Is arrest tied to FLDS raid, phone calls?

Police in Colorado Springs have arrested a woman for investigation of making a false report to authorities that may be connected to the Fundamentalist LDS Church's raid on the YFZ Ranch in Texas.

The woman allegedly has a history of making calls while pretending to be a young girl.

Rozita Swinton, 33, was arrested on a warrant charging her with false reporting to authorities, a misdemeanor, the Colorado Springs Police Department confirmed in a brief statement issued late Thursday. Swinton was arrested at her home on Wednesday in connection with an incident that occurred in Colorado Springs in February, police said.

"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," Colorado Springs police said.

Colorado Springs police refused to release any other details, saying that the affidavit for the arrest warrant is sealed.

The El Paso County Jail said Swinton posted $20,000 bail and was released.

It is unclear how Swinton is connected to the phone call that sparked the raid on the FLDS Church's Yearning for Zion Ranch two weeks ago.

A 16-year-old girl called a domestic violence shelter hotline and claimed that she had been beaten, was pregnant and had already had a child. It was that phone call that led a Texas judge to order the removal of all 416 children from the YFZ Ranch on allegations that they were at risk for abuse.

The girl named a "Dale Barlow" as her husband, putting scrutiny on an FLDS member in Colorado City, Ariz., who had already been convicted in connection with a child-bride marriage. Texas Rangers came to Utah to question Barlow, but left without arresting him.

A source close to the situation said the woman first contacted anti-polygamy activist Flora Jessop after the raid began, claiming to need help. That call was being investigated by Arizona child welfare authorities.

"She really did have us convinced," said Joni Holm, who has sheltered children who have left the FLDS Church. She also spoke to the woman.

"I was positive. She sounded like a little girl. I thought she was real," she told the Deseret News.

Jessop spoke to the woman pretending to be the teenage girl in numerous phone calls, but when her story started having holes in it, she went to Texas authorities with recordings of the calls. Jessop was unavailable for comment Thursday night.

The woman was reportedly obsessed with the FLDS Church, activists told the Deseret News, and had a history of making similar false calls to authorities in the Colorado Springs area.

Attempts to reach Swinton for comment were unsuccessful.

---

E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com

Recent comments