Category: Waco Police Department

Officer of the Court James Head – Waco Police Department

What is the Grand Juries role in a community?
Art. 20.07. FOREMAN SHALL PRESIDE. The foreman shall preside over the sessions of the grand jury, and conduct its business and proceedings in an orderly manner. He may appoint one or more members of the body to act as clerks for the grand jury.

Art. 20.09. DUTIES OF GRAND JURY. The grand jury shall inquire into all offenses liable to indictment of which any member may have knowledge, or of which they shall be informed by the attorney representing the State, or any other credible person.

WPD James Head playing card
WPD James Head playing card

Waco police detective named foreman of grand jury that may hear Twin Peaks cases

Posted: Wednesday, July 8, 2015 6:01 pm By TOMMY WITHERSPOON twitherspoon@wacotrib.com

“A Waco police detective was selected Wednesday to preside over a new McLennan County grand jury that could be the panel that considers the Twin Peaks shootings.

The grand jury was selected using the new state-mandated random method.

James Head, a 34-year police veteran who has spent 26 years with Waco PD, was among the first 14 on the panel qualified to serve on the grand jury and, beyond that, 19th State District Judge Ralph Strother selected Head to serve as the foreman.

After the 12 members of the grand jury, plus two alternates, were chosen, Head, wearing his police badge and service pistol, entered the grand jury chambers with the others to begin considering about 100 criminal cases presented by the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office.

This panel, which will meet twice a month for the next three months, could consider indictments against the 177 bikers arrested in the wake of the May 17 Twin Peaks shootout that left nine dead and 20 wounded. A grand jury, at some point, also will review Waco police officers’ actions in response to the melee that broke out between rival biker groups that day.

But former Appeals Court Justice Jan Patterson, justice in residence at Baylor Law School and a former federal prosecutor who has years of experience with grand juries, said the detective’s service could be problematic.

“Of course, it is up to the judge, but it would be very difficult for a police officer to serve,” she said. “All of the cases the grand jury considers are criminal cases, and in many circumstances, a police officer will know the parties. It may be difficult to be impartial, and I would think it will be difficult, as well, to appear impartial, which are both important functions for a grand jury.””

From LinkedIn resume:

Waco Police Department

October 1988 – Present (27 years 10 months)

“I started police work in 1979 as a reserve police officer with the city of Beverly Hills, Texas. I then started working for them full time in 1981. I later went to the city of Robinson, Texas for almost a year and then went to work for the Waco Police Department in 1988. I worked two years in patrol and then went to CID where I have worked ever since. I am currently working in the Theft Unit of the Neighborhood Services Section of Waco PD.”

Officer of the Court – Waco Police Department Ben Rush

Officer of the Court Benjamin Rush has had a roller coaster of a life on the streets of Waco, at home, and in and out of the courtrooms of McLennan County. His wife, former Hallsburg teacher Patricia Rush, should be a felon for her improper relationship with one of her 13 year old male students, as court reports show from 2013. She is not required to register as a sex offender, nor did she do any prison time, all swept away with a stroke of the pen, for everyone except the victim(s).

The plea bargain with the attorney general’s office will not require Rush to register as a sex offender and calls for her to receive deferred probation for eight years. If Rush, 40, successfully completes deferred probation, she will not have a conviction on her record.

Rush pleaded guilty to recklessly causing non-specified “mental injury” to the boy.

In exchange for her guilty plea, the attorney general’s office will dismiss eight counts remaining against Rush.

Her attorney, Bill Johnston, said Rush is glad to have this unfortunate chapter in her life resolved.

WPD Officer Ben Rush in Court 10-23-17
WPD Officer Ben Rush in Court 10-23-17

Being in the courtroom alone could trigger this mans P.T.S.D. from what he has been through. Merely thinking of his wife calling, desperate to find out if her insurance policy would be needed, must have been dramatic, correction, traumatic for them.

Rush goes on to state several things that the District Attorney needed to get on the record, such as did Rush recognize a man on a blue motorcycle, with a white helmet, riding gloves, and black rims on his tires.

Officer of the Court Rush did not recognize the white helmeted rider on the blue bike, Reyna continued on in his requests to describe what was shown on the large courtroom video screen. Rush’s dash-cam video shows him moving from the parking lot across the small road from where both Don Carlos, and Twin Peaks parking areas shared a grassy median separating the two businesses properties.

Rush’s dash-cam follows his team as they bound down the median. Watch more of the Testimony from October, 23rd 2017 on a few different news stations archived on this site for historical purposes.