Posted on 04/25/2008 12:41:31 PM PDT by Jim W N
Revelations that the March 29 phone call that sparked a raid on a West Texas polygamist compound may be a hoax have led prosecutors to doubt the reason for the original search-and-arrest warrant that granted authorities access to the Yearning For Zion Ranch.
(Excerpt) Read more at shns.com ...
No, they just have to have probable cause that the children are in imminent danger.
For the fun of it lets say you made that argument.
First, we know the cops said the calls from the young girl was from a prepaid cell phone with a false account. That means the cops know what cell tower the phone calls originated from. If they show it was within twenty miles of the FLDS compound. There goes the old bad warrant scam.
What is your move. A magic skip link on the call, are maybe the dumb girl in Colorado had a black helicopter fly her to Texas.
Warrants made under false information can have much if not all of the evidence gathered stricken from the record.
Tom Vinger, spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, downplaying somewhat the significance of the same person's arrest on separate misdemeanor false-reporting charges.
"If we knew that (she made the March 29-30 phone calls), we would have filed an arrest warrant for her," Vinger said. "People can read in what they want to read."
The law enforcement officer in Colorado who wrote and signed the affidavit attached to the arrest warrant for Ms. Swinton sure seems to think the calls from "Sarah Barlow" were made by Swinton. The details of calls made using phones associated with her, and the inside knowledge she apparently had were part of the probable cause for her arrest. I urge you to read the affidavit yourself, it is Exhbit one to the FLDS motion posted previously.
To put it simply, The State of Colorado did already issue an arrest warrant for Ms. Swinton regarding the March 29,30 calls and others, so Mr. Vinger's statement is somewhat misleading.
my understanding from the various articles sourced here on FR that she has in fact been arrested based on a warrant under seal.
Remember there are two warrants issued by texas. The first based on the hoax call, and the second based on the observations while on the property.
The other warrant is a federal warrant that does not seem to have much talking about.
I think the government has no business in the institution of marriage. I can tell you that I will not be getting a marriage license when it comes my time. All that is required are witnesses to the marriage for it to be legal anyway.
My Preacher never says "by the authority vested in me by the state of Georgia I now pronounce you man and wife. " No sir ree bob... The preacher has God's authority. Thats all thats needed.
Doubts about the validity of the warrant are irrelevant. Childrens Services still have a legal mandate to investigate and, if warranted, intervene.
how many towers does it take for a call to originate? towers work in relay.
You are being obtuse, the objective is to make the obvious defect of the first warrant irrelivant to have the case survive.
Remember this news souse is about a month behind the curve on this stuff.
Warrant issued by the state where she lives, she was under a court order there already.
And there was no warrant issued on a hoax call except in your mind.!
They knocked on my door. Then, my son saw them walk over to the house of the old bitty who had made the accusations. When they came back they said there were very few cases when they take children out of homes. But, maybe Arizona is different than other states or it was because the accusations were different. Although, I did read the list of steps and unless it is an immediate danger situation, children generally aren’t removed from the home.
Ever seen the campus of a real christian college??? Same thing.
To put it simple, Ms Swinton has been in court for this phone crap before and she was arrested for that fact, actually she violated a judges order. She did call the Texas authorities, but it was after the search was started. If you read you will find that those calls were traced to her phone, not the same, unregistered, phone as used by the young girl.
A few good ‘complaints’ to get rid of that pesky neighbor, parent, husband, wife, anyone you know and can’t stand:
“He touched me (good touch or bad? Bad!)
“The bastard hit me with a beer bottle”
“The “beaahhtch” cut my Willy off” (for the benefit of male police respondants)
“He/she sexually abused/raped/impregnated me”
“He/she was doing coke lines with the children”.
and on and on.....
This is where a good attorney will have the prosecutors by the short hairs: if the law enforcement suspicions about the culture of the ranch were supposedly true then there was no way that call originated from a 16 year-old girl on that ranch.
Think about this: if the ranch is as bad as we've been told then the call could not have come from a girl at that ranch as such girls are supposedly given no such liberties and are held as virtual prisoners.
If the call DID come from a girl on that ranch then the ranch is not as bad as we've been told.
As I said, a good attorney will have a field day doing cross on the investigating officers and their justifications for going into the ranch.
Personally too, I think it's a Biblical issue wherein those who practiced polygamy were never happy in it and were in error of Genesis II 24.
The Texas authorities and prosecutors are just figuring this out?
The ‘probably cause’ used in this case very quickly turned to $hit as soon as they bothered to look into it. Had this been a single kid or the parents had questionable history, maybe. When you are talking about 100’s of kids the ‘probably cause’ bar is raised substantially. This admittedly odd group of people have been around for years doing exactly the same thing. To argue that the level of danger to the kids suddenly changed won't wash.
Time will tell but my guess is this entire case will eventually be thrown out, the kids returned and for the next decade the State of Texas will be financially punished for their good intentions. The nightly news is already showing the weeping mothers who want nothing more then their kids returned. You'll have to do radically better then 'probably cause' to compete that.
Guys, you can’t prosecute a 18 yr old boy for rape in having sex with his 16 yr old girlfriend, but let this entire FLDS cult off the hook for marrying 14 yr old girls off. We either uphold the law, or we don’t. End of subject. This is not able religious freedom and overactive authority. Sorry Savage, but your all wet.
I seriously doubt the case will be thrown out. The police and Texas Rangers acted in good faith. The woman who made the false phone calls will probably be charged and convicted for making a false report of a crime to the police. I think the State of Texas and the feds will throw the book at both the fathers and the mothers for child abuse and statutory rape. It’s also quite likely they will be investigated for tax fraud and welfare fraud.
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