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Apr 22, 2008 7:09 am US/Mountain
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Police Video Shows Woman Linked To Polygamist Raid
CASTLE ROCK, Colo. (CBS4) ―
A Colorado Springs woman remains under investigation by Texas authorities. They are trying to determine if Rozita Swinton may have touched off the raid at the polygamist compound by posing on the phone as a 16-year-old girl who was being abused.
CBS4 has obtained a police tape of Swinton from 2005 when she pleaded guilty to false reporting charges in Castle Rock.
Facing charges of false reporting Swinton, was under arrest. Two days earlier she had called a Castle Rock adoption agency claiming she wanted to give up a baby.
On the police tape, she was asked if she understood her rights.
"Go ahead and initial that if you understand that," a detective was heard saying on the tape.
"I didn't lie to you," Swinton said while crying. "But that's what you keep telling me I did."
Castle Rock police said Swinton posed as a 16-year-old who had a gun and was suicidal.
"She said for the last 8 years she had been sexually assaulted and thought the baby may be her father's," said Lt. Douglas Ernst with Castle Rock police.
Finally, as the video tape shows, when police tracked her down she admitted her story was not true.
"Rozita, is there a baby that we need to be concerned about?" the detective asked.
"No," Swinton said.
"Is there a gun in your car or anywhere else we need to be concerned about?" the detective asked.
"There's no gun in my car," she said.
Even then, she appeared afraid to go home.
"Why are you scared of your dad?" the detective asked.
"Because he's been hurting me," she said.
"He's been hurting you," the detective said.
"Yes."
"As in punching and physically, sexually hurting you?" the officer asked.
Three years later Swinton is under arrest once more and again the charges are false reporting.
Swinton is now charged in Colorado Springs and is free on bond. CBS4 were unable to reach her for comment.
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