CPS final report includes abuse & neglect

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/12/24/1224eldorado.html


Excerpts

A Texas Child Protective Services investigation has found that of the 439 children removed from the Yearning for Zion ranch in West Texas earlier this year, 275 were abused or neglected.

The final report released Tuesday said that 12 girls were victims of sexual abuse because they entered "spiritual marriages" between the ages of 12 and 15. Seven of them have had children, the report said. It also said that 263 other children suffered neglect.

But the report does not include specific information on how investigators determined whether each child was abused or neglected, citing confidentiality requirements in state law.

The case "is about sexual abuse of girls and children who were taught that underage marriages are a way of life," said the report by the Department of Family and Protective Services, which oversees CPS. "It is about parents who condoned illegal underage marriages and adults who failed to protect young girls — it has never been about religion."

As a result of the investigation, the report said, 170 parents have taken classes "on appropriate discipline and the psychosexual development of children" and 50 girls took classes on how to identify and report sexual abuse.

CPS is working with the families of 15 children, including two who remain in state custody, department spokesman Patrick Crimmins said. The rest of the children are entirely in their parents' care. He said CPS has exhausted the options state law provides.

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State Rep. Harvey Hilderbran, R-Kerrville, whose district includes Eldorado, where the ranch is located, said the report "validates many of the things (CPS) was criticized for doing," including going into the ranch in the first place.

He said he'll file a bill during the legislative session that begins Jan. 13 that would allow CPS to remove perpetrators rather than alleged victims in cases that involve large communities such as the ranch.

McCown said that state law already offers an option for removing perpetrators but that it may not be wise to do so.

"If you've got a 13-year-old girl forced to marry a 50-year-old man, and her mother made her wedding dress, then leaving her in the care of her mother and removing her father doesn't necessarily solve the problem," McCown said.

In the separate criminal investigation, 12 male residents of the ranch have been indicted on charges including sexual assault of a child, aggravated sexual assault, tampering with evidence, bigamy and failure to report abuse. Among the indicted is sect leader Warren Jeffs.

Texas in 2005 raised the age of legal marriage from 14 to 16, in part to discourage Jeffs' group from settling in Texas, said Hilderbran, who worked to pass the legislation.