Suspect Denies Knowing Polygamy Sect Girl

Hearings To Sort Out Custody Issues For Kids From The Polygamy Compound Will Begin Monday

(CBS/AP)  Texas Rangers along with Arizona probation officials met Saturday with the man accused of abusing the 16-year-old girl whose call for help triggered a massive raid on the West Texas compound of a secretive polygamous sect.

Dale Barlow, 50, Colorado City, Ariz., has denied allegations of physical and sexual assault made in a whispered March 29 telephone call to a Texas domestic violence hot line.

Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Tela Mange confirmed the meeting, but offered few details of the interview between Barlow and officers.

"We have not made an arrest in this case and may not necessarily make one today." she said. Texas rangers traveled to meet Barlow near his home in northern Arizona.

A telephone message left at Barlow's home by The Associated Press was not immediately returned.

Barlow has said he doesn't know the girl, who Texas child welfare officials have not yet located.

In her phone call, the girl said she was pregnant with her second child and her husband beat her about the head and chest when angry. She said she was trapped and not allowed to leave the Yearn for Zion Ranch in Eldorado.

The ranch is owned by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, whose members believe practicing polygamy will bring exaltation in heaven.

The faith's members have traditionally made their homes along the Arizona-Utah border, but in 2003, purchased the 1,700 acre former game preserve about 40 miles south of San Angelo.

Barlow spent 45 days in the Mohave County, Ariz., jail last year after pleading no contest to a charge of conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. He is a registered sex offender on probation and can't leave the state without permission. Bill Loader, his probation officer, has said he saw Barlow in Arizona a day after the Texas raid.

Child welfare officials seized 416 children, most of them girls, in the raid on the compound, saying the youngsters were in danger of physical, emotional and sexual abuse.

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Read Hari Sreenivasan's blog post from San Angelo.

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Some 139 women from the ranch left voluntarily to be with the children, who are now housed in San Angelo's historic Fort Concho and at the nearby Wells Fargo Pavilion. Officials have said they are having difficulty identifying some of the kids.

FLDS families have been under suspicion for decades for their religion-driven lifestyle and are taught to fear authorities and withhold information to protect their families.

Hearings to sort out the custody issues for the children are scheduled for Monday and Thursday.

The Texas legal community is responding to the challenge of recruiting as many as 350 court-appointed lawyers for the children in advance of Thursday's hearing. Texas State Bar President Gib Walton said the group has already conducted free legal training for volunteer lawyers so that each child can have representation.

"This type of mobilization is unprecedented, there's no doubt about it," Walton said. "We're very proud of the way that Texas lawyers have rallied to the situation," he added.

In addition to lawyers for the children, some of the women staying at the makeshift shelters are also getting free legal help from Legal Services attorneys, he said.

Logistics are another problem. Walton said the group may charter buses for lawyers who cannot get flights or hotels in the San Angelo area.

Meanwhile, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard sent an attorney and an investigator experienced in FLDS prosecutions to assist Texas officials in the YFZ ranch probe, Goddard spokeswoman Andrea Esquer said.

Also Saturday, Utah polygamy advocates in the Salt Lake City area were working on care packages for those held at Fort Concho. About 500 stuffed animals, toiletries, diapers and other personal items had been collected, said Mary Batchelor, a co-founder of Principle Voices. The items will be shipped to Texas next week, she said.

Some 500 children from Utah polygamous families had also written letters to the FLDS children.

"The children wanted to express their feelings and let these kids know that they are not alone," she said.

[cpaide]

you have to believe the mormans. they are the only ones who haven''t been lying about everything all along.

no 16-year-old girl

no phone call

no abuse

oh, but the raid and imprisonment of hundreds of children is true.

[jolievie]

How sad this is. DNA test would not work because there had been incest. Did you every look at them, they are all look the same.

[mercyme884]

Well here you go again, People believing every word written by the police and government control freaks. Who among you can honestly say they have a certain knowledge that all this is TRUE or just some contrived and possibly untrue evidence to make people believe the worst of their fellow Americans and make it easier for liars and thieves and murderers to be seen as true Americans.You should take anything said by todays newspaper reporters with a grain of salt by that I mean don''t believe everything you read in the newspaper and hear on TV news ...

[cattlekate]

Have they checked into the Arizona, Utah, Idaho, British Columbia and Mexico compounds to see if she was spirited away there, like the FLDS with all of the girls who rebel?

[denn034]

The Police should release the transcript, not recording to protect her identity, to the public so they can make up their minds whether the raid was justified or not.

[frankbowers]

capaide, your posting is great the word you left out was JEALOUS. Frank

[frankbowers]

Nearly all churches except the Methodise, Baptist, Catholic and Jewish are cults, especially the Church of Christ, the Penacostal, Mormon-LDS, are cults. They are few churches that practice today that are not cults. Sad to say the rev. Wright up in Chicago is a leader of a large cult and no one is complaining expecially obama. I was reared as a Baptist and converted to Caatholic and today I ponder even the Catholic teachings when they keep digging up skulls of 30 and 40 million humans. It makes me wonder when Christ was only borned 2008 + or - years ago. Why it take God 30 billion years to bring his son??????????
It is scary to think of this but it is facts I have a problem with when I say the "Hail Mary" in Sunday worships or "The Creed" OR "The Lords Prayer"

THINK FOLKS.

Frank Bowers of Austin, Tx, giving all a thing to think about and say now The Very Best of Good Byes to All after the thinking.

[b-easy63]

How about wait until the baby she is pregnant with is born and do a DNA test. Duh!
Posted by mahdeealoo at 03:51 PM : Apr 13, 2008


Okay. The problem is that they can''t find the girl who made the original allegations. And the women and girls in the groups rounded up are not cooperating of talking. Either the girl is in that group and is too afraid to come forward (the entire sect would be angry with her) or she is not in that group and has been hidden away or maybe, even is murdered OR the phone call was a hoax just to get the law to come out their and investigate and who ever made all the calls cannot come forward because though the sexual abuse and rapes are obviously true--the state has no true complainant.

On the other hand, they should just wait for each pregnant teen to give birth then DNA match up all the babies. If the girls are below the age of consent or were at the time of pregnancy, arrest all of those men and charge them with rape and child predatory crimes. If any are Dan Barlow''s kids--then one of them is probably the girl esp if another slightly older baby is matched up to him by her also.

This becomes a process of elimination, but all the men who copulated and impregnated those young girls can be caught.

[mahdeealoo]

How about wait until the baby she is pregnant with is born and do a DNA test. Duh!

And raping little girls because you think it is right in any case, even spiritual beliefs, is sooooooo sick and disgusting. How any child would want to have *** with an old man is beyond belief. Oh yea, it was rape.
I say lock these guys up, level the compound, empty their bank accounts, and throw away the key.

[dakotaclark]

Hmmm...

The main strategy of the average defense attorney is to advise the client to deny everything; and, develop plausible detractions or distractions.

In the case of Dale Barlow, he IS a convicted *** offender, one who must register.

Than alone speaks volumes about him; mainly that he IS a sexual pervert and a sexual predator.

More than likely, other posters are correct %u2013 there are %u201Creligious communities%u201D that use religion as a means to accomplish sexual predation.

I would bet my last dime that the sexual predation at the FLDS%u2019s %u201CYFZ Ranch%u201D involves boys too.