This pretty much says it all; (another FLDS child, pictured to the right, seems terrified)The Salt Lake Tribune - "The Texas Attorney General's Office served a search warrant on Veda Keate, 19, in Converse, Texas, at the apartment where she is living with her 2-year-old daughter, sister and mother. Robert Switzer, a San Antonio defense attorney, arranged for Keate to meet with a nurse and two deputies.
Keate told The Salt Lake Tribune she and her daughter had given two previous DNA samples and she protested having to undergo a third collection. Keate said she asked why the AG's office could not use samples taken by Texas Child Protective Services.
'They said this was for something different,' she said.
The AG's office is leading a criminal investigation into underage marriages involving FLDS members. The Tribune was unable to reach a spokesman for the office Saturday evening, but WOAI, News 4, of San Antonio, said a spokesman on Friday was asked about the collection and said the office is 'working with local and state investigators into possible criminal activity at the polygamist compound.'
Keate gave her sample but her daughter began screaming when the nurse attempted to swab the child's mouth.
'They wanted me to get her in their car and I said, "No, I'm going to stand right here." They finally just forced it into her mouth,' Keate said.
Switzer said the child's fear was understandable given that 'the last time guys with a couple guns came, it didn't work out so good.'
Reporters witnessed the 45-minute encounter, which took place outside Keate's home.
'I wasn't very pleased,' she said. 'I'm just ready for them to be done.'
Switzer said he and Keate were shown an affidavit that said Texas authorities believe his client's child was fathered by (FLDS leader Warren S.) Jeffs when she was under the legal age of consent - which is 16 for a legal marriage and 17 for sexual contact when there is an age difference of three years or less."
This is protecting the children? Sounds more like the public rape of a child to me. This is also a possible signal that Texas believes it MAY NOT BE ABLE TO USE EVIDENCE COLLECTED EARLIER, they may be losing confidence in the warrant to collect that DNA and need to collect another sample. Hence the words "This (is) for something DIFFERENT."
There was one other curious line in the story;
"Sources close to the (grand jury) proceedings have told The Tribune that one witness has been dismissed as a witness."
Eh? Who? What does this mean? I speculate that the Grand Jury meets in 9 days. Under the radar, on the weekend, the AG's office collects another sample. Suppose that the case is now in the FINAL stages of collapse. A witness is dismissed from the Grand Jury proceedings. (I'd like to know WHO.) Evidence is collected for the third time. It sounds as if they may need a reason to keep Veda Keate in the state or they fear she could be free to leave the state soon, or both.
UPDATE: Kurt at "I Perceive" agrees, sounds like they need "untainted" evidence. Really, I smell imminent case collapse syndrome.
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6 comments:
Hugh, can you put some dates together for us?
I assume the "Jeffs" referred to is Warran Jeffs. He was incarcerted following his conviction. He may have been in jail continuously following his arrest, before conviction. When was the last possible time he would have had access to this young lady? And how does that date match up with a date approximately nine months before the birth of her child? And when did this young lady arrive in Texas?
Thank you.
Doran Williams
I corrected the story to show that it was in fact Warren Jeffs who is the suspected father.
As far as Texas goes, Warren would have had to have been in Texas in the September-October time frame of 2005 and had relations with Ms. Keate in Texas for this to be a violation of Texas law.
Harvey Hilderbran's bill took effect in September of 2005. It would seem that Texas is moving quickly to establish a DNA sample not tainted by the events connected to YFZ.
I find it strange that they would be pursuing a crime against Ms. Keate by Warren who is in Jail unless they were in full on active collusion with other states, the goal being simply to keep Warren in Jail no matter what.
Legally, there can't be much difference between getting fresh or existing. They're just doing this because they want to harass and intimidate. CPS is trying to lay low right now, so the attorney general is picking up the slack.
I agree that they're probably trying to harass and intimidate but I also suspect strongly they wish to have DNA evidence available to them that came via a different channel. One that had nothing to do with the YFZ raid.
This kind of reminds me of "The Raid, Part Duex." I suspect something big will happen next week, but I could be wrong.
I don't get it...how can they prove what state (or country for that matter) a child was conceived in?
I'm pretty sure they're down to being willing to settle for a salacious headline that they can back up. "Warren Jeffs Boinked a 16 year old" or something to that effect.
Maybe they think they can narrow down conception to a few days and produce come proof of where one or the other of them were at the time. At this point they're really just grasping for SOMETHING to say they were justified in scrutinizing the FLDS.
What remains interesting is they did this in a virtual panic, which I and Kurt at "I Perceive" believe indicates the whole YFZ evidence chain is about to be thrown out as tainted. Meaning the Raid was invalid. Meaning all subsequent custody issues were invalid. Meaning the detention of all FLDS in Texas even in the mildest way such as supervised custody of their own children is about to be ended. Which means the FLDS can leave, which is why they panicked and went for another sample.
I just wonder if there is any connection to the mini shakedown of the Colorado FLDS property today.
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