Jun 6, 2008 4:48 pm US/Central
Hearing Postponed For Woman Named In FLDS Raid
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) ―
A court appearance was postponed Friday for a Colorado woman considered a "person of interest" in connection with phone calls that may have triggered a raid on a Texas polygamist compound.
Rozita Swinton, 33, of Colorado Springs is charged with one misdemeanor count of false reporting to Colorado authorities.
Her pretrial conference in state district court in Colorado Springs was postponed until July 9 because her lawyer, David Foley, wanted more time to review police reports, prosecutors said. Foley didn't immediately return a call.
Colorado Springs police claim Swinton has a history of making false abuse reports. She is suspected of being involved in a string of false reports in Colorado Springs between October and April, said Lin Billings, a spokeswoman for the El Paso County district attorney's office.
Swinton caught the attention of Texas authorities because a cell telephone number linked to her was "possibly related to the reporting party" for the Yearning for Zion Ranch incident, according to her Colorado arrest affidavit.
Texas authorities say they raided the ranch April 3 after a girl reported that she was a member of the FDLS and that she was beaten and raped at the sect's Eldorado ranch.
Authorities have not located the 16-year-old girl and are investigating the source of the call.
The phone number used to call a San Angelo, Texas, crisis center is one once used by Swinton, though investigators have not said whether Swinton made the call or what was said. Texas authorities call her a "a person of interest" in their investigation into the call.
The Texas Supreme Court ruled last week that Texas authorities overreached in the massive custody case by taking all children from the ranch when evidence of sexual abuse was limited to a few teenage girls. Many families have returned to the ranch.
Swinton was arrested on April 16, three days after Texas Rangers contacted Colorado Springs police about two telephone numbers from the Colorado Springs area they were investigating as part of the YFZ Ranch probe.
According to an arrest affidavit, Colorado Springs police told the Rangers that one of the numbers was associated with Swinton and that she has been known to make false reports of sexual abuse. The other number was later determined to be a cell phone belonging to a 31-year-old male named Courtney Swinton who lived in the same apartment complex as Rozita Swinton.
Courtney Swinton's telephone was allegedly used by a woman named Sarah Barlow to call a battered women's shelter in Washington State between March 22 and April 8. According to the affidavit, Barlow said she was 16, that she had an infant daughter named Claire and that she had a "reassigned husband" named Uncle Merrill. According to the document, Texas investigators believed that was a reference to Frederick Merrill Jessop, the head of the YFZ Ranch.
That same number was also used to call the Newbridge Family Shelter in San Angelo, Texas, about 16 times between March 29 and April 5, according to the document.
Two Texas Rangers were with Colorado officials when they searched Swinton's home.
Texas authorities said the search turned up several items suggesting a connection between Swinton and calls regarding the Eldorado retreat and other Texas and Arizona compounds owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a renegade Mormon sect. The items weren't identified.
Texas authorities also investigated calls placed to the Newbridge shelter from a cell phone purchased in Tennessee with a fake social security number, the affidavit said.
Tela Mange, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, declined further comment on Swinton on Thursday. A telephone message left for Swinton's lawyer, David Foley, wasn't returned.
Colorado Springs police said they arrested Swinton for an alleged incident in February but didn't give any details. According to Swinton's arrest affidavit, police in February investigated 911 calls purportedly made by a 4-year-old girl claiming to be locked in a basement after getting in trouble. The calls were made using a cell phone police later said has been used by Swinton to make false reports.
Swinton pleaded guilty to misdemeanor false reporting in a 2005 case out of Castle Rock, Colo.; a one-year sentence was deferred. She had claimed in phone calls to be a 16-year-old named Jessica who was suicidal after giving birth. There was no baby.
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