Weirdness All Around

Do you know what is hands down the most interesting event of the week? A Colorado Springs woman who is an Obama delegate to the Colorado state Democratic convention next month is suspected to be the "sixteen-year-old-girl" whose phone call to Texas authorities was the basis for the removal of 416 children from their mothers at the polygamous sect near San Angelo! The woman is a serial fraudulant caller to authorities.

Rozita Swinton is not sixteen. She is in her mid-twenties. She works for an insurance company. According to this piece today in the Denver Post,"Swinton repeatedly made calls to authorities in multiple jurisdictions, setting off large emergency responses that sometimes involved dozens of police officers."

Colorado Springs police, accompanied by Texas Rangers, arrested Swinton in a local case, and Texas officials searched the home.

The Texas Rangers found items of interest during the search and the investigation is continuing.

In June 2005, Castle Rock police arrested Swinton after she posed as the teen mother of a newborn and told an adoption agency and police she was considering suicide and leaving the baby at a fire station, Castle Rock police Sgt. Scott Claton said.

Authorities charged her with filing a false police report. She is currently serving a one-year deferred sentence in that case.

In February, dozens of Colorado Springs police searched for a girl claiming to be locked in a basement. Again, it turned out to be Swinton.

Here is how the story ends:

Shari Pulliam, a spokeswoman for Texas Child Protective Services, said that what led authorities to the ranch wasn't important. What matters is that they found signs of abuse there, she said.

"We removed the children based on . . . evidence we found of sexual abuse of young teen girls and a pattern of grooming these girls," she said. Denver Post wire services