SAN ANGELO, Tex., May 31, 2008
Delayed Reunion Frustrates Sect Parents
Polygamist Sect Children Remain In Texas Custody Despite Court Rulings
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Play CBS Video Video Polygamist Standoff In Texas Just as parents from a polygamist sect in Texas were preparing to regain custody of their children from state officials, a judge suddenly negated this decision. Hari Sreenivasan reports.
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Texas polygamist sect members Edward and his wife Dora May are the parents of six children. (CBS)
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Photo Essay Separation Anxiety Some mothers in polygamist sect separated from children as part of abuse investigation.
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Photo Essay Polygamist Compound Raid Secret calls from alleged abuse victim lead to raid of religious sect's compound.
Parents arrived Friday at the San Angelo courthouse expecting to be reunited with their children after the Texas Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that the state overstepped its authority in taking custody of the children. The court ruled the children should be returned to their parents.
However, despite a tentative agreement reached early Friday between lawyers on both sides, the children remained in state custody, frustrating the hopes parents had for a reunion.
"There's no relief. There's no way to knowing when relief will be here," said Willie Jessop, a sect spokesman. "There's no way to get cooperation out of the legal system to fix what they did on April 3."
The tentative agreement, which would have returned the children Monday, contained several conditions for the parents, including:
But after several revisions and an endless stream of concerns from dozens of lawyers representing the mothers, a frustrated Judge Barbara Walther walked of her courtroom saying that if all the lawyers could get their clients to consent and sign the agreement, she would sign it as well, reports CBS News correspondent Hari Sreenivasan. Lawyers for the children were disappointed.
"At the end of the day, these children need to be at home with their parents," said Andrea Sloan, one of the attorneys representing the children.
For eight weeks, the more than 460 children taken from the polygamist ranch in El Dorado have been split up in group shelters all over the state.
"They've had them where they wouldn't eat; they haven't been able to sleep; they've been through an absolute terror of an experience," said Jessop.
At the Yearning For Zion Ranch, parents hopeful of seeing their children continue to wait.
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- great, now little Suzie gets to go back to live with Uncle Grandpa and Auntie Mom. The "old fashoned clothes" adopted in the 1950s can''t hide the fact that these church leaders are a bunch of Pervs.
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- I cannot believe that the idiots, Child Protective Services who botched this investigation should be allowed to continue. Statutory rape is a criminal offense to be handled by the State Police, not a bunch of psycho-babble experts. A criminal defense attorney in Philadelphia told me that a social worker is a rapist''s best friend when it comes to the mishandling of evidence.
What about constitutional process here?
Certainly rape complaints must be carefully investigated. However, the search warrant was illegal. It violated the doctrine of probable cause. When are we going to decide that constitutional rules apply to social workers, or is American Communism going to continue its expansion?
There are many cases across the country where children are taken from parents without due process of law.
This is a very blatant case here. If a proper settlement that obeys the Constitution is not implemented, the right all Americans are in peril. - Reply to this comment
- How can a nation have the words in our constitution we have and still have THIS going on? The FIRST paragraph of our Constitution say''s all that needs to be said in this case. WE THE PEOPLE (there are NO seperate groups) in order to form a more perfect Union (we''re all in this together) establish Justice, provide for the COMMON defense, promote the GENERAL Welfare, and secure the blessings of Freedom to OURSELVES and OUR posterity... There IS no room in there ANYWHERE for seperate GROUPS or Cults...
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- In some cases, the mothers are the children of the dads.
Posted by FeelFree4U at 09:19 PM : Jun 01, 2008
What''s this? Chinatown? - Reply to this comment
- The sect people are probably feeling like Mel Gibson where he says in one of his movies: "Give me back my son!"
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- Delayed Reunion Frustrates Sect Parents ---- Don''t they have a pill or something for sexual frustration ???
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- Instead of banging on each other, how about focusing on outlawing polygamy on this turf (the US) and keeping these children safe, away from the venom that has sexually abused them, scarring them for life in addition to basically waterboarding the infants until they "surrender" and can be controlled.
There is no one under this sun that can say that any of this is right, what has happened to these children in the forms of abuse they have suffered, and look the maker straight in the face. Karma is unfathomable and there are some big debts to pay fellas. - Reply to this comment
- I would much rather CPS take kids that MIGHT not be being abused, than fail to take ones who are. Too many kids suffer terrible abuse, or worse, death. I know this firsthand. These ''religious cults'' have always been trouble. Sinning and inflicting abuse in the name of ''religion.'' Disgusting.
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- MyOpinion1, your sad attempt to show everyone how grand you are through your pathetic attempt at cutting me down shows me that you are just as stupid as you are arrogant. To me, people like you are a shining example of what I would never want to be. My blindness is not a disability, you ARE a walking, talking, breathing disability that I will definitely NEVER have the pleasure of knowing and I thank you for that because it must be very lonely where you are, but you seem to have adapted quite well and I appreciate your attempt to humor me but you fall seriously short, almost borderline I would imagine if asked to make a diagnosis. Have a good life as it may be, more or less. You are still tabula rasa in my book.
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- As far as poligamy goes, who REALLY cares if a guy has more than one wife? He deserves the agony he surely gets if he has more than one wife!!!
Posted by edintex
I''ve heard this from a few people but after reading the "Escape" book and seeing dozens of interviews of ex-FLDS members, I see a recurring theme. These wives are all jealous of the attention these men lavish on them and take it out on the children in the form of beatings. Favorite wives and their children are denied some comforts and even necessities if they fall out of favor with their husband and it''s very sad to think of a child not getting enough food or medical help because of favoritism. So, taking into account that polygamy is illegal, there seems to be a lot of things that make it wrong. My comments are only from the little bit I''ve read over the years and the same theme is consistent amongst all the ex-members: abuse in all different forms and intimidation of anyone who tries to get help. - Reply to this comment
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