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Waco – Rolando Reyes asked the judge to disqualify the elected Criminal District Attorney in the case against him, a charge of engaging in organized criminal activity filed on Sunday, May 17, 2015, following his arrest at Twin Peaks Restaurant.
The motion drafted by his attorney former Galveston District Judge Susan Criss is adamant about Reyna’s allegedly biased and criminal role in his administration prior to the Twin Peaks affair, as revealed in an affidavit filed by Greg Davis, a former lead prosecutor from Reyna’s office.
Reyes is one of a trio of defendants including Matt Clendennen and Paul Landers who sought and obtained the recusal of Criminal District Judge Ralph T. Strother for bias against them in an August 30, 2017, ruling by visiting Judge James Morgan.
Reyna called for his own recusal in the Clendennen case, prompting the appointment of three special prosecutors by visiting judge Doug Shaver of Harris County, who had himself been appointed to hear the case following the self recusal of 54th District Judge Matt Johnson, Reyna’s former law partner.
In the Reyes motion for Reyna’s disqualification, Judge Criss has outlined some reasons foremost among others for the requested disqualification of Reyna and his entire staff.
They are:
- “Due to his presence and actions at the scene of the alleged offense there are matters only he can testify to at trial.” There also exists the potential that lead prosecutor Michael Jarrett and Assistant District Attorney Amanda Dillon will be called as witnesses;
- Reyna failed to disclose to defense counsel that he and Judge Matt Johnson practiced law together as partners in a law firm in Waco;
- Reyna has been and may still be under investigation by the FBI for criminal acts;
- Both Jarrett and Amanda Dillon have interviewed with the FBI about criminal matters and failed to turn over material about their allegations to the defense as exculpatory evidence as outlined in the landmark case, “Brady v. Maryland,” which requires it;
- Due to concern about their own employment, Jarrett and Dillon chose to hide their participation in the investigation against him, thus causing a conflict of interest prohibited by the Texas Code of Professional Responsibility, and the law, which requires the disclosure of all such items;
- Newly revealed documents detailing certain information alleged in the federal prosecution of two national officers of the Bandidos MC at San Antonio raise the possibility that Reyna and his staff withheld exculpatory evidence as part of a quid pro quo arrangement with federal authorities to delay the Twin Peaks cases and thereby obtain leniency from prosecution for their transgressions against the law through their assistance in controlling the flow of information to the public and the defense;
- “Regardless of the outcome” of the Twin Peaks prosecutions,” Reyna and his staff have added “voluminous” amounts of information that would assist prosecutors and federal investigators in obtaining information useful in future criminal litigation against the Bandidos and other alleged “outlaw” criminal organizations.
These and other allegations are the subject of a hearing on November 20 before Judge Shaver in the Clendennen case, as well as alleged aggravated perjury in a Court of Inquiry in a Dallas District Court.
In a legal memorandum filed in support of the motion for disqualification, Judge Criss alleges the withholding of due process of law that is held by common law holdings to balance the excessive amount of power federal prosecutors wield in their criminal actions against accused offenders.
Because a prosecutor is not just a party to a controversy, but the representative of a sovereign, the primary responsibility of the office of prosecutor is that of obtaining and establishing justice, not just the role of seeking victory in a case, according to a landmark case cited in the legal memo.
Therefore, the defense counsel holds that the prosecutors in the Twin Peaks cases have thereby rendered themselves of a diminished capacity to provide the most important of legal services intended for We The People of the State of Texas, whose peace and dignity are to be guarded by the Criminal Courts of our state.
So mote it be.
– The Legendary