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A call from a 16-year old girl, claiming sexual abuse at the Texas Polygamist Compound may have been a prank call from a Colorado Springs woman. 33-year old Rozita Swinton was arrested Wednesday Night by Colorado Springs Police.
According to sources close to the investigation, the F.B.I. began tracing calls from a person named “Sarah” to a Teenage Rescue Mission for girls trying to escape the sect. “Sarah” is the same person who made the call which lead to the raid. Authorities now believe Swinton was behind those fake calls, where 416 children were removed from the compound…
“She does have some history with Colorado Springs Police of making prior false calls to police,” says Lt. Skip Arms. Court Affidavits have been sealed in her recent arrest, but NEWSCHANNEL 13 has learned that it relates to a false call back in February from a girl named “Jennifer” claiming she was being held hostage in a basement off Candon Drive. Colorado Springs Police spent most of the day searching more than a dozen homes for a person in distress.
Meanwhile, a scrum of lawyers is having melee practice in San Angelo, Texas…
LOL! I believe you’re exactly right.
It seems the price for freedom is loosing your freedom.
And to top off your story, after 20 years of waiting to confront your accuser, you discover your accuser died 10 years ago. Upon hearing this, the judge commutes your sentence to time served.
By the way, I happen to be watching “Big Love” on DVD right now. That show sure makes me NOT want to be a polygamist!
It does, however, give a plausible portrayal of why some good people might do it. But, even more, it shows how abusive it can be — especially of girls.
#33–Greg==How does Big Love show that polygamy can be abusive of girls?
Obviously this religious cult used loopholes and blind spots, in the state’s laws, in order to exist. So after a few years of investigating and twiddling their thumbs, the state finally found its own loophole for raiding the place. Getting a third party to file a complaint. Hey, they took down Al Capone on Income Tax violations. But they never proved he had anyone killed. But jail time is jail time, right? They just couldn’t give Capone the death penalty he deserved. They may be able to use DNA testing to prove whether some of these cultists were faking dependants on their Taxes. So even if the child molesting charge doesn’t stick…..
This is going to be before the courts for a few years. There were too many errors by the Judge to have allowed each of the 416 lawyers to address the court. While that many children and all those lawyers are not the Judges fault, it should have been handled better. I think the State is going to be handcuffed for the next few years trying to sort this all out.
#36–Catshit==could you be more specific?
To clear up a somewhat sticky issue that was mentioned earlier; police investigations based off of anonymous tips are rather sticky. Courts nowadays use a somewhat relaxed “totality of the circumstances” test to determine how credible the tip is – whether or not the caller left their name and/or number is a big factor in this. Massachusetts has a slightly better test called the Aguilar-Spinelli test that has two different layers that the state has to prove to show that the tip wasn’t a bad tip.
But the problem with it all is that both the totality of the circumstances test and the Aguilar-Spinelli test are meant to ensure that the call isn’t just a hoax or a neighbor/friend/enemy/whatever who’s mad at you and wants to get you in trouble. The fact that this call turned out to be a hoax after the fact plays very much into this, as it’s liable to get the whole case dismissed.
#38–Alex==after reading post #9 and #20 both providing court references that the evidence is admissable, don’t you think you owe this blog something more than your opinion to the contrary?
How does calling a common circumstance “sticky” with nothing more clear anything up?
Could you unstick and clear up? For instance, in THIS case, given no police malfeasance in creating the call, seems to me the only issue should be the police departments own decision about resource allocation?
Your thoughts?
Well, I honestly can’t say one way or the other. Leon comes into it, to a degree, but the problem here is that the police knew that the caller was a fake. (Or, from what I’ve read of the controversy, had good reason to believe that the caller was a fake – whether or not they learned this after the raid or before, I honestly don’t know, and will certainly enter into the equation, as good faith stops being good faith when the police know that the information is suspect.)
Under federal law, the warrant would probably be valid. It’s difficult to say, though I can tell you the Supreme Court would vote to say its valid as an extension of Leon.
Under state law, however, the protections afforded defendants might be higher. Under the Aguilar-Spinelli test I mentioned above, this would (likely) void the warrant and the fruits of the search.
Again, tough call. What I do know is that this will make for an interesting case.
#40, Alex,
Good reasoning.
Where I differ is that this was not a criminal raid and therefore criminal law is of little help. This is a civil exercise where there is a complaint of “child endangerment”. There is less evidence, or a lower standard of evidence, required for Child Services to investigate and remove children from a home,
Child Services is required to investigate any time there is a complaint and remove any children from the home if there is evidence of abuse. Generally, they are not allowed to verify the veracity of the call or investigate the origin of an anonymous tip before conducting their own investigation. Every tip Child Services receives must be recorded and investigated.
If during that civil investigation criminal activity is discovered then that is only secondary to the initial search. If, for example, the Child Services investigator sees a meth lab in operation, s/he is obligated to report that activity. If they also find the child has been physically abused, they must also report that to the police. There is nothing to disqualify this evidence from a court.
This happens nearly everyday where the police decide to stop a vehicle and then conduct a criminal search. Any evidence found during the search is generally good, regardless of the outcome of the initial stop. Trying to prove the stop is illegal or unwarranted is an extremely high standard and seldom effective.
#37, bobbo,
Now you are trolling.