The San Angelo Standard-Times - "It's a debate that has been short-circuited in Texas by the presence of a sealed federal warrant, which has made moot efforts to stop the state's search and return the evidence. With the state's criminal case against the 12 defendants still in the early stages, the argument that evidence of wrongdoing found at the ranch should be thrown out is likely still to come."The response of the FLDS? To flank the feds and the state of Texas, in Arizona, where the prosecution pretends not to want to use YFZ evidence, but Judge Conn suspects, that they will eventually have to. Conn seeks a showdown on this, before the trial. Further, Piccarreta writes;
"The Texas authorities used a hoax phone call as an excuse for staging a massively intrusive raid upon a disfavored religious group," the motion states. "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."And of course, if it is proved, that they were there, just to see what they could find, regardless of jurisdiction, that will influence and taint evidence gathered at YFZ and may lead to the unsealing of the Federal Warrant, long before the trial of the FLDS men in Texas, this fall.
The San Angelo Standard Times - "District Judge Barbara Walther formally vacated Wednesday a hearing that was to determine the admissibility of evidence alleging underage marriages at a polygamous sect's Schleicher County compound - ending, at least for now, what could have been the ultimate showdown over the validity of search warrants executed at the YFZ Ranch in April."
"FLDS attorneys said that because their clients are not among the nine defendants indicted thus far by a Schleicher County grand jury in the case, they have no need for the hearing to take place. The motion, released by the court Wednesday, seems to leave the door open for attorneys representing any of the indicted men to file a similar motion and begin the process again."
The Deseret News - "Attacking Child Protective Services' case that the children were removed en masse from the polygamous sect's Eldorado property because they were in immediate danger of abuse, (Robert Gibson Jr.) said the agency still hasn't made its case for his client's 2-year-old.
'DFPS and its attorneys knew or should have known that at the time they filed this suit that such an allegation was frivolous, unreasonable and without foundation and that it continues to this date to be frivolous, unreasonable and without foundation,' he wrote."
This is a reload of the warrant argument to some extent. This is the second time that I've heard a rumble that Texas KNEW at the time it went in, in one way or another, that there was no basis. Now that echo shows up in Gibson's action. Naomi Johnson, his client, is alleging "wrongful misconduct" against DFPS.
" 'At all relevant times prior to the filing of this lawsuit, DFPS was not aware of any facts and did not have any facts within its knowledge which indicated, in the slightest degree, that (Naomi Johnson) had perpetrated or had allowed anyone else to perpetrate any physical or emotional abuse towards the child,' Johnson's attorney, Robert Gibson Jr., wrote in court papers filed here."
This is where I hear the echo of the warrant argument again. It insists that at no point was there any cause against Naomi Johnson. The truth is there is cause now against the FLDS men indicted by the Grand Jury but up until the point that they began collecting evidence seized in the initial part of the raid, there was no cause against them either, just as there was never any against Naomi Johnson.
It is axiomatic that if there was no cause at any point against Naomi Johnson, there was no cause against anyone else in the FLDS either. Texas would have to drop the whole idea of an "environment of abuse" to have any hope at all that the warrants were valid, if Naomi wins her action. There will be a hearing next month on the 19th.
The Deseret News - "(Warren Jeffs' attorney, Michael Piccarreta) argued that the warrants were not supported by probable cause and were based on false information.
Texas law enforcement officials knew before the first warrant was served on the ranch that Dale Barlow, the object of the first warrant, was not currently living in Texas and was currently on probation in Arizona, Piccarreta wrote.
He also stated that Texas authorities were already questioning the phone call that started the raid before the first warrant was served on the ranch.
Texas authorities knew that the phone calls originated outside of the Texas area, he wrote. They traced the calls to the Colorado Springs area where local police told them that the phone number belonged to a woman who had a history of making false reports.
Piccarreta also stated that Texas authorities went through with a second warrant, even though, after three days of searching, they had been unable to find the teen that made the call or the suspect alleged to have committed the crime.
The Mohave County Attorney's Office has not filed a response to the motion yet."
This is significant because Piccarreta alleges essentially, bad faith. As highlighted, he says that they already knew the tip was bad. Jeff's attorney may have real evidence to back this. It is bad for Texas and the case against all the FLDS Four (plus Warren) if Texas deliberately entered YFZ knowing for the call was almost certainly a fake.
"(Judge Barbara) Walther split Case No. 2902 - which included more than 300 children - into 110 cases grouped by mother, and Case 2903, which included more than 30 children, into nine cases, also grouped by mother. They join 125 cases filed separately by the state's Child Protective Services agency, which removed nearly 440 children from the sect's Schleicher County compound in early April."
"No arrests have been made in the case, although the one issued arrest warrant - for 50-year-old Dale Barlow - remains active, (Allison Palmer) said, rejecting previous reports that it had been dropped.
'I don't think that's the correct term,' she said. 'We want to complete this investigation and evidence review' before making a decision on the warrant, which many believe was the result of a hoax phone call that sparked the April 3 raid on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints compound."
Or maybe Allison doesn't know what she's talking about. This is why they need a Special Prosecutor. It's easier to keep the story straight if one person tells it. Warrant, warrant, who's got the warrant?
