Colorado woman investigated as polygamy-hoax caller

WorldNutDaily ^ | 18 April 2008 | Staff Writer

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

A 33-year-old Colorado Springs woman has been questioned about a telephone call that sparked a raid at the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints compound in western Texas two weeks ago.

Rozita Swinton was arrested at her home Wednesday night by Colorado Springs police for an incident that occurred in February. Members of the Texas Rangers were also in Colorado Springs as part of their investigation.

"The Texas Rangers were in Colorado Springs (Wednesday) as part of their investigation involving the compound in Texas. They left and have not filed any charges on Rozita Swinton as of this time," said Colorado Springs police spokesman Lt. Skip Arms.

Colorado Springs police said the arrest warrant has been sealed and refused to release any other details, reported Deseret News.

[ex 98C MI Dude]

Unfortunately, that is how far our country has fallen. It is the seriousness of the charge, you see.

People believe today that anytime a crime is alleged, the founding document can be tossed. For the Children. And I do not see it changing any time soon, if at all.

A recurring theme on these threads is “if you disagree with the way this is handled you must be a child-raper yourself’. Typical witch-trial behavior. Again, its they way things are today.

Pretty discouraging, isn't it?

[BenLurkin]

Speaking of pranks — I guess the thread claiming that the caller was a “superdelegate” got janked.

[ex 98C MI Dude]

If you call the police and say that, they will know number and location of the caller faster than you can blink. And it wouldn’t take an hour before the first police cars pull up. Minutes is more likely.

But they didn’t want to trace this call and find it a hoax. Maybe they were up for a budget review...

[William Tell]

Prokopton said: "the search would be legal and evidence of criminal activity discovered in the search would be admissible. "

Though true, any further investigation requires renewed probable cause if the initial probable cause is found deficient. If the CPS hasn't established probable cause to take DNA samples from all the adults, then the game is practically up.

[Ron Jeremy]

It wasn’t a prank.. the mods pulled it as unconfirmed. Just a question of how many Rozita E Swinton’s you think there are in Colorado Springs.

[beltfed308]

A recurring theme on these threads is “if you disagree with the way this is handled you must be a child-raper yourself’. Typical witch-trial behavior. Again, its they way things are today.

Big bump to that! The mob is very quiet on this thread.

The funny thing is we are all on the same side and that any child abuser be held accountable.

[HereInTheHeartland]

So if someone calls in an abuse charge and the abuse is actually going on, but not specifically to her, then what should authorities do?

[lady lawyer]

I don’t do criminal law, so if you know something about this, I’d be interested to hear it.

A few days ago, the lawyer for the man named in the warrant, Dale Barlow, said that, before the warrant was executed, Texas authorities had investigated, had spoken with numerous witnesses and Arizona authorities, and already knew that Barlow had never been in Texas. If that is true, wouldn’t it eliminate any “good faith” argument?

[truth_seeker]

“If the warrants are bad, everything that follows is too?”

I strongly suspect in matters of child welfare, it may not work so simply.

[Knitebane]

So if someone calls in an abuse charge and the abuse is actually going on, but not specifically to her, then what should authorities do?

How about getting a statement from the informer that the sherrif had inside the group for four years?

Surely if there is something untoward going on he'd have seen something in 4 years. Right?

Right?

Hello?

[TLI]

and already knew that Barlow had never been in Texas. If that is true, wouldn’t it eliminate any “good faith” argument?

Well, if that is the case it will certainly make the LEO's look pretty bad and most certainly will explain why there was no petitioners signature on the warrant.

Is there a source for that info? Thanks.

[lady lawyer]

It was Dale Barlow’s lawyer on Greta Van Susteren’s show a few nights ago. He said that Barlow’s continued presence in Arizona had been corroborated by numerous people, including Barlow’s parole/probation officer. Barlow can’t leave the state, and the person monitoring him said he has been 100 percent compliant. The lawyer also said that Texas knew all this before they went into the compound.

[RightWhale]

Then they came for the superdelegates, but I wasn’t a superdelegate

—Pastor Martin Niemöller

[beltfed308]

How about getting a statement from the informer that the sheriff had inside the group for four years?

I asked about the informant several times on another thread yesterday. Never did get an answer.

[BenLurkin]

I see.

Interesting!

[TLI]

The lawyer also said that Texas knew all this before they went into the compound.

Ouch! When this gets to court, the fur is gonna fly. The LEO knowingly used false info will cost them, big time.

thanks for the info...

[TLI]

Never did get an answer.

I would have to go through all of my pings but I recall someone telling me the source the Sheriff spoke of had not actually been on the grounds in four years. But somewhere in all this is a source because it seems to be confirmed that the Sheriff did speak of an informant.

[beltfed308]

Thanks for the info. Please ping me if you find anything.

[Knitebane]

I asked about the informant several times on another thread yesterday. Never did get an answer.

And you won't.

The justification for removing 471 children from their mothers is based on the, "Oh my God, we just found out about this and we have to DOOOOOO something!!!!111" concept.

As soon as you find out that this group has been under investigation for four years with nary a whisper of a complaint shoots all kinds of holes in that argument.

Without the artificial panic induced by the hoax phone call there is no reason to spin up CPS and kidnap those kids.

And we can't have that now can we?

After all, they are different than us. They talk different. They dress different. They even have the unmitigated gall to live different. And they certainly don't believe what we believe.

They have to be punished for that.

[norton]

Unless things have changed a lot I think that:

" If it was reasonable for the magistrate to find probable cause based on the information given to him, even if the information later turns out to be incorrect, the search would be legal..."

is the best I've seen on FR.

As many have stated - I don't support child abuse, but I don't support persecution either.

Remember that the feds drove tanks through a cult compound in Waco based on precisely the same allegations. In that case they could have simply pulled over the leader, outside he compound, and left his followers alive!

What they faced here appears more of a (wealthy & sophisticated) communal settlement than what we think of when polygamy comes to mind. Not an excuse, but makes me wonder it they'd have been safe with a peace sign hung over the front door.

Without recourse to tinfoil I'd posit that some pretext was needed, 'the call' came from some official or semiofficial agency to provide that pretext, and the loon in Oklahoma is someone dug up to provide cover when 'Sarah' does not surface.
(Which in turn implies other crimes.)

Should the cult be prosecuted? It probably does not matter because they WILL be prosecuted. What comes from those prosecutions is another matter that will be far enough in the future to obscure the constitutional and ethical questions of the raid.

One thing I'll virtually guarantee is that, had the compound featured a mosque and occasional stonings of women and girls for not obeying any male in sight, honor killings, or (Oopsie) underage marriage, there would never have been a raid for us to discuss.