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

