Tensions Escalate At Polygamist Compound

Authorities Prepare For "The Worst" After Sect Leaders Refuse Search Warrant

(AP)  Sect leaders at a polygamist compound in West Texas refused Saturday to let authorities search a temple for a teenage girl whose report of abuse led to the raid, and authorities said they were preparing "for the worst."

If no agreement is reached with sect leaders, authorities will forcibly remove the sect's followers "as peaceably as possible," Allison Palmer, a prosecutor in Tom Green County, told the San Angelo Standard-Times.

Medical workers are being sent "in case this were to a go in a way that no one wants," Palmer said. Law enforcers are "preparing for the worst," she said.

"Within the religion that we have encountered, their place of worship is very special to them," Palmer said. "It appears to be of great concern to them if a person from outside their congregation even attempts to step inside their place of worship."

A search warrant authorized troopers to enter the retreat, run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They are looking for evidence of a marriage between the girl and a 50-year-old man.

Court documents say the girl had a baby eight months ago, when she was 15.

State welfare officials on Friday removed 52 girls from the compound. Marleigh Meisner, a spokeswoman for Child Protective Services, said another 131 residents were removed overnight. By Saturday afternoon, 137 children and 46 women were being housed and interviewed at local community centers.

"They seem to be doing fine," Meisner told The Associated Press.

The whereabouts of the 16-year-old mother who sparked the investigation are unknown, Meisner said. State troopers who raided the religious retreat were looking for the girl, her baby girl and 50-year-old Dale Barlow.

Under Texas law, girls younger than 16 cannot marry, even with parental approval.

Officials in Texas declined to comment Saturday on whether they had found Barlow, citing a gag order, but the man's probation officer told The Salt Lake Tribune that he was in Arizona.

"He said the authorities had called him (in Colorado City, Arizona) and some girl had accused him of assaulting her and he didn't even know who she was," said Bill Loader, a probation officer in Arizona.

Barlow was sentenced to jail time last year after pleading no contest to conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for three years while he is on probation.

His lawyer in that case, Bruce Griffen, said he had not spoken to Barlow in a year.

The search warrant instructed officers to look for marriage records or other evidence linking her to the man and the baby. The warrant authorized the seizure of computer drives, CDs, DVDs or photos.

Those inside the retreat did not respond to requests for comment.

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints broke away from the Mormon church after it disavowed polygamy more than a century ago.

The compound sits down a narrow paved road and behind a hill that shields it almost entirely from view in town. Only the 80-foot-high, gleaming white temple can be seen on the horizon. Authorities blocked access to the gate, keeping onlookers miles away.

The 1,700-acre property had been an exotic game ranch. It is surrounded by dusty, wind-swept land where sheep are raised and mohair produced.

Eldorado is a two-stoplight town of fewer than 2,000 people and located nearly 200 miles northwest of San Antonio. It consists of a cluster of government buildings, a couple churches and a few blocks of houses.

State officials said they did not know how many people lived at the retreat, although local officials estimated about 150 two years ago.

The FLDS has been led by Warren Jeffs since his father died in 2002. 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, Arizona, awaiting trial.

[quetzal0666]

SinginRick is in there i just know it!!!!

[billorights]

Thanks to the NRA, this compound is probably armed to the hilt. Posted by Voltaire333 at 08:09 PM : Apr 06, 2008

I believe you probably mean the Constitution, not the NRA. They have been instrumental in the preservation of constitutional rights. They do not create them.

(Let the hysteria begin.)

[jt_lancer]

Voltaire333 - "Now, I''''m 100% committed to getting guns out of their hands!"

What about out of the hands of government? You may recall at Waco that government guns led to the deaths of 80+ people at the Branch Davidian compound.

Governments around the world KILLED 170 MILLION of their own people in the 20th Century alone - NOT including war casualties (Death By Government). The worst individual serial killers in history did not kill more than 50 or so people.

I''ll take guns in the hands of responsible private citizens over guns in the hands of unaccountable government agents any day.

[luvcomments]

caliengineer - "This is a job for the local Sheriff."

You''re *** tootin'' - so why didn''t the local sheriff do this, decades ago? We''ve all read in the recent past that many local law enforcements turned a blind eye because they were sympathetic to what was going on.

[glock4me]

What a bunch of nuts. Makes me (almost) miss Janet Reno.

[voltaire333]

Thanks to the NRA, this compound is probably armed to the hilt. Authorities will need to be careful. Hopefully, the loss of life, if any, will be minimal, but it would be zero if we had better gun control in this country. This is an issue that I was not at all concerned about until I began posting on CBS and learned how dangerous and dishonest gun lovers can be. Now, I''m 100% committed to getting guns out of their hands! I don''t need another Timothy McVeigh to protect me from my government!

[caliengineer]

This is not about the LDS. This is about slowly establishing "precedent" to overrun religions and giving preference to the authority of the "state". This is a job for the local Sheriff.

[denn034]

"Mormons = dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb!"
Posted by bgwinnett

The Mormons are dumb but, these are FLDS not Mormons, most of whom having never been Mormon.

[bgwinnett]

cpaide

yeah

The nuns were brutal to my dad in 30''s.I wouldn''t mind perv nuns if they were good looking.

[cpaide]

"IF ANYONE EVER GETS ME IT''''LL BE THE KKK CUS I''''M CATHOLIC."
Posted by bgwinnett

if you''re catholic, it will be the perv priests or nuns. why not round them up with all the mormans? and round up the perv politicians who molest the pages and interns on capitol hill.