Texas still eyeing Colorado woman in FLDS raid

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Texas authorities say they're still investigating a Colorado woman in connection with bogus phone calls that may have triggered a raid and removal of hundreds of children living on a polygamist group ranch, contradicting the woman's lawyer.

The Texas Attorney General's office says Rozita Swinton of Colorado remains under suspicion in connection with calls to a hot line alleging abuse at the Fundamentalist LDS Church's ranch in West Texas. Authorities later said the hot line calls were fake, and they were traced to a telephone number at an apartment complex where Swinton lives.

"I can't speak for other people's characterizations of situations but our inquiry is still ongoing," Jerry Strickland, a spokesman with the Texas attorney general said Wednesday.

Swinton, 35, pleaded guilty Wednesday to a false-reporting charge for calling an emergency line in Colorado Springs and claiming she was a teenage girl trapped in a basement. Her attorney, David Foley, said he was told during plea negotiations that a Texas inquiry found no "criminal involvement" in the Texas cases.

"It's a big difference between a criminal activity and making phone calls. I can't say whether she made any calls," Foley said outside of court.

The judge gave Swinton a deferred sentence, which means that if she follows court restrictions, the conviction will be erased.

So far, two sect men have been convicted in separate trials of sexual assault of a child following the April 2008 raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado. Ten others, including sect leader Warren Jeffs, still face a range of charges. The next criminal trial, that of sect member Michael Emack, is scheduled to start Jan. 25 in Texas.

Texas authorities removed more than 400 children following the raid and placed them in foster care, alleging they were being abused because of underage marriages. State courts two months later found the removals unjustified in all but a handful of cases, and the children were returned to their parents.

Willie Jessop, a sect spokesman and distant cousin to Raymond Jessop, one of the men convicted of sexual assault, said Texas authorities are dragging their feet with their investigation of Swinton.

"It's evident that they never wanted to prosecute. They knew full well that this caller was not credible," Jessop said. "They just wanted a caller, an excuse, and 'we'll do the raid.' It didn't have to be credible before they executed their agenda."