Actually, that is a pretty good example...
Posted on 04/21/2008 8:04:27 AM PDT by BGHater
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- A 33-year-old Colorado Springs woman who may have sparked a massive child-protection raid at a polygamist compound in Texas kept a steady job and gave no hint of her activities to those closest to her.
"She is the last person I would expect to do something like this," said a woman in her mid-20s who described herself as the roommate of Rozita Swinton. Speaking at the door of their apartment, the roommate described Swinton as a steady, soft-hearted person.
But growing evidence indicates Swinton repeatedly made calls to authorities in multiple jurisdictions, setting off large emergency responses that sometimes involved dozens of police officers.
The Texas Ranger Division of the Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed Friday that Swinton was a person of interest in calls placed to a crisis hotline by someone claiming to be Sarah, a 16-year-old girl who had been sexually abused and beaten by a 50-year-old polygamous husband.
The reports in late March led to a raid that began April 3 at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado, Texas, in which 416 children were taken into custody.
The roommate said Saturday that she was stunned to learn Swinton may have been involved. The two have been longtime friends.
Swinton, who often did kind deeds for many different people, allowed her to move in April 4, said the roommate, who declined to give her name because she said her boss had warned her not to speak to the media.
Swinton has never married and has no children. She works for a Denver insurance company, the roommate said.
Swinton is also listed on the El Paso County Democratic Party's website as her neighborhood precinct's delegate to the state Democratic convention in May, supporting Sen. Barack Obama.
The roommate said they never spoke about the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints group, and she did not know anything about false distress calls.
The last time she saw Swinton was Wednesday after police arrived at the apartment. Colorado Springs police, accompanied by Texas Rangers, arrested Swinton in a local case, and Texas officials searched the home.
The Texas Rangers found items of interest during the search and the investigation is continuing.
In June 2005, Castle Rock police arrested Swinton after she posed as the teen mother of a newborn and told an adoption agency and police she was considering suicide and leaving the baby at a fire station, Castle Rock police Sgt. Scott Claton said.
Authorities charged her with filing a false police report. She is currently serving a one-year deferred sentence in that case.
In February, dozens of Colorado Springs police searched for a girl claiming to be locked in a basement. Again, it turned out to be Swinton.
Flora Jessop, a former polygamist-sect member who now runs a crisis center, says Swinton repeatedly called her posing as a young abused girl and could be the same person whose complaints led to the April 3 raid on the Texas ranch.
Jessop said she first received a call March 30 from a woman, since identified as Swinton, claiming to be an abuse victim named Sarah.
But the hotline call that led to the raid wasn't publicized until after Jessop spoke with Sarah, leaving Jessop to speculate that she could have been the same person making the calls.
"It does kind of indicate (Swinton) made those calls," Jessop said. "There was no press on it at the time."
Jessop, who operates a rescue mission for teenage girls trying to escape the sect, said she recorded between 30 and 40 hours of phone conversations with Swinton, who alternately claimed to be Sarah; Sarah's twin sister Laura; and Laura's friend.
Swinton would call Jessop after 8:30 p.m. and speak in a subdued voice because she said that is when others in the compound were sleeping.
"She was very convincing," Jessop said. "She very much thought this out."
The person obviously had studied the FLDS culture, she said.
Jessop became suspicious and contacted the Texas Rangers after the same person, who sounded like a frightened young girl, called saying she was Sarah's sister and lived in Colorado City.
Jessop sent recordings to the Texas Rangers, who traced the calls to Swinton's phone.
This woman is a Barack Obama delegate. My guess is she initiated the phone calls in the hope that the tenuous Mormon connection would hurt Mitt Romney’s chances of being chosen as Veep candidate by McCain.
The whole thing is a damn freak show. The cult, this dingbat Obama supporter, the CPS. Good grief.
Popping the corn for this thread now...
So was the call, “fake, but accurate.”
You can still afford corn? Last time I saw corn it went into my gas tank.
Hah, good point about the corn... and I don’t own a rice-burner. What to do, what to do...
“So was the call, “fake, but accurate.””
To many in this country today guilt or innocence is determined by what the alleged perp is. Not whether or not a crime has been committed.
There’s always a rush to judgement IMHO.
If so, Obama will fail miserably.
I think we had this sussed from Day 1.
Some of us, anyway.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/04/11/yfz.search.ap/index.html#cnnSTCText
That can’t be right. Romney dropped out a long time ago.
BG, thanks for posting this, since it answers the question as to how the woman was identified.
Wow! She’s a Rat. Big shock. /s
Let's take this out of the entire FLDS aspect. If you make a crank call to the police saying your car is being stolen (when it isn't) and they come to investigate. When they are there and see you beating up your wife, you bet they will arrest your a**, even if the call about he car being stolen is fake.
< jaw drops>
“To many in this country today guilt or innocence is determined by what the alleged perp is.”
Indeed. Al Capone was busted and tried when there was a case and not before. But before they got him on the tax charge they knew damn well he was an evil sob-they simply couldn’t do a damn thing about it. The Constitution prevented it. Not anymore. If the charge is childabuse BURN THE WITCH!!!) nothing else seems to matter, not evidence or proper procedure, NOTHING.
We were all better of in the taking down of Capone, and we were all better off by the respect shown the constitution by the guys going after him.
Oops, that's not good.
But still, the real question is did the LEO's know that Dale Barlow was not at the facility married to the girl and actually was living in Arizona for years BEFORE they went to the judge for the first warrant.
This is what the state can/will do. They will repremand the officers and demand the original warrant stand.
Ping
Well said.
Ah yes, the ping has gone out... and the popcorn is almost ready. :-)
Dunno about the exact speciics or laws.
The CPS action is a civil action, right?
The police investigating a stolen car is a criminal?
The CPS action is on scale of a health inspector inspecting a property, and using the police to enforce those actions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVACCaVxYEk
Actually, that is a pretty good example...
From the above statement it sounds to me more like she is a nut case and even if she wasn't an Obama delegate she would be doing this kind of thing like she has in the past.
The CPS action was civil based on a criminal complaint. When the call was made, the Texas Rangers went in to investigate, they witnessed evidence of aggravated sexual assault (first degree felony), they requested a warrant to allow the CPS to remove the children while they investigate the criminal charges. Under Texas State law, the children cannot be left in the situation if there is reasonable situation of criminal sexual assault happening (it is aggravated sexual assault because many of the children were under 16). The YouTube, and most opinions on this case have the situation backwards, the Texas Rangers (in this case) or LEOs used the CPS to remove the children, they were the first in, not the CPS.
Now, there is a major problem with the CPS, I am not denying that. They need to be moved under law enforcement jurisdiction. I know many LEOs and DAs who absolutely hate the CPS because they've dealt with many cases where the CPS returns children to abusive situations without notifying law enforcement, and it ends up becoming a murder situation. The problem is the CPS is not accountable to Law Enforcement, they are accountable to a Texas agency (DFPS).
Now they are doing DNA tests on the children to find out who the fathers are. Maybe they should do this with Welfare recipients? Can children be forced to give DNA samples?
Oh, you silly freeper you—providing facts? That won’t get you any points with the cult supporters, you know. ;)
This sounds like a puppy mill
So is everything “fruit of a poisoned tree”?
Okay, how can she be a Texas delegate when it appears she has lived in Colorado for several years? Must be just one of those little minor issues that don't apply to democrats....
She is a Colorado delegate, their convention is in May.
I always confuses me too- but there is an El Paso county in Colorado.
Only if a reasonable person acting as the LEO petitioning the court did not "act in good faith" in presenting the facts to the judge in order to obtain the warrant.
The current allegation is the Texas LEO's knew Dale Barlow could not reasonably be the person they wanted in the issue because they found out he was actually living in Arizona and had been for some time BEFORE they went to the Judge to obtained the FIRST warrant. That would void a “good faith” argument to let the first warrant stand.
Dale Barlow’s lawyer is the one making the allegation but it seems to be upheld by the authorities in Arizona. The authorities in Arizona are stating that they do not believe he has been to Texas in years.
This can also be supported by the allegation that the first warrant does not have a petitioners signature. That signature would invoke liability on the LEO for presenting false information to obtain a warrant.
It further lends credence as to why “Sarah” can not be identified, she could very well be, in light of the information in this post, be a fabrication.
“The roommate said they never spoke about the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints group, and she did not know anything about false distress calls.”
_______________________________________________________________
What did you expect her to say? Admit that she knew and face a conspiracy charge. That’s why all friends, family, and acquaintances of “ persons of interest” say they never knew the dark side. This is such a non-piece of reporting.
And given the history of this group, they had every reason to believe it was real (as it may well have been). Merril Jessop, the man in charge of the compound, is the ex-husband of Carolyn Jessop, who wrote a book about her life in the cult and after escaping, and described Merril's activities in horrifying detail. Merril was installed as the Bishop at this compound by "prophet" Warren Jeffs, who is now serving a prison term in Utah for being an accomplice to the rape of a 14 year old, and is also facing charges in Arizona of raping underage girls himself.
If the roommate reported that Swinton had expressed interest in and concern about the FLDS practices, that wouldn’t make the roommate part of any conspiracy. Lots of people have expressed concern about the activities of this cult, but few if any others have made hoax phone calls about it.
I honestly wasn't aware they witnessed anything of the sort. Can you share what it was they actually witnessed?
Here is the affidavit acquired by the smoking gun that the Texas Rangers submitted in order to get a warrant to have cps come in and take the kids.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0408081texas1.html
oops, wrong one. The last one was the CPS report. Here is the Ranger’s affidavit and request for warrant.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0410081polygamy1.html
So, are you saying that anyone who has reservations about the apparent violation of one of our most basic Constitutional rights must be a cult supporter?
The court has ordered exactly that. I think they’re taking cheek swabs.
Just for clarification as all sides seem to have picked their own part of the Constitution in this case. Are you referring to protecting the children based on first part of the fourth amendment, The right of the people to be secure in their persons, or the thirteenth amendment forbidding slavery (ie, human trafficking). Are you referring to the protection of the States to make their own laws regarding criminal prosecution within the tenth amendment. Or are you referring to the cult leader's protection of search (albeit there was a warrant) in the fourth amendment?
Another nutcase for Obama
Fixed, sadly. I never thought I'd see the day some FReepers would be cheering the subjugation of the Constitution based on religious intolerance. We'll see if you still cheer when it's your church, or your children, or it's YOU that the authorities lie to in order to separate you from your children. We'll see if you cheer when your children are forced to participate in DNA tests under threat of violence.
The initial warrant was on probably cause based on the call to the police. This is given rights under Texas state law. This has already been contested in BARBARA BELL JOHNSON v. THE STATE OF TEXAS. Johnson argued that the Police did not have the right to answer an emergency report call without a warrant. It was found that Texas law does allow for investigating emergency calls (such as the initial call) and in this case would constitute 'implied consent' because it was reasonably assumed that the call came from within the compound. The seizure of the children came after the Texas Rangers investigated the call and through eyewitness reports, did see evidence of aggravated sexual assault of a minor. The Rangers then requested a warrant, received it, and authorized CPS to go in (the infamous 'armored vehicle' entry you referred to.) The affidavits are posted above if you want to look at the evidence the Texas Rangers submitted in order to request a warrant.
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