Interesting news blurb update amid an otherwise memory-holed story now almost six months old.
TEXAS – […] Of the 135 people originally ordered to wear GPS ankle monitors, all but 22 have been allowed to remove them, the Waco Tribune-Herald reported Sunday. Their lawyers have reached agreements with prosecutors to modify the conditions of their pre-trial release.
After initially locking up more than 170 people in connection with the May 17 incident outside Twin Peaks restaurant, McLennan County prosecutors have not charged anyone with the shooting deaths of nine people. At least 20 others were hurt.
Those arrested were charged with engaging in organized criminal activity.
Prosecutors did not return messages from the newspaper seeking comment. But defense attorneys suggested the district attorney’s office eventually plans to dismiss charges against at least some defendants. (read more)
The WacoTribune has more […] Presumably, prosecutors are still waiting on state and federal authorities who are assisting in the investigation to finish their analysis of videos and ballistic evidence from the chaotic incident that left nine bikers dead and 20 injured.
Prosecutors have provided one round of discovery — the release of a portion of the state’s evidence — to defense attorneys, with a second batch due out soon, defense attorneys say.
Neither McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna nor his first assistant, Michael Jarrett, returned phone calls seeking comment about the Twin Peaks cases.
Reyna’s prosecutors have taken hard lines during examining trials for bikers, alleging that each showed up at Twin Peaks that day wearing his or her colors, most of them armed, in a show of full support for their affiliate members because they were keenly aware that such a firestorm could erupt.
This despite testimony from state and local officers that they had no evidence that the bikers in the examining trials committed any crimes or had any knowledge that the gunfight might occur. (read more)