Polygamist Children Undergo DNA Testing

Texas Officials Hope Samples Will Clarify Family Relationships Of Kids In State Custody

(CBS/AP)  Lab workers began taking DNA samples Monday from the more than 400 children in state custody since a raid on a polygamist compound more than two weeks ago.

Officials hope the samples, to be taken by cheek swabs from the children and their parents, will help sort out the confusing family relationships in a convoluted custody case that has strained the resources of the child welfare system and the courts.

The testing is being conducted in the San Angelo Coliseum, where most of the children have been held since last week.

Judge Barbara Walther ordered the tests at the request of state officials, who have complained that members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have continually changed their names, possibly lied about their ages and sometimes had difficulty naming their relatives.

The process will likely take about half an hour per sample because of the paperwork and care needed to avoid contamination, said Darrell Azar, a spokesman for Child Protective Services. The tests could take three or four days to be completed.

A certain number of DNA markers - segments of the DNA with specific genetic characteristics - are tested to determine whether two people are related. If any uncertainties arise, analysts test additional markers.

Three male members of the sect said in an interview aired on CBS's "Early Show" Monday that they would cooperate in DNA testing if it would help them get the children back.

"Whatever we need to do to get them back in their peaceful homes," a man identified only as Rulan said.

Meanwhile, many of the men in the polygamist sect told Early Show co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez that they didn't know it is illegal to marry someone under 18.

State prosecutors have argued that the FLDS church encourages underage marriages and births, subjecting children to sexual abuse or the imminent risk of abuse. "Rulan" said sect members are reconsidering whether girls under 18 should have sex with adult men.

"Many of us perhaps were not even aware of such a law," he said. "And we do reconsider, yes. We teach our children to abide the law."

When the DNA sampling is completed, state officials will begin to relocate some of the 416 children staying at the coliseum and will separate the children younger than 4 years from adult mothers.

Officials say family relationships in the sect can be confusing to outsiders because the children of more than one wife live in the same household.

The children identify all the women in the house as their mothers, and if a father leaves the community, children and mothers are reassigned to another man, a child welfare investigator testified during a hearing last week.

Mothers of the youngest children had been allowed to stay with the children before the judge's order on Friday. But that arrangement will end after they are moved from the coliseum, Azar said.

He said it's not clear how soon the children will be moved, but state workers will try to keep them grouped together with siblings or others from the community.

They'll also try to shield the children, raised in an insular community with no television and little contact with outsiders, from overexposure to mainstream society.

"We're going to try to keep the children in groups so I don't think we're talking about your traditional foster setting," Azar said.

After two days of testimony, Walther ordered that all the children swept up in the raid of the Eldorado compound remain in state custody.

The custody case is one of the nation's largest and most complicated. The ruling Friday capped two days of testimony that sometimes became disorderly as hundreds of lawyers for children and parents competed to defend their clients in two rooms linked by a video feed.

The children, including 130 children younger than 4 years and two dozen adolescent boys, will receive individual hearings before June 5.

Law enforcement officers raided the Yearning For Zion Ranch on April 3. The raid was prompted by calls made to a family violence shelter, purportedly by a 16-year-old girl who said her 50-year-old husband beat and raped her. That girl has never been identified.

[cpaide]

yes, and i am hope this is the last of this KLK (krazy lesbians kult) of this texas social workers and judge, but they will be back, maybe for your childrens this time.

and i recommend the following good and honest study for more information on the filthy violent nature of this KLK:

No More Secrets : Violence in Lesbian Relationships
http://www.amazon.com/No-
More-Secrets-Violence-Relationships/dp/0
415929466/
"This study of abuse in lesbian relationships looks you in the eye and dares you to turn away. Far from being a prurient study of a fringe group of violent lesbians, this book demands that the queer community at large--afraid of straight disdain --recognize its accountability. No More Secrets illustrates that despite what many lesbian feminists believe, acts of violence are not committed solely by men."

[cpaide]

"I could never work out how this lesbians thing was supposed to work biologically. Naturally in humans male births almost equal female births the ratios are almost 50 50. If some lesbians have 2 or more e.g. up to 4 lovers in some lesbians societies what are the other lesbians who have to miss out and have no $ex slave supposed to do. It would seem rather unnatural to me a very suspect practice. What possible use can it serve in a modern society?"
Posted by ME_NZ

you making good point, my friend. and besides, biologically, is impossible for this lesbians to reproduce so in few years, there are none left.

which is why this KLK (krazy lesbians kult) have attempt to kidnap this nice clean mormans girls and have the lawyers sell them to this infertile lesbians couples. this we know by much good and honest proof.

[yongamerica]

Your definition of lesbian is a woman who stands up for her rights. A woman who will stand up to any male domination. A woman who refuses to be subservient to her husband. A woman who is more educated than yourself.

[cpaide]

the case is simple enough: all this lies and false accusations and illegal treatment of americans mormans in texas is cause by this KLK (krazy lesbians klan) for which it is known to have filthy objectives and the aggressive recruiting tactics as we have seen lately with this simple mormans women and children in texas. it is now for certain that they try recruit this simple women and obtain her children for the infertile lesbian couples as in texas.

[peevdprophet]

now it make sense to me: this this supposed clean humble mormans are really part of nazi KKK and KLK to stalk and abuse their own children with the "SIEG HEIL JESUS".
Posted by cpaide

You''ve got to do your part and run away from your beliefs before those Mormon aliens suck your thoughts out of your head. Next thing you know you''ll be talking in a funny accent like aliens just got finished probing you through and through from your rear.

[excoachken]

Hey gunownerdan: Enuf of your NRA paranoia. You have more to fear from the Bush "Justice" department than whether or not these kids all have the same daddy. Don''t worry they will no put a "chip" in your rifle until they "pry your cold dead hands off it."

[wolf77creek]

I certainly think they should go after these people for all the money they have taken in welfare, just imagine the money we could regain, years of child support payments for hundreds of children. So why not sterilize all the adult females & males and let them live in their world, of course that wouldn''t work as they need the the little girls for breeding purposes. Hopefully we can go after all the states that are protecting & financing these worthless welfare breeding child molesters and end this so called religious freedom that they have been enjoing for years.

[taoman3]

I wonder what the state of Arizona and Utah do with the medicaid fraud that involve these multiple wives and hundred of children. There should be a law prohibit women having babies and get on welfare

[gunownerdan]

This would be a great excuse for the government to begin getting DNA from every American at birth, for our protection, of course.
And don''t forget the microchips!

[cpaide]

but you know that this KLK (krazy lesbians kult) have been stalking this clean humble mormans for years now:

look at this http://web.sccn2.net/flds/More-Pics.htm and see that i have good and honest proof of this KLK activities with this mormans.
Posted by cpaide at 08:52 AM : Apr 22, 2008

Well SURE they have! SIEG HEIL and AMEN
Posted by MCVet

now it make sense to me: this nazi with the "SIEG HEIL" is part of KKK and KLK to stalk and abuse this clean humble mormans. who can believe his ranting and raving?

[incog-nito]

A "community" that is supposed about faith and family, but with older men sending young boys away to get rid of competition so that they can get the young girls, is one SICK society.

[downthewell]

Wow, these ppl are seriously messed up. They should have the kids taken away.

[mcvet]

The very fact that they were removed from this den of iniquity is defense enough. Whenever there is a defense for our freedoms, you can bet the ACLU will back the other guy. ACLU working for the rights of everyone else but America.


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Posted by mudrose at 09:50 AM : Apr 22, 2008
+ report abuse

Yeah right Mud!! LOL Do you know how many of us who rode bus''s to Alabama during the 60''s to stop torture and bombing of Blacks OWE our very lives to the ACLU? LOTS you stupid NAZI!! Sieg Heil and Amen

[mcvet]

but you know that this KLK (krazy lesbians kult) have been stalking this clean humble mormans for years now:

look at this http://web.sccn2.net/flds/More-Pics.htm and see that i have good and honest proof of this KLK activities with this mormans.


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Posted by cpaide at 08:52 AM : Apr 22, 2008
+ report abuse

Well SURE they have! Next you Fundies will be telling us they put something in their Kool Aid that made them rape these 13 year old girls!! It''s hard to determine who''s worse, these creatures who have 4 - 5 teenaged "Wives" or you freaks who defend them. SIEG HEIL and AMEN

[mcvet]

All that money being spent to see who the daddy is???
now thats pretty dumb.................


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Posted by Quetzal0666 at 10:14 AM : Apr 22, 2008
+ report abuse

Earth to Nazi... earth to Nazi!! It''s not to find out who the daddy is sparky. It''s to find out who is raping underage kids... BIG difference wouldn''t you say??? ROFLMAO When they have so many "Wives" they don''t know who is the father of whom, I''d say that''s a major problem. Sieg Heil and Amen

[quetzal0666]

All that money being spent to see who the daddy is???
now thats pretty dumb.................

[mudrose-2009]

I hear the ACLU is coming to the defense of the "children". After all they need the ACLU to defend their rights.

The very fact that they were removed from this den of iniquity is defense enough. Whenever there is a defense for our freedoms, you can bet the ACLU will back the other guy. ACLU working for the rights of everyone else but America.

[dashtre]

To tedstraw1 You ask come support a great man. Isn''t this worshiping false gods? The way you all talk you do worship him like this. I see nothing in God''s word that says laying down with many woman is ok. So explain what scripture talks of this? Tell me how is many wives ok? you are not married to all of them according to God''s law it''s what you all call a "spiritual marriage" this is man''s laws not God''s laws. You are married to one so the rest is adultery isn''t it? I just ask to understand what you believe
"You shall have no other gods before me"

[peevdprophet]

The video of these men only reaffirms the evidence that police have gathered, from pregnant underage children to the signs of physical abuse upon them.
Thank goodness they feigned a lack of knowledge, and claimed ignorance of society led to their confusion over, and defense of, their rape of innocent children.

Which has now been recorded for posterity.
Posted by cpaide

I''m glad to see you have recovered from that over dose of Stupid you took. Stay off them drugs.

[cpaide]

but you know that this KLK (krazy lesbians kult) have been stalking this clean humble mormans for years now:

look at this http://web.sccn2.net/flds/More-Pics.htm and see that i have good and honest proof of this KLK activities with this mormans.