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.

Just 19 children cases remain from FLDS raid

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=5106323

(KSL News) Just over a dozen FLDS children remain under court jurisdiction in Texas following a raid on the FLDS compound in Eldorado earlier this year.

More than 400 children were removed from their families during that raid, and all were placed under court jurisdiction until Texas Child Protective Services could determine if they were in danger of abuse.

The Deseret News reports today that all but 19 children have been "non-suited," meaning their cases are no longer being investigated.

The reasons vary from the children aging out of the system to parents taking appropriate steps to prevent abuse.

DNA taken from polygamist sect baby

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6154234.html

SAN ANTONIO — Investigators from the Texas Attorney General's Office on Monday took DNA samples from a baby born to a member of a polygamist sect months after a high-profile raid, thwarting efforts by the mother to prevent the sample from being collected.

Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, confirmed late Monday that investigators executed a search warrant and gathered a DNA swab. The office is handling the prosecution of some members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints accused of charges including bigamy and sexual assault of a child.

Child welfare authorities previously tried to examine and collect a sample from the baby born June 14, saying they wanted to establish paternity, but the baby's 17-year-old mother refused to disclose the child's whereabouts. A stand-off in court in San Angelo on Nov. 25 led to an undisclosed agreement between the two sides.

But the search warrant, obtained in criminal court, forced the issue.

FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop said authorities went to an FLDS home in the San Antonio area, where some of the families have moved since the April raid on their West Texas ranch, and collected DNA from the baby girl.

He had said previously the teen mother, who was in foster care late in her pregnancy, was afraid authorities would take the newborn if she allowed them to examine the baby.

Child Protective Services said in court filings investigators believe the girl was married to a man in FLDS when she was 14.

In Texas, someone younger than 17 generally cannot consent to sex with an adult, and The Associated Press does not name possible victims of a sex crime.

Polygamist ranch leader indicted

This is big, exciting, great news!!!!!


SAN ANTONIO — A 72-year-old elder of a breakaway polygamist Mormon sect and two other church members surrendered to authorities Monday to face felony charges relating to the underage marriage of girls to older men.

Fredrick "Merril" Jessop, a leader in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who oversaw the sect's West Texas ranch, faces one count of conducting an unlawful marriage ceremony involving a minor on July 27, 2006 — the same day one of his daughters was allegedly married to jailed FLDS leader Warren Jeffs. She was 12 at the time and is now the only child from the Yearning For Zion Ranch in foster care after her mother refused to cooperate with child welfare authorities.


Merril and his first six wives, from left, Cathleen, Ruth, Faunita, Tammy, Barbara and Carolyn

A grand jury in Eldorado, Texas, indicted Jessop, Jeffs and two other members of FLDS on Nov. 12. Jeffs, convicted in Utah and awaiting trial in Arizona on charges related to underage marriages of sect girls, faces charges in Texas of sexual assault of a child and bigamy.

The two other men who turned themselves in Monday are:

Wendell Loy Nielsen, 68, charged with three counts of bigamy. The indictment includes few details, but church records released as part of a separate child custody case list 21 women married to Nielsen in August 2007.





Leroy Johnson Steed, 42, who is charged with sexual assault of a child, bigamy and tampering with evidence. Church records show Steed married to a 16-year-old girl in March 2007.


All three men were booked Monday and then released after posting bond.

"We've said all along we're not running. We're going to take it head on," said FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop. "The allegations they're making and what they're trying to do is nothing more than harassment."

Church records and journal entries released in the custody case indicate several of Merril Jessop's daughters were married to men in the church when they were 16 or younger.

One of Merril Jessop's wives, Carolyn, fled the FLDS community on the Arizona-Utah line with her children in 2003 and wrote a best-selling book, "Escape."

In all, 12 FLDS men have been indicted since Texas authorities raided the ranch in April looking for evidence of underage girls forced into marriages and sex with older men.

Generally, teens younger than 17 cannot consent to sex with an adult under Texas law. Bigamy is also illegal. While the FLDS plural marriages are not legal marriages, Texas law forbids even purporting to marry.

Nother pic of Merril with wives:

FLDS mom drops action against Texas CPS

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,705264178,00.html

Excerpt

Naomi Johnson sought financial damages against Texas Child Protective Services, claiming the agency failed to show it had evidence of abuse involving her daughter, Rebecca, and made sweeping abuse allegations against the entire FLDS community.

A hearing on sanctions was scheduled in San Angelo, Texas, Wednesday. But the hearing was canceled after the toddler was "nonsuited" on Oct. 28.

"We basically swapped nonsuits," Johnson's attorney, Robert Gibson Jr., told the Deseret News on Monday. "They dismissed, we dismissed."

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To date, only 37 children remain a part of the ongoing child custody case. The rest have been "nonsuited," or dropped from court oversight after CPS said its investigators either found no evidence of abuse or their parents had taken appropriate steps to protect the children.

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Hearings are also scheduled in Texas Wednesday to review the status of six children that CPS sought to place back in foster care. Their parents struck deals with the agency to keep them in their homes.

The Diversity Foundation

http://www.smilesfordiversity.org/index.php

I know its taken me forever to post something like this, but I am finally getting around to it! This is a place that takes in people who wish to leave the FLDS. There is a link to donate to them on their homepage:

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The Diversity Foundation is currently assisting the young men (aka “Lost Boys”) and women who are former members of the polygamist community in southern Utah known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (“FLDS”)

Beginning in 2002 the FLDS church began exiling young men between the ages of 14 and 23 for infractions that were in violation of church tenets. These infractions could be talking to a girl, wearing a short sleeved t-shirt, listening to music or watching television. Young women who have exited the FLDS community are doing so because they seek to live in a monogamous society. Both men and women lack an education that is chronologically correct. While living in the FLDS community they might receive an education until the eighth grade at which time they begin to work for wages that are given as tithe to the FLDS church.

The Foundation is helping these young men and women with obtaining a quality education: high school, GED and an undergraduate college degree. Assistance is also available for medical and dental expenses, psychological counseling and general living expenses.

We support social networks through activities: football in the park, bi-monthly discussion groups, mentoring program, life-skills training, advisory counsel, as well as other various interests.

Many of these young people have excelled scholastically. They continue to receive high marks of achievement in high school and college. They are enthusiastic about their education and have pursued college degrees in areas of engineering, medical, accounting, business, law, psychology, et al. With your support and the Foundation's assistance these children have the opportunity to be self-determined and contributing adults.

Judge Halts Land Sale Proceedings

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_10984091

Excerpts

Third District Judge Denise Lindberg postponed a hearing Friday to allow attorneys to work out a "global resolution" of litigation involving the United Effort Plan Trust and a plan for its future management.

The surprise move halted the proposed sale of the 711-acre Berry Knoll Farm - which FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop called "a huge victory."

An estimated 2,500 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints showed up at the 5th District courthouse to show their disapproval of court-appointed fiduciary Bruce R. Wisan and his plan to sell the property.

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The judge took the action at the request of the Utah Attorney General's Office, which had pursued the state's initial takeover of the trust in 2005, alleging mismanagement.

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The UEP Trust holds virtually all property in the twin communities of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Ariz. Most residents are FLDS members.

The trust was set up 66 years ago to foster a communal way of life organized around religious principles. Lindberg rewrote the trust in 2006 to remove its religious underpinnings.

Sect members argued in a federal lawsuit that the overhaul, coupled with the trust's subsequent management, violated constitutionally protected religious rights.

Attorneys said any settlement will have to resolve that and other lawsuits targeting the trust, arrange payment of $2 million in trust expenses, create new trust management and devise ways to accommodate property claims of all beneficiaries, including people who have left the church.

The sect will require that any deal includes Wisan's removal, Jessop said.

Jeff Shields, one of the attorneys representing Wisan, called the sect's willingness to work out a compromise "a major" development.

"We are delighted that people are going to come and talk to us," Shields said. "When people talk, resolutions can happen."

Wisan's goal, Shields said, would still be to have the community subdivided and give deeds to residents to "do what they want with them."