Sickening

[catocom]

um, well, the ruby ridge guy sold short-barreled shotguns without the proper NFA arrangements which is a MAJOR felony.

Weaver paid his debt (several times over), but the ATF will never pay theirs.

 

[SouthernN'Proud]

Wait though, the police had reasonable cause...they honestly believed a child was being abused.

Won't fly. If that were grounds, it would be misused in every police department every day. "Honest Injun, Judge Mesohorny, we THOUGHT they was growin' pot in that thar strip club..."

The travesty is, the accused now have more rights than do the victims. Gawd blaiss 'Merica.

But what do I know, I'm just a small town part time cobbler working to pay off my bill for the mail order bride I got in 1987...

 

[Gonz]

Randy Weaver didn't pay a few taxes so his wife got offed by the ATF? Gotta love them beauracrats.

minkey, these people are all goofy as hell.

SO WHAT?!?! That's a crime now?

 

[SouthernN'Proud]

Randy Weaver didn't pay a few taxes so his wife got offed by the ATF? Gotta love them beauracrats.

Coulda been worse...he coulda got invaded...oops.

 

[2minkey]

obviously the execution (no pun intended) by the ATF was quite flawed, but you can't really minimize the gravity of his initial offense. NFA violations are what, 10 or 15 year felonies? don't get me wrong, i think 14" barreled shotguns would be fun to have around for blasting water jugs and whatnot, and i think NFA is silly, but the guy is, obviously, to borrow your term, "fucking criminal."

 

[Gonz]

Then arrest him, don't stalk him. He was harassed by the FBI & the ATF.

 

[2minkey]

Then arrest him, don't stalk him. He was harassed by the FBI & the ATF.

he was arrested. he skipped his court date. they went after him. that much, at least, is fairly standard.

perhaps they should have sent dog the bounty hunter instead?

 

[catocom]

he was arrested. he skipped his court date. they went after him. that much, at least, is fairly standard.

perhaps they should have sent dog the bounty hunter instead?

the court dates were change more than once, and he wasn't notified.
(that's by the courts own admission)

 

[SouthernN'Proud]

I think if I had these kinda charges hangin over me, AND was payin a lawwer that kind of coin, I'd make damn sure I knew where to be when.

But what do I know...I'm just a third generation hockey stick salesman.

 

[spike]

minkey, these people are all goofy as hell.

SO WHAT?!?! That's a crime now?

Are they being charged with being goofy? I don't think that' what they're discussing in court.

 

[Gonz]

That's exactly what's being discussed.

Am I to assume you are now espousing shooting tax evaders?

 

[catocom]

DUCK WESLEY!

 

[Cerise]

.....Rather, it must appear to the court not only that the officer had a subjective good-faith belief that his or her actions were lawful, but also that it was objectively reasonable for the officer to hold that belief.

"When an officer acting with objective good faith has obtained a search warrant from a judge or magistrate and acted within its scope, there is no police illegality and thus nothing to deter." (U.S. v. Leon)

http://www.policemag.com/Channels/Legal-Matters/2007/06/25/The-Good-Faith-Doctrine.aspx

 

[jimpeel]

nOT TO SKEW THIS BACK ON TOPIC OR ANYTHING BUT IT SEEMS THAT THE ORIGINAL PHONE CALL WAS A HOAX THAT WAS PERPETRATED BY A WOMAN WHO IS UNDER INVESTIGATION FOR ANOTHER SUCH SERIES OF PHONE CALLS (Crap. The caps lock got turned on but i'm not going to retype all of that.)

It looks like this woman simply doesn't like Christian churches.

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Apr24/0,4670,PolygamistRetreatColorado,00.html

Phone number in Texas abuse report linked to Colo. woman
Thursday, April 24, 2008

By GEORGE MERRITT, Associated Press Writer

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A woman suspected of making false abuse claims in Colorado used a telephone number that was later used to report alleged abuse at a polygamist retreat in west Texas, according to an affidavit made public Wednesday.

It's not yet clear whether authorities suspect Rozita Swinton, 33, of Colorado Springs, made the calls that triggered an April 3 raid of the compound. The arrest warrant affidavit released Wednesday says that several calls alleging abuse there were made using several phone numbers, including the number linked to Swinton.

The more than 400 children found at the retreat in Eldorado are now in state custody. Texas officials and lawyers have said that even if the call that prompted the raid turned out to be a hoax it would not affect their custody case because the state acted in good faith.

Swinton's whereabouts were unknown and she did not immediately return a phone message. It wasn't known whether she had an attorney.

Swinton was arrested April 16 and later released on a misdemeanor charge of false reporting in a February case in Colorado Springs with no known ties to the raid in west Texas. She's accused of posing as a teenager named "Jennifer" and falsely claiming in a 911 call that her father had locked her in her basement for days, the arrest warrant affidavit released Wednesday said.

Swinton pleaded guilty to misdemeanor false reporting in a 2005 case out of Castle Rock, Colo.; a one-year sentence was deferred. She had claimed in phone calls to be a 16-year-old named Jessica who was suicidal after giving birth; there was no baby.

"The investigator ... was surprised at her age because she sounded like someone who was in her mid- to late teens even though she was 30," Castle Rock police Lt. Douglas Ernst said.

The warrant also links Swinton to calls made throughout October from a "Dana Anderson." The caller claimed to be a young woman being abused by her pastor at Colorado Springs' New Life Church, and later as a 13-year-old student at Liberty High School who said she was being drugged and sexually abused by her father.

Officers linked the calls to Swinton in March after a Colorado Springs counselor got someone named Dana Anderson to acknowledge that her first name was Rozita, the document said.

In mid-April, Texas Rangers called Colorado Springs police regarding their investigation into the Eldorado polygamist retreat, Yearning for Zion Ranch.

The calls that triggered the raid of the ranch were purportedly made by a 16-year-old girl who said her 50-year-old husband beat and raped her. Texas authorities have not found that girl but say they have found evidence other children were abused.

Texas Ranger Brooks Long asked Colorado Springs police about two telephone numbers, both with Colorado Springs area codes, that were used to make calls to a Texas crisis center. One of the phone numbers, the document says, "was possibly related to the reporting party for the YFZ Ranch incident," and was one of the numbers police had connected to Swinton.

The document says the calls were made sometime since October but was not more specific. The raid was triggered by three calls made March 29 and 30 to the Newbridge Family Shelter in Texas.

Texas authorities also are investigating a separate batch of calls made to a crisis center in Washington state.

Authorities have called Swinton a "person of interest" in the Texas case. Two Texas Rangers were with Colorado officials when they searched Swinton's home.

Texas authorities said the search turned up several items suggesting a connection between Swinton and calls regarding the Eldorado retreat and other Texas and Arizona compounds owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a renegade Mormon sect. The items weren't identified.

Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Tela Mange on Wednesday said only that the Texas Rangers' investigation is continuing.

The calls that triggered the raid were made by someone using the name named Sarah Barlow, according to Long.

Flora Jessop, executive director of the Child Protection Project, a Phoenix-based organization that helps girls and women leaving the polygamous culture, said she has recorded nearly 40 hours of conversations with someone who said her name was Laura. "She claimed to be the twin sister of Sarah, who made the initial call in Texas," said Jessop, a former member of the FLDS church.

The caller got most of the details of the sect right, from specifics of the religion and culture, to the of homes in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., where she said she was being held, Jessop said. She added, however, that other things she said made her suspicious, such as calling her parents "Mom" and "Dad" instead of "Mother" and "Father," as FLDS members do.

Texas' child welfare agency says its investigation into the ranch, including interviews with children, has found evidence of abuse. They allege that the sect encourages adolescent girls to marry older men and have children, and that boys are groomed to become future perpetrators. Sect members deny the allegations.

Documents related to Swinton's arrest had been sealed by a judge at the request of Texas authorities. The arrest warrant affidavit was released Wednesday after The Associated Press filed a motion to unseal the records Monday.

 

[2minkey]

grudge-bearing caller really doesn't do much to excuse what they've found so far in the kid-fuckers compound, does it? .

 

[jimpeel]

grudge-bearing caller really doesn't do much to excuse what they've found so far in the kid-fuckers compound, does it? .

Opens the door to suppression of evidence due to illegal search based on false evidence.

Also, the CPS types WILL find something as they always do. Hand the kid a doll and keep telling them "Did they touch you here?" until they finally say "Yes."

 

[Gonz]

grudge-bearing caller really doesn't do much to excuse what they've found so far in the kid-fuckers compound, does it? .

I'm sorry, what did I miss? They FOUND something or they SUSPECT something?

 

[chcr]

If you practice polygamy and live in a compound I gotta believe kids are getting fucked.

 

[jimpeel]

If you practice polygamy and live in a compound I gotta believe kids are getting fucked.

Reeeeeally ... that's a real open minded attitude.

 

[jimpeel]

If you think this is all cut-n-dried, think again. This will go all the way to the SCotUS.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352682,00.html

Sweep of Polygamist Sect Kids Raises Legal Questions
Friday, April 25, 2008

SAN ANGELO, Texas — The state of Texas made a damning accusation when it rounded up 462 children at a polygamous sect's ranch: The adults are forcing teenage girls into marriage and sex, creating a culture so poisonous that none should be allowed to keep their children.

But the broad sweep — from nursing infants to teenagers — is raising constitutional questions, even in a state where authorities have wide latitude for taking a family's children.

The move has the appearance of "a class-action child removal," said Jessica Dixon, director of the child advocacy center at Southern Methodist University's law school in Dallas.

"I've never heard of anything like that," she said.

Rod Parker, a spokesman for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, contends that the state has essentially said, "If you're a member of this religious group, then you're not allowed to have children."

Attorneys for the families and civil-liberties groups also are crying foul. They say the state should not have taken children away from all church members living at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado.

Church members said that not all of them practice polygamy, and some form traditional nuclear families. One sect member whose teenage son is now in foster care testified that she is a divorced single mother.

"Of course, we condemn child abuse and we don't stand up for the perpetration of that," said Lisa Graybill, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. But "what the state has done has offended a pretty wide swath of the American people with what appears to be an overreaching action to sweep up all these children."

...

If there was an underage mother in every home, the state might be able to make its case for removal of all the children, Dixon said, but it's likely that once individual hearings are held, some of the children may be headed back to their parents.

Another legal issue may emerge if investigators discover the call from the 16-year-old girl was a hoax.

Authorities are investigating whether the calls came from a woman in Colorado who has a history of making fake calls, but CPS officials and legal experts say the outcome of that investigation will likely have little bearing on the custody case, given that authorities went to the ranch believing the calls were legitimate and then found possible evidence of abuse.

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