Texas: Hoax call didn't undermine polygamist raid
AUSTIN, TX
That raid led to bigamy and sexual assault charges against 12
sect members -- including leader Warren Jeffs -- and triggered one of
the largest child custody cases in U.S. history. For the first time
since then, Texas prosecutors Wednesday defended one of their
convictions to an appeals court.
Michael Emack, 60, pleaded no contest last year to charges of
sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl. His attorneys asked the 3rd
District Court of Appeals to throw out the conviction on the
grounds that Texas authorities omitted key details on the search
warrant application that got them inside the Yearning for Zion
ranch.
At the heart of the appeal: that state investigators never told
the judge who signed the search warrant that calls alleging
domestic abuse came from a blocked phone number, and that a shelter
worker gave the girl "multiple-choice options" of what the name
of her husband might be.
Authorities also failed to first complete basic police work like
checking whether a "Sarah Barlow" really existed before asking
for the search warrant, said Robert Udashen, Emack's attorney.
Authorities suspect that a woman in her 30s living in Colorado
made the calls to the shelter.
"While it may make people feel good to say we have to save this
poor, abused girl, that's not the law," Udashen told the court.
The three-judge panel likely won't issue a ruling for several
weeks. The case is the first appeal involving a convicted sect
member since the April 2008 raid, and the Fundamentalist Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints will watch closely for the
ruling.
A victory for Emack could unravel the convictions of six other
sect members, and affect five others still waiting for trial,
including Warren Jeffs, the ecclesiastical head of the
organization.
The Texas attorney's general office has not lost a criminal case
against sect members since the state raided the ranch. Prosecutor
Eric Nichols told the court that both shelter workers who took the
phone calls and Texas Rangers had every reason to believe the
claims of abuse were really coming from inside the ranch in rural
Schleicher County.
"The Schleicher County sheriff said that in his experience,
persons who live at the ranch blocked their call," Nichols said.
Nichols said the trial court already upheld the search warrant
during exhaustive hearings involving both sides. State District
Judge Barbara Walther has overseen every criminal trial stemming
from the raid, which temporarily swept up more than 400 children
into state custody.
Emack is serving a seven-year prison sentence. Not once during
the hour-long hearing did the issue of Emack's guilt or innocence
surface. Arguments instead narrowly focused on the legwork by
investigators leading up to obtaining the search warrant, which
triggered a six-day sweep and the state seizing some 900 boxes of
evidence from the ranch.
Jeffs, who was extradited to Texas last year, awaits trial in a
Schleicher County jail. His trial on charges of bigamy and sexual
assault appears unlikely to begin anytime soon, as Walther has yet
to even rule on significant matters such as where it will be held.
The court has entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
