Austin, USA - Texas authorities raided a ranch owned by a polygamous sect under cover of an illegal search warrant, a lawyer told an appeals court.
If the effort to overturn the warrant is successful, charges could be dropped against several men charged with sexually assaulting minors by taking teenagers as polygamous wives, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. The charges spring from a 2008 raid at the Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado, which is owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Robert Udashen, the lawyer appealing the warrant, represents Michael Emack, who pleaded no contest last year to sexual assault and bigamy. Udashen said the warrant was obtained based on a hoax phone call from a Colorado woman who said she was only 16 and was being held against her will on the ranch and forced into a plural marriage.
Erich Nicols, of the state Attorney General's Office, said police went to the ranch in good faith. He said they obtained another warrant after they found evidence of underage marriages.