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FLDS Defendants Challenge Search Warrants Used In Ranch Raid

By Howard M. Friedman

In El Dorado, Texas yesterday, attorneys for ten indicted members of the FLDS Church filed motions in state court to suppress evidence that came from searches of the sect's YFZ Ranch last year. The highly publicized raids also led to the state?s taking temporary custody of some 439 children that lived on the FLDS compound in Sleicher County (TX). (See prior posting.) Identical 61-page motions challenging the validity of two search warrants were filed yesterday on behalf of each of the defendants who are charged with a number of offenses, including sexually abusing children. They argue:

[T]he authorities used a hoax phone call as an excuse for staging a massively intrusive raid upon a disfavored religious group?. Under the guise of looking for a man they knew was not there and a child that did not exist, the Texas authorities conducted a general search to see what they could find.

Today's Deseret News and San Angelo (TX) Standard-Times report on the motions.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on April 16, 2009 (boomark / email).