Attorneys: Walther misled into issuing FLDS warrant
 
By Paul A. Anthony
San Angelo Standard-Times
 
Texas Rangers misled Judge Barbara Walther into issuing a pair of search warrants authorizing entry onto the YFZ Ranch, attorneys claim this week in a motion asking Walther to throw out the evidence found at the polygamous compound.

The 61-page motion, filed for each of 19 charges against 10 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints over the past two days in Schleicher County District Court, accuses Texas Rangers Lt. Brooks Long of failing to provide Walther key details that would have undermined the credibility of the initial phone call that sparked last year's raid.

"In short," the attorneys write, "it is clear that the authorities used a hoax phone as an excuse for staging a massively intrusive raid upon a disfavored religious group. Under the guise of looking for a man they knew was not there and a child that did not exist, the Texas authorities conducted a general search to see what they could find."

According to the motion - citing affidavits filed by the calltakers at NewBridge Family Shelter in San Angelo, the affidavit Long filed in seeking the warrant, and the interview with Long conducted in an Arizona case involving sect leader Warren Jeffs - Long did not reveal to Walther the following key facts in seeking the search warrant:
  • That the caller, claiming to be a sexually abused 16-year-old FLDS girl named Sarah, initially refused to give her last name, phone number or location;

  • That the caller did not volunteer the name of her alleged 50-year-old husband, Dale Barlow, but that the NewBridge calltaker supplied it after doing an Internet search on Barlow and FLDS;

  • That the caller said Barlow had "gone away for a while," and that Arizona authorities had confirmed Barlow was on probation there and not allowed to leave the state, and that law enforcement had actually confirmed Barlow was in Arizona at the time.

  • That law enforcement had confirmed that the Schleicher County Medical Center did not have any records of having treated a "Sarah Barlow," as the caller had claimed.
"Affiant (Long) also failed to apprise the court that the caller was incorrect about the observance of Easter by the FLDS, about the existence of 16-year-old twins in Colorado City and about the caller not providing her own 'husband's' name," the attorneys write.

The attorneys ask Walther to throw out the evidence based on "gross and systematic negligence," citing Long's alleged failure to provide her all the information law enforcement knew at the time he requested the warrant.

Each packet of motion and exhibits runs more than 380 pages. A hearing on the motion has been scheduled for next month.

The state removed 439 children from the ranch but has since returned all but one to their parents. Twelve FLDS members have been indicted on charges ranging from felony bigamy and sexual abuse of a child to misdemeanor failure to report abuse.

The motion covers 10 of the 12 defendants, excepting sect leader Warren Jeffs, who is facing charges in Arizona, and ranch doctor Lloyd Barlow, who faces only misdemeanor counts.
 
gosanangelo.com
Originally published April 15, 2009
 
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