Colorado woman waives hearing in another prank-call case
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

A Colorado woman being investigated for placing possible prank phone calls that helped trigger a massive raid on an FLDS ranch in Texas waived her right on Monday to a first appearance later this week in an unrelated case.

Rozita Estraletta Swinton, through a defense attorney, waived her right to a first appearance set for Thursday in another prank-calling case in which she is accused of pretending to be a teenager held in a basement. The 33-year-old Colorado Springs woman was arrested April 16 after Texas Rangers contacted Colorado Springs about possible prank calls related to a Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints sect in Eldorado, Texas. Swinton was charged with misdemeanor filing a false police report in the February incident in Colorado Springs.

Court records in the Colorado case linked a phone number previously used by Swinton to phone calls to a Texas help line; a call to that same help line triggered a raid at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado. Texas authorities took more than 400 children from the ranch but have not found the 16-year-old pregnant girl who first called for help. Swinton is scheduled for a pre-trial conference in front of Fourth Judicial Judge Daniel Wilson on June 6 in the Colorado case. She has not been charged in connection to the Texas calls. - Russ Rizzo

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