| The Dallas Morning News Aug. 6--SAN ANGELO -- Child Protective Services, forced by courts last spring to return hundreds of children to their parents in a polygamist sect, jumped back into Texas' tussle with the sect Tuesday. SAVE MONEY ON TRAVEL DEALS The state agency asked a judge to put eight of the children of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints back into state custody. In affidavits that provide the best view yet of what CPS has found in its investigation of possible sexual abuse of young teenage girls, four child-abuse investigators said removal of six girls and two boys, ages 5 to 17, are necessary because their mothers won't agree to keep them away from men practicing and promoting underage marriage. The affidavits reveal stories that are sad and dismaying. A 10-year-old girl told CPS investigator Kerrie Blair that she was brought to the sect's West Texas ranch in the middle of the night more than two years ago. She and a younger sister lived there with Bishop Merril Jessop and his wife, Barbara. The two girls haven't seen their 41-year-old birth mother since coming to Texas, Ms. Blair said. The older girl "said she misses her mother very much, and when she asked her uncle Merril Jessop about where her mother is living, he has told her it was none of her business", Ms. Blair's affidavit says. It says sect records show their mother married Mr. Jessop in 2004 and has abandoned the two girls. CPS says children of the sect are indoctrinated to accept underage marriage, as its interview with a 14-year-old daughter of Merril and Barbara Jessop indicates. The girl, who sect records and photographs suggest was "spiritually married" to jailed sect prophet Warren Jeffs two years ago, told investigator Ruby Gutierrez that she disagreed with the state worker's characterization of underage pregnancies as sexual abuse. "She said that the marriages are pure", Ms. Gutierrez's affidavit says. The girl added that "this can't be a crime because Heavenly Father is the one that tells Warren 1/8Jeffs3/8 when a girl is ready to get married and that he is only following the word of Heavenly Father." Harsh discipline In the court filings, CPS didn't say there has been sexual abuse or neglect of the eight children, though it said Merril and Barbara Jessop used harsh disciplinary methods with their children and witnessed more than eight marriages of underage girls -- including several of their daughters and granddaughters -- to older men. CPS said all eight youngsters are likely to be harmed if a court doesn't let the state intervene because the four mothers refuse to sign "safety plans" in which they voluntarily pledge to keep children away from certain men. "The department has not been able to work sufficiently with the parents", said CPS lawyer Charles Childress moments after filing the motions. "Mostly, it's about failure to cooperate." Mr. Childress, asked if the eight children are in danger, said, "That's what the judge is being asked to decide." Calls seeking comment from spokesmen for the sect were not immediately returned. An initial hearing was set before state District Judge Barbara Walther for Sept. 25. CPS is not saying there's an immediate emergency -- as it did in early April, when it removed from the Yearning for Zion ranch in Eldorado what it thought were 464 children. Twenty-six turned out to be 18 or older. Two more children were born while sect members were in state custody. Safety plans are common in cases in which CPS thinks children are at risk of maltreatment. But the eight children's mothers have refused to agree to plans proposed by CPS. The plans would require that there be no contact between children and certain men. CPS insists that must happen if the girls in question are to be protected from sexual abuse and the boys from being groomed to take underage wives. Doctor's advice Another affidavit gives a glimpse of the sect's defiance of outside intrusion -- at least, in CPS' eyes. CPS investigator Paul Dyer -- presenting why two girls, ages 5 and 15, need protection -- said he interviewed their father, sect physician Lloyd Barlow, one of six sect men indicted last month. Mr. Dyer said Dr. Barlow, when asked what a young woman could do if she was a victim of domestic violence, said, "The church elders would handle the situation first." Tuesday's action put CPS and the sect back on a collision path. State protective services workers are demanding that sect parents agree to outside scrutiny, while sect leaders are almost certain to keep denouncing what they call unwarranted invasions of privacy, sustained by religious bigotry. The action suggests CPS has sorted out who are the parents of most of the sect's children, which mothers will cooperate and which men are suspected of entering or promoting underage marriages. In ordinary CPS investigations, workers are quickly able to establish who belongs to a family, if parents will cooperate and identities of possible perpetrators. But the FLDS investigation has been anything but standard. After receiving a March 28 tip about young girls being forced into spiritual marriages, CPS raided the ranch about a week later. Inside, it was surprised to discover hundreds of youths -- far more than expected. CPS investigators began to interview teen girls and found evidence of possible child sexual abuse. CPS, using its standard presumption that any children in a household deemed abusive should be removed at least temporarily, took all of the children and many of their mothers to makeshift shelters and, later, foster care. However, an Austin-based state appellate court and the Texas Supreme Court strongly rebuked CPS for the mass removal, saying the agency provided only scant evidence of child maltreatment. In early June, CPS was forced to return all of the children to their families. Last month, a criminal investigation led by state Attorney General Greg Abbott yielded indictments against Mr. Jeffs, Dr. Barlow and four other sect men. Mr. Jeffs and four men were charged with first-degree felony sexual assault of a child, a crime punishable by five years to life in prison. Dr. Barlow's indictment indicates that he has delivered the babies of underage sect mothers. He was charged with failing to report child abuse. Those cases have not yet been prosecuted. Staff writer Emily Ramshaw in Austin contributed to this report.
To see more of The Dallas Morning News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dallasnews.com. Copyright (c) 2008, The Dallas Morning News Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Related News Topics:
News of Texas
Top U.S. news
|
