An attorney for polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs says Texas authorities may have been duped by a fake phone tip into raiding a West Texas ranch occupied by Jeffs followers.
"I smelled a rat from the beginning," attorney Michael Piccarreta told The Arizona Republic, referring to the call from a 16-year-old girl at the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints commune in Eldorado that prompted the raid. "I think the Texas authorities need to make a careful analysis of whether they have been part of a ruse."
A spokeswoman for Texas Child Protective Services told The Associated Press Saturday that they believe the call was genuine.
"Obviously we do," spokeswoman Marissa Gonzales said. "We don't have reason to believe that it was a prank or a ruse in any way."
Authorities have said their April 3 raid on the Eldorado ranch came after a girl's whispered telephone call for help to a family violence shelter. Texas has since taken legal custody of 416 children on suspicion that they were being sexually and physically abused.
Jeffs is president of the FLDS, a renegade offshoot of the mainstream Mormon church that practices polygamy. He is jailed in Arizona pending trial on charges stemming with marriages he allegedly arranged between underage girls and older men. He was convicted on similar charges in Utah last year and sentenced to two prison terms of five years to life.
Piccarreta on Friday questioned whether the call may have been a ploy by an FLDS enemy. He said his suspicions increased upon learning that Child Protective Services in Arizona recently got a similar report about a teenager claiming to be in Colorado City, Ariz. Arizona investigators went to the community and conducted interviews but were unable to locate the girl or verify the account. They did not remove any children from homes. Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said Friday the state's job is to pursue any child-abuse allegation.
"It would be unfortunate if somebody manufactured this story," Goddard said of the Arizona tip. "We're not going to start there and say this is another activist call. We are going to investigate, the way we did on this one."
Flora Jessop, who left the FLDS church years ago and leads the nonprofit Child Protection Project, told The Republic Friday that she submitted information to Arizona authorities after receiving calls from a pregnant teenager in Colorado City.
"I have been speaking to a little girl who has my guts in knots," Jessop said. "It is a very credible, very believable, very abused little girl." She said she was not surprised by Piccarreta's comments. "That's what good attorneys do. They try to discredit the victim to free the predators," Jessop said. -chron
Jessop may have an axe to grind from abuse in her own past. She may be pre-disposed to believe a hoax and may even be subconsciously leading the hoaxer about what to say ... or the abuse may be real and the lawyer may be lying. Whatever you believe, if you are certain without evidence, then you are pre-judging based on your own biases and you may be 100% wrong.
3 comments:
And, Texans are just itch'n to shut that place down. Typical Texas hicks! I can just hear'em ". . . Those fornicate'n, son-of-b- . . . Why, it just ain't Christian. . . ." And, it goes on and on . . . I know Texas all to well. After all, we got one their best representatives in the Oval Office, who thinks he's hang'n Judge Roy Bean or whoever, straight out of some exaggerated West Texas myth.
Hey people, it is legal to marry a 15 yo right now in utah, so why the big deal?
And what is the difference between 14 yo and 15 yo anyway. one day??
And i can verify that none of the polyg girls are sluts and none have taken the LBT (low back tattoo). this is why they are being persecuted.
the local govrenment devils want all girls to be whores and sluts like their own wives and daughters. It makes them feel inferior when they think of the pure polyg girls but have to look at their own tattooed up whorish women. to be honest, i sympathize with them. those ugly faded tattoos combined with the stench of cigerette butts is a romance killer for sure.
That was quite demonstrative TS.
Could there be a middle ground that doesn't require adult men marrying children or women becoming whores?
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