posted May 23, 2008 01:35 AM              

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The Polygamist Sect Wins a Round

undamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints mothers hug after the news of a court ruling in their favor in San Angelo, Texas. An Austin, Texas appeals court ruled that the state had no cause to take their children.
The surprising decision by the Third Court of Appeals in Austin, Texas, that state authorities were wrong to take hundreds of children from a polygamist camp is only the latest bit of chaos in an already chaotic story. For the last couple of weeks, the children's parents, who live in a secluded compound run by a fundamentalist Mormon sect, have engaged in an escalating legal showdown with Texas child protective services officials, a battle that has involved the children's access to photos of the sect's prophet and the Book of Mormon as well as the right to vote. Unless there is more legal intervention, the children could be back with their parents in 10 days.
The ruling, prompted by suit filed by Rio Grande Legal Aid on behalf of 48 mothers whose children were taken in the April raid, has sent the state's lawyers scrambling. The appeals court ordered State District Judge Barbara Walther, who presided over the chaotic first days of the case, to vacate her order in 10 days. She had approved the removal of the children, sending them to a variety of foster homes and shelters around the state. The appeals court said the judge had erred in her ruling and that the state had not proved the children were in "immediate danger" — the only condition under which the government could take the children.

State attorneys are now assessing their options. The state can either move to stay the ruling or appeal the entire ruling, says former District Judge Scott McCown, now director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, an Austin think tank. But the state has to move quickly, McCown says. If the full court or a higher court does not put a hold on the order, the children will have to be returned to their families once the 10-day period is up. "Child Protective Services could go on with their investigation, but flight could be a real problem."

Texas's child protection agency posted a statement on its website restating its position that the children of the Fundamentalist Church of the Latter Day Saints (FLDS) taken from the Yearning For Zion Ranch were victims of a "pervasive pattern of abuse." It declared: "Child Protective Services has one duty — to protect children. When we see evidence that children have been sexually abused and remain at risk of further abuse, we will act." It then summarized its evidence: "The very first interviews at the ranch revealed a pattern of underage girls being 'spiritually united' with older men and having children with the men. Investigators also observed a pattern of organized deception in those first interviews. Women and children frequently said they could not answer questions about the ages of girls or family relationships. Children were moved from location to location in an apparent attempt to prevent investigators from talking to them. Investigators observed numerous girls who had small children, and girls told us that marriages could occur at any age."

Perhaps one point that weakened the state's case was that some of the married girls taken from the ranch have since been found to be adults and released from custody, a source of some exasperation and embarrassment.

Advocates for the families were happy with the appeals court ruling. "The way that the courts have ignored the legal rights of these mothers is ridiculous," said Julie Balovich, an attorney with Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid. "It is about time a court stood up and said that what has been happening to these families is wrong."

Since the April raid both sides have been engaged in an expanding legal battle. FLDS members objected when state agency officials ordered that the children should not have possession of photographs of Warren Jeffs, the group's "Prophet" who was found guilty last fall of accessory to rape in arranging the forced marriage of an underage Utah girl to her first cousin. Members of the sect said Books of Mormon with pictures of Jeffs taped inside were taken from the children. Child protective services responded that Jeffs was a convicted sex offender and under Texas law he could have no contact with the children unless it was proved he was their father (a not unlikely scenario: some of the children removed from the ranch bear the Jeffs' surname). A massive DNA testing program conducted to determine family relationships among the FLDS children and adults is not expected to yield results until mid-June.

The authorities have not ceased making moves against the FLDS ranch. Recent reports that children, perhaps from other FLDS communities, were living once again at the YFZ ranch brought child protective services investigators to the ranch gates Wednesday, a day before the appeals court ruling. But the officials were turned away by FLDS leaders because they lacked a warrant.

The FLDS is not sitting quietly either. This week, FLDS leaders requested some 500 to 600 voter registration cards for residents at the ranch, a clear indication that their fight will spill over into the political arena. Those votes could well affect the political equilibrium of the sparsely populated county. It is a move that long-time residents have feared the FLDS newcomers might resort to.

Meanwhile, state officials have testified that the cost of the raid and subsequent investigations as well as foster care may be at least $20 million. Coincidentally, that is the assessed value of the YFZ Ranch.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1808788,00.html

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posted May 23, 2008 01:48 AM              

"The court said that although five girls had become pregnant at age 15 or 16, the state gave no evidence about the circumstances of the pregnancies. It noted that minors as young as 16 can wed in Texas with parental consent, and even younger children can marry if a court approves it."

posted May 24, 2008 01:17 PM            

I don't like the way these kids are being raised, and the values of this sect (regarding the status and worth of women) make me feel like vomiting, but that's my personal opinion. People should be free to live the way they want to, as long as they're not hurting anyone else.