All Sect Kids Home But Criminal Case Looms

440 Texas Polygamist Sect Children Returned To Parents, But Criminal Investigation Continues

(AP)  The members of a polygamist sect raided by authorities two months ago have their children back, but with a criminal investigation looming, the sect's troubles may not be over.

"There have been criminal problems located out there," said Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran, who was with state troopers and child welfare authorities when they raided Yearning For Zion Ranch in west Texas on April 3.

The Texas Department of Public Safety and the attorney general's office have taken over the criminal investigation at the request of authorities in the rural ranching community. While they confirm they are investigating, neither will say how long the investigation may take.

Child-welfare officials have alleged that members of the church that runs the ranch pushed underage girls into marriages with older men, but the evidence needed to support a criminal case could prove elusive.

DNA evidence acquired in the custody case is off limits to criminal investigators without a court order, and a prosecution probably would go nowhere without at least one willing witness in the insular ranch community. Members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints had a strong distrust of outsiders even before all the children at the ranch were taken away.

The children were allowed to leave foster care after a judge bowed to a Texas Supreme Court ruling last week that the state overreached by taking all the children even though evidence of sexual abuse was limited to five teenage girls. Half the children taken from the ranch were no older than 5.

All 440 children were returned to parents by Wednesday, Child Protective Services spokesman Patrick Crimmins said.

The high court ruling and state District Judge Barbara Walther's orders returning the children do not affect the criminal investigation, which involves several trailer loads of documents confiscated during a raid lasting nearly a week. Authorities removed all documents and photos they say might show relationships between underage girls and older men.

"It's going to take awhile. With any criminal case we investigate, we do as much as we possibly can before turning the case over to the prosecutors," said public safety spokeswoman Tela Mange.

Last week, investigators from the attorney general's office took DNA from Warren Jeffs, the jailed prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, saying they were looking for evidence of relationships between Jeffs and four girls ages 12 to 15.

Under Texas law, girls younger than 17 generally cannot consent to sex with an adult. At a custody hearing, state attorneys introduced a photo they said was a wedding picture showing Jeffs embracing a girl and kissing her on the mouth.

Jeffs has been convicted in Utah as an accomplice to rape in the marriage of an underage sect member. He faces similar charges in Arizona, though no trial date has been set.

Authorities have DNA from all the children and many of the parents at the YFZ Ranch - 603 samples in all - but those results cannot be used by law enforcers without a court order because they were taken from parents and children as part of the custody case, not under a criminal search warrant.

Even if the DNA shows children were born to underage girls and adult men, any prosecution will probably be difficult unless a victim testifies.

Utah successfully prosecuted three FLDS members and got a no-contest plea from Jeffs after years of investigation, but Arizona authorities have had to drop some charges because the victim quit cooperating.

Without a victim's testimony, it's impossible to establish jurisdiction for prosecution, a key element that has prevented some charges of members who frequently move among the sect's residences in Arizona, Utah, Texas and elsewhere.

In any sexual assault case, it can be difficult to persuade victims to assist in prosecutions, but such cases are even more challenging when they involve a community as insular as the FLDS, said Paul Murphy, a spokesman for the Utah Attorney General's Office.

Sect members are raised and work within the community, developing few financial or personal resources away from other members.

After a raid by Arizona authorities in 1953, FLDS members lived on the Arizona-Utah line with little interaction with government officials, who got involved only when allegations of underage marriages and abuse surfaced in 2001.

Texas authorities raided the YFZ Ranch after three calls to a domestic abuse hot line, purportedly from a 16-year-old mother who said she was being abused by her middle-age husband. The calls - which Doran said continued even after all the children were removed from the ranch - are now being investigated as a hoax.

The children and their mothers were taken to a shelter in San Angelo, where they were later separated. E-mails obtained by The Dallas Morning News under Texas public records laws show state officials had proposed sending them to another location because of fears of violence. A judge rejected conducting the separations in Midlothian, and the children were taken from their mothers without incident.

The e-mails also showed state officials' concerns that some of the mothers were planning a "run" from the shelter before they were separated, something FLDS elder Willie Jessop called absurd.

"We never, never did anything other than to comply and to endure what they put us through," he told the newspaper in a story published Wednesday.

The FLDS, which believes polygamy brings glorification in heaven, is a breakaway sect of the Mormon church, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago. Jessop said this week that the church would not preside over marriages between sect members who were not of legal age.

He sidestepped questions about whether such marriages ever occurred but has said the sect has been unfairly portrayed.

[kenhamlett]

It is interesting that the number of comments has dwindled on this story. It seems that most people think that the story is over and everyone will live happily ever after. Most don''t even realize what they have witnessed. It was not about religion, polygamy or child abuse. it was a staged event to set a scenario so they can ignore a person''s rights on a whim just by claiming the potential for wrongdoing. The Texas appeals court did not really overturn the judge''s ruling but simply made sure the state did not have to house the kids as the scam progressed. From now on a government employee, a business competitor or simply an irate neighbor can strip you of your rights simply with an anonymous call. Then claiming they have the right to use incidental evidence they can destroy your life and simply ignore your complaints of illegal and improper search and seizure.
Texas never planned to keep the kids. They could not do so in any practical manner. They needed to hold them for ransom with the prospect they could manipulate children into making contrived statements, having parents sign away their rights and have unfettered access to the families to victemize them at will. Then we still have the old rumor waiting to be proven that the state wants a ready made compound to give as a gift. We shall see on that part.
In all I doubt that the good people of Texas have a clue as to what they have allowed to happen.

[lochlan-2009]

Get out your wallets Texas. This ***up is going to cost you big. It already has.

[beehive21-2009]

MCVet ,U a NAZI ? If not whats with all that seig hail stuff ?

[gaye5]

MCVet, perhaps the person who put in the hoax call was trying to help those which they felt were in danger..
These people are adulters, they have many wives which is against the America law isnt it.. Or as I have said before, has America stooped so low that it doesnt matter if another law is broken.. From some of the remarks that I see here I hadnt realised that the morals of Americans had dropped so low.. It saddens me as the last time I was in America I found the people really lovely...

[messiahx4eve]

MCVet, I didn''t say anything about the tallywacking taliban, I said TYC, which is the TEXAS YOUTH COMMISSION, I lived in texass for quite some time & believe me, my opinion of texass is totally justified. As far as Polygamy goes, there are a lot worse things in life than being married to more than one woman. The law against it is MAN''S LAW, which by judging how many ILLEGALS get deported back, means NOTHING. If there is no prooof of sexual abuse, what happens to innocent until proven guilty? (I got that right, didn''t I?) Where you there personally? Did you witness all that has transpired? If reading any of these news services has taught me anything, its until I see it myself, believe less than 10% of what you read.

[chad55555]

If loving your kids and feeding and giving them shelter food and medical care makes you a criminal I guess any good person is guilty. COME ON AMERICA STOP ACTING LIKE YOUR PROTECTING US FROM OURSELF AND LETTING A MUSLIM WHITE HATER RUN FOR PRESIDENT AND NOT STOPPING PLANES ON 911. MY POINT IS THERE IS MORE IMPORTANT THINGS TO DO TO PROTECT AMERICA. I THINK THE PEOPLE IN CHARGE WANTED THIS TO TURN OUT LIKE WACO TO SHOW AMERICA YOU BETTER DO WHAT WE SAY OR YOU DIE.

[mcvet]

The scariest aspect of all of this is that it began with hoax calls. This is a sorry statement about the state of American freedom when hundreds of children are snatched out of their homes with so little proof or justification. What''''s to stop anybody from becoming a victim of hoaxes and other false reports? America is starting to become like Cold-War Russia in many scary ways. :(



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Posted by galaxiana at 10:42 PM : Jun 04, 2008
+ report abuse

ARE you NUTS?? Someone calls telling a Cop that some American Taliban Member is abusing little girls they''d better investigate... and like RIGHT now! Sieg Heil and Amen.

[mcvet]

Well, at least they didn''''t kill anyone this time like happened in Waco.


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Posted by govwatch at 08:47 PM : Jun 04, 2008
+ report abuse

Just like with Waco you blind fools refuse to see the evil in these Religious Freaks!

[mcvet]

texass WILL get a conviction somehow, someway, even if the authorities have to fake all the evidence to do it. They will twist words, fake statements, document false information, and do whatever it takes to get what they want to keep from being responsible for their rogue Nazi justice tactics. Know what the Catholic church priests and the infamous TYC have in common? EVERYTHING......


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Posted by messiahx4eve at 12:13 AM : Jun 05, 2008
+ report abuse

Yeah sure! All those 8 year old Kids of 20 year old mothers were produced by??? YOU low life creatures will defend the American Taliban and you care less about the health and well being of American Citizens. ANYONE who thinks the Taliban is worse than these creatures are living in a dream world! Sieg Heil and Amen!!

[messiahx4eve]

texass WILL get a conviction somehow, someway, even if the authorities have to fake all the evidence to do it. They will twist words, fake statements, document false information, and do whatever it takes to get what they want to keep from being responsible for their rogue Nazi justice tactics. Know what the Catholic church priests and the infamous TYC have in common? EVERYTHING......

[galaxiana]

The scariest aspect of all of this is that it began with hoax calls. This is a sorry statement about the state of American freedom when hundreds of children are snatched out of their homes with so little proof or justification. What''s to stop anybody from becoming a victim of hoaxes and other false reports? America is starting to become like Cold-War Russia in many scary ways. :(

[feelfree4u]

Alternate title-

"Children Rejoin Parents in Sects"

[cpaide]

criminal case? what a laugh!

they had no civil case; how can they possible believe there is a criminal action to pursue?

texas better just bend over and pay the upcoming civil suit for damages and quit embarrassing itself.

[govwatch-2009]

Well, at least they didn''t kill anyone this time like happened in Waco.

[deacon20081]

Time will tell when these people are sent to prisons.
The raid and warrants were botched but the facts are that the FLDS is a sect that abuses little girls.

[cfin5]

The poor dearhearts. Gotta go through all the shenanigans adults hand them in life. Makes me want to throw up hearing how old the groom was and how old the brides WERE NOT! You know, my folks divorced a long time ago and my brother and I had to endure all of the fighting that normally goes on. One thing I learned through it all is that if a parents income is at a high enough level, this is what should be done.......The parents must be the ones to carry the burden by keeping the house those kids are used to living, playing, going to school, and sleeping in,.....and make the parents be the ones to have visitation rights in turn to see the kids. Not the other way around. And don''t let the mother or father bring their girlfriends or boyfriends onto the property at any time. Make them finish out the raising of those kids. Who knows? Maybe the parents will eventually see their errors and reconcile with each other. Will this "making the best of a bad situation" always work? I doubt it. Just trying to help with a better idea than what''s going on now. I am glad that my parents have apologized to each other for their behavior. Lets a bunch of bad feelings wash away down life''s river. Glad I have a GOOD WIFE that loves me. And do I ever love and need her :)