Sheriff Had Polygamy Informant For 4 Years

(CBS/AP)  It was no secret that a polygamist sect that built a compound in the West Texas desert believed in marrying off underage girls to older men. And the sheriff had an informant for four years who was feeding him information about life inside the sect.

But authorities say their hands were tied until last week, when they finally obtained the legal grounds to move against the group.

The trigger for the raid was a hushed phone call from a terrified 16-year-old girl to a family-violence shelter to report that her 50-year-old husband had beaten and raped her. State troopers put into action the plan they had on the shelf to enter the 1,700-acre compound, and 416 children, most of them girls, were swept into state custody because of suspicions that they were being sexually and physically abused.

The state is now scrambling to find shelter for the women and children, reports CBS News correspondent Hari Sreenivasan.

On Thursday, state and local law enforcement authorities defended their decision to leave the sect alone for four years after it moved in.

"We are aware that this group is capable of" sexually abusing girls, Sheriff David Doran said. "But there again, this is the United States. We are going to respect them. We're not going to violate their civil rights until we get an outcry."

Doran said it was not until after the raid began that he learned that the sect was, in fact, marrying off underage girls at the compound and had a bed in its soaring limestone temple where the girls were required to immediately consummate their marriages. Also, investigators say a number of teenage girls there are pregnant.

Authorities in Texas suspected there would be trouble ever since members of the renegade Mormon splinter group - the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - bought an exotic game ranch in Eldorado in 2004 and began building the ranch.

Warren Jeffs, the sect's prophet and spiritual leader at its longtime headquarters in the dusty, side-by-side towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., was charged in 2005 and 2006 with forcing underage girls into marriages there. He was convicted in September in Utah of being an accomplice to rape and is serving up to life in prison.

According to tax documents, the ranch paid more than $400,000 in taxes in 2006, reports Sreenivasan. In addition to a cement plant and cheese factory, the hundreds of women and children could be another source of income.

Doran had been making occasional visits to the Eldorado compound - he even called to tell members of Jeffs' capture in 2006 - but he said he saw nothing to warrant a criminal investigation. Most of those milling around the compound would scatter when he and a Texas Ranger visited, he said.

"You can only press someone so far without having a criminal investigation going on," the sheriff said. "This group doesn't openly talk and they do not openly answer questions."

Doran said he had an informant who was "instrumental in teaching me the group's ways." But he declined to say whether the informant, a former sect member, was in Texas, or Utah or Arizona.

Barry Caver, a Texas Ranger who sometimes went with Doran to the compound, said a general welfare check wouldn't have produced much. "They would allow us on the property to the extent that we could talk to the main three or four people" only, Caver said.

Texas Attorney General Gregg Abbott said that despite other states' investigations into Jeffs and FLDS, Texas authorities had to wait until they had evidence of wrongdoing in this state to act. He said authorities handled the case properly.

"You cannot go in and bust in someone's house if there's not probable cause to do so," Abbott said.

Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor who has written about polygamy, said even Jeffs' conviction was not enough to barge in on the sect in Eldorado.

"You cannot use stale evidence," Turley said. "They would need a contemporary statement or evidence at trial that an individual at the compound is practicing polygamy."

The man alleged to be the 16-year-old girl's husband, Dale Barlow, is a registered sex offender who pleaded no contest to having sex with a minor in Arizona.

"I do not know this girl that they keep asking about," he told Utah's Deseret Morning News on Wednesday. "And I have not been to Texas since I was a young man back in 1977."

Officials still have not identified the 16-year-old girl among the children and the 139 women being held at two sites in Texas.

"When you're dealing with a culture like this, they're taught from very early on that they don't answer questions to the point," Doran said. "All of that is certainly being sorted out right now."

[sarajohnson4]

Dude1988 you Don''t you know anything you are an idiot
, David Killed one of My dads best friends. He Was an A.T.F agent,My dad is a Fire Marshall for Humble Texas.He said that they did Botch that job. They Knew that he was going to fight back and he did,But David killed those people and not the Agents in charge. He wonted another Jones Town and he got it. He even said that he was an prophet for god and anything he says goes, like having *** with underage Girls.

[Renegade.Rivers]

You kill inocent people at Waco then you kidnap kids from their moms and dads.
Posted by dude1988

The people at Waco killed themselves. They were obviously breaking the law too and they chose to put up a fight, unlike the cult in San Angelo. The kids the officials kidnapped are the moms.

Posted by Displeased

--------------------------------------------
You been drinking the koolaide,too. Those people at Waco never killed themselves, the US Government was responsible for that debacle, and the tanks that tore the house to pieces were responsible for starting the fires. Even the few people who were fortunate to escape have always maintained that to be true. I suggest you take the time to watch the video, "Rules of Engagement," and then I challenge you to rethink you position.

[pensacola88]

You can find the law about Polygamy in the Texas Penal code. It is actually called bigamy, which implies marriage to more than one spouse at any time.

Under the TEXAS PENAL CODE, Title 6, Chapter 25.01 Bigamy is clearly defined and not legal. You can''t even be married and live with another person and "appear to be married to that person" or know that a person you live with is married to someone else and "appear that you are married" to that person.

Someone might argue that polygamy is not the same as bigamy, but in Texas, just "appearing to be married" to more than one person at any time, is enough to break the law.

[kodiak8881]

Let''s get something straight. Polygamy is NOT illegal by federal or state laws anywhere in the US EXCEPT for only ONE state in the union that has outlawed polygamy. Guess what state that is? Yup. Utah. These cults have gotten away with bigamy by not actually marrying any more than one wife. Believe me, they do know how to play the game.

[nolalou]

I''m glad they raided that compound, and got those girls out of harms way, but I do wonder about the 16 year old who called in to complain. Since they needed a reason go go in, could it be this was set up, so they''d have an excuse? In addition, how do they know the call came from inside the compound, since it was apparently made from a cell phone.

[hoosiermoon]

huronian1:
you need to change your diaper and then learn some manners.

[denn034]

It should also be noted that the FLDS say that those who oppose the polygamist lifestyle are intolerant bigots just like homosexuals say of those who oppose their lifestyle. If that argument isn''t valid where polygamy is concerned, it isn''t, then, it isn''t valid where homosexuality is concerned. Period!

[denn034]

Would you believe that NBC on it''s newsvine site has asked if it''s time to consider legalizing polygamy now? Apparently, NBC wants to legalizing raping underaged girls in temples! Now, that''s downright disgusting. Shame on you for even raising the possibility NBC! Polygamy has been problematic wherever and whenever it''s been practiced in human history as the FLDS most recently show and the unhappiness of women under Mormon polygamy, a Mormon Apostle name Heber C. Kimball acknowledged the widespread unhappiness of women under Mormon polygamy, more than graphically shows.

[pensacola88]

There has been a constitutional question asked by many about layers of Federal Laws that exist over the State Laws.

Their are four constitional guarantees in the Federal Constitution that are extended to every state:
1. The power to tax.
2. The power to police.
3. The power to pursue enterprise.
4. The power of eminent domain.

The power to police at the state level is where the statutes exist, which outlaw polygamy in Texas and many other states.

All First Amendment rights yeild to the power of police specified in Article Four.

Article Six specifies that Federal Laws prevail over State laws and the two shall not legislate to contradict with each other. Under this Article, Religious freedoms are subject to both Federal and State powers of police.

Several areas exist that conflict between the power of police against religious beliefs: Divorce, polygamy, marriage, employment discrimination, employment termination, emancipation, corporal punishment, and education accreditation.

[mikegerety]

to tejasdemo:
These people just want to be left alone. Muslims want to kill people. That''s the difference.