SAN ANTONIO, May 2, 2008
Polygamy Sect Mom's Newborn In Custody
Teen Mother's Second Son, Born This Week, Is In The Custody Of The State
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The baby boy born to a teen taken from the polygamist sect in Texas, is now in the custody of state Child Protective Services. (AP / CBS)
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Texas District Judge Barbara Walther signed the order Wednesday giving the state custody of the 1-day-old infant born to a teen believed to be 15 or 16 years old.
The girl has claimed to be 18 and based on a bishop's record used during the custody hearing two weeks ago, she would be 18 now. But officials believe she is younger and placed her in foster care with other children taken from the ranch.
The newborn is the teen's second child; the first is a 20-month-old boy. The father of both children was identified as Jackson Jessop, 22, but state officials say they don't know his whereabouts.
Child welfare officials now have 464 children in their custody, swept from the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado because authorities believe underage girls were forced into marriages and sex with older men. Authorities are also now investigating possible sexual abuse of boys.
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints members have vehemently denied there was any abuse, and civil liberties groups have raised concerns at the sweeping nature of the removals.
FLDS spokesman Rod Parker said the girl who gave birth was reclassified as a minor by CPS when the children were moved from the San Angelo Coliseum to foster facilities last week. He said he believes some of the girls, including possibly the one who gave birth, are over 18 but told authorities they were minors so they could stay with the very young children. Minors with children were placed in the foster care facilities together.
"There's a little bit of fighting fire with fire," Parker said.
Individual custody hearings are set to be completed by June 5.
CPS and law enforcement raided the ranch on April 3 after a girl claiming to be 16 called a domestic abuse hotline to complain of abuse at the hands her much older husband. Authorities are investigating whether the calls were a hoax.
Regardless, child welfare authorities say 31 of the 53 girls aged 14-17 have children or are pregnant.
According to bishop's records filled out in March 2007 by heads of household at the ranch, there were eight wives under the age of 18 listed in 35 households. Several entries omitted ages of wives, however.
Parker said he had never seen the bishop's records that were introduced at the hearing and couldn't talk about them specifically. He said there was no indication whether the relationships began in Texas or in Utah, which he said has different standards for what constitutes abuse.
Under Texas law, children under the age of 17 generally cannot consent to sex with an adult. A girl can get married with parental permission at 16, but the girls who belong to the sect are not believed to have legal marriages.
The bishop's records released Thursday were used by CPS to demonstrate a pattern of abuse justifying the removal of all FLDS children in a hearing two weeks ago. The records indicate that about two-thirds of the ranch's households were polygamous while the others were young couples or traditional nuclear families.
Several family lists included dozens of wives and children, including one that listed 21 wives ranging in age from 24 to 79 for a 67-year-old man.
FLDS is a breakaway sect of the mainline Mormon church, which disavowed polygamy more than a century ago.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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The father is 22 years old????? What a pervert! Send him to jail already, that old man pervert. In fact, for every teenage girl out there that gets pregnant, if we find the father just a mere 18 or older, married to her or not, let''s put him in jail.
If he had been tapping lines and listening to activities in everyone''s house, he would have found these guys much sooner!
Perhaps he''s only tapping the lines of suspicious conversations, phone calls that are made to certain countries?
oh, if only Clinton were president, then these girls wouldn''t be pregnant at fld, they''d be pregnant in the White House.
What''s good about teenage girls having babies? Do these girls become sterile when they hit 20? Is that when they become an old maid?
Re Texas law, why would parents give permission for their daughter to get married at 16?
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Posted by rudy654 at 03:09 AM : May 02, 2008
+ report abuse
I don''t think the people of Texas or their representatives are saying any such thing. IF you listen carefully and READ carefully, I think the goal here is to protect young Girls from being brainwashed and abused. This Teenager has had TWO kids and she''s not even 18 yet. Was this an accident? An error in judgement made by this teen in the backseat of her dads car? NO! This was an even PLANNED by the Church and carried out by that same church. That is WRONG and shows a mentality toward what you claim to be against... Control of PEOPLE by authority figures...in this case the head of this cult. Sieg Heil and Amen
These old perverts kicking all the young boys out so they won''t have any competition for the next available virgin are the sickest bunch of whack job pedofiles in the country.
Too bad the sickos don''t have records of who fathered those children on children in illegal (spiritual) marriages. They need to be put in prison.
These women are brainwashed into obedience to these old perverts all their lives. They are totally dependent on these sick old men. They would go straight back and start breeding so these perverts will have more children to force into illegal marriages.
Is that what you want for those children?
Too bad the sickos don''''t have records of who fathered those children on children in illegal (spiritual) marriages. They need to be put in prison.
Posted by RowdyTexan2
Did you read the story?? The father of this baby is 22. When did 22 become an old man??
Keithle1
Yearning for Zion? More like yearning for a little something else.
I agree completely. However I don''t see justification for separating a newborn from it''s mother. even if she is/was underage, she didn''t commit a crime the male did. Why take her child and do psych damage to it for us to pay for later in the courts? The state seems to be out of control. IMHO.
DNA testing is going to provide the birth record for these folks.
That lesbian judge is taking her hatred of men out of these families and it is criminal.
These children are the victims NOT the criminals. Relocate them and their mothers. Breaking up homes is not the answer and removing a day-old newborn from its mother doesn''t pass the smell test. Why don''t we sew yellow stars on them and march them to the nearest railway station.
These people have lived like this for over 100 years. At the time that their sect was founded, marrying young girls was a legal practice ...even as recently as the 1950''s.
My mother married my father in 1951, he was 19 and she was 16. They were both from nice families. My mother was pregnant.
I am glad they did get married and bore me. Otherwise I would not be here.
Just because society says that now it is a law it does not mean that other societies must be what we are. Other cultures still marry young. We let this sect society exist and now it is right to take their children. I don''t think so.
The majority of these children have been taken without just cause. They are fishing for reasons and that is not how the law operates.
Regardless of your opinion, the underage female did not commit a crime. The male did. The removal of the newborn is unwarranted. The basis of the law is the underage girl CANNOT make the decision to have *** as she is not capable of thinking on that level as she is a child. SHE is blameless. on top of the crime of the cult leading her into underage *** the state is stealing her child. Where does the kid go for help? Under the law she is a child. the state should be helping her.
I do not understand that if a child is a child and cannot think for itself then why are 7 year olds charged with felonies as has occurred within the last week.
The law cannot have it both ways.
When you live here you have to follow the law. It''s part of being an american.
The law says children inder the age of 15 do not have the capacity to care for themselves. It is up to the parents to protect their children. Just because your religion says it''s ok to "marry" underage children does not make it right.
Would you as a father want some "prophet" to come to you and say that your 13,14,15 or 16 year old daughter is now ready to be married and then married to an old man? I know I wouldn''t. I would have to protect my daughter. The issue was not how many wives they had, but the age at which they were marrying and having children!
From reading and listening to this story it seems apparent that DFPS had enough information to show a judge that what they did was backed by some type of evidence. I also read where these folks were lyinh about their names and birthdates. Now why do you think that was? It was to conceal the fact that these "prophets" were marrying underage children. Why do you think DNA tests were ordered. They don''t really know how old and what the birthdates are on all these folks, not just the children. Some of the children don''t even know if they are with their real moms and dads. So who do you return the children to?
DFPS is not persecuting these folks just trying to stop child abuse.
Where are these guys? Surely these women and girls did not get pregnant all by themselves. (I don''t believe for a second that God knocked them all up!) Also, with NO men around, just how do these women support all these kids? Takes money to buy food, clothes, and everything else one uses in their day to day life and raising children.
As to the men they are still at the compound! It is my understanding that they are being investigated and the DNA test could play a factor in the investigations and if charges are to be filed.
I read where the men run their rock quarry and const. companies, but the women and children take care of the houses, yards, gardens and such. But the women do all the cooking, cleaning, etc.
I keep thinking, if these polygamists had responded like Branch Davidians and by shooting at those idiots and holding their ground long enough, the warrant would have been exposed as a fraud and the government thugs would have had to leave with their tails between their legs!
I hope the Mother get a good lawyer and wins BIG TIME.
But then again all that group wants is to be left alone and live their live.
Free of Religion is not free in TEXAS and may not be that for long in the USSR(United States Socialist RepubliK) for long.
The state will tell you what you can and can not believe.
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Posted by tinaleann
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This has been their way of life for many, many years. Now the STATE steps in and kidnaps the children.
IN THE UNITED STATES WE ARE NOT SUPPOSE TO HAVE STATE DICTATED RELIGIOUS BELIEFS.
SUPPOSE THE STATE STEPPED IN TO TAKE YOUR CHILDREN- THEY SIMPLY DID NOT AGREE WITH THE WAY YOU LIVE AND RAISE THEM. YOU WERE IN THE WRONG CHURCH AS WELL.
WHAT WOULD YOU/COULD YOU DO?
Posted by papabc
It becomes a problem when they break the law.
I betcha that a bunch get lost in the system. My heart really goes out to these young mothers who along with every thing else they have been forced to endure, have now lost their children.
Posted by minnick8
I really don''t see the point of taking this mother''s newborn away from her. Neither one of these people committed a crime. It''s the father they''re investigating. They''re separating the mothers and their babies while the men, the suspects, are going about their daily lives. The handling of this case seems ridiculous.
Yes, and the longer it goes on, the more ridiculous it seems to be getting. I have agreed that something needed to be done, but taking a newborn away from its mother cannot possibly be the solution.
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