Friday, December 15, 2017

Reyna Calls Critics Laughable

OFF THE WIRE
agingrebel.com
McLennan County District Attorney Abelino Reyna thinks repeated questions about his integrity by “biker lawyers” and “disgruntled former employee” are funny.
Since the first “biker brawl” trial ended with a hung jury, Reyna has been repeatedly called deluded and corrupt by people who would not seem to have any particular ax to grind with the small town politician.
In fact, it looks like there is probable cause to believe that Reyna demanded that almost 200 men and women be falsely arrested after a tragically botched, biker sting operation (part of a clandestine joint investigation of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club by the FBI, DEA. ATF and the Texas DPS) at a time when he was under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for corruption.The only direct evidence of quid prop quo is that the FBI investigation has not yet found a conclusion.
It also looks like Reyna accepted bribes to dismiss charges against people who were justifiably arrested; that his chief assistant was spying on him for the FBI; that he was aware of and protecting a “gambling operation;” that he flaunted his cocaine use and that he may have acquired some of his cocaine from a police evidence room; that he consorted with and did favors for drug dealers; that he deliberately and repeatedly hid evidence that would tend to prove the innocence of people he hoped to convict; that he committed perjury and that he suborned perjury.

No Big Thing

None of this has sparked outrage in Waco, Texas or the rest of the country and it hasn’t attracted anything approaching the interest, speculation, misinformation or litigation that the so-called “Twin Peaks Biker Brawl” attracted. Reyna sees all of the smoke and flames that now surround him from the perspective of an ambitious politician.
Last month, when he announced he was running for reelection, Reyna said, “After seven years on the job, the record is pretty clear. Violent criminals are finally getting the justice they deserve, crime is down and our streets are safer, and we’ve come in under budget every year. The criminal defense bar, disgruntled former employees, and a bunch of out-of-towners from Dallas can try and smear my name all they like, but the facts don’t lie.”
Recently, Reyna has been metaphorically slugging it out with a couple of Twin Peaks defense lawyers named David Conrad Beyer and Brian Bouffard. Yesterday the two Fort Worth attorneys filed and released an affidavit by former Waco detective Sherry Kingrey. Kingrey doesn’t have an obvious motive for lying about Reyna.
Reyna reacted to her affidavit with a statement to Waco television station KCEN that argued:
“The affidavit of Ms. Kingrey secured by a biker defense lawyer and the four-year-old allegations it contains are equally not true and even more laughable than those previously asserted. The only calls I remember from the night of Twin Peaks were to the Waco Police Chief, individuals from my office, my wife, and a current restaurant owner to arrange for food to be brought to our hard working law enforcement men and women. Had Ms. Kingrey been at the scene, she could have enjoyed a tasty chicken sandwich and fries. As for my conversation with Detective Chavez, her affidavit would mean that not only myself but at least two other assistant DA’s who witnessed our conversation are also not telling the truth. Further, had she believed this was important, why did she not address it in any reports while an active officer?”
Reyna might be more credible if he was a little more bold with his lies: If instead of weasel words like “the only calls I remember,” he came right out and said “the only calls I made.”
Kingrey told KCEN, through her lawyer, that her statement was true, that she was at the Twin Peaks that night and that she had had a “cabbage roll.”

Pardon For Pay

Today Bouffard filed and released a letter on Reyna’s official stationary dated December 16. 1013 in which Reyna asks the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole to fully pardon Kevin Chirafis. Reyna admits in the letter that he met Chirafis through his uncle Sammy Citrano and describes Chirafis as his “good friend.”
The letter substantiates an allegation made by Reyna’s former top assistant, Greg Davis, in an affidavit filed in another Twin Peaks case on November 10. Davis wrote:
“In addition to having cases dismissed for political and/or personal reasons, I also know that Reyna wrote at least one letter -requesting .a full pardon for a campaign supporter’s relatoive. For example, even though the DA’s office had a policy of opposing early parole for offenders, Reyna wrote a letter in December 2013 requesting a full pardon for Sammy Citrano’s nephew Kevin Chirafis who had been convicted of the felony offense of Manufacture and Delivery of a Controlled Substance in Brazos County.”
At the time, Reyna dismissed his former assistant’s claim about the pardon as “fake news.”