Posted on 04/23/2008 1:30:49 PM PDT by Between the Lines
Colorado Springs, CO and Eldorado, TX - This is not the first time Rozita Swinton has made up a good story and called authorities. But it’s definitely the first time one of Swinton’s calls produced a mass raid on over 400 people. Swinton, 33, is now facing charges related to the April 3 raid on the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado, Texas, owned and occupied by members of Warren Jeffs’ Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints. Rozita Swinton may have set the whole raid off by calling a San Angelo crisis center on March 29, saying she was a young girl named Sarah who was being abused.
Rozita Swinton is a soft-spoken young woman with what police call “a baby voice”. She’s her neighborhood delegate to the Obama campaign. She is single, without children, pays her bills and works for an insurance company. By all accounts, she is a giving person, allowing her roommate to move in after the Eldorado raid had begun. But Swinton has called in false reports before, tying up police and social resources for weeks at a time.
In June 2005, Swinton was arrested in Castle Rock, Colorado after she called an adoption agency posing a teenaged pregnant girl. Swinton told the agency and police that she was young, pregnant, alone and thinking of killing herself after leaving the baby at a fire station. There was no baby. There was no teenager. There was only Rozita Swinton, who had no explanation for what she’d done. Police charged her with filing a false police report, and she is on probation for that case.
In February of this year, a swarm of Colorado Springs police officers went out looking for a thirteen-year-old who said she was locked in a basement. Nope - it was Rozita Swinton again. That case is still pending.
Flora Jessop, a former FLDS member who escaped and now runs a crisis center, says that Swinton repeatedly called her posing as a young abused girl. Jessop said she first got a call March 30 (the day after the San Angelo hotline call) from Swinton, who said she was an abuse victim named Sarah. Swinton had done her research, but missed a few key points over the 30-50 hours of phone conversations Jessop taped. And the man Sarah claimed was her husband is a well-known polygamist FLDS member who doesn’t live at the Eldorado compound at all. That was one of several clues that led authorities to Swinton’s door.
Is Rozita Swinton a wingnut, or a misguided angel of mercy trying to save the abused children of the FLDS? Investigators are still looking for Sarah, on the off-chance that she does exist. But Texas Rangers have already been to Colorado, where they found books and “items of interest” in Swinton’s apartment. The hotline call has been traced and appears to come from Swinton. On the other hand, there is evidence of prolonged and ritualized sexual abuse on the Yearning For Zion compound, even down to a marital bed in the temple itself and many minor children who are pregnant or have had babies by much older relatives. Rozita Swinton may be a nutball. She may also have saved over 400 lives.
Heroine or criminal or both, Swinton remains under investigation by multiple agencies today. She is charged with false reporting in Colorado and may be facing probation violation charges and other charges as well. I don’t know what I think about this one - what do you think?
You, by your own admission, believe in the RESTORED Gospel.
You, by the standards of your own church, are a member of the ONLY true church.
You, have all the knowledge required to make sure a person makes it to heaven.
You will state that the ONLY way to be saved is the following:
The Articles of Faith outline 13 basic points of belief of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The Prophet Joseph Smith first wrote them in a letter to John Wentworth, a newspaper editor,
in response to Mr. Wentworth's request to know what members of the Church believed.
They were subsequently published in Church periodicals.
They are now regarded as scripture and included in the Pearl of Great Price.
|
THE ARTICLES OF FAITH
OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS History of the Church, Vol. 4, pp. 535—541
Joseph Smith |
So you think that incest, pedophilia, rape, waterboarding infants is just a matter of parental choice? That that's a better way to raise your children and it's just a matter of preference and the state (or anybody else) can't say it's wrong? Is it just a matter of preference to break the law?
This sets a dangerous precedent - removing 400+ children from their families on the basis of one phone call.
Jumping in with arguments that are two weeks old is just displaying your ignorance of the whole situation.
It isn't just one phone call, it's a whole decades long history with their current leaders in jail on charges and it's not SETTING precedent.
You clearly know nothing of how the child protective services works if you think this is setting precedent. It's following precedent, It's been done this way for decades across the country.
All that's needed to investigate for abuse is a phone call and it doesn't even have to be from the person who's claiming the abuse herself as in this case. It can be an anonymous tip on a hotline set up for the purpose of taking anonymous tips. Someone could just pick your name out of the phone book and you're screwed.
The only thing that sets this case apart from SOP is the number of kids involved.
You really need to learn more about what you're talking about before you make drive by posts and make yourself look like an idiot.
Geez, pandy, don’t confuse him with the facts. Anyone so determined to support a pedophila rape cult will continue to do so and twist everything to do it anyway.
People who just stick their fingers in their ears and sing, “La,... la, la, la,....la, la, la,..... I can’t hear you.” are living in their own deluded fantasy world where reality is not welcome.
Cultists will never be convinced.
But thanks for the information anyway. Someone who’s willing to learn the truth will appreciate it and benefit from it.
Well, you're wrong.
I can't believe that any person would defend these kinds of heinous actions as *religious activity*. Religious activity is rape and incest? If the cult practiced child sacrifice, as many religions have done through out history, would you be defending that, too?
Demonstrate that this was based on religious intolerance and persecution and not simple for lawbreaking. Please provide sources to back up your statement.
They never would have done this in a pot smoking hippy convent where they were having orgies every night.
And you know this how? Please provide sources to back up your statement.
The Manson family did not even get this treatment.
You mean the same Manson family that's in jail for murder? And they got away with their well documented activities for how many decades? Can you say *hyperbole*? No, probably not.
Since you seem to find nothing wrong with this group, which chapter are you affiliated with?
How do you know it’s a lie? What sources to you have to support that?
Mapel leaf? Canada?
I know that the AUB (Apostolic United Brethren - LDS offshoot) polygamist group has a location in Canada, as well as the fLDS.
These people are probably quite conservative in their politics. It wouldn’t be a far stretch to see one of the men in heirarchy with computer access posting on this site. Perhaps this is the reason for defense of the lifestyle.
Exactly.
Anyone with any sense morals could never justify the actions of this group in any way, shape, or form. It is so contrary to the clear teachings of Scripture.
I couldn’t imagine even APPEARING to defend them. UGH. What an abomination their activities are before God.
Yep, as conservatives, we might even be able to see that there are troubling aspects to the legal case, and we even disagree based upon our ideas of government. BUT we would NEVER condone the raping of little girls, or the abuse of freedom in these cults where so many are held captive.
I have to say, that before I heard about this Swinton woman, and thought the original allegation had some truth to it, I was generally for this raid. The comments on this thread have really caused me to reconsider it. Laziness, callousness, or deceit on the part of police authorities is not justified by what they eventually find, that is the essense of the 4th Amendment.
I am for the raid. I believe LEO acted in good faith.
And so, we continue to disagree. I doubt if we will know the facts of this case for some time to come.
she's a nut who may have gotten it right this time...
What laziness, callousness, or deceit have the authorities displayed? People keep making these allegations and I have yet to see any justification for them.
They got the first warrant in good faith, with a lot of reason to believe the call was legitimate. If it wasn’t, that’s not their doing, that’s the doing of the girl who called in and she should be dealt with appropriately for making a false report, especially since this isn’t her first offense.
The caller stated that she was in a situation of abuse, where the kind of abuse she described is know to have happened. Warren Jeffs is in jail for those kinds of charges. Why would you expect the LEO to not take it seriously? Shouldn’t they have?
If they hadn’t and harm had come to the girl, the LEO would have been shredded for laziness and callousness. Sneers like *When seconds count, the police are only minutes away* would be made.
I’ve seen too many threads where the police are condemned for not responding quickly enough and someone gets hurt. Now they respond and they’re criticized for going too fast and not having all the facts. Must someone die before enough facts to demonstrate wrongdoing are present? If someone is aiming a gun at someone, do you wait till they shoot to act or do you try to prevent the shooting?
They got the second warrant based on what they encountered in the compound looking for the girl. What did they do wrong there? They are legally permitted to act if they find evidence of a crime in the course of performing their other duties. Should they just close their eyes to signs of child abuse and let it continue?
If it was made from a cell phone, the area code is irrelevant.
*crickets*
Interesting.
Notice the irony?
Swinton was ARRESTED on SUSPICION of making a false report. The folks at FLDS were not even arrested. Yet the government haters are condemning the government for removing the children from a situation that has a well known history of being abusive and dangerous but I don't hear a peep from them about Swinton being arrested on suspicion only.
Where are all the government haters on this one defending HER?
Better watch out for those black helicopters that have been seen in your neighborhood.
From what we're seeing more recently, the case is falling apart anyway. Which means the state will simply drive harder to make it stick and will wind up with one or two prosecutions.
Well...
...it IS Saturday.
Perhaps they just post on their BOSSES' time!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
