agingrebel.com
Last week Federal District Judge Sam
Sparks gave lawyers for Waco Chief of Police Brent E. Stroman., Waco
Police Officer and admitted perjurer Manuel Chavez, and McLennan County
District Attorney Abelino Reyna until April 15 to reply to a civil
rights suit filed by Dallas attorney Clint Broden on behalf of Waco
defendant Matt Clendennen. The lawsuit was filed last November 17.
The suit, alleges that Stroman, Chavez,
Reyna and an unnamed employee of the Texas Department of Public Safety,
“determined that individuals would be arrested and charged with Engaging
in Organized Criminal Activity based entirely on their presence at Twin
Peaks, the motorcycle club that Defendants presumed an individual was
associated with, and/or the clothing they were wearing at the time of
the incident. Rather than investigating the incident and relying on
actual facts to establish probable cause, Defendants theorized that a
conspiracy of epic proportion between dozens of people had taken place,
and willfully ignored the total absence of facts to support their
‘theory.’”
Clendennen, wearing insignia that
identified him as a member of the Scimitars Motorcycle Club, was
captured on surveillance video on the Twin Peaks restaurant patio in
Waco last May 17 when a deadly fight erupted between members of the
Bandidos Motorcycle Club, the Cossacks Motorcycle Club and members of
clubs allied with either the Bandidos or Cossacks, The Scimitars are
allied with the Cossacks.
Knew Nothing
In a recorded interview with Texas
Department of Public Safety (DPS) Criminal Investigations Division (CID)
Special Agent Michael McAnarney last May 17, Clendennen said: “He could
not be a part of a big fight because he has four kids and a wife at
home;” “he did not see who started the fight and could not identify
which people engaged in any violence;” that “he was not carrying any
firearms” and that he had only “a small pocket knife which was handed
over to law enforcement.”
The case against Clendennen seems to
boil down to an unsubstantiated accusation by his ex-wife’s lawyer that
Clendennen “took a gun and a large knife that day to the Twin Peaks.”
Nine people were killed and 19 more were
wounded in a brief bloody battle engaged in by some of the bikers. At
least four and possibly five of the dead were killed by police. A few of
the bikers at the scene that day behaved criminally. A few behaved
courageously and admirably. Most people at the scene simply ran away
from the fight. Clendennen has always maintained that he simply ran
away.
Let God Sort ‘Em Out
According to Clendennen’s suit, “From
approximately 9:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., Defendants Stroman, Chavez,
Reyna, and others met regarding the incident. Soon thereafter,
investigators were informed that Defendants had decided to arrest all
motorcyclists that met certain criteria, and to charge each with the
offense of Engaging in Organized Criminal Activity.” Clendennen was one
of those arrested and held on $1 million bond.
The defendants have already had 114 days
to reply to Clendennen’s lawsuit or move for its dismissal. Stroman,
Chavez and Reyna now have 151 days to reply to the suit. Broden agreed
to the delay in a meeting with the defendant’s attorneys on February 25.
In his huffy decision to extend the
deadline to reply to the complaint, Judge Sparks wrote: “Notwithstanding
the undersigned has never seen a case in all his years that requires
sixty days to answer a federal complaint or file a motion to dismiss,
especially when there are so many lawyers who are representing the
defendants, the Court reluctantly grants the motion because it is
unopposed. It is the Court’s practice to grant unopposed motions, but it
is noted for all counsel that a delay of two months results in a delay
of at least four months in the designation of a trial date. The Court is
now setting cases for January and February of 2018.”
In other words, the soonest Clendennen could now take his suit to trial would be in about two years.
