McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna In Waco Ousted In Primary Election

Reyna was considered one of the most corrupted District Attorneys in Texas including in McLennan County.

By H. Nelson Goodson

Hispanic News Network U.S.A.

March 7, 2018

Waco, Texas - On Tuesday, Abel Reyna, the McLennan County District Attorney (D.A.) was defeated by Barry Johnson, who is running as a Republican. Johnson will run unopposed in the November ballot. Johnson during the campaign claimed that Reyna mishandled the Twin Peaks biker deadly shooting incident. Reyna has been a D.A. since 2011.

Reyna along with a WACO Police Department detective and a justice of the peace were involved in illegally charging over 177 motorcycle enthusiasts including members of the Banditos Motorcycle Club (M.C.) with the same crime and setting excessive bail at $1M each to keep them in jail, despite many of the bikers from various clubs who were just attending a monthly meeting when shots were fired in a parking lot and most ran for cover ending with nine deaths. Four of the bikers were killed by police gunfire.

On May 17, 2015, the Twin Peaks brawl ignited between the Cossacks, Scimitars and Bandidos M.C.s, which involved the Waco police SWAT team that ended with 9 bikers dead. At least 4 of the bikers killed were attributed to Waco police gunfire. Most of the bikers were at the Twin Peaks Restaurant for a political biker meeting hosted by the Texas Confederation of Clubs and Independents. 

The following 9 victims were killed during the Twin Peaks Restaurant biker altercation between the Bandidos, Scimitars and Cassack's M.C.s in Waco, Texas.

• Daniel Raymond Boyett, 44, shot in the head. (Cossacks M.C.)

• Wayne Lee Campbell, 43, shot in the head. (Cossacks M.C.)

• Richard Mathew Jordan Jr., 31, shot in the head.

• Richard Vincent Kirshner Jr., 47. (Cossacks M.C.)

• Jacob Lee Rhyne, 39, shot in the neck. (Cossacks M.C.)

• Jesús Delgado Rodríguez, 65, shot in the head. (Bandidos M.C. affiliate) Rodríguez was a Purple Heart recipient.

• Manuel Issac Rodríguez, 40. (Bandidos M.C.)

• Charles Wayne Russell, 46, shot in the chest. (Cossacks M.C.)

• Matthew Mark Smith, 27. (Cossacks M.C.)

The biker criminal warrant affidavits by Waco Police Detective Manuel Chavez claimed without probable cause that all of the bikers detained engaged in organized crime and were bonded by Justice of the Peace Walter H. Peterson who signed the warrants by Chavez and set illegal bonds of $1M each for the more than 177 arrested. Peterson can not preside over felony cases (only misdemeanor cases without jail time or bonds and civil cases up to $10k in liability), sign felony warrants or even set bonds, according to Texas state law.
Abel Reyna, the McLennan County District Attorney, Waco Police Chief Brent Stroman and other McLennan County judges knew that Peterson couldn't sign felony warrants and set excessive bonds, but kept quiet and proceeded to hold bikers on frivolous charges.

Reyna was able to have McLennan County Judges put a gag order for victims (bikers) charged and for their defense attorneys not to talk about the pending cases. Ballistic forensic and video evidence was withheld from attorneys and the public including the media in 2015 after the incident at the Twin Peaks.