Texas officials under scrutiny for Waco biker shootout case that held suspects for weeks

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The secrecy that enshrouds the investigation into a biker shootout in Ma y is hardly surprising in Waco, Texas
It's a city where a district judge and district attorney are former law partners, and the mayor is the son of a former mayor
The sheriff comes from a long line of lawmen and Waco pioneers and the sheriff's brother was the district attorney's chief investigator
The violence erupted May 17 before a meeting of a coalition of motorcycle clubs that advocates rider safety
Police have said two rival biker gangs got into a confrontation that turned deadly when one group of bikers opened fire on another
Bikers and public watchdogs have criticized authorities for how they've handled the investigation
They cite mass arrests in which people were held for days or weeks on $1 million bonds without sufficient evidence to support such actions

Published: 08:42 EST, 13 September 2015 | Updated: 08:18 EST, 14 September 2015

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The secrecy that enshrouds the investigation into a biker shootout in May that left nine people dead and led to the mass-arrest of 177 people is hardly surprising in Waco, where public scrutiny is rare and unwelcome.

On the banks of the Brazos River in Central Texas, Waco and the surrounding county are largely run by a close-knit circle of judges, prosecutors and law enforcement that defense lawyers complain leads local agencies to close ranks in the aftermath of this most recent calamity.

It's a city where a district judge and district attorney are former law partners, the mayor is the son of a former mayor, the sheriff comes from a long line of lawmen and Waco pioneers and the sheriff's brother was the district attorney's chief investigator.

Bikers and public watchdogs have criticized authorities here for how they've handled the investigation, citing the mass arrests in which people were held for days or weeks on $1 million bonds without sufficient evidence to support such actions four months after the shootings.

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Officials: McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara, left, comes from a long line of lawmen. Waco Mayor Malcolm Duncan, Jr., right, is the son of a former mayor

Connections: The sheriff's brother Mike McNamara, left, who died earlier this month, was the chief investigator for McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna, right

Investigation: Police are seen May 17 looking into the shooting. The violence erupted May 17 before a meeting of a coalition of motorcycle clubs that advocates rider safety

Police have said two rival biker gangs got into a confrontation that turned deadly when one group of bikers opened fire on another outside a Twin Peaks restaurant

No formal charges have been made, and it remains unclear whose bullets, including police bullets, struck the dead and injured, or when cases will be presented to a grand jury, which is currently led by a Waco police detective.

'I don't know of any defense lawyer who hasn't looked at the facts of this case and gasped,' said Grant Scheiner, a criminal defense attorney in Houston not connected to the bikers' case.

Waco police, McLennan County prosecutors and judges refused to comment - citing a gag order written by the DA - but law enforcement staunchly defend their actions, including the 12 shots that the police chief said officers fired into the melee after bikers allegedly opened fire on them.

The violence erupted May 17 before a meeting of a coalition of motorcycle clubs that advocates rider safety. Police have said two rival biker gangs got into a confrontation that turned deadly when one group of bikers opened fire on another outside a Twin Peaks restaurant.

Controversy: Bikers and public watchdogs have criticized authorities here for how they've handled the investigation, citing the mass arrests. Mugshots showing 30 people arrested are pictured

Waco police officers walk along the perimeter of Twin Peaks restaurant during an investigation May 20, 2015, three days after the shooting took place

BLOODBATH AT TWIN PEAKS: THE VICTIMS

Cossacks

Richard Matthew Jordan II, 31

Jesus Delgado Rodriguez, 65

Charles Wayne Russell, 46

Daniel Raymond Boyett, 44

Wayne Lee Campbell, 43

Jacob Lee Rhyne, 39

Richard Vincent Kirschner Jr., 47

Matthew Mark Smith, 27

Bandidos

Manuel Issac Rodriguez, 40

Some 177 people were arrested and remained in custody until their bonds were reduced. Defense attorneys have been critical of how the cases have been processed, accusing District Attorney Abel Reyna of writing 'fill-in-the-blank' arrest affidavits. A police officer testified a justice of the peace approved the affidavits without making any individual determination of probable cause.

In the criminal case of one of the defendants, Reyna's former law partner, District Judge Matt Johnson, issued a gag order as written by Reyna.

Many bikers who previously told The Associated Press they were innocent bystanders are now reluctant to speak further because of the gag order.

Although police and the district attorney described last spring everyone who was taken into custody as criminals, an Associated Press review of a Texas Department of Public Safety database found no convictions listed under the names and birthdates of more than two-thirds of those arrested.

Justifying the mass arrests, Sheriff Parnell McNamara said, 'A message was sent to the whole country that we will not tolerate this type of disorder in our community.'

McNamara describes the county's criminal justice system as a close-knit Christian 'posse' of Baylor University graduates committed to 'putting away as many hard-core criminals as possible.'

That kind of mentality led the county's former district attorney, John Segrest, to compare the McLennan County criminal justice system to a 'bubble, a separate realm. When you're a member of the system, you tend to think that most everything revolves around anything that you do. You get an unrealistic view of the world from inside.'

Speaking out: Justifying the mass arrests, Sheriff Parnell McNamara said, 'A message was sent to the whole country that we will not tolerate this type of disorder in our community'

Authorities are seen investigating the shooting that took place in Twin Peaks parking lot (May 17 2015 photo)

Speaking out: Bikers protested earlier this summer calling for authorities to 'Free the Innocent' (June 7 2015 file photograph)

The city's crown jewel is Baylor, the world's largest Baptist university, which in the 1880s attracted Baptists from across Texas to Waco, then known as the buckle of the Bible Belt. The private university has an air of insularity that extends to the county courthouse, a domed palace whose Lady Justice lost her arm holding scales in a storm.

From a series of Ku Klux Klan lynchings nearly a century ago to a massive twister in 1953 that tore through downtown to the Branch Davidian siege in 1993, Waco's downtown streets, a mix of historic mansions, public buildings, dilapidated houses and empty spaces where nothing was rebuilt reflect a city perpetually recovering from its last disaster.

Sheriff McNamara, the descendent of one of Waco's early settlers, was formerly a U.S. marshal who participated in the Branch Davidian siege in which federal agents tried to arrest cult leader David Koresh for stockpiling weapons at a ranch outside town. The confrontation led to a 51-day standoff that ended when the complex caught fire, killing Koresh and nearly 80 followers.

The international attention brought by the tragedy left Waco residents wary of outside law enforcement, and they say they'll handle the biker shootout themselves.

'Waco's nickname is Six-Shooter Junction,' McNamara said. 'Not really anything we're real proud of, but that's just the way it is.'

'THEY ARE THE BADDEST OF THE BAD': WHAT ARE THE BANDIDOS AND THE COSSACKS MOTORCYCLE CLUBS?

The Bandidos Motorcycle Club has around 900 members in 93 chapters across the U.S., making the club one of the two largest outlaw motorcycle groups in America, according to the FBI. The other is the Hell's Angels.

The club, which the FBI has been labeled a 'growing criminal threat', was also named in a federal report as one of the country's four most dangerous outlaw gangs, alongside the Pagans, Hell's Angels, and Outlaws.

The group was formed in 1966 by Vietnam war veteran Donald Chambers in San Leon, Texas.

It has since grown to build factions across the world, as far as Germany, Norway and Australia. Its Norwegian branch was one half of the Great Nordic Biker War between 1994 and 1997, warring with Hell's Angels. At its climax, a missile was fired at a prison holding a Bandidos member.

In the U.S., members have been convicted of smuggling drugs across the Mexican border - an area they are said to specialize in. According to the FBI, Bandidos are major players in the marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine markets.

'The Bandidos see the Hell's Angels as too nice,' journalist Julian Sher, who has written two books about biker gangs, told NBC News. 'They relish their brutal pedigree. Among the bad guys, they are the baddest of the bad.'

The Cossacks Motorcycle Club is based 200 miles away in Callahan County, Texas. It was formed in 1969, with the motto 'we take care of our own' and using the colors black and gold. The club is much smaller than the Bandidos but like the Bandidos, the Cossacks have chapters overseas. The largest chapters outside the U.S. can be found in Australia.

In 2013, Bandidos head Jack Lewis was charged with stabbing two Cossacks outside a restaurant in Abilene, near Callahan County.

The Cossacks are challenging the Bandidos' dominance in Texas by looking to form alliances with other gangs, such as the Hell's Angels, former undercover agent Steve Cook told Vox.

Other clubs were reportedly seen at the fight in Waco but it is not yet clear if they were involved in the shooting. They include:

The Scimitars Motorcycle Club is a smaller group based in Texas and aligned with the Cossacks; they have previously supported them in their battle against the Bandidos. Their jacket patch is a red-eyed skull on two crossed scimitars, or sabers.

Photos on Facebook pages belonging to members of the Cossacks in Texas show the two clubs pictured together. Last year, the gangs even volunteered to build a park together in Odessa, Texas, according to the Odessa American.

The Leathernecks Motorcycle Club is made up of current or former members of the Marine Corps or Fleet Marine Force Corps and the group has chapters across the country. It claims its members include those who have worked in federal, state and local law enforcement.

'The Leathernecks Motorcycle Club is NOT an Outlaw Club,' it explains on its website, 'but a family orientated Club that brings together those that have TWO very special interests in life. The love for the Corps and the love for getting our face in the wind with our motorcycles beneath us.'

Los Pirados Motorcycle Club is another small group also based in the Waco area. A recent report on a website calling itself the 'Texas Motorcycle Rights Association' referred to the group as 'a new Mom & Pop riding group'. Facebook groups show the club has also recently been involved in fund-raising benefits for children in need of surgery.

-- Dailymail.com reporters