Saturday, February 16, 2013
Judge lets police hide informant identity from allegedly leaky McLennan DA Office
Here's a bizarre tale: A judge has allowed the Waco Police Department to keep the identity of a confidential informant secret from the District Attorney Abel Reyna's office because they suspect prosecutors as the source of information leaks. Reyna on his Facebook page (he's in a childish snit and refuses to talk to the local paper) at first had said it was just one disgruntled Waco PD officer who'd alleged leaks in his department. But on Friday an attorney for the city formally made the allegations in court, reported the Waco Tribune-Herald. The judge agreed with the police department, prompting the prosecutor to threaten to dismiss the cases against seven people charged in an auto theft ring. What a zoo!
Wacko Waco continuing the Wilco tradition....
ReplyDeleteThese folks are in charge of taking away peoples liberty and property?
ReplyDeleteAbel Reyna is a thin-skinned, thick-headed twit, and so are all of his mouth-breathing supporters in McLennan County. As you noticed, he has gotten into a public pissing contest with the newspaper and the Waco PD. This is stupid for 2 reasons. On the one hand, the Waco Trib buys ink by the barrel, and on the other hand, Waco PD already doesn't trust him and his petulance just makes this situation even worse.
ReplyDeleteWhen I pointed this out on Reyna's FB page, his idiot followers attacked me. He then deleted my comments and blocked me. What a chickenshit!
Seriously, this guy isn't very bright.
Don't forget that Jarrett (the prosecutor who says he'll dismiss a bunch of cases, whose opinion on the necessity of knowing the informant's name was squarely rejected by the judge), is Bradley's former first assistant, now Reyna's first assistant. http://www.wacotrib.com/news/112585959.html
ReplyDeleteMcLennan county went from having one of the most honest district attorneys in the country to having one of the most corrupt. Had the voters performed their due diligence the county wouldn't be in this mess. Waco has about the lowest rate of educated voters of any area in the state, go figure...
ReplyDeleteJarrett is certainly a John Bradley protege and will eventually find himself unemployed like his mentor.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know what Bradley is up to now? Did he get one of those gigs he was begging for or is he still looking? Its interesting when someone of the stature that he once was is having trouble finding a job. I'm sure he'd prefer a state job so he can continue to build his retirement.
ReplyDeleteThe TDCAA should offer Bradley a job as a full-time commenter on their forum. After all, I'm sure he's still a hero to them and he sure wrote enough on there when he was a DA. He can write about how rare prosecutorial misconduct is....well, maybe not, that seems to be a forbidden subject in that forum.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.scribd.com/doc/126095404/Transcript-of-hearing-pdf?secret_password=dc27sx62p8p39ihuhgm
ReplyDeleteHow can a prosecutor assess the strength of his case and the presence of potential Brady information without knowing the name of the informant? Grits, don't you and many of your commenters often call for open discovery, including the detectives file? Reyna may be wrong on many other issues, but how can you fault he and Jarrett for this?
ReplyDeletewell 8:31 It seems the state's attorney's office can't protect their sorces. So why would one be willing to testify.
ReplyDeleteplus in this case we have a judge who has looked at the info and knows the name stating the informant's info is not a major part of the case.
If they want the info clean up the shit in their office ...then ask
open records laws and discloser are not a liscence to suicide for vitnesses
8:31, in general I agree about prosecutors assessing the strength of their case, Brady, etc., though the judge addressed the Brady question (assuming they didn't a la Ken Anderson, give him an incomplete file). That said, even "open files" would not reveal the names of active CIs who were tangential to the case, so that's a bit of a red herring.
ReplyDeleteYou'll notice this post didn't really take sides - don't know whether the DA is leaky or not - but it's quite the man-bites-dog story for a DA's office and local PD to be slinging mud back and forth like that. I'm also highly amused by Reyna's refusal to talk to the local paper and the weird obfuscations on his Facebook page.
In many ways, despite differing ideologies, he and Craig Watkins in Dallas are cut from the same cloth: Elected when they weren't really ready to run the office and behaving arrogantly whenever someone points out a misstep. With the Lege on, I haven't had time to dig into the current mess in Dallas, but it seems like a similar zoo. The DA may be right but he's handled the situation so poorly you could never tell.
DA is energetic..egotistical..loyal only to himself..aspirations of a huge state elected office (let u figure that out)..vindictive..and one folks ought to really watch out for. Get on his shit list and u better walk always looking behind u. In truth..a person like this is not as internally confident as he seems. U got what u asked for.,
ReplyDeleteWhat 7:10PM said. I can tell that about Reyna just by watching him from afar, and I don't even live in Waco anymore.
ReplyDeleteI envy ur distance 9:29 between ur locale and here.
DeleteAnd, Reyna's not very bright either. I think deep-down he realizes this too, which exacerbates the insecurity 7:10 alluded to above.
ReplyDeleteInteresting to note PD supported him prior to the Nov elections a year ago and Waco Trib's editorial staff supported Reyna in print. A yr later and he can't manage good relations with either. He terminates most of the previous staff...goes out and employs an out of town 1st assistant who has poor relations with police..has defence attorneys escorted to his assistant's offices showing his lack of trust with the local BAR
ReplyDeleteSad..but what you have there is a "little man complex".
Delete@10:01--Yep, and yet the hoopleheads of Waco will continue to reelect him as long as he has the letter "R" after his name on the ballot.
ReplyDelete