From Deseret News archives:
Suspected FLDS 'Sarah' to get mental health treatment
Court records obtained by the Deseret News revealed that Rozita Swinton will be entering inpatient treatment in November. That was apparently the reason a recent hearing on a probation violation here was delayed, pushing the case back to January — a week after a trial in Colorado Springs, where Swinton is accused of perpetuating another hoax.
"That involves medical issues I can't discuss," said Kathleen Walsh, a spokeswoman for the 18th Judicial District Attorney's Office.
Swinton's attorney did not return a phone call seeking comment Thursday.
Swinton, 33, pleaded no contest in this Denver suburb to a misdemeanor charge of false reporting-fake crime. In 2007, police accused her of pretending to be a 16-year-old named "Jessica" who was going to abandon her baby and kill herself.
According to her plea deal, Swinton received a deferred judgment for a year and was ordered to undergo a mental evaluation, treatment and take all medications as prescribed. Court records indicate a letter was filed in the case, but clerks refused to release it saying it dealt with mental health issues.
Swinton's arrest in Colorado Springs has put her probation in jeopardy. She has been charged in El Paso County, Colo., accused of calling police and pretending to be a 13-year-old girl who was drugged, chained and being sexually abused in a basement. The phone call had officers going door-to-door in February, searching desperately for a girl who didn't exist. A counselor told authorities Swinton suffers from a multiple personality disorder, a police affidavit said.
"The probation officer believes that the defendant has violated the conditions of supervision and requests that the court order the issuance of a warrant for the defendant's arrest," Douglas County probation officer Cleveland Holmes wrote in an April complaint to revoke her sentence.
When Swinton was arrested in Colorado Springs, the Texas Rangers were there. Evidence seized from her apartment was handed over to Texas authorities. She is considered a "person of interest" in the calls that led to the raid on the FLDS Church's YFZ Ranch.
Someone claiming to be a 16-year-old girl named "Sarah" called a family crisis hotline in San Angelo, saying she was pregnant and in an abusive, polygamous marriage to a man named Dale Barlow. Similar calls were made to shelters, government officials and activists in Washington, Florida, Utah and Arizona.
