Judge Barbara Walther also ordered court DNA testing for all 416 children who lived at the YFZ (Yearning For Zion) Ranch in Eldorado to determine their biological parents.
The compound is run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — a Mormon offshoot that practices polygamy.
Walther made her ruling after two days of testimony at a hearing to determine whether the children were properly removed by child welfare authorities.
Walther said she found sufficient evidence for Texas Child Protective Services to keep custody of the children.
Officials are now looking for “the very best temporary placements for these children,” said Marleigh Meisner, CPS spokeswoman.”
“The ranch raid stemmed from a series of phone calls in late March from a 16-year-old officials referred to as Sarah, who said she had been beaten and forced to become the “spiritual” wife to an adult man.
“FLDS members have denied that the girl, supposedly named Sarah Jessop Barlow, exists. Authorities have been trying to locate her, but have been unable to identify the girl.
TheStateOf . . . Polygamists. No one knows what was going on in that compound, but it’s hard to see how Texas can take 4oo kids away from their parents en masse, especially when the original informant is nowhere to be found. I (J0 have ignored this story until recently. This is a tough case. Do you think Texas should keep the kids, even if the kids want to go back home?
Man oh man. I can’t wait to hear how it’s ok for the State to kidnap 416 children for their own good.
William Norman Grigg has done a phenomenal job discussing the issues at play in this case and why we should all be very concerned -
http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2008/04/collectivist-child-abuse.html
If it’s a big sex ring, someone has step in. On the other hand, if only a few of the kids were abused, how can you take the others from the parents? Shet is wild. I wouldn’t want to be involved in that case . . .
I don’t get this either. Usually, when Child Welfare Services step in, there is in investigation into an individual’s case, not some mass “defense”.
How did they know that each kid was in danger? Also, there have been proven negative psychological consequences for kids when they’ve been taken from parents like this, even for a day. Are they really protecting the kids?
This is a bad precedent and I hope TX gets smacked down for how they handled it.
Big J: If it’s a big sex ring, someone has step in.
What do you think old men marrying teenage girls is?
These girls never have a chance or a choice about what their lives are going to be before they are turned into baby-making machines.
What’s really twisted is so that each man can have at least three wives, two-thirds of the teenage boys are expelled from the groups for minor stuff like listening to music or public displays of emotion (laughing).
Rod,
If old men are marrying children, I’ve got a problem with it and the gov’t can step in. But the fact that these kids grow up in a compound reserved for their religious sect is not a crime by itself -no matter how wierd. As long as nobody is being held against their will, who’s to say what’s right or wrong?
Even so, that doesn’t explain why they took the underage boys from their mothers unless some of that older-younger stuff is going the other way. [extremely doubtful on that]
I heard that the problem in returning the children to their parents is that they are having trouble identifying who each child’s biological parents are. The kids are claiming so-and-so is their “sibling” because their mothers are co-wives, even though they are not truly related. So it’s taking some time to sort through everything.
This is another example of sick perverted men getting their rocks off under the guise of religion. A lot of what has been documented to occur is, in fact, child abuse.
I think more care should’ve been taken prior to all of the children being removed though. That’s madness!
How can you take children away from parents that you cannot readily identify???? That’s careless to say the least.
I think the DNA testing is also being used to sort out who the real parents are. Apparently, the people they detained are giving false names and making it generally hard for the police to identify who’s who. They fear would be that a bunch of these kids have teenage mothers and ONE 75 year old daddy.
Call me naive, but I’d like to think there’s something we dont know that necessitated the removal of 400 kids. That’s a lot of damn kids to just arbitrarily place in protective custody without justification. Far be it from me to put anything past any facet of the powers that be, however, in our “cover-you-ass” society, that’s a lot heat to take (400 kids worth) to just be on a fishing expedition.
I feel you RJ, but i don’t put anything past Texas.
RJ, first off the DNA test is what they are waiting on which take up to a month a believe. Second, I believe they are also holding off to “cover their ass” because they claimed the original call, which ended up being a hoax alerted them to the sex abuse. They are now pinning the hoax on some black lady…
They are now contradicting themselves trying to find the connection she has, because the group is a white separatist group that would not have ANY affiliation with the lady in question….
America does not like cults, so they are trying to tie sexual abuse to this group, I personally think they have NO EVIDENCE of such….
Last time I checked fcuking underage girls was against the law.
The authorities need to start sweeping through the ‘hood too and putting these child molesters under the jail.