http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2009/mar/13/17-year-old-dropped-from-flds-investigation/
The state's Child Protective Services agency has dropped a 17-year-old mother from its investigation of alleged abuse at the YFZ Ranch, leaving just one child of the 439 initially removed from the polygamous Schleicher County compound.
The nonsuit, filed Thursday, removes from the case a girl who has vexed state and court officials with her refusals to produce her 8-month-old baby, which CPS had sought for genetic testing. The Salt Lake Tribune reported CPS opened a new case in San Antonio, where the girl lives, seeking access to the baby to monitor the girl's parenting skills.
The girl gave birth in June, just days after the return of hundreds of children from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. CPS has alleged she was married to an adult man at age 14.
The only child remaining in the case is a 14-year-old girl that sect documents and pictures show having been married to sect leader Warren Jeffs at age 12.
CPS on Thursday filed a request that the girl, who has struggled to adapt to outside life with two foster families since 51st District Judge Barbara Walther gave the agency custody of the girl last summer, be placed with a distant relative, Bandera resident Naomi Carlisle.
Carlisle, 52, is an FLDS member but has never been a resident of the YFZ Ranch, and five of her 11 surviving children have left the sect upon adulthood, according to investigation documents filed Thursday with the agency's request.
No hearing date on the placement has been set, court administrators said today.
Carlisle provided temporary shelter for her brother's children after their removal from the ranch in April until Texas courts ordered their return in June, the documents state.
"Ms. Carlisle has many strengths that make her an appropriate placement" for the girl, wrote Amanda Way, child placing manager for Adoption Priorities Inc., which conducted the background check on Carlisle. "She is of the same cultural and religious background as (the girl) and will be able to foster those needs. However, she is just far enough removed from the controversy of the FLDS case and the various participants in the case that she seems to be a safe placement option."
Friday, March 13, 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
Sect teen shows up w/ wrong baby
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6290129.html
Excerpt
SAN ANTONIO — Texas child welfare authorities have asked a judge to order a 17-year-old mother from a polygamist sect to submit to a psychological evaluation after she showed up to an appointment with Child Protective Services claiming someone else's child was hers.
The teen had previously refused to disclose the whereabouts of her infant born in June, when she was 16 and shortly after she and the other 437 children taken from the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado were returned to their parents from foster care.
The teen produced a baby purported to be her biological child for an appointment with CPS, but DNA tests taken during the appointment revealed she is not the infant's biological mother, said CPS attorney John Dolezal in a court filing on Thursday.
State officials believe the girl was married to a man in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints when she was 14. In Texas, someone younger than 17 generally cannot consent to sex with an adult, and The Associated Press is withholding her name because it generally does not name possible victims of sex crimes.
"It appears that (the girl) has been separated from her child," Dolezal said in the filing.
The agency is also concerned the girl is "being improperly influenced, against her best interest, into making choices to not produce her child and to produce another individual's child," he wrote.
CPS officials have said they want to ensure the infant is safe and are not seeking custody.
The girl's attorney, Kelly Ellis, is on maternity leave and couldn't immediately be reached for comment on Monday.
FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop said that while he was unfamiliar with the latest dispute in the case, the girl previously said she feared the agency would try to take the infant if she allowed officials to examine the baby.
"The department has reaffirmed that they're not trustworthy. She was concerned that they would take the baby," Jessop said.
A hearing in the teen's case is scheduled for Friday.
Her case is one of just two remaining cases in what was initially one of the largest custody cases in U.S. history.
Excerpt
SAN ANTONIO — Texas child welfare authorities have asked a judge to order a 17-year-old mother from a polygamist sect to submit to a psychological evaluation after she showed up to an appointment with Child Protective Services claiming someone else's child was hers.
The teen had previously refused to disclose the whereabouts of her infant born in June, when she was 16 and shortly after she and the other 437 children taken from the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado were returned to their parents from foster care.
The teen produced a baby purported to be her biological child for an appointment with CPS, but DNA tests taken during the appointment revealed she is not the infant's biological mother, said CPS attorney John Dolezal in a court filing on Thursday.
State officials believe the girl was married to a man in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints when she was 14. In Texas, someone younger than 17 generally cannot consent to sex with an adult, and The Associated Press is withholding her name because it generally does not name possible victims of sex crimes.
"It appears that (the girl) has been separated from her child," Dolezal said in the filing.
The agency is also concerned the girl is "being improperly influenced, against her best interest, into making choices to not produce her child and to produce another individual's child," he wrote.
CPS officials have said they want to ensure the infant is safe and are not seeking custody.
The girl's attorney, Kelly Ellis, is on maternity leave and couldn't immediately be reached for comment on Monday.
FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop said that while he was unfamiliar with the latest dispute in the case, the girl previously said she feared the agency would try to take the infant if she allowed officials to examine the baby.
"The department has reaffirmed that they're not trustworthy. She was concerned that they would take the baby," Jessop said.
A hearing in the teen's case is scheduled for Friday.
Her case is one of just two remaining cases in what was initially one of the largest custody cases in U.S. history.
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