Grits is all over the story that the search warrant and accompanying affidavit used to enter and search the polygamist compound headed by the now convicted Warren Jeffs may be illegal.

For starters, the initial warrant named the wrong person. Dale Barlow, the 50-year old man who an anonymous phone call accused of marrying and assaulting an underage girl. Barlow is actually on probation living in Arizona, says he’s never met the girl in question, and has not been arrested.

Indeed, they can’t even find the 16 year old girl who’s phone call set off the whole chain of events. None of the information on which authorities based the raid appears to have panned out. The error regarding Barlow in the warrant could easily wind up creating a “fruit of the poisonous tree” situation where none of the evidence from the compound searches can be used in court.

So if the first warrant targeted the wrong person, and the second, expanded warrant was based on observations from the first, I don’t see how these warrants stand up in court, though maybe some attorneys in the crowd have additional thoughts. Several criminal defense lawyers interviewed on CNN also questioned the breathtaking scope of the warrants.

As a commenter correctly points out, the exact scope of the warrants will need to be seen to determine if they are indeed illegal. Grits also raises another interesting issue about whether some of the laws the sect has been accused of violating were passed specifically as a challenge to their religious beliefs.

This Texas mess just got a lot more interesting.

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