A lot of us smelled this the instant we heard about the "16-year-old
caller" in the now unraveling polygamy case.
And when two days passed and still no "caller," the gangs of lawyers
from the East Coast were en route to San Angelo to grab their share of
what promises to be a multimillion-dollar round of lawsuits by
aggrieved "parents" whose kids were stolen (kidnapped) from them.
----------------------
"Texas 911 Calls Linked To 33-Year-Old in Colo."
"Woman Has History of False Claims"
By David Fahrenthold
Wa****ngton Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 24, 2008; A02
SAN ANGELO, Tex., April 23 -- The phone calls that triggered a massive
raid on a polygamist compound in west Texas -- in which a quavering
girl's voice described being forcibly married at 15 -- have been
linked to a Colorado woman with a history of making false claims of
***ual abuse, according to an affidavit filed in Colorado Springs.
The affidavit says calls that allegedly came from "Sarah Barlow" -- a
teenage girl at the Yearning for Zion Ranch outside Eldorado, Tex. --
actually came from numbers connected to Rozita Swinton, 33, of
Colorado Springs. The affidavit also notes Swinton's possible
involvement in a series of separate but similar re****ts in which the
young caller described being abused by a pastor, an uncle or her
father.
Texas authorities yesterday said they have not determined whether the
calls about the Yearning for Zion Ranch were a hoax and that they plan
to press on with their investigation of possible ***ual abuse there.
More than 400 children are now in state custody, as authorities try to
sort out what happened at the ranch run by a polygamist group called
the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
"Until she's actually been charged" with a crime related to the phone
calls, Swinton's role "is still an open question," state Department of
Public Safety spokesman Tom Vinger said.
But the revelations about phone calls to shelters for abused women in
Colorado, Wa****ngton, Utah, Arizona and Florida cast doubt on the
dramatic scenario that led Texas authorities to investigate and
ultimately to raid the compound April 3. The raid made the insular
sect the subject of one of the most complex child-custody cases in
recent U.S. history.
The calls that launched the Texas case started coming in to a family
shelter in San Angelo, about 45 miles from Eldorado, on March 29. The
caller said that she was 16, and that she was bound in a "spiritual
marriage" to an older, abusive man. The girl said she had given birth
to one child and was pregnant with another.
The caller paused often, do***ents say, and talked quietly, so no one
would know she was calling for help.
On Wednesday, officials at the Texas Department of Family and
Protective Services said that the facts surrounding the first phone
call had become irrelevant because the raid turned up independent
evidence that underage girls had been impregnated.
"The removal was based on our investigation. It was not based on the
initial call," spokesman Patrick Crimmins said.
The affidavit made public Wednesday, which was provided to The
Wa****ngton Post by the Associated Press, indicates links to Swinton
even though she has no apparent connection to the Eldorado ranch.
One phone number used to call the San Angelo shelter is registered to
a Courtney Swinton, with an address in Rozita Swinton's apartment
complex. The affidavit said authorities had "several re****ts regarding
Rozita Swinton making false re****ts" with another number that had also
been used to call the shelter.
The affidavit said that in previous years, Swinton had been linked to
other tales of terrifying abuse. In one, a woman calling herself Dana
Anderson phoned a hotline to say that she was 13 years old and had
been locked in a basement and ***ually abused by her father. In
another, a girl calling herself Dana said she was abused by a youth
pastor at a Colorado church.
The affidavit described these events as part of a request for a
warrant for Swinton, charging her with false re****ting to authorities.
It said she had already pleaded guilty to false re****ting last year in
Colorado. Attempts to reach Swinton yesterday were unsuccessful: One
number listed on the affidavit was disconnected, and a call to another
was not returned.
The affidavit does not put forward any motive Swinton might have had
for allegedly making the calls, but it hints at a possible personality
disorder. The do***ent quotes a former worker at a shelter for abused
women in Colorado Springs who may have received calls from Swinton in
February. In one, Swinton allegedly said, "Rozita and Dana are in the
same body, but just different personalities," and that the "Dana
personality is there to protect Rozita from being hurt."
[Staff researcher Julie Tate in Wa****ngton contributed to this
re****t.]
http://www.wa****ngtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/23/AR2008042303351.html
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