Posted on 05/30/2008 2:00:59 PM PDT by Utah Girl
SAN ANGELO, Texas — Lawyers for Child Protective Services have made a proposed agreement to return hundreds of children taken from the Fundamental LDS Church's YFZ Ranch.
The agreement is being discussed by lawyers for mothers, children and child welfare authorities in a hearing underway that is in response to a Texas Supreme Court ruling that the children should be returned to their parents.
A copy of the order, obtained by the Deseret News, seeks to have children returned to their parents beginning Monday. The proposed agreement also requires parents to complete parenting classes and cooperate with an ongoing investigation into allegations of abuse and negect on the YFZ Ranch.
"CPS has access to the residence of the subject child for unannounced home visits during the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.," the agreement says.
Parents must provide the address of the residence and the names of everyone living in the home.
The proposed agreement also seeks to prevent the families from leaving the state of Texas. It applies to approximately 139 children belonging to 41 mothers, but Judge Barbara Walther said in court she expects it will be expanded.
"The court thinks this ruling would be the same for each and every child," she said.
From another article:
A draft agreement released by CPS attorney Gary Banks says the parents can get their children back after showing identification and pledging to take parenting classes and remain in Texas.
The agreement was reached with 38 mothers of 124 children who filed the complaint that prompted the Texas Supreme Court’s ruling Thursday.
The agreement does not specify that the fathers must stay away, and it allows the children to return to the ranch run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Eldorado, about 40 miles south of San Angelo.
Texas District Judge Barbara Walther made revisions to the deal, and attorneys on both sides were reviewing them Friday afternoon.
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/gen/ap/Polygamist_Retreat.html
Thanks for the link to the article.
It is the action of the CPS in taking the children that has been found to be illegal. The CPS is obligated to put the situation right. This does not entitle them to enforce laws about parentage prior to returning the children. They took the children illegally and they must return them.
Any non-ideality in the process of returning the children is an obstacle that was created by the original taking.
The first thing the CPS should do is bus the children back to the place from which they were taken. Each individual child can be put back into the same ten-foot square area in which the child came into CPS's custody.
Next, the CPS should presume that any birth certificates or state identifications are VALID without probable cause to believe they are fraudulent. Recognizing such identification will no doubt result in the vast majority of the children being returned to the custody of their parents.
We already know of one case of a 27-year-old woman whose identification was not accepted until she had given birth, resulting in the CPS having custody ILLEGALLY of that newborn. There's one case that should have been corrected already. If that infant is still in custody, then as a juror in a damage case, I would bankrupt the state of Texas to the extent that they would have to shut down CPS completely to pay the damages.
If there are children left over with no adult claiming them or the adult lacks any documentation whatever, then, and only then, might the CPS make an honest attempt to return those children to their families through some investigative process, using the vast army of children's lawyers to help them.
The CPS should be at the home BEGGING the pardon of the parents whose rights have been violated and BEGGING them to help them get these children out of state custody. But I don't think that is happening, is it?
I have been in the midst of them for the last two days. They were picking up kids from protective custody near here while I was working there. The CPS people were such a bunch of duds, whizzing around and acting like they amounted to something. The FLDS were like Zombies, shuffling around with dead eyes. Even the men would not speak. The kids were brought to the adults, and they just shuffled towards them like blonde headed zombies. There was no joy, no love expressed, no running to momma. They just shuffled up to the adults and stood there. Something is all wrong there yet.
I’m thinking such an agreement amounts to a defacto admission of guilt for the FLDS. Why would they agree to this? I suspect their lawyers are going to push back....
“Parenting” classes ...
1. Where radical feminists will teach them the joys of tolerating trans-gendered-homo-lesbian perversion.
2. But will have no effect on middle-aged men raping 14 year old girls.
CPS thugs never pay a price for the lives they destroy.
That statute would apply only if it were determined that an official or officials ‘nifonged’ and knowingly acted on faulty reports or failed to follow procedures.
The regular CPS personnel are exempt in the normal course of their work.
[I used to work for such as agency. That was the law. We were exempt — unless we operated outside the established Policies and Procedures. My gosh, I had to have signatures of 3-5 supervisor signatures just to get an official agency letter mailed out.]
Agreement, Hell!
The TxSC ordered the children’s return. It damned sure didn’t order continued CPS intrusion into their lives.
Make criminal cases against the criminals. Leave innocent children alone.
I don't think it amounts to an admission of guilt. But it does amount to acceptance of CPS intrusion into their lives. That is not a step to be taken lightly and would justify the "push back". I've never taken a "parenting" class and I don't think I need one. Any crimes or child abuse taking place within the FLDS is not happening because parents haven't taken a class in "parenting".
The way to stop criminality is with the criminal justice system. Probable cause, rules of evidence, juries of peers, and all that "due process" stuff.
Of course they will. This is a PR press release from the CPS hoping to stampede the FLDS lawyers. Won’t work, imo.
What is this "beginning Monday" crock?
Why can't the children be returned beginning TODAY, with every single CPS employee pulling unpaid overtime this weekend and every day until the children are all with their families? No more than 10 minutes of potty break every 3 hours, all hands working 24 hours per day.
I could return them in less than one day -- bus all the children and all the parents back to the ranch, and they will sort themselves out in less than an hour.
Make CPS and all law enforcement stay more than 1 mile from the ranch.
And what's all this about addresses. Doesn't CPS know the address of the YFZ ranch?
“parents can get their children back after showing identification and pledging to take parenting classes and remain in Texas.”
That does not sound unreasonable and the families may return to the ranch. I guess they have to wait a few more days, though. It’s beginning to look more and more positive. Yahoo!
Because the police acted upon an anonymous phone call and NO evidence, and proceeded to dismantled an entire community, seize personal property, and take children away from their parents, THEY SHOULD PAY BIG TIME! The penalty leveled against the police and the state of Texas should be so severe that such lawless behavior is never again undertaken.
Kindly point to me the Paragraph in 18USC242 that exempts CPS workers.
I'm perfectly willing to believe you were told you were expempt. It's one of the reasons these CPS goons act the way they do. They honestly believe they're exempt. Only problem is, it isn't so.
There's more than enough evidence here to prove willful violations of Civil rights on the part of CPS. It is my earnest hope that several of them find themselves in prison cells and Civil courts for the rest of their natural lives.
Thanks.
L
Isn’t “pledging to take parenting classes” an admission that they were guilty of not being good parents? Why would they pledge to do this unless they have admitted to wrong doing?
I would argue that taking 430 children based on one anonymous phone call could easily be construed as knowingly acting on a faulty report.
A handful of kids from one family and they might skate, but they had to be aware that 430 kids was way over the top.
I don’t know the law but google will give you a lot of senarios to be considered...... Here are a couple of articles:
http://browardsheriffsoffice.org/Free%20Handbook.doc
http://www.life-vs-cps.com/index_files/Page357.htm
Not unreasonable as it’s written but the devil maybe in details we haven’t seen. It would be interesting to see what the Judge added that they are discussing.
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