COSSACK CODY LEDBETTER (L) WILL FACE A JURY ON MONDAY, APRIL 2, AFTER PAUL LOONEY’S (C) NUMEROUS APPEALS
Waco – The first Cossack to face a trial jury in the Twin Peaks cases got his day in court by default when the new attorney representing the first defendant to stand trial in a second go-round due to mistrial declared he’s not ready for trial.
At that point, 54th Criminal District Judge Matt Johnson shifted gears and scheduled the trial of Cossack Cody Ledbetter as a result of vigorous pre-trial maneuvers by Ledbetter’s attorney, Paul Looney of Hempstead, who has an extensive criminal practice in Houston and the counties surrounding the Bayou City.
The case of Dallas Bandidos President Jake Carrizal ended in a mistrial in which numerous defense objections over concealed or withheld evidence that would tend to exculpate him led to many delays. Jurors were clearly not convinced he had anything to do with the murder of 9 men and the wounding of an additional 20 simply because he was wearing a 1%er patch on his jacket as he arrived at the head of a column of a dozen fellow Bandits.
A high court appeal for a speedy trial by Looney got a short shrift from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, resulting his motion to the trial court declaring that since he sees no inculpatory evidence that would tend to incriminate the Cossack, he sees no need for further delay to discover exculpatory evidence.
One may read of that event by clicking here.
Looney has had great success in other cases, including the examining trial of a Brenham couple whom Waco Police arrested as they arrived at the scene of the violent debacle originally planned as a Confederation of Clubs meeting to rag chew events in the Legislative session in progress on that fateful day of Sunday, May 17, 2015.
Said Distorted member William English, an ex-Marine fresh from the fight with combat tours to his credit, “Do you think I’d take my WIFE to a gunfight?” Though the examining judge passed the case, the Grand Jurors declined to indict English and his wife. Because the charge still exists, Mrs. English is unable to regain employment in her chosen trade of bank teller. A federal lawsuit is pending in an Austin U.S. District Court seeking redress for deprivation of her civil rights.
A half hour before the event was scheduled to begin with a speech by Texas National Coalition of Motorcyclists delegate Paul Landers, an Escondido from Austin, gunfire erupted as a group of armed men struggle with the Bandits who were still astride their motor scooters; autopsy reports and video of the melee reveals the fact that police snipers cut the attackers down with assault rifles.
Fourteen officers were present and armed with assault rifles on that day.
Only three of the rifles have been tested by ballistics experts, leaving an additional 11 rifles untested, it was learned in the Carrizal trial.
As in all the other cases, Ledbetter is charged with engaging in organized criminal activity that led to the capital murder of the deceased and the aggravated assault of those who were wounded.
Asked at a political rally held a year after the events that led to Ledbetter’s arrest about the sniper tactics employed by the police, his attorney Paul Looney made these remarks in May, 2016.