Texas Ends Several Polygamist Sect Cases

(AP)  State child welfare authorities have decided that the courts no longer need to oversee 34 children taken from a polygamous sect's ranch in west Texas.

The action does not necessarily end Child Protective Services' involvement with the children, but it means officials believe they can be kept safe without court intervention, agency spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner said Friday.

Child Protective Services filed papers in San Angelo on Thursday asking that the cases involving 10 families be dropped, and a judge agreed. They represent the first children dropped from court oversight in the case.

While the reasons vary, child welfare cases are typically dropped when investigators decide that there is no abuse or, if there is, that parents or another relative can ensure a child's safety, Meisner said.

In April, Texas authorities swept roughly 440 children into foster care from the Yearning For Zion Ranch over abuse allegations. Two months later, the state Supreme Court ordered the agency to return the children. The court said the action was overly broad, given the relatively limited evidence presented by the agency.

The agency has continued to investigate and asked parents to limit the children's contact with men accused of being involved in underage marriages.

The custody cases are separate from the criminal investigation into allegations that men from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which runs the YFZ Ranch, were marrying and having sex with underage girls.

Five men, including the sect's jailed leader Warren Jeffs, have been indicted on charges of sexually abusing a child. A sixth, the sect's doctor, was indicted on suspicion of failing to report child abuse. One of the men indicted on abuse faces an additional charge of bigamy.

Jeffs was convicted in Utah last year as an accomplice to rape and awaits trial in Arizona on charges of being an accomplice to sexual contact with a minor - all stemming from alleged underage marriages within the sect.

The FLDS, which believes polygamy brings glory in heaven, is a breakaway sect of the mainstream Mormon church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago.

[youngjm0]

If you go back to 1870, congress ask Texas to become a state again after the civial war, Texas has a law that the US congress agreed too, that Texas could at any time vote to become a NATION an LEAVE the US as a state, about giving Texas back to mexico, Texans has already made that clear to mexico, see this LITTLE RIVER called the RIO-GRAND, stay on your side and we will stay on ours, in 1900-something, we went almost to mexico city, in force, they the mexicans, put old PONCHO in jail so that we would go back to OUR SIDE of this Little RIVER CALLED the RIO-GRAND, Plus anything North of the RED RIVER is a YANKEE; "YANKEE"

[germany76]

Isn''t it fascinating that some liberals, while gung-ho about same-*** marriage ("live and let live" is their alleged policy), will deny adult men and women the legal right to marry whomever -- and how many -- they choose. If it''s all right to redefine marriage by gender, why not by number? Why pass judgment in either case? Inconsistent liberals, they be!

[tootall10142]

I married a woman from texas!---------- I divorced a woman from texas, nuff said cowboy?

[downsteamjim]

If you think these people are perverts, look at the age of Mohammed''s favorite wife when they married.

[beehive21-2009]

Wait,Wait till you see what Texas is going to pay $$$$$,lots of green, for Violating the Constitutional Rights, of fellow Citizens,before the World.

[a8151947]

Taxass shold not even be in the USA. That is how BAD it is. To H--L with all of Taxass.

[paris1969]

"... the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago"

... this is not true ... they just put in "on hold" until the "final days" when they will once again practice it!

[messiahx4eve]

Sorry to disappoint you WellHell3 but my two daughters are as follows: One is in the Gulf/Medaterrain area on board a ship, caught up in shrubbie the 2''s war for oil, and the the other one in college. I spent 15 years, 364 days, and one day too long in texass and had to deal with enormously high levels of stupidity and ignorance on a daily basis, far more than any place else I ever lived. My opinion of texass is very VERY V E R Y well-founded and deserved.

[kenhamlett]

As a side thought, what the FLDS needs is a new "prophet" that actually knows what is going on and will lead them to a solution. They just keep trying to think inside their own little box and can''t look beyond it for the right solution.

[kenhamlett]

"I am confused . ."- jennmarikp

Yes you are confused. From what I have seen it seems the state of Texas made many claims, made raids on numerous homes without just cause, kidnapped the children and held them for ransom (waiver of the rights of the families was the ransom), and subjected the children to forced into a mental health farce.
The only ones that gained where the child psychologists scamming a buck at the expense of everyone else as far as I can tell. It is unknown if others gained. It is suggested that the judicial goal was to set a precedent to nullify Constitutional and human rights in the state similar to how they do it in South Carolina.
Forget the lies and remember that so far no one on this ranch is guilty of anything. I assume they will trump up a few charges to make it seem they had justification for this anti-American act.