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Texas Admits FLDS Hoax

May 21, 2008 permalink

The State of Texas has come as close as it ever will to admitting that the call initiating the FLDS raid in April was a hoax. The call, purportedly from a girl named Sarah raped by her husband Dale Barlow, now seems to have been a hoax call from Rozita Swinton in Colorado Springs. No Sarah has been found. Dale Barlow did not live in Eldorado Texas, but in Arizona. Texas previously dropped the arrest warrant for Mr Barlow, now it is dropping the case of "Sarah". Notwithstanding the collapse of the case, don't expect CPS to return the children.

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May 19, 2008, 11:40PM

With no 'Sarah,' CPS asks to drop her case

Houston Chronicle

SAN ANGELO — It was the call for help that launched one of the largest raids on a religious compound in U.S. history.

But on Monday, a Child Protective Services attorney asked for the case involving a 16-year-old known as "Sarah," who claimed sexual and physical abuse at the hands of her husband, to be dropped.

The state has all but declared the call a hoax after the phone number was traced to a Colorado woman with a history of pretending to be an abused child. The Texas Department of Public Safety even withdrew its arrest warrant against Dale Barlow, alleged husband and Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints sect member.

But CPS has not confirmed whether it thinks "Sarah" is real or not, saying that the call didn't force the removal of 463 children, and that what the agency found — which has yet to be truly revealed — did.

Early Monday, CPS attorney Gary Banks asked that the case of "Baby Jessop," naming Sarah as the mother and Barlow as the father, be dismissed.

"We're not saying that the child doesn't exist, but at this time we don't believe she's in our custody," Banks said.

Source: Houston Chronicle

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