A criminal case against the woman suspected of making the hoax phone call that sparked the raid on the Fundamentalist LDS Church's Texas ranch is apparently on hold.
A series of hearings for Rozita Swinton, 34, scheduled to begin Wednesday in Colorado Springs, Colo., were vacated, court records show, with a review hearing rescheduled for March 11. Her trial on a misdemeanor false reporting case was delayed last month while authorities completed a mental health evaluation, prosecutors said. Court records show a report was filed Jan. 28 in El Paso County court.
Swinton is considered a "person of interest" in the phone calls that sparked the raid on the YFZ Ranch in April 2008. Law enforcement and Child Protective Services caseworkers responded to the ranch based on phone calls to a family crisis shelter from someone claiming to be a pregnant 16-year-old in an abusive polygamous marriage. The girl was never found, but authorities said they traced cell phones to Swinton, who has a history of making hoax calls.
Colorado Springs police arrested her in connection with an incident in February 2008, where she claimed to be a 13-year-old girl who was drugged, chained in a basement and being sexually abused. Police went door to door searching for the girl, only to be told by a counselor that she suffers from a multiple personality disorder.
Court records in Castle Rock, Colo., said Swinton entered an inpatient mental health treatment in November just as she was facing a probation violation stemming from a false reporting conviction in 2007. She struck a plea deal with prosecutors there, getting a deferred judgment that required her to undergo an evaluation, get treatment and take medications as prescribed. Her arrest in Colorado Springs placed her probation in jeopardy.
Authorities have said Swinton is suspected in other hoaxes involving teenage girls claiming to be abused. Texas authorities have said Swinton remains a "person of interest" in their ongoing investigation. Lawyers for FLDS leader Warren Jeffs recently deposed an anti-polygamy activist who also received some of those calls. They are seeking to keep evidence seized in the raid out of his upcoming trial in Arizona on sexual misconduct charges.
In April, 439 children were taken in the raid on the YFZ Ranch only to be returned two months later when a pair of Texas appellate courts ruled the state acted improperly. Only three remain under court jurisdiction. A dozen men, including Jeffs, have been indicted on charges ranging from sexual assault of a child and bigamy to performing a marriage ceremony prohibited by law and failure to report child abuse.
E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com