Since the Twin Peaks shooting, many of the parties involved have been anxious to receive their day in court. A year later the process is moving slowly, during that time all parties have received widespread criticism.
Defense Attorney, Robert Callahan, said he ran into issues of fairness with the McLennan County District Attorney's Office early on when trying to acquire information for the discovery process. Initially, Callahan was told the information could not be shared unless they signed a contract.
“We had to fight that battle, we filed a writ of mandamus before the hearing. The DA relented and said we were entitled to the discovery with the signatures," Callahan said.
After the arrest of the 177 bikers, an outcry came that officials were overstepping their boundaries. When Justice of the Peace W.H. “Pete” Peterson, set the bonds to each of the men at $1 million dollars, lawyers statewide were shocked. In response, The Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association filed a judicial complaint against Peterson. In the complaint they alleged he violated the law and State Constitution by giving identical bonds. The judicial commission later cleared JP Peterson of any wrongdoing.
McLennan County defense attorney, Stan Schwieger, says he and other defense lawyers in the county received scrutiny for not involving themselves in the bond hearings.
"It certainly looks like we were sitting on our hands letting a hundred and seventy odd people get jailed on million dollar bonds. Now I would like to think defense attorneys across the state would know, we've got not dog in that hunt.We weren't there at the times those bonds were set, we reacted as quickly as possible to these bonds," Schwieger said.
With the number of defendants, and hours of evidence, both sides are now bracing for a long trial process.
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