Two bikers charged in the Twin Peaks shootout in Waco want to know who is going to pay the legal fees for civil lawsuits filed against District Attorney Abel Reyna.
Attorneys for Matthew Alan Clendennen and Ray Nelson filed a motion on Tuesday to reopen a hearing to disqualify Reyna from prosecuting their cases because they think he has a conflict of interest.
Reyna said to disqualify a district attorney from a case simply because he or she is sued by a defendant ‘defies all logic and common sense.’
There are at least 10 federal lawsuits filed against Reyna claiming he rushed 154 indictments through the grand jury after the May 17, 2015 shooting, and then said he would not be ready for trial for at least a year. Bikers claim he will benefit financially and politically from the cases.
However, Reyna said claims in the motion were false and he plans to stay on the case.
“I took an oath to see that Justice was done in each and every case presented before me,” Reyna said in a statement. “I will follow that oath regardless of the size of the case or the frivolous allegations lodged against me.”
The motion brought up questions about who will pay for the $500,000 in legal fees from the lawsuits against Reyna. Those are questions Reyna said he answered during a hearing on Aug. 1 to disqualify him.
“This is yet another motion without merit and an attempt at delay,” Reyna said in a statement.
“I answered each and every question asked of me regarding civil lawsuits, my defense to those lawsuits and my potential exposure, no matter how remote. To claim otherwise is false, misleading, and defamatory.”
However, in the motion, defense attorneys said Reyna did not answer those questions. They claim that he, instead, deferred them to his attorneys who said they could not release any information because of client-attorney privilege.
Copyright 2016 KXXV. All rights reserved.
