I believe it will be shown that Texas obtained all of it's evidence in a false context. Repeatedly I have stated that I agree that law enforcement can enter a home or homes on false premises and discover clearly evident crimes and proceed with their search. Provided of course it is shown they did not participate in the creation of that false premise so as to obtain an excuse to enter a home. That would be the conspiracy angle most of us intimately familiar with the case entertain from time to time. I am one of those that does believe there was a conspiracy. I am not certain it involved law enforcment.
A hypothetical for comparison to the YFZ raid would be that law enforcement breaks down the door of a home in search of evidence of a murder or murders. Upon entry there is no such evidence and a room to room search produces no such evidence. During the search a law enforcement officer sees "Zig Zag" rolling papers. Everyone in the home is arrested on suspicion of drug dealing.
The search expands. No marijuana is found. No drugs whatsoever. Months pass. Eventually law enforcement in an exhaustive search finds a storage unit for one of the children in the family and in that storage unit, a single joint is found with DNA on it from one of the children.
The question is, does this justify the search, the continued search, the expansion of the search and remove law enforcement liability for the search under false premises? This is a grave danger we all face, for in fact it is argued that we have already created such a legal context for this behavior. If it's a crime of "Child Abuse" then all bets are off and on the mere suspicion of such abuse police may search and search and search and search and search until THEY are satisfied there is no abuse. There is no time limit to this search, there is no limit to the scope of this search. The search's parameters can be changed or reset or expanded at any time to incorporate new crimes until one is found, or until law enforcement tires of the affair.
Let us review how it is that Texas came to be in possession of the evidence of Teresa's "Spiritual Marriage" and the basis for which they now suspect her sexual contact with a much older man. First, there was the raid looking for "Dale" who was the "husband" of "Sarah." The only law enforcement agency in a three state area that BELIEVED the call was genuine was Texas. Arizona received a similar call, Utah as well, both declined to follow up on those calls, both came from Rozita Swinton. Allegedly. The allegation is in fact of such a strong variety that we know those calls came from a phone that Rozita had in her possession. Texas will not prosecute those crimes, nor will Utah, nor will Arizona, not because they can't be sure, but because the cases are of the "open and shut" variety. The evidence for Rozita's guilt as the hoaxer is only exceeded by the evidence for Jack Ruby's guilt in shooting Oswald.
That's strike one, but Texas is not out unless a conspiracy is shown to have existed. For the sake of illustration, let us suppose that on one sunny afternoon in downtown Eldorado, representatives of Texas and Colorado and Utah and Arizona sit down with Flora Jessops for lunch and during the conversation musing on how to "get" the FLDS, it is decided that if entry is gained to YFZ, there will be SOMETHING found so it doesn't matter. Colorado passes a note to Flora with a name on it, and says "here's you're wacko, wind her up and turn her loose, problem solved."
I cannot bring myself to beleive in a conspiracy THAT obvious and extensive but lesser versions of it are more and more beleivable as times goes by. I am particularly struck by Arizona and Utah dropping cases against Rozita, Texas refusing to seek her arrest and the skillful but obvious hiding of Rozita FROM the press. The latest such subtrifuge successfully moved Rozita's date with the press from BEFORE the Grand Jury week, (which now includes a US Senate hearing) to AFTER the Grand Jury week. If anything should tip you off that there will be an indictment, the scheduling of the US Senate hearings by Harry Reid should remove all doubt.
Surrender Monkey Harry is no idiot. He intends to conduct his hearings in light of the sensational allegations of Teresa Jeffs' "sexual abuse" at the hands of an older man, and with the full cooperation of her father. You can be confident that the DAY he announced the date of such hearings, that he had the details of the Houston Chronicle's story in hand.
So absent that conspiracy evidence that would be so convienient for friends of the FLDS we move on to the second issue. Why did Texas continue to search? Because (absent a conspiracy) they certainly COULD, if they saw evidence of a crime while at the YFZ ranch. Enter the myth of "pregnant underage girls." We know now that they saw no such people.
Among the large group of girls and women that Texas took into custody were two pregnant women. Both have been shown to have been of age to the satisfaction of Texas. Both gave birth. If there was a third girl or woman or perhaps more, they weren't "seen" for this simple reason. No FLDS woman/girl at YFZ that was SEEN and judged to be "underage" has given birth since the raid, other than those two. They were not underage. Any pregnant underage girls at YFZ at the time of the raid were mostly likely no more than five months along. Why? It's almost August.
Thus there were no "pregnant underage girls." What then was the "crime" or "crimes" that Texas supposedly saw that caused the ongoing investigation that turned up the evidence of Teresa Jeffs diary and "spiritual marriage?" This little uncomfortable question is the one with no acceptable answer.
Jesus once raised the bar on the men ready to stone the woman "caught in adultery." She was caught in the "very act." He asked for one to come forward to cast the "first stone" that was "without sin." Everyone left. If we as citizens of his country allow the public humiliation of Teresa Jeffs to continue, we do a far more ugly thing than the stoning of the adulterous woman. We allow the destruction of lives at YFZ to go on, knowing full well that if our lives were turned inside out as theirs were, as Teresa Jeffs was, that we could be made to LOOK as bad, worse even, and we probably WOULD be worse. Who among us could stand the scrutiny of having all our possessions thrown onto the lawn of our homes and pawed through? Our computor hard drives exhaustively searched for porn or financial records or tax returns? Our cars stripped to the floor pans like in the "French Connection?"
The answer is that if we did this to the very persons who conducted the raid, we'd have no law enforement left to protect us and we really all ought to be in jail with them. There are limits. This has gone too far. Texas cannot tell us why they were searching the YFZ ranch, they can only tell us what they found when they were there. The search is not the evidence they saw. They only have evidence from the search. They saw NOTHING. Thus they did not "see" evidence and proceeded with a search, they searched to find evidence. That is what they are NOT allowed to do. That is illegal search and seizure. Our Government is NOT permitted to search your home to find a crime. They are permitted to name a crime for which they have SOME evidence, and then search your home.
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