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Legal System Overwhelmed After Waco Biker Brawl

Legal System Overwhelmed After Waco Biker Brawl

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

WACO, Texas — It is perhaps symbolic that the statue of Justice atop the dome crowning the white limestone courthouse here had the scales ripped from her hand in a storm. After a bloody weekend melee between motorcycle gangs left nine people dead, 18 wounded and more than 177 in jail, the criminal justice system is a bit frayed.

Investigators have mountains of evidence to review — 1,000 weapons were recovered from the crime scene — and authorities will probably have to tap other counties to secure enough defense attorneys to represent the accused. Scores of bikers were arrested on suspicion of engaging in organized crime and held in lieu of $1 million bond. A defense attorney and prosecutors wrangled Wednesday over whether one biker could be released even after posting such bail.

On Tuesday night it appeared that Jeff Battey, a 50-year-old north Texas factory worker and member of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club, had been able to make the $1 million bond and would be released.

Instead, the local district attorney met with the county’s two district judges behind closed doors Wednesday and negotiated special release conditions for Battey and any others who post bail. Among the conditions: electronic monitoring, no alcohol and no contact with other gang members.

Battey’s attorney said that his client played no role in the shooting, that he had no criminal record and that the delay in his case highlighted how heavy-handed local legal officials had become since Sunday’s shooting at the Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco.

“They were surprised somebody could make bond. That just shows that these bonds were used to send a message,” attorney Seth Sutton said.

McLennan County officials have said the local legal system can handle the influx of cases, but some said Wednesday that the jail and courts already appeared overwhelmed and that the situation would only grow more complicated as more of those jailed are released and begin challenging their arrests.

After the shooting, Battey was treated briefly at a hospital before being jailed with bullet fragments still lodged in his right arm, Sutton said, adding that officials had no probable cause to hold him.

“He’s in a lot of pain, and he’s not the only one. Our office has had calls from three others who were wounded with bullet fragments still in their bodies” and remained jailed, Sutton said.

Battey was released before noon Wednesday. Sutton declined to say how much his client paid to a bail bond agent in order to post bail — it’s typically 10 percent in Texas. “He has some family support behind him,” Sutton said.

Sutton has fielded calls from other relatives of those arrested, some of whom waited in line at a jail visitor’s center Wednesday. “We’ve had calls from dozens of people upset their husband, sons — good citizens who work — are in jail and their jobs and businesses are in jeopardy,” he said.

At least eight of those arrested have hired attorneys and had bail reduction hearings set, but not until June, court staffers said, adding late Wednesday that “they’re coming faster than we can process.”

“We’ve got a situation now where we’ve just decided to lock people up for weeks while we sort it out,” Sutton said.

William A. Smith, a Dallas-based attorney, said the high bonds for those arrested were deterring witnesses from coming forward. Some bikers who were at the scene of the violence but were not arrested are afraid to give their accounts because they’re afraid of being charged as gang members, he said.

“It’s got a lot of folks on edge, and I don’t know that there’s any bail bondsman in Waco, in the county, McLennan, that’s capable or willing of writing” a $1 million bond, Smith said. “So these guys could be in there a long time.”

But McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna said his staff of 27 attorneys could prosecute the Twin Peaks cases in addition to the 3,000 cases that were pending before the shooting. He does not plan to call the state attorney general’s office for assistance. “We can handle it,” Reyna said. “Even in the event I need additional help, I’ve got loads of district attorneys who have offered to help” from across the state, he said.

Reyna defended his decision to charge so many suspects, saying he had probable cause and the $1 million bonds were needed because “you’re talking about securing an individual’s appearance at trial.”

If those arrested are really victims, he said, “I would expect that these ‘victims’ would be very interested in working with law enforcement to bring those responsible to justice” — but so far, that has not been the case, he said.

Prosecutors have 90 days to present a case to a grand jury to indict before those in custody are entitled to reduced bonds, Reyna said.

(c)2015 Los Angeles Times, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Photo: Waco Police Department via Facebook

Who Are These Outlaw Bikers?

Who Are These Outlaw Bikers?

Count me among those mystified over the biker gang melee in Waco, Texas — a shootout that left nine dead. Why are these guys committing grown-up violence over the seemingly adolescent concern of who belongs to their group and who doesn’t? Who are they?

For answers, I consulted James F. Quinn, a University of North Texas sociologist who has studied the Bandidos and other outlaw biker “clubs.”

Many of the members came out of the military with skills of war and low tolerance for ordinary civilian life. They borrow their imagery from the old Western outlaws, having traded horses for motorcycles. Billy the Kid would be a model biker.

They engage in drug trafficking, prostitution, extortion and the like. But so do cartels and other powerful organized crime syndicates. (Texas law enforcement considers the Bandidos a Tier 2 threat, with Tier 1 reserved for the cartels.)

But are these (mostly) white guys on Harleys making real money?

“A few people are making a very large sum of money,” Quinn said, “and some people are just getting by.” Some also have day jobs. They run the gamut.

As most of us know, the outlaw bikers have little in common with the lawyer/teacher/retiree motorcyclists dressing the part on weekends. My only complaint on meeting many biker couples headed to the annual motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, was that they hogged the washing machines at Motel 6.

Some reports say the riot at the Twin Peaks sports bar started in a battle over a parking space. Others, an exchange of words in the men’s room. Yet another, a “provocation” centered on the wearing of a Texas patch by members of the Cossacks, a gang rival to the Bandidos.

Quinn sees the explosion as the result of a two-year buildup of tensions between the gangs.

“When one club dominates an area, they don’t want others coming through without their permission,” Quinn said. “They believe the other clubs should be subservient.”

The Bandidos fancy they run Texas from the seats of their Harleys. A counter view is that Texas is run from skyscrapers in Dallas and Houston by men who drive Lexuses and Mercedes-Benzes.

In any case, men who join outlaw biker clubs are in it for more than the money. “A lot of it is about excitement, male camaraderie,” Quinn said. “They want to live in that masculine excitement. It’s a hyper-excitement kind of atmosphere.”

Women are not invited. Women are never members of a “1 percent club,” a reference to the tiny percentage of motorcyclists not considered law-abiding citizens. Women are there to serve, which is why the Waco bikers gravitated to a Hooters clone restaurant, where the waitresses wear tops cut low and shorts cut high.

As for the violence in Waco, Quinn believes that even the bikers didn’t foresee the enormity of what occurred. He hesitates to speculate on what will happen next. An amazing 170 arrestees are facing criminal charges, but not many of them are in jail.

“There are going to be a lot of funerals, people coming in from out of town,” Quinn said, “but for the next few weeks, we’re going to see quiet because they know they are being watched.”

What fascinates the outside world about these outlaw bikers is the extraordinary energy they expend for a sense of belonging and a right to bully. Many comments following the Waco coverage ridiculed their hairy faces and paunchy middles.

In the end, one observes all those able-bodied men looking for action and concludes: What a tremendous waste of all that manpower.

Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com. To find out more about Froma Harrop and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Web page at www.creators.com. 

Screenshot via KXAN/YouTube

Waco Shopping Center Reopens While Legal System Copes With 170 Biker Arrests

Waco Shopping Center Reopens While Legal System Copes With 170 Biker Arrests

By Michael Muskal, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

The Central Texas Marketplace Shopping Center in Waco fully reopened for business on Wednesday, days after a bloody shootout and brawl among rival biker gangs left nine dead and 18 injured.

Police have largely finished processing the scene, the parking lot and area around the Twin Peaks restaurant in the south end of the shopping center. Stores in that area, including a Best Buy, reopened for business at ten a.m.

“We’re happy to be here,” Kara Stewart of Best Buy said by telephone. The store had been closed since the shootout Sunday. “Business has been slow. When the students leave Baylor University, Waco slows down big time.”

Still, many stores are looking for an uptick in business as the Memorial Day weekend begins. Some stores in the north end of the shopping center did not close while police investigated the shooting.

Lorie Macon, a sales associate of the Family Christian Bookstore, said the store reopened Monday. She said she had a direct view of the parking lot and all seemed quiet with no unusual police presence.

That was a far cry from Sunday when a dispute in the parking lot and a fight inside Twin Peaks restaurant spilled over into the mall’s parking lot. What began with kicks and fists quickly escalated to knives, chains, clubs, and guns, police said.

At least 18 Waco police officers had been stationed in the parking lot along with four state cops and all responded to the shots within seconds, police said. Police fired at bikers who police said also were firing at each other.

Nine people died in the melee, all men ranging in age from 27 to 65 years old, according to court documents. The preliminary autopsies indicate all died from gunshot wounds, according to records released by the McLennan County Justice of the Peace. It will take further testing to determine who fired the fatal shots.

Police have recovered more than 1,000 weapons, including knives, guns and a high-powered assault rifle, some hidden at the restaurant, Waco Police Sargent W. Patrick Swanton said in a televised interview Wednesday. Officials have also moved more than 135 motorcycles and about 80 other vehicles to be examined for evidence.

All of the dead are members of two groups: the Bandidos, the state’s largest motorcycle gang, and the Cossacks, an up-and-coming gang that has clashed with the Bandidos, police said.

Eighteen other bikers were injured and most have been released from the hospital. No police or bystanders were injured.

If all was calm at the shopping center, the legal system in Waco remained in a frenzy trying to deal with about 170 people who were arrested after the brawl. All have been charged with engaging in an organized crime enterprise. The enterprise is capital murder — the deaths of the nine bikers.

No one yet has been charged with capital murder, police said.

“It’s been a nightmare,” said one county employee who asked not to be identified because she works with the courts and lawyers.

Officials have had to secure legal counsel for defendants, many of whom have said they are too poor to hire their own attorneys. McLennan County maintains a panel of lawyers to represent those who are too poor to hire outside counsel, but there are just 100 lawyers and many of those do not do the kind of felony proceedings that have stemmed from Sunday’s brawl.

All of the inmates are being held in lieu of one million dollar bail. Most are expected to seek a bond reduction. At least two hearings have already been scheduled for June fifth in district court, officials said.

Relatives of those being held have complained that many of the inmates are innocent and are not like the criminal elements being portrayed in the media.

Katie Rhoten told The Associated Press that her husband, Theron, ran for cover and was later arrested, along with antique motorcycle enthusiast friends and other “nonviolent, noncriminal people” at the gathering designed as a meeting of biker groups to discuss issues such as pending safety legislation.

“He’s good to his family,” she said. “He doesn’t drink; he doesn’t do drugs; he doesn’t party. He’s just got a passion for motorcycles.”

Officials have painted a different picture. They have said that the meeting included talks between the Bandidos and the Cossacks designed to settle differences, including turf. Officials have also cited a long-standing rivalry between the groups that have included assaults in other parts of the state, including the Dallas area.

The U.S. Justice Department said in a report on outlaw motorcycle gangs that the Bandidos “constitute a growing criminal threat.” The report said the group is involved in transporting and distributing cocaine and marijuana and in the production and distribution of methamphetamine.

Photo: Waco Police Department via Flickr

9 Killed As Biker Gangs Shoot It Out In Texas

9 Killed As Biker Gangs Shoot It Out In Texas

By Matt Pearce and Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

WACO, Texas — A motorcycle gathering at a sports bar became a bloodbath Sunday when a bathroom scuffle between rival biker gang members escalated into a parking-lot shootout that left at least nine bikers dead and 18 wounded after police intervened and also opened fire, police said.

“In 34 years of law enforcement, this is the worst crime scene, the most violent crime scene I have ever been involved in,” said Waco Police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton.

More than 100 people were detained for questioning, some as cooperative witnesses, as investigators sifted through a site laden with bodies, motorcycles, shell casings, knives and clubs in one of the largest showdowns with law enforcement in Waco since a federal siege of a cult’s compound left about 80 people dead in 1993.

The dead Sunday were identified as members of the Bandidos and Cossacks gangs. Swanton said as many as five biker gangs were involved and as many as 50 weapons might be recovered.

Police counted themselves lucky: No officers or bystanders were wounded in the melee, though several cars were peppered with bullet holes in the parking lot at the Central Texas MarketPlace.

But as federal, state and local investigators piece together a messy crime scene, public concern is likely to fall on whether other biker gang members will descend on Waco to seek revenge and why the Twin Peaks sports bar and restaurant had hosted the biker gathering despite a warning from local police.

Police, anticipating trouble, had gathered at the scene in advance. “We knew there would be trouble at this biker event,” Swanton said, adding, “what happened here today could have been avoided.”

Swanton also emphasized that the biker gangs involved were not just local. “This is not a Waco problem — this is a national problem,” Swanton said.

There are more than 300 outlaw motorcycle gangs operating across the country, ranging in size from just a few members to several hundred, according to federal gang estimates. From time to time, investigators land indictments against motorcycle gangs they accuse of doing the type of things street gangs do — committing violence or smuggling drugs.

One 2014 gang threat assessment by the Texas Department of Public Safety took particular concern with the Bandidos motorcycle gang, formed in the 1960s, whose members do dirty work “as covertly as possible” but who proudly wear their colors in public and ride in large packs.

In Waco, police declined to name all the motorcycle gangs involved, though several detained bikers could be seen wearing leather jackets with the words “Scimitars” and “Cossacks” emblazoned on the back.

A law enforcement official who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak said insignia for a gang called the Gypsies also were visible. He said Bandidos and Cossacks are rivals, both self-proclaimed “one percenters” who consider themselves above the law.

“If they have one percenter on their vest, they’re lawless,” he said, adding that members know they’re part of a criminal gang “because they wear it and wear it proud.”

McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara said, “We knew that there was trouble brewing between the Bandidos and the Cossacks, but we didn’t know it would be a shootout.”

On Sunday, some of the gangs appeared to have aligned with each other for a show of force as the bikers gathered at Twin Peaks, a “Hooters”-like sports bar and restaurant known for its scantily clad waitresses, police said. They also might have gathered to recruit new members.

Swanton said investigators, who had been monitoring the biker gangs, had asked the local Twin Peaks franchise not to host the bikers but had been ignored, and had asked the national chain to intervene.

Jay Patel, operating partner of the Twin Peaks Waco franchise, did not address those allegations head-on in a statement Sunday evening, instead writing on Facebook that the restaurant was cooperating with the police investigation.

“We are horrified by the criminal, violent acts that occurred outside of our Waco restaurant today,” Patel wrote. “We share in the community’s trauma. Our priority is to provide a safe and enjoyable environment for our customers and employees, and we consider the police our partners in doing so.”

Of Patel’s statement about cooperating with police, McNamara said, “If he was, I’m not aware of it.”

Swanton was more vehement. “That statement is absolute fabrication. That is not true,” he said.

The massacre began about 12:15 p.m. with a fight in the Twin Peaks bathroom that started as “most likely a push or a shove, somebody looking at somebody wrong,” Swanton said. There also was a fight outside over a parking space, leading to “a fistfight that turned into a knife fight that immediately turned into a gunfight.”

It’s unclear whether bikers were shot by other bikers or by police who rushed to the restaurant at the sound of gunfire.

“As they came up to the scene they were taking rounds and had to defend themselves,” Swanton said of the officers who fired.

Before the shooting, Austin Guerra, 20, of Waco had noticed that multiple police cars had gathered outside Twin Peaks, across the street from where he was shopping at a Cabela’s.

When Guerra came outside, he heard “loud popping sounds” as gunfire broke out for 45 seconds to a minute, he said in a phone interview. Then he saw bikers in leather jackets running everywhere.

After the shooting ended and police swarmed the scene, Guerra said, “You could see bikers sitting all over the place … people in handcuffs, people lying on the ground.”

A handful of motorcycles were still parked in the Twin Peaks lot several hours after the violence.

McLennan County sheriff’s deputies were holding about 20 people wearing leather motorcycle vests — with their boots removed and in flex cuffs — in the parking lot of the nearby Don Carlos restaurant.

Three bikers had already been arrested after the melee Sunday afternoon on suspicion of coming to the scene with more weapons, and Swanton had a warning for other bikers thinking of coming to seek revenge.

“We are prepared to deal with those individuals if they come to Waco,” Swanton said, adding, with a bit of Texas swagger, that “criminal” biker gang members had already “felt the wrath of law enforcement in Waco.”

Later, Swanton added, “We have plenty of space in our county jail.”

(Pearce reported from Los Angeles and Hennessy- Fiske from Waco.)

(c)2015 Los Angeles Times, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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