Author Topic: The cost of the Twin Peaks shootout has run into seven figures. The state, has little to show for it  (Read 843 times)

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Offline Elderberry

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Harley Liberty By Insane Throttle September 23, 2018

WACO, Texas (KWTX) The total cost of the May 2015 Twin Peaks shootout has run into the solid seven figures and the state, at least so far, has little to show for its effort, all the while realizing the final cost is not yet calculated for the defendants and in some cases may never be.
McLennan County reports $1,317,835.96 in total identifiable costs related to Twin Peaks.
Francis Bartlett, CPA, first assistant county auditor in McLennan County, said the county has received $914,058.07 in the form of grant reimbursements from various sources, leaving a net cost to date of $403,777.89.
That figure does not account for costs incurred by the City of Waco, any other ancillary agencies that responded or any costs reported by state or federal agencies.
Although because so many cases have now gone by the wayside, the original estimate of cost to conclusion is less than was initially anticipated.
Just 24 cases remain and most notable among them, the re-trial of Jacob Carrizal, whose first trial in November 2017 ended in a mistrial.
More than 130 lawsuits are pending against local officials
Shots rang out on May 17, 2015 outside the Twin Peaks Restaurant, at Interstate 35 and Loop 340 as motorcycle riders gathered there for what was supposed to be a meeting on legislative issues.
Within seconds nine bikers were dead, more than 20 were injured and shortly thereafter 177 were under arrest, each charged with engaging in organized criminal activity and each held in lieu of a $1 million bond.
The arrest affidavits, all 177 of them, were word-for-word the same and none included mention of probable cause in individual cases.
Challenges from lists of lawyers began piling up, citing violations of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure on probable cause requirements and excessive bond.
As the cases began moving into the courtroom one-by-one, they began to fall apart one-by-one until ultimately of the original 177, only two dozen remained.
Those defendants left in the wake now are responding with the only recourse they have and at last count there were 133 federal lawsuits filed that name McLennan County, Waco police, the district attorney, the sheriff and his office, individual police officers and the chief and others and against them charge violations against the 4th and 14th Amendment Constitutional guarantees, plus a number of other civil rights violations.
Diego Obledo is one of the plaintiffs.
The gunfire erupted as Obledo, who was not dressed in gang colors and was not armed, got out of his father’s car along with several friends.
They hit the ground at once.

All the time Obledo and his friends, all from San Antonio, can clearly be seen on video from several angles avoiding the fight, not participating in it.
Afterwards Obledo and his friends went to police and were arrested.
Later, District Attorney Abel Reyna would say everyone was arrested and none were considered victims because “if they’re victims, they shouldn’t have any problem coming to law enforcement and cooperating … and, at least in the first round of interviews, we ain’t getting that.”
In Obledo’s lawsuit, his attorney says his client “was completely cooperative during interviews and voluntarily submitted to questioning and requests for forensics (volunteering DNA samples and gunshot residue testing) from law enforcement.”
“He heard others at the convention center being asked for DNA and other samples and he offered his, but the officer he was talking to said he didn’t need it because Obledo had been too far away from the mayhem,” his lawyer said.
“Defendant Reyna knew of these facts at the time he made the above described public statement,” the lawsuit complaint says.
Neither Reyna nor any other person or agency mentioned in Obledo’s lawsuit, has filed a substantive answer to Obledo’s claims.
Reyna has not returned phone calls for comment.
By the time Obledo’s criminal case was dismissed almost three years later, he’d lost his stable job at USAA because of his arrest, his reputation was subject to question and still had six kids to feed.
Dallas attorney F. Clinton Broden filed Obledo’s lawsuit and in it he charges his client was known by law enforcement from the very beginning to be not guilty of the charge but law officers railroaded him anyway at Reyna’s direction.
Obledo is one of probably 30 to 40 defendants who suffered the same kind of personal loss as a result of being arrested for nothing, a group of Twin Peaks defense lawyers say.
And the lawyers say they all lost something.

More: https://harleyliberty.com/2018/09/23/the-total-cost-of-the-may-2015-twin-peaks-shootout-between-bandidos-and-cossacks-mcs-has-run-into-the-solid-seven-figures-and-the-state-at-least-so-far-has-little-to-show-for-its-effort/