Texas Appeals Court Upholds 2008 Search Of FLDS Yearning For Zion Ranch

A Texas appeals court has rejected claims that a 2008 search of the FLDS Church's Yearning for Zion Ranch violated the constitutional rights of defendants who were convicted of sexual assault on the basis of evidence discovered in the search.  The initial search warrant in the case was based on telephone calls to a crisis hotline which were later determined to be hoax calls. In Emack v. State of Texas, (TX App., Aug. 26, 2011), defendant who plead no contest and was convicted on a charge of sexual assault of a child appealed the trial court's refusal to suppress evidence from the search. The court held that defendant lacks standing to challenge the legality of the interviews of juveniles at the ranch.  It rejected other challenges to the affidavits presented to obtain search warrants and to the issuance of the warrants.  Finally, it concluded that the searches did not violate defendant's free exercise of religion. Defendant did not show "that the searches conducted at the YFZ Ranch curtailed his ability to express adherence to his faith through a particular religiously motivated act or that the searches otherwise pressured him to modify his religious conduct." The Texas Attorney General yesterday issued a press release reporting on the decision.