An Arizona attorney for polygamist religious leader Warren Jeffs said he believes authorities who raided the fundamentalist church's Texas ranch last week may have been duped by a fake crime report.

"I smelled a rat from the beginning," said attorney Michael Piccarreta, referring to the phone tip purportedly received from a 16-year-old victim at the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints compound in Eldorado. "I think the Texas authorities need to make a careful analysis of whether they have been part of a ruse."

Texas Department of Public Safety representatives could not be reached for an immediate response.

Investigators entered the FLDS property known as YFZ (or Yearn for Zion) Ranch based on detailed calls from a terrified teenager who claimed she was raped and abused by her 50-year-old "spiritual" husband. A law-enforcement affidavit says the girl feared for her baby and for a 15-year-old sister at another FLDS location outside Texas.

More than 400 minors were removed from the ranch and placed in state custody, but investigators have failed to identify or locate the victim.

Piccarreta, who stressed that his remarks were not made on behalf of Jeffs or the church, questioned whether the call may have been a ploy by an FLDS enemy. Piccarreta said his suspicions increased Friday upon learning that Child Protective Services in Arizona recently got a similar report about a teenager claiming to be in Colorado City.

Arizona investigators went to the community and conducted interviews but were unable to locate the girl or verify the account. They did not remove any children from homes.

Flora Jessop, who left the FLDS church years ago and leads the non-profit Child Protection Project, confirmed Friday that she submitted information to Arizona authorities after receiving calls from a pregnant teenager in Colorado City.

"I have been speaking to a little girl who has my guts in knots," Jessop said. "It is a very credible, very believable, very abused little girl."

Jessop said she is not surprised that Jeffs' attorney would depict the calls as hoaxes so that children in Texas could be returned to FLDS families. "That's what good attorneys do: They try to discredit the victim to free the predators," she added.

Piccarreta said agents in Texas may have violated the civil rights of "a whole village" by entering the Eldorado compound and breaking up families based on a dubious report.

At least one previous ruse played a role in the FLDS saga. Six years ago, an unknown source sent Arizona media outlets what appeared to be internal investigative records showing that the state Attorney General's Office had covered up crimes by church members. Those records, treated as authentic by at least one news outlet, proved to be a hoax apparently designed to pressure authorities.

Asked if the call from Colorado City might have been staged, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said the state's job is to pursue any child-abuse allegation. "It would be unfortunate if somebody manufactured this story," he added. "We're not going to start there and say this is another activist call. We are going to investigate, the way we did on this one."

Utah and Arizona have targeted the FLDS church with enforcement efforts for several years. But there have been no Texas-style raids.

Goddard and Paul Murphy, a spokesman for the Utah Attorney General's Office, said laws in both states prevent such action. They noted that polygamous families in Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, live in separate homes while the Eldorado group resides in a single commune.

"It's hard for us to second-guess what's happening there because it's such a different circumstance," Murphy said.