UPDATE: FLDS hearing recessed until Thursday

By MATT PHINNEY San Angelo Standard-Times

A hearing on whether to suppress information taken from the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado was abruptly recessed until 9 a.m. Thursday morning. 51st District Court Judge Barbara had asked Attorney Gerry Goldstein how long it would take to pare down two large notebooks full of information to what she called the specifics. She then called a 10-minute break so Goldstein could talk with the rest of the defendants' attorneys. At one point during the break, all the attorneys for the defendants, as well as the state's attorneys, left the courtroom. A few minutes later the court bailiff made the announcement calling for the recess. During the day's hearing, Goldstein said law enforcement agents left out key pieces of information when seeking a search warrant to the 1,700-acre ranch that ultimately let to the removal of more than 400 children from the property. Assistant Attorney General Eric Nichols said any omission did not meet the burden of proof to suppress evidence taken from the ranch. Last month, attorneys for 10 indicted Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints members filed motions to suppress evidence involving 19 charges related to underage marriage and child abuse. The motions allege that Texas Rangers misled 51st District Court Judge Barbara Walther into issuing a pair of search warrants that authorized last year's raid on the polygamous sect's Schleicher County compound. In identical 61-page motions to suppress evidence - with 300-plus more pages of evidence and attachments - the attorneys accuse Texas Ranger Lt. Brooks Long of failing to provide Walther key details that would have undermined the credibility of the initial phone calls that led to the raid. Texas authorities raided the ranch in April 2008. The raid led to the largest child custody case in the nation's history. Goldstein outlined many of those claims during a hearing this morning, which continues this afternoon. "I will show the court you were misled," he told Walther. Among his arguments, Goldstein said Walther was not told there had been a history of false claims made against some ranch residents by disenfranchised sect members such as Flora Jessop, who wrote a book about her experiences in the group. Law enforcement agents did little to verify the person making the call was real, Goldstein said. "They failed to tell the court there has been false claims before by people they know," Goldstein said. "This is someone they don't know." The attorneys also cite affidavits filed by Long asking Walther to allow entry on the ranch to seek Sarah Jessop Barlow. The caller claimed to be Barlow, the 16-year-old mother of an 8-month-old child and pregnant with a second child, and the caller alleged she was being sexually and physically abused by her 50-year-old husband, whom she identified as Dale Barlow. The calls from Sarah are now believed to be a hoax, likely perpetrated by a 33-year-old Colorado Springs woman arrested on charges of making similar but unrelated calls in Colorado. Goldstein said the person who made the call said she had been taken to a hospital, but it was later revealed no such person was admitted at the local hospital. The caller also initially refused to give a name or address, he said. The caller also couldn't give the first name of the alleged husband until she was presented with several FLDS members' names, Goldstein said. "The caller was given a multiple choice exam to her husband's first name," Goldstein said. Long was the only witness called so far, but it was early in the hearing and he was asked whether defendant Frederick Merril Jessop lived on the ranch and if he was considered the ranch leader. The defendants signed affidavits stating they reside on the ranch and follow the church's teachings. They did not testify. "Not a lot of evidence has been heard," Walther said just before recessing for lunch. "There have been a lot of speeches this morning." mphinney@gosanangelo.com / 659-8253

gosanangelo.com Originally published May 13, 2009

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