The Deseret News - ELDORADO, Texas - Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs and two of his followers are the latest to be indicted by a grand jury here on third-degree felony bigamy charges.The indictments were unsealed after Raymond Merril Jessop, 36, and Michael George Emack, 57, surrendered to authorities at the Schleicher County Sheriff's Office Friday afternoon. They were booked and released after each posted $10,000 bond.
'Of course, Warren's in jail,' Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran told the Deseret News after the arrests were made. "But they were able to post bond immediately. Everything was cooperative.' "
Bill over at "Free the FLDS children" is either on to something, or being satirical. Check him out. The continuing emptyness of the state's case is on parade. The evidence challenge has begun and none of the indictments handed down and unsealed so far can survive a successful challenge to the evidence. No one, I repeat NO ONE has been indicted on the basis of "evidence" seen at YFZ during the raid. The original warrant is worthless and will be shown to be so. The second warrant could easily end up going the same way.
The way I see it, Veda Keate has to be the state's lifeline. If she is identified as one of the FLDS wives seen at YFZ that day, with a child, the case could survive. Then the FLDS case would rest entirely on the validity of the first warrant and the state's sincerity in executing it. At this point I cannot be convinced that Texas acted in good faith going to YFZ in the first place. There are enough questions regarding the validity of the warrant, and the states own faith in that warrant. Utah and Arizona BOTH refused to act on calls made by Rozita Swinton with similar charges, discounting those calls as not being credible. They have since dropped the investigation into the "caller" who made those calls, that caller we all know is Rozita.
If Veda Keate turns out to be one of the causes seen at YFZ that day, namely, she was seen with a young child, then it may be over for the FLDS Five and anyone else who is indicted. If not, the states case SHOULD be over, but this is Texas after all. Proving bad faith in the execution of the first warrant will be extremely difficult and would involve proving a conspiracy involving CPS and/or law enforcement.
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6 comments:
You don't have to prove "bad faith" or a conspiracy, just recklessness or absence of due dilligence (cell phone id?) or bigotry (assuming or purporting to assume at the outset FLDS were not credible, thefore discounting the phone call to Dale Barlow).
And what's up with Veda Keate? She's 19, not underage like the state claimed. How can she validate the probable cause the state claims it "saw" while looking for Sarah?
As I recall, Veda's lawyer has already stated publicly that the state would never have known about her or her child, had it not been for the illegal search and seizure. That indicates that they didn't know about her while executing the first warrant. But even if they did, that would only validate a search of her own home, not the other 85 homes, the church, and the cheese factory.
That effectively closes the door then, unless they indict another man whose wife they did see, with a child.
I still think it's a stretch but a jury might buy it because they want to buy it.
Close but no cigar. Veda was allegedly married before the marriage law was passed in Texas. Allegedly married in January 2005 at age 15, law passed in Texas September 2005 changing the age to 16. The State turns up empty handed.
Of course the state will contend she is not married until they wish to convict her husband of bigamy, and then they will contend he is married.
I don't know how legally they can have it both ways, but it sure looks as if they intend to.
Below is what Veda's lawyers said (original article taken down from SLT). So it appears warrants can't be retroactively justified. If anything it's the original warrant that delegitimizes subsequent resulting warrants:
"Switzer said that rather than seek a court order requiring CPS to share its DNA results, the AG’s office appears to want new evidence not attained by the “debacle” surrounding the initial investigation at the Yearning for Zion Ranch in April.
Switzer said any evidence problems surrounding the search warrant used to enter the ranch also taints the new search warrants.
“How would they even know that [about Keate's child] if it weren’t for the illegal raid on the ranch to begin with?” he said.
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