Regardless if this video is true, This still will not do anything to the case. Because, when they went in originally they were looking for a sarah. They had the search warrnet and acted in good faith, to look for sarah and anything that pertained to her. When they found that the other children were being abused, they went and got another search warrent. The authorites went in under "valid suspicion" or "Just cause" They went in originally "in good faith" which means that they did not go in to delbritly harrass these people.. How were they to know that if in fact this story is true, that it was a hoax? How were they to know that???? CPS has a duty to investigate ALL claims of abuse, and thats what they were doing. So this "new development" will not affect the case one bit. Because there was bause going on, therefore the warrents still Stand.

I think the authorities in Texas are going to drag their feet pursuing this one if it turns out she is responsible for the Texas raid. Going after her right now would cause too much turmoil for the hearing, but I don't see how they're going to be able to ignore it. Funny that in Arizona when the story didn't match up the cops found the person responsible. In Texas when the story didn't match up they signed a warrant to storm the place with the SWAT team and an armored truck. Just so everyone is aware, the girl who catalyzed the Texas raid used two different last names in two different calls, used vernacular the FLDS don't use (they call us "gentiles," not "outsiders," and they don't celebrate Easter, even though the girl in the call said the last time she was abused was "Easter Sunday"), and accused a man known not to have been to Texas during the time of the alleged abuse. I anticipate this woman will turn out to be the elusive "Sarah."

This whole witch hunt will unravel -- this is just the first thread come undone. The testimony from today's custody hearing was remarkable for how tendentious the state's claims are. The best news from the coverage of the today's hearing is that it sounds as if several of the attorneys for the children and parents actually understand the 14th Amendment.

My prediction: Texas ends up paying the FLDS $85 million to settle 12000 due process violations.

lynn
so just anybody can make a call and say that "Lynn" is being abusive so CPS, under "valid suspicion" or "just cause" and "in good faith" make investigations and find "new developement" and take all that is precious and dear from you and you don't feel there is a wrong???? Get Real!!!!

There is nothing "good faith" about what the Texas sheriff and judge did. The texas sheriff obtained a warrant without doing any due diligence to find out if the alegations were potentially true. The judge then issued a warrant that was both bogus and unreasonably broad. Any evidence subsequently obtained is "fruit of the poisonous tree".

The FLDS ranch was then subjected to a search and siezure proceedure that violated the 4th ammendment. Kidnaping 416 kids because they might be abused in the future simply can't be legally justified. While most people (including me) don't agree with the FLDS lifestyle, they are American citizens and have constitutional rights.

I hope the good people of Texas recall the sheriff and the judge that are responsible for this mess and the FLDS lawyers sue the socks off the county that elected these people.

What is next? Under the philosophy of the the Texas CPS is using, all children should be taken away from catholic families because they there is a potential that thier children may be abused in the future by pedophile priests.

@ Lynn.

I don't know, maybe they could have looked at their caller ID and seen that the phone number was from Colorado Springs and not the ranch. They could have traced the call back to her between the week the call was made, instead of just organizing the SWAT procedures without conducting a proper investigation.

very interesting. the horror show goes on. how sad

Agreed the FLDS case will go forward regardless of the outcome of the subject hoax caller case. It does, however, point out a problem. Based on a phony call 400 kids were yanked from their homes. This should never happen again. The harm to frightened children can not be repaired. Let us make sure as a society that the sanctity of home and family remain protected from "military like" intrusion.

Could it be that, "The Phone Is Mightier Than The Truth". Maybe the laws by which the various CPS agencies operate,need to be rewritten. Asumming that
it is proven, there was no criminal abuse, what happens next? Will the state drag this Witch Hunt out further? What about the integrity of Texas Law,
and government. Why should the people obey the law,
when the "Law" is twisted at the will of the Masters
in power? And can one believe the statement of Lynn,
that, it does not matter about the veracity of the purported phone call. Dear Heavens!

This whole episode is so sad. The whole thing is backwards; you go in based on a pretty convincing phone call, they find what I hope was probable cause and take the children; or treat the call as suspicious, do nothing, and children are allegedly abused and there they stay. I woud not want to make that determination. As for tracing the call she used a cell phone and I think that is a pretty long process to trace the call to the tower ect. Either way these children are traumatised now what do you do?

Lynn,
You seem to be on some sort of vendetta. No concern for the innocent I guess?

It is sad when the thing we have to fear the most is our own government.

I sure hope this cult will be snuffed out unless they get rid of the disgusting doctrine of polygamy.

Their children need ot be taken away and converted.

No one has the right to have a sex slave farm and call it a religion.

This makes a little more sense...it still seems odd to me that if those girls on the ranch have as little access to the outside world as it is said they do - how would "Sarah" have gotten ahold of all these phone numbers? How would she have known about the domestic abuse hotline and how to call it? Not to mention there were so many women in the compound who had cell phones in the first place -- not QUITE as backwards in some areas of their lives as the media would have as believe.

Have you listened to the phone calls or read transcripts of them? Where is it proclaimed that the FLDS do not observe Easter Sunday? And the name-changing of the children interviewed was widespread, according to the social workers and those who interviewed or spoke directly to the children. You might want to check your 'facts' next time.

I don't think it has to do with a hoax phone call but the larger issue is when the CPS and the authorities arrived on the compound what did they find? They found pregnant teen girls, they found children married to older adult men, the educational system in the compound was horrible (cheating these kids out of an education), plenty of children coming down with chicken pox, boys kicked out of the house and onto the street (that is abuse in itself) and major sexual abuse. I mean, heck, you you can get in trouble for having child porn on your computer.

Why do some of you polyamorous folks stop the jive and see that kids were in danger. To hell with the fake caller. That isn't the issue.

OK, Rozita gets bored makes a call and brings down the whole "Ranch", which in turn costs Texas approx. $30,000 per day. Now Defendants can argue Illegal search and seizure tie this up in court for years and cost tax payer millions. All because Rozita was bored. I guess she isn't an American Idol fan.

Who would have guessed that the phone call was phoney?

Answer: Anyone with an IQ of more than 60!!

This is one time I would like to see the Feds step in and put a lot of those Texas officials in jail.

Let's just nail these crazies to the wall anyway, shall we? It'll be fun! And we can beat our chests afterwards and revel in what tough guys we are!

Don't mess with Texas, or the children it steals.

On to the reeducation camps to provide them with a more acceptable religion! Parents bite the big one!

And isn't Oklahoma the ver heart of the "Bible" belt? And aren't most of the people in Oklahoma, like Texas, Baptist?!

"Physician" who was murdering and raping little Mormon girls not that many years ago (150 years isn't that long really) in Missouri,

HEAL THYSELF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

well well well . . . perhaps we have found our Sarah.

This will not have any affect on the case. Police went in. They didn't find Sarah but did find abuse. This authorized them to remove children.

Please listen to reason.

Layola

"No one has the right to have a sex slave farm and call it a religion"

I hope you don't include Muslims in that statement.

Or people like me, who are Gay.

The civil rights of these people may have been violated. Texas will pay a hefty price to these children and families if Sarah turns out to be from Colorado. A few slick Texas lawyers are getting ready to mount-up for a very profitable venture.

So, even though the phone calls to CPS may have been a hoax, that means that all these child brides can go back to the ranch and have babies? That still does not excuse these pedophiles from marrying and impregnating these teenagers.

The bottom line is this - CPS and other Texas officials may have gone about this thing the wrong way, but the fact of the matter is there are still 50 yr. old men marrying these 13, 14, 15 and 16 year old girls, and these teenagers are having babies. The mistakes made by the government do not excuse this cult from breaking the law. They are still breaking the law and they should be dealt with accordingly.

If the DA's case was based on a bogus call, then I would be in court right now, filing motions to dismiss and get the kids returned within 12 hours. They'll have to find another way of 'protecting' the kids they don't give a fig about, but care more about taking down something that is not evangalical Crhistian.

It can't be that difficult to trace the tower a call came from. My cell phone bill includes the city every single one of my calls was made from. If it were so difficult, I guarantee cell carriers would not go to the trouble and expense of providing such useless information on every person's bill.

I am glad to see justice being done. Texas is more fair than I had feared. I hope the young children and boys will soon be able to return. I also hope they ensure that underage marriages never take place.

You people still believe they took those kids based on that phone call alone? Quit feeling sorry for the FLDS. They had it coming. The vicious cycle of this so called "faith" needs to end. They hide behind their religion and allow their young daughters to get married and pregnant.

I'm just glad it's a confirmed hoax, and there's not a real Sarah lying in a shallowly dug grave somewhere for talking.....That woman needs serious psycological help!!!!!!!!!

The Texas authorities acted accordingly and need to be commended for taking appropriate action under the circumstances. The FLDS is a corrupt group of weirdo’s that commit statutory rape, welfare fraud, and bigamy. Charges need to be brought up against the group of people hiding behind a frightening ideology.

When a society condones and promotes children having children -

that society is a monstrous one.

Wow! why would this woman have so much hatred for a heretic cult like the FLDS? Did the FLDS men try to make her one of their wives or what?

Apparently she hates slavery.

I wonder....

Why were they so anxious to go in there to take out this group of people? Arizona and Utah have been down this road before and came out with similar results in the 1930's and 50's. This is why AZ and UT are trying different tactics now.

Were the flames of bigotry against any religion with any ties to Joseph Smith fanned from the pulpit of the many evangelical/baptist churches down there during the Romney-Huckabee contest, and is this the result?

Again, the media has to focus on the assumption of 12 year olds married to 50 year olds. Could it be that these 16 years old are married to, say, 20 year olds. It is not illegal in the state of Texas to marry at the age of 16. All you nay sayers out there are biased and are simply expressing bigotry. Why not just focus on the events and exact situation in Eldorado? Instead, you take every thing you've ever heard or read in the media about these people, and you attach it to this particular incident wether it's applicable or not. There is absolutely no Justice in your comments against these people. Your simply coupling biased judgment with an outrageous lack of understanding and expressing any kind of tolerance or charity.

Disturbing similarities are starting to develop between the FLDS raid and the invasion of Iraq.

When the pretext to the act is false (WMDs or "Sarah"), you lose your moral authority.

There may be a million reasons that it was justified, (Saddam was a tyrant, underage marriages are abhorant) but if the core justification is flawed, you are in a boatload of trouble (GW Bush, Texas).

It's way past due for these polygamy cults to be stopped! All you people do is create chaos and sin in the world. And what's even more sickening about all this is that you do it in name of God. So how did you folks get Satan mixed up with God?.... DECEPTION!

Looks like this woman hates Mormons and FLDS for some strange reason.

Both of FLDS and State of Texas is surely mess up, FLDS Leader went lost and mess up his mind of lead those poeple under him and State of Texas surely such EGO jump too far before careful with defective to make sure if thing is real of CAll Report by phone.

Oh man, both is real Foolish.

Deaf Guy

This is really a sorry excuse for reporting. The fact that someone was alleged to have made a false report to police back in February is hardly relevant to a call made in April. To jump to the conclusion it is is just plain ignorant. I gather this foolishness started at one of those far Right, screeching web sites and the so-called journalist for the Deseret News treated it as proof that the investigation of the FLDS property lacks a basis. Hardly. These are likely two unrelated matters.

Meanwhile, there is probable cause for the case against the FLDS to go forward based on observations made on the property and evidence seized. Those would enable the continued abuse of children by polygamists need to to stop grasping at straws.

Condones Children having children? Ever hear of Jamie Lynne Spears? Good grief we have a double standard in this country. You can have children at a young age as long as the father is young? what? Ever hear of anna Nicole Smith? I guarantee young girls are getting pregnant by old men every day and no one is screaming about it. This isn't a sex slave thing. I don't agree with young girls having children either...but come on people.. We need to get rid of this stupid double standard.

I'm really shocked by all of the people on here defending the FLDS.

They have gotten away with way too much over the years, and it's about time they realize that just because they seclude themselves from society, it doesn't mean they don't have to follow the same laws as the rest of us!

The women and children are brainwashed into accepting their way of life, with no questions asked. The girls are prepped for marriage and babies with men old enough to be their Grandpas, by the time they reach puberty. And the boys are exiled as teenagers unless they have connections to the leadership of the church, and will carry on an important name (they can't keep too many teenage boys around, it's competition)!

I have no problem with anyone practicing their religion, or even with polygamy itself. But when you use that religion to brainwash and passify thousands of people into breaking the law and abusing children-----It's wrong! And it needs to stop!

I feel very sorry for the children in this case---there is no perfect solution for them.

At thepetitionsite, free-the-innocent-flds petition you can read comments of hundreds of outraged citizens from all over the country. Texas Foster Care is drug world. Save these kids.

Hey, all of you know nothings, you speak about due process blah, blah like you all read the search warrants, are all legal scholars and actually know what you're talking about.
YOU KNOW NOTHING. Texas authorities are doing the right thing, probably have all the i's dotted and t's crossed and it's about time this insidious, absurd, dangerous, child-abusing CULT was seen for what it truly is: brainwashed women allowing their female children to be sex slaves to perverted old men in the name of some wacky religion. Sell their 'temple' for scrap, pay back all of the monies they've cheated legitimate tax payers out of, introduce their children to the 21st century so they have a chance at normal life and throw the parents in prison. SEND A MESSAGE. CHILD ABUSE AND POLYGAMY ARE CRIMES.

I find it funny that the ends justify the means here. "If we end up finding real child abusers, then it didn't matter how the whole thing started".

So, by that logic, I guess we should start profiling Islamic people at our airports, lock them up and consider them Terrorists, until we can prove their innocence.

We should also raid any fast-food restaurants where Hispanics speaking spanish are working and consider them Illegal. Heck, if it turns out that a few of them are, then that's what matters right?

Hitler would have approved of this raid.

So Julia, "These are likely two unrelated matters."

Oh yeah, that is why the Texas Rangers were there. Just a big coincidence. That makes just as much sense as all the other ridiculous rationalizations used by everyone trying to destroy these people because of their religious beliefs. AND ALL YOUR RATIONALIZATIONS ARE BEING DEBUNKED ONE BY ONE, YOU ARE POWERLESS TO STOP IT, SO GET OVER IT. Just find someone else to hate and write lies about and make false allegations about. This lady is going to need someone to take her job of pretending to be a child victim for a while until the heat is off her again-- I'm sure you'd be perfect.

"Have you listened to the phone calls or read transcripts of them?[/quote]

It wasn't recorded, and there are no transcripts. We only have what one of the people who listened to the call jotted down, and that is verbatim what I shared with you.

"Where is it proclaimed that the FLDS do not observe Easter Sunday?"

Well, since they're a rather insular group and I can't reproduce any official material online, how about you ask an FLDS person the next time you see one?

"And the name-changing of the children interviewed was widespread, according to the social workers and those who interviewed or spoke directly to the children."

The CPS didn't know that would happen when they first spoke to her by phone. Cops are always supposed get suspicious when that happens, no matter how well you can tell the future.

"You might want to check your 'facts' next time."

My facts are checked, and just because you don't want to agree with me doesn't mean I have presented any inaccurate information. How 'bout you respect someone's Constitutional rights and not want to see them in jail just because you don't like what they believe?

As a practicing family law attorney in Henderson, NV, it is clear to me that Texas authorities are acting in the legal best interest of the FLDS children. Remember, they live in a communal environment where abuse to one puts all at risk. I am surprised by the anti-government rhetoric on this board. I thought one of the tenets of our faith is to uphold and sustain the law?

People here keep claiming abuse was found, but the evidence produced in court yesterday was ten married women between 16 and 19, five of which had children. They haven't said how old the women with children are, but if none of them had them when they were fifteen then there's nothing illegal about it. They also have two seventeen year old girls and one eighteen year old girl who may be pregnant. Again, nothing illegal about that. The affidavit that authorized the removal of all the children states merely that they saw "several teenaged girls who appeared to be minors and appeared to be pregnant." Ultimately, however, none of that seems to be illegal. Bravo Judge. Bravo Meisner. Way to blow everything way out of proportion to make it sound like what you're doing is justified.

The issue is not if the phone call was from a real person or not. THe fact is that some of these girls are being abused!!! It is about time someone or state steps up and protects them from harm.

It sounds like the authorities had a clue from the very beginning it was a hoax. That's a pretty scarey thing that they would raid, even though they suspected it was fake. I'm not saying that everything being done by those men in the compound was up and coming good, by any means. But they've been suspicious for so many years, why did they wait until a hoax to spring into action? The whole thing is so screwed up and sick on boths sides of it. It's terrifying to see that our government agencies have way too much control now. As far as the children are concerned, they still need their moms, regardless of how sick other people think polygamy is. Anytime you have a group of people that isolate themselves in such a way, there's going to be trouble. But why punish the children even more, by totally inialating their families? They need counseling. They need resources to change and start over. And any man that is found guilty of the accused crimes, should be the one taken away from his family. Everytime someone posts hate towards these people, it's WRONG. Stop with the mob mentality!