From Deseret News archives:

Jeffs, 3 others are indicted in Texas probe

Published: Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008 11:41 p.m. MST
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The phone call that sparked the raid is believed to be a hoax and, ironically, the woman suspected of making it appeared in a Colorado courtroom Wednesday on an unrelated charge.

Rozita Swinton appeared briefly in a Colorado Springs court as a judge canceled her January 2009 trial on a misdemeanor charge of making a false report to police. She is still undergoing a mental health evaluation, prosecutors said.

"Essentially the case is on hold while she's undergoing this mental health evaluation," said El Paso County District Attorney's spokeswoman Lin Billings.

The Deseret News first reported last month that Swinton was entering in-patient mental health treatment in November. Court documents filed in Castle Rock, Colo., indicate that is also delaying a hearing on a probation violation there.

Swinton, 33, is accused of pretending to be a drugged teenage girl who called Colorado Springs police claiming she was chained in a basement and being abused. In Castle Rock, prosecutors say she claimed to be a 16-year-old girl who was going to abandon her baby and kill herself.

Story continues below
Texas authorities have labeled Swinton a "person of interest" in connection with the phone call to a family crisis shelter that led to the YFZ raid. But investigators are keeping quiet about the status of their ongoing investigation and whether criminal charges are imminent. A recent records request by the Deseret News about Swinton's alleged involvement in the YFZ raid has gone unfulfilled in part because some records are considered protected in the ongoing investigation. "The responsive records in this instance comprise e-mail communications between DPS investigators and the assistant attorneys general assigned to assist those investigators in identifying and developing cases that can be criminally prosecuted," lawyers for the Texas Department of Public Safety wrote to the attorney general's office seeking a ruling on whether they are public or not. "Although this is not the classic attorney-client scenario, the investigators were relying on the assistant attorneys general for guidance on how best to proceed with the complex cases under investigation."


E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com

Recent comments

It is six days later. Where are these guys?

Gal50 | Nov. 18, 2008 at 7:44 p.m.


Even the Texas courts will see thru misdirection. SCOTEX saw...

zxcvbnm | Nov. 13, 2008 at 11:00 a.m.

Re: "Jessop told the Deseret News, 'When we get our day in court,...

To Mr. Jessop | Nov. 13, 2008 at 7:27 a.m.

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