Waco police detective named foreman of grand jury that may hear Twin Peaks cases

A Waco police detective was selected Wednesday to preside over a new McLennan County grand jury that could be the panel that considers the Twin Peaks shootings.

The grand jury was selected using the new state-mandated random method.

James Head, a 34-year police veteran who has spent 26 years with Waco PD, was among the first 14 on the panel qualified to serve on the grand jury and, beyond that, 19th State District Judge Ralph Strother selected Head to serve as the foreman.

wacotrib.com

Well now, this could certainly throw a spanner into the works, could it not?

There's quite a wide range of views of what happened during the 'shootout' with more than few valid questions for the Waco P.D. to answer and the fact that one of their number could be in a position to influence any of these trials seems like it would be a conflict of interest.

And this is even brought up in the article:

When asked if he had any involvement in the massive Twin Peaks investigation, Head said, “Not really.” He would not elaborate on that answer and deferred additional questions about the Twin Peaks incident to the Waco City Attorney’s Office.

"Not really?"

Really?

Well maybe he wasnt deployed or at the scene that day, but dollars to doughnuts he knows people who were.

But former Appeals Court Justice Jan Patterson, justice in residence at Baylor Law School and a former federal prosecutor who has years of experience with grand juries, said the detective’s service could be problematic.

“Of course, it is up to the judge, but it would be very difficult for a police officer to serve,” she said. “All of the cases the grand jury considers are criminal cases, and in many circumstances, a police officer will know the parties. It may be difficult to be impartial, and I would think it will be difficult, as well, to appear impartial, which are both important functions for a grand jury.”

What says ATS?

Yeah, kind o' like when they put Dulles on the Warren Commission.

Hope all is well your way, sir!

He's presiding over a grand jury which is pretty much a rubberstamp in Texas anyway. I don't even think it is appealable because it is not a judgment on guilt. It is only a judgment or opinion on whether there's enough evidence to be charged .

Ok i'll go there.
Three words!


"Conflict of interests"

When I was a LEO, I couldn't serve on even federal grand juries. It is assumed that you as an LEO are automatically biased. Something is smelly in Denmark as the saying goes...

a reply to: Greathouse

Yes, and there is a good bit of questioming as to whether the entire scenario was purposely escalated and/or whether or not the people being held should even have been detained much less charged the way they have been in the first place.

a reply to: jadedANDcynical

There is no defense attorney involved at the grand jury level. It is strictly the grand jury, the prosecution and witnesses deciding whether the charges are warranted. I've been following this, since it happened. The bikers eighth amendment rights were already violated. I did a thread on it nobody cared .


I expect the Rico charges to be dropped and the remaining bails lowered. But I fully expect the rest of the charges to stick because of the way grand jury procedures happen.

If there is any grounds for RICO case I expect a federal grand jury might be looking into it at a later date .



Correct me if I'm wrong but there has never been one case appealed because of the grand jury process .

I say the quickest ticket out of jury duty is the phrase "I'm a cop" and I'm absolutely stunned this guy didn't use it to remove himself.

Don't take that the wrong way: I fully support jury duty. But I would never, ever try to get myself seated on a jury. And I'm stunned that he made it past jury questioning.

It's one thing for an officer to sit on a jury for his home jurisdiction if it's different from the one he works in. Or is a higher court. Or even civil cases.

But a criminal case where you can't even say unequivocally that you have no involvement with it?

Mind = blown.

ETA - now that I can access the article, I see that it's a grand jury, and they MIGHT hear the twin peaks cases. Or they might not. Feel like I fell victim to a nicely, yet selectively, worded thread title. Not nearly as shocking as it initially appeared.

Mind = put back together.

originally posted by: Shamrock6

Mind = blown.

Random selection = doubtful.

Results = overly convenient.

a reply to: Bedlam

It's still a "might" situation. If and when that particular grand jury does hear any twin peaks cases, then it becomes a bigger issue.

Right now, it's not something I would be willing to do, but the sky isn't falling yet.

It is, however, still convenient.

a reply to: Shamrock6

Feel like I fell victim to a nicely, yet selectively, worded thread title.

Took it verbatim from the article and I do believe the word "may" in the title indicates it as merely a possibility rather than a certainty.

You're actually one of the posters I was hoping to hear from on this.

I will also add that the officer in question said the following:

"If something comes up that I have worked on or something like that that involved any type of apparent conflict, I am not going to vote on it,” Head said.

So he could still maintain the ability to recuse himself on a case by case basis, after a fashion if I am reading that correctly.

originally posted by: jadedANDcynical

"If something comes up that I have worked on or something like that that involved any type of apparent conflict, I am not going to vote on it,” Head said.

So he could still maintain the ability to recuse himself on a case by case basis, after a fashion if I am reading that correctly.

Hasn't read his Plutarch.

Caesar's wife should be above suspicion.

a reply to: jadedANDcynical

As a bit of an update, here is leaked video from the restaurant across the parking lot. Not much can be seen, but it does show some of the peripheral activity that took place during the incident.



It's an hour and a half long so be forwarned.



For those who may not be able to view the video, here is a news article summarizing the content:

The video from Don Carlos, the restaurant next door to Twin Peaks, was obtained by KCEN late Friday afternoon through an anonymous email sent to various local and national media outlets. The email contained a web link and a password to a section of www.brodenmickelsen.com, the law firm of Clint Broden who represents Matthew Clendennen, a local biker arrested in the shooting. The password takes you to a YouTube page for the law firm.

a reply to: jadedANDcynical
How the hell is this not getting attention from the major cable news networks?So effed up that most of those Bikers if not all imo were gunned down by the ATF..
www.agingrebel.com...

a reply to: greydaze

In one of the comments to that post can be found a link to a blog that has a pic with an interesting file name:



Note that the pic is stitched together from several different images.

And an areal view:



I've seen comments suggesting a Stingray like device used to intercept cell signals and that the local PD may have been covering for FBI/ATF.

Who knows what will come of all this?

"Who knows what will come of all this?"
I know brother..We're livin in some scary times where slowly,but surely losing are freedoms..