False report charge checked in polygamy case

updated 9:52 p.m. ET April 18, 2008

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The Texas Rangers are investigating whether a 33-year-old Colorado woman is linked to calls made to a Texas crisis center before hundreds of children were removed from the compound of a polygamist sect.

Rozita Swinton, 33, was arrested in Colorado Springs Wednesday on a misdemeanor charge of false reporting to authorities involving an incident in Colorado in February, Colorado Springs Lt. Skip Arms said.

The Texas Department of Public Safety said Friday that she became a "person of interest" several days after the April 3 raid on the compound and that Rangers accompanied police in a search of Swinton's home related to previous false reports in Colorado.

Officers found items indicating a possible connection between Swinton and calls made to a Texas crisis center about the polygamist compounds in Colorado City, Ariz., and Eldorado, Texas, a statement from the Rangers said.

The raid on a ranch operated by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints outside Eldorado was prompted by a call to the crisis center in San Angelo, Texas, from someone identifying herself as a 16-year-old girl. The caller claimed her 50-year-old husband beat and raped her.

Authorities did not say whether a call by Swinton is the one that triggered the raid.

Swinton's whereabouts were unknown, and it wasn't known whether she had an attorney. A phone number for Swinton in Colorado Springs was disconnected.

Records show Swinton was arrested in 2005 for making a false report and obstructing police.

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