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Special prosecutors move to dismiss high-profile Twin Peaks case

Matthew Clendennen may finally walk away from the courtroom.

The Pro Tem prosecutors in the Twin Peaks trial against former Scimitars Motorcycle Club member Matthew Clendennen have filed a motion to dismiss his case.

Clendennen's name became synonymous with the Twin Peaks trials because his attorney was one of the most vocal individuals criticizing the McLennan County District Attorney's Office's handling of the 2015 Twin Peaks shooting, which resulted in the arrests of 177 people.

"Now, almost three years later, after the filing of numerous speedy trial demands and countless motions in the trial court, the recusal of the trial judge, the recusal of the district attorney, and three trips to the Court of Appeals, the saga is over for Matt Clendennen," his lawyer Clint Broden wrote in an email.

McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna, who lost his primary reelection bid, had recused himself from prosecuting Clendennen's case on the eve of the trial. With the Pro Tem prosecutors handling the case instead of Reyna, they have determined there was not enough probable cause to try Clendennen. So, they asked the judge to dismiss the case with prejudice -- meaning it cannot be brought back to court.

"The language the special persecutors use in their motion to dismiss differ dramatically from the weasel words used by Reyna in the Twin Peaks cases previously dismissed by his office," Broden wrote in his email. "Reyna, unlike the special prosecutors, included language in his dismissal motions attempting to continue the public charade that the arrests of 177 people and 154 indictments were somehow proper."

Clendennen was arrested in 2015 after being faced with what defense lawyers have repeatedly dubbed "fill-in-the-name" arrest warrants that were used against the bikers arrested after the shootout. He, like others, was then held in jail for weeks on a $1 million bond -- only to end up out of jail but tied up in the legal system for years.

Broden described Reyna's handling of the case as "reckless" and said the families of the nine people who died in the shootout may be denied justice because of the situation.

“Free from political ambition, the special prosecutors were able to see the frivolousness of this case and to further exposes the actions of Abelino Reyna,” Clendennen said in a statement.

Through his administrative assistant, DA Abel Reyna declined to comment.

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