Judge imposes time limit as FLDS bid to get evidence hearing moves into fourth day
 
By Michael Kelly
San Angelo Standard-Times
 
In Courtroom A on the second floor of the Tom Green County courthouse, attorneys for 10 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints continued this morning to press their case to get a hearing to suppress evidence that might be used against their clients, who are accused of crimes involving underage marriage and child abuse.

It is the fourth day of the session, and 51st District Judge Barbara Walther opened proceedings by imposing a time limit.

"One hour per side per witness," she said.

Defense attorney Kent Schaffer called Texas Ranger Sgt. Phillp Kemp, who confirmed information in reports regarding Rosita Swinton, the woman now known to have made the hoax call to a San Angelo shelter for battered women that ultimately led to the April 3, 2008, raid on the polygamous sect's Yearning for Zion Ranch.

In addition to removing more than 400 children from the ranch on fears that they were in danger of sexual abuse, authorities also took out masses of documents and digital records, some of which could become evidence in the criminal cases against the 10 members facing charges.

Their attorneys are seeking a hearing to argue that the evidence was obtained on a search warrant based on a hoax and therefore can't be admitted at trial.

Kemp acknowledged in brief answers to Schaffer's lengthy questions that cell phone records obtained after the raid showed an array of calls from four cell phone numbers traced to Swinton, who lives in Colorado Springs, Colo., including calls to NewBridge Family Shelter in San Angelo, a shelter in Everett, Wash., and former sect member Flora Jessop in the days before the raid.

Kemp also testified that Texas law enforcement authorities learned that Swinton had an extensive record of such vexatious calls. She posed as Sarah Barlow, a 16-year-old girl living on the YFZ Ranch, mother to one child and pregnant with another, who claimed to have been abused by her husband, Dale Barlow, in calls to both the San Angelo and Everett shelters, Kemp testified. Swinton, Kemp said he was told by Colorado authorities, had posed variously as persons named Erica, April and Jennifer in calls reporting she had been raped, forced into incest, forced to have multiple abortions, and held against her will in a basement by drug dealers.

In the call to Flora Jessop, Swinton pretended to be Sarah Barlow's sister, Laura, Kemp said.

The information came out after the raid, Kemp said, and he learned about it when he was sent to Colorado on April 16, 2008, to consult with authorities there.

It was only in the days after the raid that authorities determined that no such person as Sarah Barlow existed, the state has said.

The defense is attempting to persuade Walther that the state didn't include critical information about the Swinton ruse when it sought warrants to search the ranch, and is presenting arguments that include the Swinton phone records and the absence of medical records at the Schleicher County Medical Center that would have confirmed the abuse Swinton described to shelter workers.

Walther is inextricably involved in the case, having issued the original warrants, presided over the mass custody hearings after the raid, and now being called upon to decide whether she was adequately briefed before issuing the warrants.

The session may continue into the afternoon. Defense attorney Jerry Goldstein informed the court that one witness, retired probation officer Bill Loader, is being brought to San Angelo from out of state and is not expected to arrive until late in the afternoon.

Before a late morning break, the defense had also called for brief testimony a private investigator from San Francisco it had hired.

Walther kept her promise to watch the time, reminding Schaffer when his time with Kemp was half gone.

Later, she and the lead attorney had this exchange:

Walther: "Ready, Mr. Goldstein?"

Goldstein: "A moment, your honor."

Walther: "It's your clock."
 
gosanangelo.com
Originally published Saturday, May 16, 2009
 
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