December 11, 2015 2:36 PM

O’Donnell: Waco biker shoot-out likely to have enormous prosecution, lawsuits price tag

Resident curmudgeon Edd O’Donnell weighs in during the Holiday season to tell us this “tragedy of errors will likely be the biggest, most costly, taxpayer-funded law enforcement and prosecution debacle on record in Texas since the Branch Davidian horror.”

The organized crime indictments of 106 bikers arrested in the May Twin Peaks biker shoot-out in which nine people died starts the serious business of the 2015 – 2020 Central Texas Criminal and Plaintiff Attorneys’ Full Employment Program. This tragedy of errors will likely be the biggest, most costly, taxpayer-funded law enforcement and prosecution debacle on record in Texas since the Branch Davidian horror.

With no murder charges lodged among the indictments, the questions left hanging will fuel courtroom defeats for prosecutors, courtroom victories for plaintiff lawyers and a very likely federal investigation of the entire mess. After extensive off-the-record talks with police, prosecutors, judges and bikers in Central Texas, here are questions and options that need to be considered.

Unquestionably the Bandidos and Cossacks motorcycle gangs have standing territorial conflicts that only involved beating one another until the Waco incident. If these two gangs attracted so much law enforcement concern to the Twin Peaks restaurant why didn’t someone ask the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission to temporarily suspend the restaurant’s liquor license and head off the brawl. No booze. No bikers. No bodies.

The full column by Edd O’Donnell can be found in the R&D Department.

By Edd O'Donnell