I sent the following summary out to a number of News organizations in the Rocky Mountain West, late last week, none even attempted to investigate it. I'd be happily wrong if one of the turns up not to have turned a deaf ear, but it seems that unless I serve it up with signed confessions, they won't even try.
In 2005,
Rozita Swinton was arrested for false reporting in Castle Rock. She subsequently plead guilty in exchange for a deferred sentence, providing she did not have further scrapes with the law. After that it has been documented that Rozita exported her false reporting to other states, apparently depending on the practice of not prosecuting such "pranks" when the prankster is not in a local jurisdiction. Most states, Texas included, do not seek extradition of misdemeanor offenders for prosecution. It is documented in the
April 2008 arrest warrant of Rozita Swinton that Lt. Magdalena Santos (980D), took a call from the "Cocoon House" in Washington state in February of 2007 regarding a case of False Reporting in that jurisdiction, that was later traced back to Rozita.
One year after the incident in Washington State, Rozita was arrested for the second time we know of, after the Castle Rock arrest, in
February of 2008, in Colorado Springs, again, for false reporting. Rozita has a long history of manufactured or unsubstantiated allegations, whether made in person or made by proxy, against others. Quoting from the Newsweek Article, linked to previously:
"Soon, Swinton came to the attention of authorities. Around 1997, she filed the first of some 15 police reports claiming that her father or some other man was sexually assaulting her (Clarence denies he ever visited Colorado). But 'we could never corroborate information because she would never do any follow-up,' says Det. Terry Thrumston of the Colorado Springs Police Department."
This documents, among other things, Rozita's presence in Colorado Springs when she was about 22 years of age. One could actively wonder why Rozita was being paid attention to by CSPD, as most law enforcement agencies would not pay attention to complaints regarding persons that did not even live in or visit the state of residence of the supposed victim.
This could be explained by the facts uncovered by myself, after following up on a tip. The tip was that Rozita and Lt. Maggie (Magdalena) Santos, and Maggie's coworker and "longtime companion" Lt. Janie (Jane) Anderson had an over 10 year relationship with Rozita Swinton, dating back to at least one of them employing Rozita as a "nanny" in 1997. Lt. Santos and Lt. Anderson's relationship is corroborated by mutual home ownership in the Colorado Springs area.
When contacted, Lt. Santos declared that the relationship was "20 years old" and that she had employed Rozita for "a month or two" as a "nanny." I then confronted her with the statement of my source, that there was a deposition, purported to be given by Becky Hoerth that dated the relationship to the year 1997 and that Rozita was both 14, 20 years ago, and living in Tennessee. Maggie then quickly reset the date but insisted that it was not 1997, instead claiming the date of 1995. This claim is of dubious reliability since Maggie had been wrong in her initial claim and then claimed not to have known Rozita well, known that she was from Tennessee or known her since the time she did employ her "briefly." I refer again to the facts cited by Newsweek, that Rozita was a frequent complainer about her ex convict and murderer father Clarence, who did live in Tennessee.
"(O)n page 1/50 of the discovery under Becky Hoerth Statement says:
'Ms. Hoerth stated she met Rozita in 1997 through a mutual friend at the Colorado Springs YMCA. She stated at the time Rozita was doing day care for Maggie Santos and Janie Anderson. She stated the two of them have been friends and that Rozita has helped her out when ever she needs it. She stated she had just recently moved back from Wisconsin and due to financial reasons is staying with Rozita'
This cannot be disputed as it is in the discovery."
In that Terry Thrumston of CSPD states the Rozita complaints regarding her father began around 1997, and the above alleged statement also refers to 1997, it would seem at least that Maggie's statement again, was at least inaccurate.
When confronted with information that the relationship was more extensive, and ongoing, and that she had been involved in subsequent dealings involving Rozita Swinton, Maggie claimed to have "recused" herself voluntarily from those proceedings, based on their previous passing acquaintance.
Again, returning to my source, who I checked with again:
"One of the problems is its affecting the case aganist [sic] Rozita(for Rozita's benefit) since Maggie didn't recuse herself 3yrs ago. The only reason she pulled out was because Becky outed her and Janie in her statement so she was forced to pull out." (email via PDA)
This probably refers to the Douglas County case (Castle Rock) or some unknown incident in between the report from "Cocoon House" in Washington state and the Castle Rock case.
If someone is conducting an Internet sting for sex crimes against children. Do they not need a little girl imitator?
Rocky Mountain Women in Law Enforcement - "Sgt. Maggie Santos has been with the Colorado Springs Police Department for 15 years. Before joining the CSPD, Maggie was a teacher for a few years and decided that policing was where she really wanted to be. She joined the department in 1992 and spent time working midnights on patrol, joined the Neighborhood Policing Unit, and spent time as a School Resource Officer. Maggie has also served the department with her bilingual skills as she is fluent in Spanish. Maggie was promoted to the rank of Sergeant in 2000 and after a couple of years as a patrol supervisor, moved to the Major Crimes Section, in charge of the Sex Crimes, Crimes Against Children Unit. As part of her current position there, she supervises an Internet Crimes Against Children team which has been responsible for several high profile internet based sex offender arrests.
Maggie is currently working toward promoting to Lieutenant. Maggie was also one of the original members of the RMWLE Conference team, serving since our project begin back in 2002. Maggie serves as a Board Member and during our conferences is known as the 'AV Guru' knowing how to save the rest of us from our electronic stupidity. We are thankful!
When she is not toting her gun or fixing a digital projector, Maggie has two kids to keep her busy and spends time quilting, reading and mastering video games. Thanks Maggie!"
We've seen these stings on TV. They usually have someone pretending to be....
A little girl....
Colorado Springs Gazette - "Police in Mesa and Jefferson counties who posed as underage girls in Internet chat rooms say Sgt. Gregory A. Sallee attempted to arrange sexual encounters." Sept, 2007.
Nov, 2007:
The Gazette - "Cañon City (in neighboring Fremont County) police have arrested a California man in an Internet sex predator sting — the department’s 13th such arrest this year.
Police arrested Carl Michael Pfaff, 50, of Oxnard, Calif., on Friday after he traveled to Cañon City intending to have sex with an underage female. He was actually communicating online with an undercover police officer, police said."
Also in November 2007:
The Gazette - "Fremont County authorities have arrested a 52-year-old Denver man who they believe drove to Cañon City to have sex with a young girl.
Jeffrey A. Tensly was arrested Tuesday at a Cañon City convenience store on suspicion of criminal solicitation, sexual assault on a child and unlawful sexual contact, Cañon City Police Department Capt. Allen Cooper said."
August, 2005:
The Gazette - "Sgt. 1st Class Andre Ventura McDaniel, 40, shot himself in September 2004 after he was arrested in an Internet sting after allegedly trying to arrange sex with a teenage girl."
And from April of 2007:
The Gazette - "It was just one chapter Friday in what was one of the most hectic days for the department in recent memory.
On top of a carjacking that ended with two arrests after a 90-mph chase that included shots fired at sheriff’s deputies, police dealt with drug busts, robberies and a 34-year old man arrested on suspicion of using the Internet to try to arrange a sexual encounter with a 13-year-old."
Sept, 2007:
The Rocky Mountain News - "A correctional officer at the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility in Ordway has been arrested on suspicion of attempted sexual exploitation of a child.
Richard Jefferson Harris, 52, of Pueblo, is accused of contacting someone in an Internet chat room whom he believed to be under 15 — actually, an undercover district attorney's investigator — and allegedly solicited sexually explicit photographs.
He also attempted to arrange a meeting, said Pam Russell of the Jefferson County district attorney's office."
January 2008:
NBC "News First" 5 - "New developments regarding a News First Investigation we showed you over the Summer of 2007. It deals with some of the most disturbing criminal behavior our local officers have to deal with -- sex crimes against children.
Despite all the high profile crackdowns on internet predators, men continue traveling to the Front Range to try to have sex with young kids.
News First was granted exclusive access to what's arguably one of the most prolific Internet Crimes Against Children units in our state, at the Cañon City Police Department. It's one of Colorado's smallest police departments, and the officer who cruises the internet looking for predators only works that part of the job part-time. However, they still manage to capture, or assist other agencies in capturing, at least 1 suspected sex offender a month. Two of the units high profile captures that happened in Cañon City and include a Texas Constable and a Quiznos executive."
Such interstate and region wide sex sting operations almost certainly involved the FBI at times. The stings did involve local police departments and also the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
I also called Lt. Kirk Wilson of the Internal Affairs division of the CSPD. Lt. Wilson took down all I had to tell him and promised to begin an investigation. He asked for my name, and date of birth, and said he'd send me a "receipt" for the report, which would contain a receipt number. That was late last week, I have not received it yet.
Lt. Wilson also declared in response to my claim of familiarity between Rozita and Maggie that indeed he knew of the relationship, and said it was "common knowledge" in the department. I returned later to this phrasing and challenged him a bit on it, and he qualified it a little bit and said that did not mean everyone knew of the relationship. Clearly the "relationship," whatever it might entail was widely known. None of this however was reported in the press, but it does lend credibility to the rather incredible suggestion at the time, that members of the Texas Rangers called CSPD and there was an immediate acknowledgement that the numbers the Rangers sought information about, were involved in previous cases. After all, the relationship of Maggie and Rozita is characterized as "common knowledge" by the head of CSPD's Internal Affairs.
This makes even more interesting another fact I discovered in January of this year. The April 2008 warrant says that the Rangers contacted Lt. (then Sgt.) Sean Mandel of CSPD first. This is not true, according to Sean Mandel. Per Sean, he was more or less a carrier pigeon for messages from Texas that were being received by Agent Steve Smith of the Colorado Springs office of the FBI. He distinctly recalled the incident and was quick to provide the information that he could NOT have received the call as he was on "detached duty" with the FBI, as part of a "task force." He stated clearly that he was NOT going into CSPD offices at the time. I did not think to ask what that "task force" was doing. Could it be Internet sting operations for predators? It would make sense, as Lt. Mandel is with the Sex Crimes Unit of CSPD.
Lt. Mandel readily provided me with Agent Steve Smith's number, I called him, and he answered a few questions briefly, and then called me back. He confirmed that he was taking information from the FBI in Texas, but "couldn't recall" which agent he was speaking to but "would know it again if he heard it." I asked him if he received the information by phone, or email, and he said he "didn't recall." I asked him if he could review the case and he said that he did not open one and thus could not access his records and determine by what method the request had come, or who had made it. Further questioning had Agent Smith stating that if such a request had come it, there would have had to have been a case opened on one side of the call or the other. I researched over the next day or two the officers that worked in the San Angelo office of the FBI, provided those names to Agent Smith, and asked if any were the agents that contacted him and he said none were.
Eventually my inquiries took me to the regional office of the FBI in Dallas, and Mark D. White, after initially speaking to me on the subject, dodged my questions for several weeks and eventually plead an "ongoing investigation" prevented him from even telling me IF there was a case properly opened on the Texas side of the Agent Smith conversation. What I have discovered here it would seem is a back channel of communications that would appear to be designed not to be "on the record." The warrants say the conversations were with CSPD directly, with Sean Mandel directly and began on April 13th, 2008, a Sunday, after the raid was over.
In view of the length of time it normally takes to set up such a carrier pigeon sort of relay, it is highly unlikely that this channel came into existence over that weekend. It seems designed to have stayed off the record and may well have been in use during the raid and perhaps before it. That goes directly to "what did they know and when did they know it?"
Some of the questions that arise from this research are:
- * Was Rozita a "little girl voice" used as talent by any law enforcement agency?
- * Why were (allegedly) Maggie and Janie shielding Rozita from prosecution?
- * If there is a statement/deposition of Becky Hoerth, as alleged, was Texas aware of it?
- * Is Rozita's attorney essentially blackmailing (legally) CSPD, the FBI and Texas with the knowledge that THEY KNOW of the character and extent of CSPD's relationship with Rozita Swinton?
Rozita has been provided with extensive medical treatment out of state, and has apparently not worked in the last year and a half. She has been seen and photographed in Burley Idaho, during the Thanksgiving holiday of 2008 and I have the pictures. She has some of the most expensive and connected legal talent in criminal defense in El Paso county. Her trial has been delayed more often and more successfully than that of Bernie Madoff and for more time. Within a week of her arrest, David Foley, her attorney, was trumpeting that there would be "surprises" in her case, and since then has gotten all these delays, which keep putting her case after FLDS cases in Texas on the calender, and he has said nothing about those "surprises" he asked us to "stay tuned" to hear.
If it is true, that Texas knew of the statement of Becky Hoerth, then it becomes a question of what might be called exculpatory evidence withheld from the defense.
Additionally, the relationship of Hoerth, Anderson, Santos and Swinton seems vastly deeper than has been admitted to by Lt. Santos. It is at least improper not to reveal these facts to the defense in the largest child custody episode of US History.
The call may have been contracted for by an law enforcement agency so as to gain access to the YFZ ranch. This would be criminal.
Rozita may have been criminally shielded from prosecution by her CSPD friends and as a result, was allowed to negligently wreak havoc later.
Any or all or any combination of these scenarios could lead to exclusion of evidence collected at YFZ. With that evidence excluded, most of the 12 YFZ defendants would likely go free.
