice of “outlawry” is prohibited by the Texas Constitution’s Bill of Rights in Article 1, Section 20. It is an ancient concept once practiced by courts of royalty and the nobility, in which a defendant who need not have been present was placed “out law” – literally beyond the protections of the law, to be killed or maimed at the will of the King’s Men, noblemen and their soldiers, or members of the peasantry.
God save the State of Texas!
I am sincere.
So mote it be.
A Waco patrolman holds an assault rifle on a wounded biker who bled out because he said he would kill the men trying to take him to aid if they moved him on May 17, 2015 at Twin Peaks Restaurant
Waco – The four big screen television monitors attached to the massive support columns that stud the auxiliary courtroom in the McLennan County Courthouse Annex building traced with amazing clarity the facial reactions of Judge Ralph T. Strother.
A bailiff had just handed him a freshly file-marked writ in the middle of the beginning of his spiel to a capacity gallery of veniremen from a special panel of 600 about the qualifications to serve as a juror in the first of the 155 Twin Peaks murder conspiracy cases, that of Dallas Bandidos Chapter President Jacob Carrizal.
He noted that nothing they would hear today would serve as evidence in the trial, nor would anything they have read in the media, and then the hammer dropped, and he began to read.
As he paged through the document, his chagrin became – in real time – more and more agitated, and in a voice that betrayed hurt and surprise, he quickly snapped, “I wish to see counsel, the defendant, and the court reporter in the Jury Room.”
Authorities charged Carrizal with the identical offense that all 177 arrested on May 17, 2015, at the massacre that left 9 dead, 20 wounded, and a nation reeling in shock at the televised bloodshed. The event had been planned as a simple legislative update meeting for bikers from the Confederation of Clubs and Independents to learn all about open carry handgun legislation, motorcycle safety funds, and the prospects for bills pondered by Texas legislators then in session to curb motorcycle profiling by police.
Authorities charged total of 177 persons, some them suffering from gunshot wounds, with the offense of engaging in organized criminal activity.
That offense carries a possible sentence of from 25 years to 99 upon conviction. A superseding indictment of Carrizal added an additional count of directing the activities of an organized criminal enterprise, an offense that carries a penalty of not less than 30 years confinement or more than 99.
The bloodshed at the awful incident occurred when he and a small group of fellow Bandidos, arrived only to be ambushed by gun-wielding bikers flying patches of the Cossacks Motorcycle Club and their support clubs. Police arrayed in the pattern of an L-shaped ambush cut down the shooters who had wounded victims with handguns with suppressed fire from assault rifles, not all of which have been identified by ballistic examples.
The Texas Department of Public Safety is withholding evidence of its analysis, and that is one of the reasons Carrizal’s defense counsel, Casie Gotro, is seeking his recusal. He did not order some 12 witnesses or their designees, including the Director the DPS, to furnish the subpoenaed items, nor did he allow her to place them on the witness stand during a pre-trial hearing to learn just why the information is not forthcoming.
Strother has been recused in three other cases by the order of visiting Judge James Morgan only this week following a hearing two weeks ago in which the judge ruled that to the standards of the man in the street, he is “just not being fair.”
There are numerous items in the motion of complaint to have him removed from the Carrizal Case, which at this time is not available.
We will update this story when it is available by hyperlinking the text of the recusal motion to this story.
As the meeting reached only a few minutes in duration, 54th Criminal District Judge Matt Johnson arrived and entered the closed-door meeting. He remained inside the chamber only a few minutes before he swept back out of the room again.
When the bailiff intoned the courtesy announcement, “All rise,” the gallery of about 250 persons burst into rippling laughter.
As the crowded room slowly cleared, Ms. Gotro finished initialing and signing various court papers handed her by a staff member of the District Clerk’s Office. She raised up from the defense table and waved her hand in a sweeping gesture, saying , “Happy birthday!”
Judge Strother disappeared into a conference room.
Seated in the gallery with Kevin Fisk, the private investigator who is working for Carrizal’s defense counsel, “Double D” David Devereaux of the Motorcycle Profiling Project remarked, “You would think that having been recused in three other cases, he (Strother) would recuse himself, without going through all this.
Prospective panelists have been directed to return Setember 12 at 8:30 a.m. to fill out juror questionnaires that will determine “how you feel” about certain items, according to Judge Strother. He had earlier noted in his remarks to the venire that “there is nothing wrong” about having “strong opinions” or “strong feelings.”
When it comes to the jurors’ questionnaire, he said, “There are no wrong answers.
MORE TO FOLLOW
Jacob Carrizal’s Motion to Recuse 10th District Judge RalphT. Strother:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1w0fubr23cnhjd8/Carrizal%20Judge%20Recusal%20Mtn.pdf?dl=0
Handwritten motion gives the reasons for Judge Strother’s Recusal
Waco – Like a prowling tigress slowly circling a quiet village, the lady barrister Casie Gotro lured her prey with papers of the court.
She built her trap with words and facts, and as she worked, she tempted 19th Criminal District Judge Ralph T. Strother to underestimate her capacity for the logic behind legal principles – until it was too late.
When she stood inside the well of the Court, past the Temple Barre, she allowed him to speak to more than 200 prospective jurymen and women, and then by filing a motion supported by a legal memorandum used to persuade Judge James Morgan to grant recusal motions by three other defendants, she caused a bailiff to hand him an instrument so keenly whetted it made his face flush, sweat to pop out on his forehead, and resulted in a series of rapidly cycling grimaces that made his visage terrible to behold.
Four large-screen television screens blew his facial tics up to at least five times actual size, and hundreds of ordinary people sat observing in a disintersted and detached way as they headed out for a long holiday weekend at summer’s end.
The motion is scrawled in her own hand, something the highest courts in the nation have ruled is no handicap in pre-trial proceedings in courts of original jurisdiction.
Quite simply, such motions may not be rejected because they are “inartfully drawn.” It’s not the steak; in this case, it’s the sizzle.
With great economy of words, Ms. Gotro informed the Court that the Defendant, Jake Carrizal files his motion for the following reasons:
The Court has:
“For these reasons, Judge Stother should be recused.”
Sincerely,
Casie Gotro
Defense Counsel
So mote it be.
For a good time, CLICK HERE:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1w0fubr23cnhjd8/Carrizal%20Judge%20Recusal%20Mtn.pdf?dl=0
THUGS ARE ONE THING; THEY CAN HANDLE THEM, BUT I GUESS WE JUST KIND OF SCARED THEM… – Paul Landers, political activist, business owner, member of Los Escondidos, Twin Peaks defendant
Waco – At the heart of an alleged criminal conspiracy to withhold key exculpatory evidence in the Twin Peaks cases is the man in the cat bird seat.
A supplemental motion to recuse 19th Criminal District Court Judge Ralph T. Strother filed on Friday, September 1 – after the McLennan County District Clerk’s Office had closed at five minutes to five p.m. on the day the long Labor Day weekend begins – contains the threads of the story.
Filed by Houston defense attorney Casie Gotro on behalf of her client Bandido Jake Carrizal, president of the Dallas Chapter of that organization, the instrument speaks volumes about what a vast conspiracy of public officials have struggled since May 17, 2015 to conceal about the events that led to 9 killings, 20 persons wounded and the arrests of 177 persons on an an identical charge stated in the vaguest of terms – and the concealed exculpatory evidence that subsequent investigation revealed.
Timing is everything, and when investigator Kevin Fisk was unable to gain access to the McLennan County Courthouse prior to closing time, Ms. Gotro directed him to arrange service on the principals of the case by U.S. Postal Service, return receipt requested.
He was able to do it at a self-service kiosk located at the Waco Post Office on the corner of Sanger Avenue at Hwy. 6.
The improvised approach is legal, for the law requires such a motion must be made a minimum of 10 days before a trial is to begin, and the jury trial of Jake Carrizal is set for Tuesday, September 12. Thus, the motion states it is “timely filed” in anticipation of any argument to the contrary.
When a bailiff handed Strother the motion during the jury examination hearing earlier in the day, the act by Carrizal’s defense team stopped the music, under the law.
According to Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 18a, a judge subjected to such a motion must request an administrative judge to hear or designate another judge to hear the pleadings; if not, he must forward all statements to the regional administrative judge, and “except for good cause, the judge shall make no further orders and shall take no further action” – pending a hearing.
If he does so in defiance of the law, that action is void, according to Brosseau v Ranzau, 28 S.W. 3d 235, 238, according to the supplemental motion.
By absolutely refusing to “hear all legal arguments and factual proffers from the defense [he is] thereby allowing the State’s arguments and proffers to go uncontroverted…”
Quite simply, the motion alleges:
JUDGE STROTHER HAS ABDICATED HIS ADJUDICATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES.
That is a major bad act under the terms of Canon 3 (B)(1), Texas Code of Judicial Conduct, and never mind the Michael Morton law.
But it’s the evidence withheld by law enforcement officials, clerks, technicians, and contractors that tells the tale, all of which is meticulously documented in the motion.
At the top of the pyramid sits Judge Strother, whose “conduct also deprives the defendant (Bandido Carrizal) his right to make a record and preserve any errors for appellate review.”
That places a defendant in the same position as if he pled guilty and waived all his rights to appeal – without the permission of the Court of original jurisdiction. No bueno.
Heading the list are nine audio recordings of witness statements made by DPS detective on the day of the legal disaster at Twin Peaks and an additional hour of video footage from a police car.
Through the investigation conducted by the law office of Casie Gotro by Kevin Fisk, a former Waco arson investigator whose sanity when questioned by city officials with a motive to do a similar criminal coverup of a murder conspiracy led to his resignation under duress, the defense “independently corroborated” the existence of the exculpatory material, and obtained it.
JUDGE STROTHER HAS FAILED TO MAKE A SINGLE INQUIRY OF THE STATE REGARDING THIS MATERIAL AND FAVORABLE EVIDENCE.
In fact, he has informed Ms. Gotro on the record that he has no intention of doing any such thing.
“Rather he continues to blindly accept the State’s illogical and preposterous excuses,” thus “failing to enforce constitutional protections” on four separate occasions.
The motion concludes:
DEFENDANT HAS NO CHANCE OF A FAIR TRIAL SO LONG AS JUDGE STROTHER IS ALLOWED TO PRESIDE, REFUSES TO ALLOW THE PARTIES TO BE HEARD.
Perhaps most interesting is the list of witnesses or their designees subpoenaed to produce items of evidence who then failed to do so.
One of them, Sheriff Parnell McNamara, did not even appear in response to the summons, nor did he, like Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw, have the requested items, allegedly seized by Deputies on the fateful day of May 17, 2015, delivered to the defense.
No one was required to produce the items subpoenaed, and Judge Strother did not allow the defense counsel to call them to the witness stand in order to show through direct examination the cause of their defiance of the subpoenas.
McCraw is the subject of multiple such orders seeking audio and video surveillance, ballistics reports and witness statements.
Jason Stolle, an Information Tech of the Waco Police Department is listed.
Kourtney McClain of PETCO is sought for the surveillance camera footage shot at the time of what the mainstream media has chosen to call a “melee,” in actuality a hail of small arms fire, much of it from the muzzles of weapons whose reports are suppressed by silencers.
Ryan Holt, Waco chief of police, is sought for digital dupes of encrypted communications, especially of “Channel D” directing officers where to deploy and monitoring their maneuvers during the fire fight.
Other Waco Police officials sought include Liz Rohrer, records supervisor; Detective Jill Rogers; Sergeant Keith Vaughn; and Detective Sherry Kingrey.
Peter Caldwell, the general manager of Don Carlos Restaurant, is subpoenaed to furnish video from the establishment’s closed circuit system.
The subpoenaes carry severe criminal penalties for a willful refusal to comply with their requirements.
Exhibits attached to the motion contain the particulars about alleged exculpatory evidence obtained from witness statements and copies of official police and DPS reports regarding the material.
One may review the entire document by merely clicking the hyperlink below:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8hyb6acro856v4g/Carrizal%20Supplemental%20RecusalMotion%20.pdf?dl=0
Police Evidence Tech Kalinske pins new badge on Jason Barnum
Waco – Observers in the gallery during the fiery pre-trial hearings held in the first Twin Peaks case against Bandido Jake Carrizal have noticed two plainschothesmen in the mix of bailiffs keeping order.
They are deputies of the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office, dressed in business wear and ties, with noticeable bulges of big handguns in concealment holsters printing on their jackets.
At times one will sit in the empty jury box of the auxiliary courtroom, and then alternate with a rear corner of the cavernous room, while the other sits in a row of chairs along the wall. Then they sit together for a time before shifting positions for different angles of view.
They keep their eyes on the members of the gallery.
Both were present during the day-long hearing on the motion for recusal of 19th Criminal District Judge Ralph T. Strother from the cases of three defendants, Paul Landers, Burton Bergman, and Rolando Reyes, granted last week by visiting Judge James Morgan.
The couple are reportedly going through a divorce at this time.
The arrangement is causing ripples of consternation among defendants who noticed the presence of the officers dressed in plain clothes because they are obviously doing police work, but the conbination of their suits and ties and their implacable facial expressions are somewhat intimidating, it is said.
According to one source who requested anonymity pending the permission of an attorney to speak about the case, “He texted on his phone all the way through the hearing, so someone he was working with would know what’s happening in court”
Said Sandra Lynch, who reserved the patio at the restaurant for the Confederation of Clubs and Independents meeting and arrived with her husband Mike early, “I say it’s him.” The couple, who were arrested on the identical charge as everyone else – engaging in organized criminal activity – have filed a federal civil rights suit against the Waco Police, the DPS, District Attorney Abel Reyna, and Justice of the Peace Pete Peterson. That case along with all others filed in an Austin U.S. District Court is pending until the result of the criminal cases is made clear in State District Court.
Some have gone so far as to say in private remarks that they saw him with the Cossack at bike nights leading up to the tragic confrontation. Members of the rival club are clearly depicted on surveillance video shooting members of the Bandidos before they are then cut down by fire from gunmen unseen by the camera’s iris.
Deputies Blanco and Barnum standing outside the courtroom
GOOD OLD BOYS HOLDING FACTS HOSTAGE FOR $5,100 CASH
HUNDREDS RELEASED ON SERIOUS CHARGES WITHOUT TRIAL
Waco – Before close of business today McLennan Criminal DA Abel Reyna will field a demand for response on 4,300 public information act requests.
A duo of public information act specialists – one of whom has been labeled by an east Texas DA as a “public information terrorist” – obtained a favorable ruling from the Texas Attorney General back in June on a March request for information about a pre-trial intervention program that allows defendants to go free of their charges.
DA Abel Reyna explained that his program began as a way to collect hot checks without putting defendants in jail where they can’t pay.
But at some point, he expanded the program. Records obtained so far indicate that persons charged with felony DWI, abandoning a child, assaulting a public servant and crimes against nature involving children have escaped their date with a judge.
Ordinarily, since the material regards charges that have been dismissed and resulted in no conviction, the information is private.
But when the DA’s staff did not meet a deadline triggered by the provisions of the Open Records Act, the DA ruled that all information requested must be made public. The order for release issued more than 90 days ago in OR2017-13053.
In a published report, Reyna explained the program by saying:
This program is not intended to be soft. but it allows you to think outside the box and to not clog up the criminal justice system with individuals who don’t need to be there so we can better focus on the ones who do need to be there. The program is an opportunity. It’s not a right.
A trio of public information activists including R.S. Gates and David Stua, who once hit the Angelina County District Attorney’s office with 28,000 PIA requests in the space of one hour, worked through Labor Day weekend to surgically redact the information required by the AG’s ruling. That resulted in altering each of the original information requests into 9 separate requests for each of the original 481 records obtained.
Said R.S. Gates of his motives in making the request, “Because participation most often leads to dismissal of charges, the records are normally beyond the reach of the Texas Public Information Act. Being beyond the reach, the lack of public scrutiny has led to speculation of shady dealings.”
He added that he and his colleagues are expecting loud protests from the DA’s staff and local government officials. Nevertheless, according to the Open Records Act, it’s not up to the government to decide what the people should know because the records belong to the people. Government officials are merely custodians of the records
ONE WILL FIND AN AUDIO INTERVIEW WITH MR. STUA HERE:
“I WILL…NOT BE VOLUNTARILY RECUSING MYSELF FROM HEARING THIS CASE (BANDIDO JACOB CARRIZAL)
19TH CRIMINAL DISTRICT JUDGE RALPH T. STROTHER
Six Shooter Junction – When Judge Ralph T. Strother announced over the noon hour on Tuesday to the local CBS outlet, KWTX Channel 10, that he will defy a recusal motion by the defense counsel of Bandido Jake Carrizal, he sent lawyers all over the state into a pow wow by fax, phone, and text.
Only one of three attorneys who had previously obtained his recusal in other cases was available for comment.
Former Galveston District Judge Susan Criss, who is defense counsel for Rolando Reyes, was thunderstruck.
“I am shocked,” she said, beside herself….”I don’t understand. Why would he think that this case is any different that the three we presented? The circumstances are the same…He’s still subject to the rule” – [Rule 18(a)(b) Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, which requires a judge must immediately proceed to a hearing on a recusal motion, or turn the entire case including all notes and exhibits, over to the Regional Administrative Judge, in this case District Judge Billy Stubblefield at Georgetown.] – “Judge (James) Morgan signed the orders. We sent him a letter, and he said they are on file in the Clerk’s Office.”
She hurried away from the impromptu interview to read the exclusive KWTX interview.
According to the docket for this coming Friday, September 8, Carrizal’s counsel will be in the 19th District Court and need not bring the defendant for a final pre-trial conference preceding jury selection, which is scheduled to proceed on Tuesday, September 12.
A Court Coordinator’s staff member and the lead Bailiff both said it is an unknown quantity if any case scheduled for trial will go forth as planned.
“There are many moving parts, and many more variables,” explained the uniformed Deputy. “No one knows.”
He did agree to go the the Judge’s chambers to query the Judge if The Legendary will be allowed to listen to the void dire examination of the venire and see how the jury selection process proceeds from the questionnaires to the prosecution and defense counsel’s inquiries of the prospective jurors and their strikes for cause and for peremptory reasons.
Judge Strother has previously denied a motion by Carrizal’s defense counsel Casie Gotro for an emergency stay of further proceedings, and a motion for recusal.
Her motion for recusal brought to a stop the examination of a 600-member venire at a previous hearing as the judge was briefing prospective jurors on their qualifications, what is to be considered evidence, and the scope of their task in returning a verdict.
This is what public information terrorism looks like – at least to the Angelina County Judge, who called an inquiry ‘public info terror’
Lufkin – On Thursday, a citizen looking for answers to his questions about the county budget will meet with the Criminal District Attorney in order to sort out his complaint – that the Angelina County Judge committed an offense under the Local Government Code when he and the County Auditor failed to list the amount of reserve cash on hand in the 2018 County Budget.
David Stua is the kind of man who when thwarted by a public official, turns to the law, the Texas Open Records Act, of the Government Code to obtain the information the legislature has plainly stated is the property of the people, not of officials.
His demands are earnest enough that at one point, he sent 28,000 public information act requests in the space of an hour, prompting the Angelina County Judge and other local officials to labeled him as a “public information terrorist” in a legislative committee hearing at Austin.
Take a look at what passes for terrorism when a citizen takes his requests seriously enough to back them with a criminal complaint:
(click here)
David Stua’s criminal complaint regarding the format of the budget
The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created. Section 552.001, Texas Open Records Act
Bandido Jake Carrizal digs into chorizos and eggs with a smile
Waco – The curve balls thrown by practitioners of good old boy justice in this tight, dry, polite, cruel smile of a university town surprise no one, whether the saliva-soaked screwballs, sliders and sinkers come over the plate – or not.
Most people among the internet keyboard cognoscenti greeted the news that 19th Criminal District Judge Ralph T. Strother would force a hearing into his recusal in a fourth case – the first to come to trial of 155 indicted stem from a police massacre at Twin Peaks Restaurant on May 17, 2015, by saying it is nothing more than a holding action to delay the start of the first case.
This is the beginning of the 29th month since that fateful day, more violent that the gunfight at the OK Corral, in which authorities charged all the defendants with a single, non-specific violation of a murky conspiracy charge at the order of the Criminal District Attorney, Abel Reyna.
Social media has been abuzz with the opinion that the judge has been delaying justice since the community of motorcycle enthusiasts caught the drift of his conduct in refusing to read 18 subpoenas or order compliance with them – or to even put those summoned on the witness stand to answer questions from Casie Gotro, the Houston attorney who is defending Dallas Bandidos Chapter President Jake Carrizal on two counts of conspiracy – engaging in organized criminal activity, and directing the actions of a criminal organization.
Parnell McNamara, Sheriff, neglected to even show up. Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety sat out the hearing without so much as a how do. Assistant Prosecutor Amanda Dillon hid out in the Grand Jury room for an entire business day dodging service of her subpoena.
No one so ordered has turned over any of the evidence sought.
Carrizal’s trial is scheduled to begin with jury selection on Tuesday, September 12.
When part of a special venire of 600 persons arrived – about 200 of them who crowded into the auxiliary courtroom of the McLennan County Courthouse on Friday, September 1, the judge had only just begun to brief them on the qualifications for jury duty and what would be expected of them when Carrizal’s attorney had a bailiff hand him a handwritten motion for his recusal.
Visibly shaken, he read how he is accused of assisting the DA’s staff to prosecute her client. And then he had the procsecution, defense and Carrizal join he and the court reporter in private for a quick conference.
According to rules of procedure, he had no choice, other than to decide he will not simply sign the recusal order and have done with the matter.
Ms. Gotro aired her complaints during numerous appearances, all of which saw a defiant judge who refused to bend to her arguments.. Without reading a motion for recusal, he stated at one point in advance that he would deny any such, and plowed ahead.
All the while Gotro protested that she cannot give her client adequate legal counsel while defending a case against two prosecutors, both the DA and staff, and the Judge.
There are numerous citations of his alleged misconduct in her motion and supplemental arguments, many of which were previously argued before visiting Judge James Morgan of Comanche in a grueling day-long hearing that led to his recusal of the judge in the cases of Rolando Reyes, Paul Landers, and Burton Bergman, all of whom were arrested the same day in 2015, as was Carrizal.
Central to the allegations of complaint in those motions are the fact that Judge Strother scheduled a court appearance for both attorneys and defendants at a docket call, and his staff then directed the defendants and their legal representation to proceed from the courtroom to the DA’s office in order to give tissue samples for DNA analysis.
When the lawyers asked for a court order or a search warrant, the DA’s staff at first could not produce one; they demanded that the lawyers see Judge Strother about that. When a warrant was located, it was three days out of date, or “stale”, and therefore invalid.
The ensuing arguments between prosecutors and defenders turned ugly, according to testimony given in the hearing before Judge Morgan.
Lead Prosecuting Counsel Michael Jarrett asked one of the attorneys, former District Judge Susan Criss of Galveston, “What do you want us to do, break down his (defendant Rolando Reyes’) door in the middle of the night and serve the warrant then?”
At the conclusion of the hearing, Judge Morgan remarked, “I came in here ready to finish this thing today, but I can see now, I’m going to have to give this a lot of thought.”
On August 30, after days of reflection, he granted the three motions for recusal in the three cases.
On Wednesday, September 5, Judge Strother filed a statement with the District Clerk saying he will not recuse himself.
That means that Judge Daniel H. Mills of Burnet County will have to hear the arguments both for his recusal and against it, and then everyone concerned can wait the requisite number of days to see if there will be an appeal to the 10th District Court of Appeals, with all the attendant paper and procedure that entails.
The gavel will drop on the hearing at 1:30 pm on Friday, September 8. Jurors have been ordered to phone the Court Coordinator’s Office after 5:30 pm on that same day to learn their instructions as to when to appear, either on Tuesday, September 12, or at a later date.
And, as usual, here in Six Shooter Junction, there is little doubt that the floggings will continue – at least, until morale improves.
At one point recently, following a frustrating day in court, Carrizal told The Legendary, “To them, it’s a game; but for me, it’s my life.”
He faces not less than 25 years or more than 99 if convicted for engaging in organized criminal activity. If convicted of the charge of directing the activities of a criminal organization, he faces not less than 30 years behind penitentiary walls or more than 99.
No doubt that’s what he means by that remark. We asked no follow-up questions.
So mote it be.
– The Legendary
Cossack Big Jake preparing to shoot Independent Mohawk on patio – photo gleaned from a DPS video surveillance pole camera
Waco – There is new evidence on the table that implicates prosecutors with withholding “Brady material” that is exculpatory in the Twin Peaks cases, a possible violation of the Michael Morton law.
According to an eyewitness, the armed conflict between members of the Cossacks MC and the much smaller number of Bandidos they confronted upon their arrival at Twin Peaks Restaurant during the noon hour of Sunday, May 17, 2015, could have been easily stopped if only law enforcement had acted.
According to the couple, when they arrived at the location to set up for the Confederation of Clubs and Independents meeting to be held there, about 75 Cossacks sporting barely concealed handguns were dominating the patio and parking lot reserved for the political meeting.
Sandra Lynch, who had arranged to reserve the patio area of the restaurant, had arrived earlier than her husband, and she let him know of the potential for danger. He texted Precinct 1 Constable Walt Strickland, requesting backup by armed police, but received only noncommittal response.
She said, in an exclusive interview with The Legendary, “Forty-five minutes earlier it all could have and should have been stopped…At that point there was only 2 clubs there, 6 of mine (Los Pirados) and 75 of the other (Cossacks).”
LEGENDARY: So you and Mike have been unable to comment on any of this now for 29 months, and all the while the exculpatory evidence has been available to the prosecutor?
She replied, “Yes.”
Authorities arrested the Lynches among 177 persons who fled for their lives and took up positions on their bellies on the floor when the bullets began to fly and police armed with AR-15 style assault rifles poured many rounds of suppressed fire into the crowd, killing at least four of the assailants and wounding a number of the 20 felled in the fracas.
They have filed a federal lawsuit that has been on hold pending the forward progress of the Twin Peaks prosecution.
These articles are cited in the motions for recusal. Visiting judge James Morgan ruled during a hearing that yielded the recusal of Judge Ralph Strother in three cases that Tribune-Herald staff writer Tommy Witherspoon should be shielded by law from questioning about his sources for his articles.
Strother’s recusal from the first trial and to be scheduled so far against Dallas Bandido Jake Carrizal is the subject of a motion hearing before visiting Judge Daniel H. Mills of Burnet County on Tuesday morning at 11 a.m., according to the court coordinator.
Jury selection in the Carrizal trial is set for Tuesday morning, September 12 at 8:30 am. He is charged with engaging in organized criminal activity and directing a criminal organization in the original and a superseding indictment.
Attorneys representing multiple members of biker clubs involved in the prosecution have filed motions for their recusal and the recusal of the McLennan County Criminal District Attorney, citing news articles published by the Waco “Tribune-Herald” as part of their evidence.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. – Thomas Jefferson, with an assist by B. Franklin, Printer, “The Declaration of Independence”
CARE BEARS IN BIKER GARB, ONE FOR EACH OF THE EIGHT CHILDREN WHO LOST THEIR LIVES IN AIRPLANES ON 9/11
Grapevine – It’s fair to say that there is a certain place on a hill near DFW Airport where men and women live with their heads in the clouds.
They are makers of things, mostly aeronautical, but nevertheless, the devices that make the world smaller, easier to navigate, and yet somehow harder to understand.
Col. Wm. P. Brandt grew up right around the corner, left his home in a rural farming community for the Air Force Academy, and returned to an international space port, to practice law after his war, a war of terror prompted by terror at which he was present on the day it all started.
Bill Brandt was on duty at the Pentagon when the big jet hit the building in a fireball, just yards from where he stood by, walking his post on a Tuesday morning in what weather men described as a day in which flying conditions were what they termed “severe clear.”
On Sunday, he stood at the foot of a memorial dedicated to his neighbors who manned that jet, and all the others forcibly taken from their control by terrorists armed with blades smuggled on board, men terribly upset about a fact of business.
Their common denominator – a certain fundamental religious faith.
They forced neighbors of Col. Brandt to their doom, paying the ultimate sacrifice of their lives and the lives of their passengers, under the duress of the blade, a horror to their minds, regarding a mortal torture to their flesh.
The conflict of those terrible moments – in what currency would the petroleum producing mideast nations be paid for crude petroleum shipped freight over bill to the Port of Houston – or anywhere else. As the reserve currency, the dollar is the reserve denomination per an agreement with OPEC, an agreement hammered out by the Treasurer of the U.S., Willam Simon, the President, Richard Nixon, and the then National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger.
On a table behind him lay eight tiny teddy bears dressed in leather jackets and chaps, each with a biker’s doo-rag and the name of one of the eight children who lost their lives on board the jets of 9/11 on that fateful day.
Col. Brandt, who is a candidate for Justice of the Peace, Precinct 3 in his home town, returned to the semantics of the law.
He first sang the National Anthem, then he reminded his listeners of the nature of law, of its strict attention to the meaning of words.
He chose the concept of endowment, the origin of the word coming from the root for dowry, the price of so many goats and this many milk cows paid by a father in return for his daughter’s marriage.
But to be endowed by inalienable rights does not mean one may spend his fortune for just anything.
There are rules, rules of law, of common decency, which must be followed, or the community of the world will pay the price.
And so, each of the tiny care bears will be bestowed by a police officer or fireman, or other first responder upon a tiny person who is afraid, alone, in pain because their moms and dads have been injured, their houses burned down, their cars wrecked, their parents taken away due to arrest or depredation.
It’s a small thing, but so is the meaning of any word so inscribed upon parchment, recorded by We The People as the way of our world.
Brandt, who would be judge, reminded the world of that on this day, the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 Memorial Ride by the Sons Of Liberty Motorcycle Club, in observance of a surprise attack on our nation prompted by a commercial dispute over an essential commodity, its value accounted in terms of the petrodollar.
Look it up. Interesting word – war word.
So mote it be.
The 9/11 Flight Crew Memorial at Grapevine, Northwest Hwy at 1000 Texan Trail, overlooking one of our world’s busiest airports – DFW
Retired District Judge Dan Mills
Waco – When the music stopped in the recusal hearing argued by three beaudacious women with bombastic attitudes to have 19th Criminal District Judge Ralph T. Strother recused, there was no bang, and no whimper.
In a conversational tone, visiting Judge Dan Mills, who is retired from the 424th District Court in the four Hill Country counties surrounding Burnet, simply leaned forward during an argument by lead prosecutor Michael Jarrett, and said, “If I follow my first inclination, you’re going to get a judge in the morning. You’re pitching a battle.”
It wound up appearing that he had formed his ultimate opinion when Region 3 Administrative Judge Billy Stubblefield called to describe the nature of the case.
It has a lot of moving parts – the recusal motion – but one of its key components is a smoking gun, an e-mail from Court Coordinator Ellen Watson to Austin Attorney Millie Thompson, who along with a quartet of lawyers obtained the recusal of Strother last month after arguing visiting Judge James Morgan out of his pre-conceived notion to “get this thing done today” by ruling against the recusal. By the time the day-long hearing was over, he said, “I’m going to have to give this a lot of thought.” A week later, he ruled for Strother’s recusal.
In the e-mail, the lead staffer for the judge described a decision to create a special docket call requiring both attorneys and their clients to appear in court in order to go to the DA’s office to submit tissue samples for DNA testing.
It was this degree of cooperation that led to complaints by Ms. Thompson and others including former District Judge Susan Criss that Strother was acting as both prosecutor and judge.
In the end, Casie Gotro fairly shouted, “The case is without a judge. We need a judge!” Her argument centered on the fact that she is convinced the judge’s bias rendered him in a dual role as both judge and prosecutor. “I cannot give my client effective counsel,” she said, repeatedly, as a result. Strother had made up his mind that Jake Carrizal would go to trial first, and no one else.
The three lady attorneys insisted that if they were the judge, they would settle the question of which case would go to trial first by having all 155 judges in for a conference to learn who is ready to go to trial, who is not, and go on with it.
Judge Criss said she learned that Strother did not want to put his choice of Jake Carrizal as the first defendant to face a jury in his courtroom in a court order because “The defense lawyers would see it and want to know why.”
Millie Thompson said she asked what happened to her setting to try her client, and the judge told her it had been changed. “Why?” Because it did, she said he answered. She asked what if she filed a motion for recusal, and he told her “I will deny it.” He never read a motion before he made that decision. He just declared he would deny her motion.
There were other arguments, including the appointment of retired Waco Police Detective James Hand as foreman of the first Grand Jury to be formed after the Legislature outlawed the pick-a-pal system in which the judge chooses his friends.
When asked about his choice, Strother sked a local reporter “What better person to serve on the Grand Jury than someone who is familiar with the criminal justice system?”
The prosecution argued long and loud that not one person was indicted for the Twin Peaks cases by that particular Grand Jury panel, and Jake Carrizal’s case had been heard by two other such panels.
At the end of the day, five grueling hours of testimony and argumentative, hostile and sometimes vituperative dialogue, nothing would dissuade the visiting judge from his original inclination.
He recalled his first hint about the DNA docket when Judge Stubblefield told him of the special arrangement with no subpoena by the DA’s office, no order to appear, just a special docket.
He said, “When Judge Stubblefield told me about that DNA docket on the phone, it really stuck a very negative feeling in my gut…There’s a smell test that goes with these things. My inclination to grand the motion.”
Prosecutor Jarrett said “I want you to do the right thing.”
Judge Mills’ reply sent a ripple of laughter through the courtroom when he replied, “I don’t know about right!”
The standard that applies, that of what a common man with common sense would think about a judge based on his actions alleged to show bias, would result in a natural man’s inclination to agree with the motion’s allegation of bias on the part of the judge.
And it was all over, except his remark that the new judge to be appointed will probably be 54th Criminal District Judge Matt Johnson. “They’ll probably just swap judges.”
That’s when Casie Gotro addressed the gallery, saying, “I have been drafting a recusal motion to have Judge Johnson removed from this case, too. It will be filed.”
A venire of what remains of a 600-person special venire – about 160 estimated by the judge – will report at 8:30 a.m. in the auxiliary courtroom to fill out juror questionnaires and go through the process of qualification to serve on the jury.
So mote it be.
Defense Evidence “does not rise” to level of a recusal order…
Principals in the case of Bandido Jake Carrizal waited for noon and a visiting judge, The Honorable Robert Stem from Marlin…
Waco – Just as the judge began to laud the venire of about 150 persons by saying it wouldn’t be possible to clear cases in McLennan County’s State District Courts without persons just like them serving as jurors, he was brought to a screeching halt.
Defense Counsel Casie Gotro served him with a recusal motion, and he immediately dropped what he was doing.
When he ordered her to remain in the courtroom, she questioned his authority to do so. “By what authority am I being held?” she asked repeatedly as he left the room to contact the regional administrative Judge to call for a visiting judge to hear the motion.
A rumor rippled through the crowded room that he would have her arrested if she did not obey. She stalked out of the room.
When there was news that a visiting judge would arrive at noon to begin her hearing, she returned.
A court officer explained that the judge had “requested all parties to remain here.”
And so a stormy day of conflict began that did not end until half-past 7 pm.
As District Clerk told the venire to return at 9 am on Wednesday morning, a loud groan filled the room. “I know, we’re just as happy about it as you are,” he said.
After a 7 and half hour legal wrangle, a District Judge ruled the level of evidence presented in support of recusal of 54th District Judge Matt Johnson insufficient to warrant his removal.
Judge Robert Stem promised prosecution and defense counsel as well as witnesses and spectators he would work until he had perfected the record of defense counsel Casie Gotro’s motion.
In the final two hours past quitting time, he repeatedly asked her, “Is there anything else,” as she added items and testimony, waited for incomplete transcripts to be printed, and recalled several previous witnesses to clarify their testimony.
As in the successful motions for removal of 19th District Judge Ralph T. Strother, Gotro’s motion focussed on a “DNA docket” to summon the entire list of accused offenders arrested following an extremely bloody gunfight followed by a police massacre with assault rifles that took place at Twin Peaks Restaurant on May 17, 2015.
Similarly, Gotro’s motion questioned just how did court coordinators in the 54th District know on which list to place the accused – the “B” list (Bandidos), or the “C” list (Cossacks).
Lead prosecutor Michael Jarrett was able to prove up the fact that the Court Coordinator determined their club affiliation from a “bridge” list kept by the McLennan County Jail Classification Officer, who used various clues including the suspect’s statements, tattoos, jewelry and the patches on their jackets.
Not all persons on the lists are patch holders in the Bandidos and Cossacks Motorcycle Clubs – which are referred to by the State as “outlaw motorcycle gangs.”
Many of them are “affiliated” with one or the other, according to the officers, while their peer motorcycle enthusiasts classify them as “support” clubs or merely “riding” clubs.
Through detailed questioning, the state convinced the visiting judge that Johnson and his staff had no ex parte communication with the DA’s staff, nor did the two judges, Johnson and Strother, collude with one another to deny the defendants due process by summoning them to the courtroom and directing them to the DA’s staff to submit tissue samples seized through search warrants.
Judge Johnson testified that he disapproved a request to just some of the defendants in order to serve a warrant. He insisted that all should be treated equally, and the record shows they were.
At 8 a.m., jurors will be qualified and questioned for a venire of 12 persons who will eventually be charged with making a finding that the Bandidos Motorcycle Club is in fact an organized criminal gang, that they came to Twin Peaks on the fateful Sunday with the intent of harming their rivals, and that Jake Carrizal, served as their director. If convicted, he may be sentenced to a minimum of 25 years incarceration and not more than 99 in the state penitentiary.
Under intense questioning, Austin attorney Millie Thompson explained that she signs her e-mails to court officials “In Resistance,” as “part of the Yellow Dog movement against Trump.”
She vowed of the recusal motion she and a quartet of other attorneys argued successfully to oust Judge Strother that “more are on the way.”
Waco – No doubt, it’s possible to get a fair trial in this city, but you’ve got to be willing to fight to get it on right downtown with finesse and all that’s fittin’ and proper.
Casie Gotro ended a love-in between 54th Criminal District Judge Matt Johnson, DA Abel Reyna, lead prosecutor Michael Jarrett, and herself in a mutual atmosphere of commisseration following a visiting judge’s ruling that Johnson should stay on the case, having been found unbiased.
Like Lt. Colombo, she stopped the music, once again, by saying, just one more thing, here.
“We need to talk about the police presence in this case. I count eight armed deputies in uniform in the room. I personally had three sheriff’s deputies following me around all day yesterday. I don’t like the feeling; I don’t understand the purpose for it, and if there is some kind of threat on my life, I’d like to be brought into the loop.”
The judge thought awhile, then said, “I can address that issue with the Sheriff’s Office.” He suggested there must be some solution. Gotro said, “Well, last week you had some guys in here dressed plain clothes. Maybe that would be more unobtrusive.”
Prior to the end – or perhaps the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning, of the hearing, from which the media was excluded for quite some time because “Someone…” told a Deputy District Clerk no one is allowed inside, she aired her grievance with that bugaboo of writing about, investigating, or defending any criminal offense in the jurisdiction. Waco “Tribune-Herald” staffer Tommy Witherspoon told her the BS, that if the attorneys are in there, we’re on the record, and that’s that. He made a call and we all trooped in.
Checking with Sheriff Parnell McNamara later, it was learned, “We’re not doing anything to be mean or ugly to anybody. Our main concern is safety.”
So mote it be.
He said the problem had been solved between District Clerk Johnny Gimble an Courthouse Security Chief Lt. Lionel McGhee.
Done deal. But that ain’t all.
For instance, there is the fact that for months, when she visits the property room to see the evidence of audio taped or videotaped statements of witnesses, she is ushered into a room where the computer has no speakers. But that’s better than the way things started out.
At first, there was no chair.
They say in writing that they bent over backwards to provide for her comfort.
She said, “Come on, Judge, a chair? Speakers? That’s comfort?” They must not have heard her the first time.
It’s like this. When you are involved in criminal litigation, both defense and prosecuting counsel are involved in all proceedings, with the defendant, and the client of the State’s law firm, We The People Of The State Of Texas.
Period. Paragraph.
Now, this is an experienced criminal defense attorney on the road out of Houston, talking to a judge for the multiple go-round on thiss ridiculous dispute, about doing that which the State Bar of Texas has certified her to do, a decision ratified by the Supreme Court of Texas, and some clerk at the Waco Police Department can’t guarantee the chain of custody of evidence if she’s left alone with it for even a minute.
They’re a little short-handed, you see.
The judge spoke up and said, well, why not get a hard drive and put all the evidence on it, indexed, so “If we can admit it into evidence on the hard drive, then everyone agree…I would like to have that in the record so everyone can agree that everything has been produced.”
DA Reyna spoke up and said, “We have absolutely no problem with that, Your Honor. We will even furnish the equipment – speakers, whatever it takes.”
Done.
Jarrett then spoke up by whispering in the damsel’s ear, saying he has no exception to preparation of an order for Johnson’s signature to the effect that Waco PD, should provide access – the greatest problem being staff on duty to guarantee chain of custody.
That’s easy, said the judge. We can seal it by court order, and then the general public can’t get at it. You go by the index, access, and check it out.
Done, and done.
So mote it be.
“Now, we’re getting somewhere,” as Dr. Hannibal Lecter of Baltimore told Clarice Starling of Hubbard,Texas. Hannibal the Cannibal – the fictional character created by writer Thomas Harris who once worked at the Waco sheet. A psychiatrist, Hannibal the Cannibal only ate the free range rude. Yowza!
Whatever.
I am sincere.
ALLEGATIONS BY BIKERS PIN BLAME ON FORMER COSSACK
Former Cossack Nomad Owen “Big O” Reeves
“Criminal cases are like milk; they don’t improve with age.” – Criminal District Attorney Abel Reyna, on the campaign trail, ca. 2010
Waco – Let’s call her Live Wire, a road name earned by her fortitude and stamina on a run, bestowed by a brother biker.
Her allegation: Only one clique in the Cossacks MC did any such thing, a chapter led by Owen “Big O” Reeves, who allegedly has ties to the Aryan Circle prison clique.
Reeves was arrested at Twin Peaks on May 17, 2015, among 177 persons; his stepson was killed by a bullet to the back of the head.
He had been at the location on a number of occasions in the weeks leading up to the violent confrontation that left 9 men dead and 20 wounded.
According to a blog entry by Amy Irene White, “The Wicked Bitch,” he and a Waco narcotics detective named Jason Barnum confronted members of the Confederation of Clubs and Independents who appeared there on bike nights organized by the owner.
One time, “‘Big O’ Reeves and another Cossack cornered a CofC member and got really belligerent, trying to coerce him into a fight…”
“In the ensuing weeks, Owen and his little friend seemed to be on a mission, privately ‘meeting’ with various members of the Cof C attempting to convince them to abandon the coalition and making that ridiculous noise about ‘paying dues to the Bandidos,’ which, of course, no one except a cop or a reporter on CNN would believe anyway.”
But there’s an interesting twist to the story. Big O never put a 1%er patch on his cut until after he became a Nomad, and that wasn’t until after the violent events at Twin Peaks. When he did, the Cossacks’ national leadership ousted he and his followers, said they would send national sergeants-at-arms to reclaim his colors. All are reportedly out in bad standing, indefinitely suspended from the Cossacks and not likely to ever be allowed back in the fold.
According to an on-line guide to biker lore published by the two-wheeled cognoscenti, “By definition a “NOMAD”, more often than not, will be traveling alone and needs an ability to represent, maintain & otherwise survive under circumstances unusual from the norm.”
WELCOME TO THE NFL
As to who would believe the allegation about collecting dues for the Confederation of Clubs as a valid complaint from a federal prosecutor’s pen, there is little doubt.
The Bandidos believed it.
In an exclusive interview granted in March of this year, then Presidente of the Bandidos MC, U.S.A., Bill Sartelle revealed that the club no longer helps collect dues from members of the Confederation, that it is now a non-profit 501(C)(3) corporation with a structure similar to that of the NFL, all its appendant clubs being similar to franchises of the professional football organization.
It looks like the cops don’t know how to make such fine distinctions. Knowing about the friction, and the potential for violence, a Patrol Watch Commander of the Waco Police Department made his move by calling on John Wilson, president of the Waco Cossacks Chapter, at his place of business then located on I-35 in that city.
Reeves and his fellow Cossacks hail mostly from Bell County, and Reeves himself lived at Bruceville-Eddy, near the county line.
According to a police report , the police commander encouraged Wilson to go to the planned COC&I event of Sunday, May 17, in order to spread oil on the waters.
CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LARGER SIZE
Six days earlier, on March 22, Cossacks had forced a lone Bandido riding his hog to a filling station at Lorena, Texas near the 322 mile marker on I-35 off the road where they beat him in the head with ball peen hammers.
On the 28th, the cops were watching carefully as Bandidos gathered at the Flying J Truck Stop on I-35 at New Road, about a mile from Wilson’s Legends Cycles, which was at that time located near the intersection of Valley Mills Dr.
It was all part of a running battle that had raged up and down I-20 between Odessa and Abilene, one fought with hammers, knives and clubs. The Waco cops, who weren’t having it, were part of a much larger federal task force in which officers from small towns, sheriff’s departments, the Texas DPS, as well as federal agencies such as BATFE, FBI, and DEA worked on federal indictments. The Waco substation of the effort is headed by a Texas Department of Corrections staffer from the Office of the Inspector General, who coordinates his operation with the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force.
That organization is similarly staffed; its members serve arrest warrants on accused offenders and those ordered back to prison on “blue warrants” for alleged parole and probation violations.
“If they had just arrested the ones who assaulted the Bandido at Lorena, the whole thing would have been settled,” our lady biker friend from out of town believes. She’s not alone. There are numerous defense attorneys who are doing some serious investigation into the matter.
HASSLE HAS ITS ROOTS IN A MUCH EARLIER BEEF
It is perhaps entirely ironic that the affidavit of warrantless arrest that led to the jailing of 177 persons at Twin Peaks after the violent ambush of the Bandidos by Cossacks and the shooting from ambush by cops who concealed themselves outside the fracas as it developed while video surveillance cameras took it all down from dashboards and pole-mounted devices alleges the conspiracy offense of engaging in organized criminal activity that led to capitol murder, and/or aggravated assault.
Like the federal charge, it calls for a lifetime behind bars upon conviction for engaging in a felony crime in combination with another person or persons.
Two years prior, the Aryan nations of the penal system had reached a compromise with the federales and locales following a series of events resembling a comedy of errors in a macabre funhouse of murder by arson, assault by a syringe filled with methamphetamine forcibly injected into a woman’s neck, video of the molestation of a child, car theft, and, of course, meth cooking and dope dealing.
When a mother of three lost her life and two of her small children perished in a sudden explosion and blaze at a Bosqueville trailer park, the investigation led to a parallel operation carried out by Waco police looking into just how and why a clique of dopers sold a car to an area dealer, stole it back, then secreted the purloined Mustang under a tarp near Bruceville-Eddy.
Seven people faced an indictment for – you guessed it – engaging in organized criminal activity – until Assistant DA Michael Jarrett demanded to know the names of the confidential informants who provided the information that led to the arrests.
That’s when veteran Detective Sherry Kingrey refused to cooperate, her move backed by the Chief of Police Brent Strohman, and his entire chain of command.
After 19th District Criminal Court Judge Ralph T. Strother, who has been recused in four of the Twin Peaks cases for bias against bikers alleged by their defense attorneys, examined the confidential notes of the detectives, he said that in 19 years on the bench and a long run as a prosecutor prior to that, he’d never seen anything like it in his life.
When he wound up telling the cops and prosecutors to settle their differences in private, DA Abel Reyna announced he was going to decline to pursue the prosecution of the indictments.
We of the Legendary obtained the entire police file in a Public Information Act request following an oversight by the Waco Police to comply with an appeal deadline.
A bad scene, it definitely qualifies as a precursor to what was to come two years later, at Twin Peaks. As a result, a fair representation of Texas’ activist motorcycle enthusiasts have been legally isolated, silenced by conditions of bond, surveilled and prosecuted to an extent unprecedented by anything seen previously.
So mote it be.
Waco – Matt Clendennen is still struggling to get his day in court. He’s charged with engaging in organized criminal activity.
That’s a conspiratorial offense, a charge in which if violent crime led to a killing calls for an enhancement paragraph specifying the offense was aggravated by a capital murder, and/or aggravated assault.
Serious business. That charge can get a malchik a minimum of 25 and not more than 99 years confinement in the casa de calaboose.
The record shows clearly that he rode his motorcycle up to an establishment named Twin Peaks Restaurant in this city, a place where the waitresses dressed in shorts and checked flannel shirts unbuttoned clear to there, which accentuated their boobs.
Check the logic.
Matt Clendennen was once a member of the Scimitars, a club affiliated with the Cossacks, which according to jail records and recent court testimony makes him a one-time member of a club that guaranteed his classification by law men as a “low-ranking Cossack.”
That is, if you speak Martian.
Clendennen is from Waco. His dad is in middle management at Baylor University; he’s an old grad of the green and gold mob with the bear mascots. He operates his own business, a landscaping service for corporate clients.
According to his attorney, F. Clinton Broden, “There is absolutely no dispute that Mr. Clendennen did not have any participation in the violence that occurred at Twin Peaks of May 17, 2015. In addition, Mr. Clendennen possessed no weapon on May 17, 2015 except a small pocket knife which was a Christmas gift from his parents and which he always carried. Mr. Clendennen is no longer a member of any motorcycle club.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has outlawed practices “which pose a threat to the ‘fairness of the factfinding process’” must be subjected to ‘close judicial scrutiny.’”
Broden wants a hearing in the 54th Criminal District Court to provide that close judicial scrutiny. What will the judge be looking at?
Check the logic.
Clendennen rode his motorcycle up to the restaurant, alighted and sat down at a table on the patio reserved for a Confederation of Clubs and Independents meeting, of which his former club is not a member, and ordered a bottle of water.
When the shooting started, he hit the deck, went into the low crawl and made it to safety under cover where the furious gunfire from police rifles could not find him.
So, why are there at times as many as 8 uniformed officers in the courtroom?
Broden has an answer to that question, too. (click the underlined copy to read the motion)
He says that the state wants to prejudice the jurors by making them think there is an imminent threat of the Bandidos starting a gunfight in the courtroom.
That’s why the judge should make a record of his findings and conclusions as to why he finds it necessary to order extraordinary security precautions in case there is any post-trial appeal which demands such documentation.
There’s something else to talk about, too. During the three weeks he spent in the Jack Harwell Detention Center, he called his attorney on a jailhouse phone and it automatically recorded what he and his lawyer had to say to one another.
There is an audio file of that call, and it got mixed in with the discovery items supplied to the prosecution. When Broden made a motion to get that material, it came to him.
The conversation is privileged because it took place between an attorney and his client. The courts say it can be recorded for security purposes, but not for purposes of discovery by the prosecution to use as evidence.
He thinks that Abel Reyna should be disqualified, along with his staff, from prosecuting Clendennen for something he clearly did not do.
So, he’s asking that if the judge can’t disqualify the prosecutor, he should dismiss the charges against Clendennen.
Such a deal.
So mote it be.
– Legendary
9/11 Survivor, War Veteran Col. Wm. P. Brandt speaks of magistration
Southlake, TX – The man was just down the corridor from where the airplane hit the Pentagon on that fateful day.
He survived, and he took the fight to Pakistan and Iraq. What’s more, he came home with everyone in his command alive and well.
Now, he’s a lawyer, and he is an announced candidate for Tarrant County Justice of the Peace, Precinct 3.
There are issues on the table, he says in this exclusive interview with The Sons of Liberty and The Legendary.
Chiefly, the United States is organized on the principle that We The People have granted the government its duties and rights; it’s not the other way around. We have no King, no monarch to decide which way of of living is proper as life, the terms of liberty, the bounds of a lawful pursuit of happiness.
We decide.
Respect for law and order is only part of the equation; “We have to do a better job of respecting freedom,” he says.
And so the duty of a magistrate is to approve affidavits of probable cause for warrants of search and seizure under the terms of the Fourth Amendment. These instruments must be specific as to the items sought, the personal knowledge of the affiant as to their whereabouts, the time and place of his observation, the reason for the seizure of the property so described.
“A judge is under no obligation to sign anything until he is satisfied,” he said.
Satisfaction comes in the form of the “four corners,” the legal test that everything in an affidavit is proper to serve a warrant of search and seizure.
And then there is matter of arrest, in which the same fundamental rules apply as to the name of the accused or an accurate description of the alleged offender, a narrative of the personal observation of witnesses or the peace officer, the date and time of the offense, and the particular act that is unlawful and therefore an alleged violation of statutory law.
In this transcript from a a disqualification hearing, you will find the words of a Waco police officer named Chavez who swore to items of complaint of which he had no personal knowledge, and then applied them to an identical fill-in-the-name affidavit of probable cause for the arrest of 177 persons with no particularity of allegation of complaint. Both the motion for disqualification of a District Attorney failed by the trial judge’s denial, and an intermediate appeals court denied mandamus relief on the issue.
According to a civil rights lawsuit filed by Dallas attorney Don Tittle, “The probable cause affidavit signed by Manuel Chavez on May 18, 2015 fails to identify even one single fact specific to Plaintiff to support probable cause…”
Anything less is simply unconstitutional, defective, and thereby unworthy of magistration, search, seizure, or arrest – none of which is a presentment of guilt in a court of law. That is, an American court of law.
There is no such thing as a general warrant, one of the main sources of colonial activism and the irritation of the patriots who made a declaration of independence from Great Britain among the list of particular grievances described as “a long chain of abuses” visited by the monarch, King George III, upon the citizens of the 13 colonies.
Col. Brandt is a candidate for Justice of the Peace, Precinct 3. He took out a half-hour of his time to explain to we the people just how the mechanics of constitutional and procedural law, the rules of evidence, and common law holdings of the American courts apply to the thorny issues of a world constantly at war over terror, the ill behavior of men, and the allegedly unlawful actions of their various governments.
His jurisdiction would be situated in the highly trafficked land of a magical spaceport buffering the rest of the world, an entire globe any part of which may be reached in a matter of hours through jet propulsion – DFW.
The Metroplex and its huge airstrip serve as a backdrop to all that has gone before, both past and prologue to what is the ever unfolding reality of the present.
So mote it be.
PART OF MY DEFENSE STRATEGY – I’LL JUST TELL THE COURT -THERE IS MOTORCYCLE PROFILING TAKING PLACE IN THE STATE OF TEXAS NOW IN WHICH FIREARMS ARE CONFISCATED WITHOUT INVESTIGATIONS TAKING PLACE… – CASIE GOTRO, DEFENSE COUNSEL FOR BANDIDO JAKE CARRIZAL
Waco – When they began to discuss the phones, their voices – the judge, the prosecutors, the defense counsel – they all lowered their voices, to the point where you could barely hear them.
The words “Adam Walsh Material” – a euphemism for child pornography – were audible – just barely – and there was a lot of drama about phones that have gone missing.
Out of 342 confiscated on May 17, 2015 at gunpoint at Twin Peaks Restaurant following a police ambush of hundreds of persons, 177 of them arrested for engaging in organized criminal activity, 20 of the wounded by gunfire, 9 of the left dead – most of them with quarter-inch bullet holes in the back, the prosecution and cops have tendered only 211, according to Casie Gotro . The cops have returned 42 to their owners, and that leaves 82 phones unaccounted for.
She can’t have a look at them, she said, due to resistance by law enforcement. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to investigate. I just want to see the phones,” she told Judge Matt Johnson of the 54th Criminal District Court.
Numerous women, all of them terror-stricken to this day, say that the uniformed patrol officers with the M-4 semiauto AR-15 style assault rifles told them to either give up their phones or they would shoot them in the head where they lay prone and helpless at point-blank range.
Judge Johnson replied, “I’ll allow you access to the phones.” DA Abel Reyna chimed in, “We can still take that date and return it. There is a way it can be done.”
That’s progress – after 29 months – you can call that progress.
Then there’s the matter of photo evidence. There is very little available, Ms. Gotro has found.
“Not one phone has photos on it.”
She has received a total of “sixteen fuzzy still photos” made by undercover DPS officers who were on-scene.
“You honor, they had five undercover people there. It’s hard for me to accept they only took 16 photos,” she said.
That set lead prosecutor Michael Jarrett in motion.
“You honor, it is what it is…They do not exist. She’s arguing with the Court. It is what it is. We could do this forever.”
Said Johnson, “If it can be produced, it should be produced.”
The conundrum centers around the necessity of the State to prove the chief allegation of complaint, that Carrizal was in charge of a criminal enterprise, that he directed the activities of that felonious throng of bad actors.
The pre-trial evidentiary hearing held on Tuesday morning, September 19, revealed the representatives of the State of Texas with dogging heels dug in, fully resisting the discovery efforts of the defense.
The second most consistent happening revealed in the hearing was the spectacle of the two elected officials, the District Judge and the Criminal District Attorney, both adamantly agreeing they have no problem, that they intend to cooperate fully – and yet there are still these pesky problems with those who have been ordered to turn over evidence.
For instance, everything started off with a bang when defense counsel Casie Gotro told the Court “It gives me a lot of anxiety” that Waco Police Offense Report No. 002 makes mention of 17 bulletproof vests.
“I’ve been through all the property rooms. Now I’ve got 17 people with bullet proof vests on…”
That sent the quartet of DA’s staffers scurrying in different directions with an investigator for the office, making copies and looking for more material. In the end, it was agreed that the software for the report form has a “pull-down” menu, and that this device has a rather vague reference about the vests on it.
Quizzed about just who was wearing the vests, was it the cops, Ms. Gotro said it was. Asked about the materiality of the bullet proof vests, she said, “I don’t know what they are, really.”
She shrugged at the mystery of it all.
The Office of the Attorney General fielded a young lady named Kelsey Warren who argued fiercely that any exposure of criminal records of those arrested that day is improper because the database – known as NCIC, and TexScan – is by statute reserved for law enforcement agencies only, under penalty of law.
For months, Ms. Gotro explained, she has been unable to get what she seeks through the DA’s office.
“It’s not an element for them to use,” said the AG’s representative.
Ms. Warren continued with the argument, saying that “We’re a third party.” Discovery procedure as defined in the the code of criminal procedure is between the two adversaries, prosecution and defense. “She couldn’t get what she wanted through the DA’s office, so she has gone around discovery…”
Judge Johnson answered both Jarrett and Ms. Warren by asking, “Where does it say they can’t subpoena anybody they want to?”
Ms. Gotro told the Court that an expert is scheduled to testify that 75 percent of the Bandidos are convicted felons.
“We do not anticipate any expert to testify as to the percentage,” said Jarrett.
Judge Johnson ruled against the state’s motion to quash the subpoenas served on the director of DPS or his designees, at least temporarily.
Both sides agreed to giving the state two weeks – until Tuesday, October 3 – to come up with the items sought, turn them over to the Judge, who will inspect them in his chambers, then make a judicial review of the law, and instruct them which parts to redact in accordance with the statutes.
Said Judge Johnson, “We’re going to slide everything back on my schedule.” The jurors summoned to appear on September 29 will be examined, the panel seated, and the trial will begin on October 9, he announced.
San Antonio – it all depends upon whom you may choose to believe when it comes to the final adjudication of murder charges against four men who allegedly carried out a 2006 murder at Austin.
Disposition of the cases of four men accused of murder in furtherance of racketeering on behalf of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club appears to be timed precisely with the dates leading up to the start of the Twin Peaks trials with the case of Jake Carrizal in 54th State District Court at Waco.
A quartet of suspects earlier reported in a trial balloon news story to have entered guilty pleas for their alleged part in the 2006 murder of an Austin biker accused of trying to start a Hell Angels chapter in Austin are yet to make their appearances before a federal magistrate to enter guilty pleas, according to court records filed this week.
Johnny Romo and Robert Romo, who according to mainstream media reports quoting government prosecutors are alleged to have been Bandidos will make appearances in Federal Magistrate’s Court on Friday, September 22, before Henry Bemporad at 10:30 and 2 pm respectively to enter pleas of guilty of murder in furtherance of racketeering, according to federal court records filed today.
Bandidos U.S.A. National President Bill Sartelle denied they were Bandidos when their arrests were announced last March. He said he had expelled them from the membership much earlier.
Their attorneys are ordered to bring the text of any plea agreements reached with federal prosecutors to their hearings.
Jesse James Benavidez, who is charged with the discharge of a firearm in the murder of Anthony Benesh III outside an Austin pizza restaurant where he and his wife took their children for dinner and Norberto Serna, Jr., will appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Betsy Chestney on Monday, September 25 at 2 pm, and Wednesday Seeptember 27 at 2:30 pm, respectively.
These appearances are neatly timed to fit in a notch with preparations for the jury trial of former national Bandidos President Jeffrey Pike and Vice President John Xavier Portillo on Monday, February 5, 2018.
Motions are due in that case by November 11, plea agreements if any on or before a January 19 deadline, and exhibits and wiretapping evidence must be entered by DEA and other federal agencies by September 30, 2017 for approval by defense counsel.
The Twin Peaks jury trial of Jake Carrizal will begin a day earlier at Waco.
Two retired State District Court Judges who ordered Judge Ralph T. Strother’s recusal for bias made mention of his stalling tactics to delay the start of Twin Peaks prosecutions until some idea of the disposition of the federal RICO trials for alleged murder, extortion, drug dealing, and other offenses by Pike and Portillo could be obtained.
Carrizal’s case was targeted by prosecutors and judges, according to many attorneys involved with defense of the 154 persons indicted for engaging in organized criminal activity at a Waco political meeting to be held at Twin Peaks Restaurant because of the belief that it will be easy to build a case for his culpability because the gunfight seems to have begun when he and a few more than 30 other Bandits arrived on their motor scooters about 12:30 pm on May 17, 2015 for the Confederation of Clubs and Independents meeting that was aborted by the gunfight.
There is much evidence to be presented that a few members of the largely white Cossacks Motorcycle Club with ties to the Aryan Circle prison clique participated with undercover police to attack Hispanic members of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club, while most Cossacks were unaware of their machinations.
The mass shooting – much of it done by police armed with M-4 .223 cal. Patrol Rifles, left 9 dead, many of them shot in the back or the back of the head, and 20 wounded. A total of 177 were arrested for the totally amorphous conspiracy offense of engaging in organized criminal activity with no particularity specified as to the exact nature of each individual’s part in any such offense committed in combination with two or more other defendants.