Court Ruling and Reactions

Two articles on the shocking court ruling and 2 pieces on the reactions - similarities to Short Creek expressed - a fairly scary parallel.



Court: Texas had no right to take polygamists' children
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/05/22/flds.ruling/index.html

Excerpts

The state of Texas should not have removed children from a polygamist sect's ranch because it didn't prove that they were in "imminent danger," an appeals court ruled Thursday.

In the ruling, a three-judge panel did not order that the children be returned to their families on the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado, Texas.

Instead, the judges gave the lower court 10 days to vacate an order placing the children in state custody.

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Members of the YFZ community said they were "extremely grateful" for the court's ruling, but acknowledged the long road ahead.

The state can still appeal the decision or renew the investigation.

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The law grants the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services the authority to take emergency possession of a child if authorities have reason to suspect that there is an "immediate danger to the physical health or safety," warranting their immediate removal.

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After interviewing five minors who were or had been pregnant, CPS removed all of the children, based on the assumption that the community's belief system allowed minor females to marry and bear children, lawyers for the women argued.

"The department's lead investigator was of the opinion that due to the 'pervasive belief system' of the FLDS, the male children are groomed to be perpetrators of sexual abuse and the girls are raised to be victims of sexual abuse," the ruling noted.

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After the state took custody of the children, the mothers appealed the order on the grounds the department failed to establish that the need for protection was urgent.

Because no such proof was presented, the mothers argued that the district court, which backed the raid, abused its discretion and was obligated to return the children to their parents.

The appeals panel agreed.

"Evidence that children raised in this particular environment may someday have their physical health and safety threatened is not evidence that the danger is imminent enough to warrant invoking the extreme measure of immediate removal prior to full litigation of the issue," the panel wrote.

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Surrounded by the FLDS mothers represented in the case, Balovich said authorities considered the YFZ Ranch one household, an assertion with which the appeals court did not agree.

Therefore, proving that there was abuse in one household did not mean the state could apply that behavior to the entire ranch.


Texas' FLDS case rejected: 'Simply no evidence'
http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_9347022

Excerpt

It is not yet clear how soon FLDS children could return to the YFZ Ranch. Possible scenarios:

* The ruling by the 3rd Court of Appeals goes into effect immediately. If 51st District Judge Barbara Walther does not vacate her order putting the children in state custody, the appeals court will release the children.

* Meanwhile, the Department of Family and Protective Services could decide to comply with the appellate ruling, sending some or all of the children back.

* The agency could instead seek a stay.

* It may also, within 15 days, seek a rehearing before the appeals court. That appeal could be narrowed to only children it believes can be proven to be in danger.


Appeals court returns kids to YFZ sect
http://metrocolumnistsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/05/appeals-court-returns-kids-to.html

Excerpt

But I hope this isn't a singal that Texas intends to turn its back and allow the polygamous FLDS sect to go right back to operating as a closed and secret society operating outside the rules of law and of civilized society.

Sadly, that's what happened in 1953, when the state of Arizona was so widely condemned for the so-called "Short Creek" raid on the same polygamous sect in what is now the community of Colorado City that it turned a blind eye to what was going on there for the next 50 years.


Court order shocking to woman who fled sect
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/5797658.html

Excerpt

Her poise gone, Carolyn Jessop stood shaking slightly before the group of 50 or so foster care and social workers that she had come to advise.

"I just can't believe they are just sending them back," she said, her tears now noticeable. "That everyone can pretend that the abuse didn't happen."

Just moments before, Jessop had been fielding questions on everything from sartorial preferences to systems of power and dominance among the children born into the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, a polygamist sect she fled in 2003.