CAN’T ALWAYS HIT LONG BALL OVER CENTER FIELD FENCE; SOMETIMES HAVE TO HIT BALL ON GROUND, BOUNCING… – ERNEST HEMINGWAY, TALKING INDIAN TALK
Waco – When District Attorney Abel Reyna alighted from his car at the early voting center, the private investigator who served him with a witness subpoena had the rare distinction of a rooting section.
The rooting section took cell phone in hand to report the news.
As quickly as the gumshoe executed the return of service acknowledging that Abel Reyna is summoned to appear as a witness in the status conference hearing in the case of State V. Matthew Clendennen at 9 a.m. on Monday in the 54th Criminal District Court, the news hit the internet like a small pebble making wide waves in a little pond.
The attorney representing Clendennen, a former member of the Scimitars black and gold motorcycle club who was arrested for having a seat on the patio and ordering a bottle of water at Twin Peaks on May 17, 2015, is the guy who called Reyna’s bluff nearly three years ago.
F. Clinton Broden filed a motion to disqualify the DA and his staff that has resulted in the blowback of dozens upon dozens of case dismissals in order to avoid having to appear as a witness or allowing members of his staff to appear as such in other cases.
Why?
Quite simply, the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure prohibits a prosecutor who has been involved in the investigation of a case from serving also as the prosecutor.
The matter before the court – front and center – is whether Reyna and his staff became a “necessary witness” – that is, the complaining witness, or police officer, when he took command of the investigation the evening of the day 9 died and 20 suffered gunshot wounds at a Confederation of Clubs meeting for motorcycle enthusiasts.
In a previous disqualification hearing held in August, 2016, Reyna testified under oath all about how he and his lead prosecutor, Michael Jarrett, directed Mark Parker, and Assistant DA, to draft a complaint, an affidavit of warrantless arrest, for a magistrate’s signature. In the document, he alleged that people with the colors of clubs designated by the Department of Justice or the Department of Public Safety as outlaw motorcycle gangs or their support clubs should be arrested.
For what?
Engaging in organized criminal activity that led to the capital murder and/or aggravated assault of other motorcycle enthusiasts.
Tell me what I say. It means the DA turned himself into a cop and ordered the arrest of folks, and then he took the witness stand and uttered a false hood on the court record.
He said he told the cop who signed the affidavit to make sure he familiarized himself with every detail of the events described. When recalled to the witness stand, Manuel Chavez, a Waco Detective who didn’t know anything about it because he had been just called away from another investigation, said he never talked to him.
That allegation involves aggravated perjury, a felony that’s good for no less than 2 years or more than 20 behind bars.
If Reyna dismisses the Clendennen case to avoid testimony, he will have dragged the ultimate sacrifice bunt to put yet another runner on third, while hitting into a twin killing to retire the side. The net net, no runs, no hits, muchas errors.
Ho hum. It might as well be spring.
Like a round of golf, the story ends up in the same place it began, the 19th hole and the parking lot.
Put it on your calendar. Monday in the 54th Criminal District Courtroom at 9 a.m. on primary election eve, March 5.
So far, it is alleged, Reyna has gone so far as to dismiss the charges against defendants prosecutors could have plausibly proven were the gun-bearing assailants who actually shot victims in the 45 seconds of carnage that left the concrete of the restaurant parking lot slick with blood.
That is, if the ballistics evidence had been preserved in an orderly fashion, and the documentation had been presented in a legal way.
You see, when it came time for the expert witness to testify about which bullet was fired from what gun and where it wound up, there was a terrible mistake made. Defense counsel in the case against Dallas Bandido Jake Carrizal objected to an ATF expert witness testifying about reports made by Waco Police officers, reports about which he had no personal knowledge, as required by the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The agent looked rather sheepish as he stepped down from the witness stand after the court sustained the objection and the judge told the lead prosecutor, “Call your next witness.”
The same motion can be argued at every status conference in rotation – or the voters can put a stop to the ridiculous charade and vote for the opposition Republican candidate – Barry Johnson.
I have spoken.
So mote it be.
- The Legendary