Busload Of Girls Leaves Polygamist Ranch
Child welfare officials following up on an abuse complaint took custody of 18 girls Friday who lived at a secretive West Texas religious retreat built by polygamist leader Warren Jeffs.
A total of 52 girls, ages 6 months to 17 years, were bused away on Friday to be interviewed, but only 18 were immediately taken into state custody, said Texas Child Protective Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner. No arrests had been made.
Meisner said welfare officials were looking for foster homes for the girls, most of whom have rarely been outside the insular world of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They were being housed for now at a civic center, she said.
"We're dealing with children that aren't accustomed to the outside world, so we're trying to be very sensitive to their needs," Meisner said.
Authorities had interviewed about half the girls since arriving Thursday evening at the remote compound with law enforcers, she said. Interviews were expected to continue over the weekend.
The investigation began with a call alleging physical abuse of a 16-year-old girl living there, Meisner said.
On Friday afternoon, the Department of Public Safety officials began executing a search warrant.
The warrant seeks records dealing with the birth of children to a 16-year-old and any records listing a marriage between a 50-year-old man and the girl, according to the San Angelo Standard-Times, which cited court records released late Friday in Tom Green County. Prosecutors in Tom Green, a larger county north of Eldorado, were handling the case.
An arrest warrant was issued, but the individual that public safety officials are looking for had not been located Friday evening, said spokeswoman Tela Mange. She said she could not reveal whose name was on the warrant.
"We have been working very closely with the adults at the ranch, and they have been assisting us in our search," she said.
The ranch covers roughly 1,700 acres. It is north of this two stoplight town, down a narrow paved road. Authorities blocked access to the compound's gate, keeping onlookers miles away.
Only the compound's 80-foot-tall, gleaming white temple is visible on the wind-swept desert horizon.
State officials said they did not know how many people lived at the retreat, but local officials in 2006 put the number at about 150, as members of the reclusive church moved from a community on the Arizona-Utah line.
The congregation, known as FLDS, and has been led by Jeffs since his father's death in 2002. It is one of several groups that split from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, based in Salt Lake City, decades after it renounced polygamy in 1890.
In November, Jeffs was sentenced to two consecutive sentences of five years to life in prison in Utah for being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl who wed her cousin in an arranged marriage in 2001.
In Arizona, Jeffs is charged as an accomplice with four counts each of incest and sexual conduct with a minor stemming from two arranged marriages between teenage girls and their older male relatives. He is jailed in Kingman, Ariz., awaiting trial.
The group's retreat, about 160 miles northwest of San Antonio, is on a former exotic game ranch. The group bought the property in 2004 for $700,000 and began an ambitious construction program anchored by the temple.
© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. A total of 52 girls, ages 6 months to 17 years, were bused away on Friday to be interviewed, but only 18 were immediately taken into state custody, said Texas Child Protective Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner. No arrests had been made.
Meisner said welfare officials were looking for foster homes for the girls, most of whom have rarely been outside the insular world of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They were being housed for now at a civic center, she said.
"We're dealing with children that aren't accustomed to the outside world, so we're trying to be very sensitive to their needs," Meisner said.
Authorities had interviewed about half the girls since arriving Thursday evening at the remote compound with law enforcers, she said. Interviews were expected to continue over the weekend.
The investigation began with a call alleging physical abuse of a 16-year-old girl living there, Meisner said.
On Friday afternoon, the Department of Public Safety officials began executing a search warrant.
The warrant seeks records dealing with the birth of children to a 16-year-old and any records listing a marriage between a 50-year-old man and the girl, according to the San Angelo Standard-Times, which cited court records released late Friday in Tom Green County. Prosecutors in Tom Green, a larger county north of Eldorado, were handling the case.
An arrest warrant was issued, but the individual that public safety officials are looking for had not been located Friday evening, said spokeswoman Tela Mange. She said she could not reveal whose name was on the warrant.
"We have been working very closely with the adults at the ranch, and they have been assisting us in our search," she said.
The ranch covers roughly 1,700 acres. It is north of this two stoplight town, down a narrow paved road. Authorities blocked access to the compound's gate, keeping onlookers miles away.
Only the compound's 80-foot-tall, gleaming white temple is visible on the wind-swept desert horizon.
State officials said they did not know how many people lived at the retreat, but local officials in 2006 put the number at about 150, as members of the reclusive church moved from a community on the Arizona-Utah line.
The congregation, known as FLDS, and has been led by Jeffs since his father's death in 2002. It is one of several groups that split from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, based in Salt Lake City, decades after it renounced polygamy in 1890.
In November, Jeffs was sentenced to two consecutive sentences of five years to life in prison in Utah for being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl who wed her cousin in an arranged marriage in 2001.
In Arizona, Jeffs is charged as an accomplice with four counts each of incest and sexual conduct with a minor stemming from two arranged marriages between teenage girls and their older male relatives. He is jailed in Kingman, Ariz., awaiting trial.
The group's retreat, about 160 miles northwest of San Antonio, is on a former exotic game ranch. The group bought the property in 2004 for $700,000 and began an ambitious construction program anchored by the temple.
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here goes again. Article of Faith # 12 states We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law. Clearly this is against actual Latter Day Saint Principle and The Law! I''ve been a member for at least 14yrs and have never come across a polygamist church in any state.Oh yeah and I can wear pants if I want with a blouse. No prob. So long as it''s modest! www.lds.org for more info
www.lds.org for more info
I agree with you about LDS in Utah most of them are bigotts and I hate that ..because Jesus taught us to follow the Spirit more than the law ...
and about the poligamism ancient LDS did because all the men were killed by persecutions and the widows couldn''t be left alone it wasn''t for the sexual relationship as people think ...
anyway the last thing I wanted was to fight, i just wanted to express my feelings.
Ellis
ps:there''s another thing i never understand:how come that people who doesn''t belong to the church and doesn''t "study" the doctrine we follow, alway claim to know more than us?you need to read a book to judge it ...it''s not enough to see the cover!
Posted by jmcgilvray at 09:44 PM : Apr 05, 2008
I agree, and would remind jkhagemann of his own admonition. If so much as a hair on the head of newsterl is harmed, we will know where to send the authorities for questioning!
Warren Jeffs was convicted of a crime that by law hadn''t happened. He was convicted of "accomplice to rape" but the young man who was supposed to have committed the rape was never charged therefore there was no rape based on innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
I am not to close to the situation to ignore facts I just know a lot more of them than you do.
Plus the girls from the FLDS have a lot more say than you would ever believe. If they don''t want to be their they don''t have to be and they have plenty of ways to get out of there. Most of those young girls have relatives who would help them and take them in its just they have to make the decision it can''t be made for them
You apparently failed to hear Huckabee''s campaign stump that he''d use the Bible to rewrite the Constitution. This country was founded by a pilgrim cult escaping The Mother Land so to found its church, because they had been subjected to a government that was controlled by one religion. A desire that is preached that there must be amendments made to the Constitution to be more in line with the one country, one faith idea. The people who formed America Greatness wasn''t from a founding cult but from the immigrants who continued to arrive that required acceptance for change to always be understood and frame and forge a country of beliefs that demands equality, freedom and justice.