Posted on 04/05/2008 1:39:26 PM PDT by Racehorse
Child welfare officials are scrambling to find foster homes for dozens of girls removed from a secretive West Texas religious retreat built by polygamist leader Warren Jeffs after a 16-year-old living there complained of physical abuse.
Officials from Texas Child Protective Services, escorted by state troopers, took 52 girls, ages 6 months to 17 years, from the remote retreat on Friday afternoon.
By the end of the day, 18 were put legally into state custody, and CPS spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner said interviews would continue Saturday. A warrant has been issued for at least one individual.
The girls put in state custody were believed to be in danger, Meisner said. "Those are the ones we believe have been abused or they are in imminent risk of harm, and it would not be safe for those children to remain in the compound," she said.
Child welfare officials were looking for foster homes for the girls, most of whom have rarely been outside the insular world of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They were being housed for now at a civic center, she said.
"We're dealing with children that aren't accustomed to the outside world, so we're trying to be very sensitive to their needs," Meisner said.
The investigation began with a call Monday alleging physical abuse of a 16-year-old girl living there, Meisner said. Authorities first arrived at the compound Thursday evening. They interviewed and searched through the night.
On Friday, a search warrant and arrest warrant were issued.
The search warrant sought records dealing with the birth of children to a 16-year-old and any records listing a marriage between a 50-year-old man and the girl, according to the San Angelo Standard-Times, which cited court records released late Friday in Tom Green County.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Thank God Janet Reno wasn’t in charge....sad story
Yeah. It would be 52 burned bodies.
Where are their parents? Grandparents?
Their fathers are the higher level leaders of the sect. Their brothers are kicked out so the older men have no competition for the teenage girls. The mothers are being traded around among the fathers as breding stock.
Thank God they got those kids out of there. What a nightmare for those kids to be physically abused by that nut case. Poligamy is a bad thing.
If same sex marriage becomes mainstream, either through court order or legistation, legal polygamy is next. After all, the marriage laws discriminate against anyone who wants something other than 1 man/1 woman.
Thank God they were able to take action because these so-called marriages of young girls are illegal. If that changes, then there would be nothing that could be done, legally speaking.
Now if you were to look at a group of 52 girls from ages 1 to 18 in any inner-city area, it would be shocking to find only one birth to a girl 16 or younger...
Update on the story...
Nearly 200 taken from Texas compound
ELDORADO, Texas (AP) — Child welfare officials have now removed nearly 200 women and children from a secretive West Texas religious retreat built by polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, authorities said Saturday.
The investigation began after a 16-year-old living there complained of physical abuse. A search warrant authorized state troopers to enter the retreat run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and look for evidence of a marriage between the girl and a 50-year-old man.
The warrant said the girl had a baby eight months ago, when she was 15.
State Child Protective Services on Friday removed 52 girls from the compound. Marleigh Meisner, a spokeswoman for the agency, said that another 131 residents were removed overnight and that by Saturday afternoon 137 children and 46 women were being housed and interviewed.
“They seem to be doing fine,” Meisner said. Four investigators remained inside the polygamist compound looking for additional children.
The whereabouts of the young mother who sparked the investigation are unknown, Meisner said.
State troopers who raided the religious retreat were looking for the girl, her baby girl and 50-year-old Dale Barlow. Under Texas law, girls younger than 16 cannot marry, even with parental approval.
Barlow had not been found by Friday night, officials said then. They declined to comment Saturday, saying a state judge had issued a gag order.
The search warrant instructed officers to look for marriage records or other evidence linking the girl to Barlow and the baby. The warrant authorized the seizure of computer drives, CDs, DVDs or photos.
Those inside the retreat did not respond to requests for comment.
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints broke away from the Mormon church after the latter disavowed polygamy more than a century ago.
State law enforcers declined to comment Saturday, saying a judge had issued a gag order, and the local sheriff did not return calls.
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints broke away from the Mormon church after the latter disavowed polygamy more than a century ago.
The compound sits down a narrow paved road and behind a hill that shields it almost entirely from view in town. Only the 80-foot-high gleaming white temple can be seen on the horizon. Authorities blocked access to the gate, keeping onlookers miles away.
The 1,700-acre property had been an exotic game ranch. It is surrounded by dusty, wind-swept land where sheep are raised and mohair produced.
Eldorado (pronounced el-dor-AY’-do) is a two-stoplight town of fewer than 2,000 people nearly 200 miles northwest of San Antonio. It consists of a cluster of government buildings, a couple of churches and a few blocks of houses.
State officials said they did not know how many people lived at the retreat, although local officials estimated about 150 two years ago.
The group, known by the acronym FLDS, has been led by Jeffs since his father died in 2002. In November, Jeffs was sentenced to two consecutive sentences of five years to life in prison in Utah for being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl who wed her cousin in an arranged marriage in 2001.
In Arizona, Jeffs is charged as an accomplice with four counts each of incest and sexual conduct with a minor stemming from two arranged marriages between teenage girls and their older male relatives. He is jailed in Kingman, Ariz., awaiting trial.
The San Angelo Standard-Times reported that children were being kept at a community center and a Baptist church in Eldorado.
The owner of the Sutton County Steak House in nearby Sonora fed the children dinner on Friday and breakfast on Saturday, owner Linda Love told The San Angelo Standard-Times.
“They’re singing songs. So happy and sweet and precious. It’s heart-breaking,” Love said.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/POLYGAMIST_RETREAT?SITE=TNMEM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
“Their fathers are the higher level leaders of the sect. Their brothers are kicked out so the older men have no competition for the teenage girls. The mothers are being traded around among the fathers as breding stock.”
Do you know that for sure? I know that the media that labeled Waco a “compound?”
Their parents & grandparents are Mormons, too. (Ever think that might be the problem to begin with?)
I doubt Mormans want their children or grandchildren abused anymore than parents of other faiths. From what I’ve read though this is a cult that has broken off isn’t it? Most parents don’t join cults with their grown children but actually try to get them out.
It was the very foundation of Mormonism that its "prophet" polygamous practitioners engaged in underage compulsory "wifehood."
Its initial "prophet"--Joseph Smith--promised salvation to the household of the Kimball Klan, and what do you know? 14-year-old Helen Mar Kimball, who initially hated polygamy, was part of Smith's harem. Smith also added to his long list of wives 16-year-old Presendia Huntington; 17-year-old Mary Rollins; 17-year-old Patty Bartlett; and 17-year-old Sarah Ann Whitney.
Smith's ensuing president, Brigham Young, when he was in his 40s, wedded 15-year-old Clarissa Decker, 16-year-old Ellen Rockwood (when Young was 44); and 16-year-old Lucy Bigelow (when Young was 45).
From what I’ve read though this is a cult that has broken off isn’t it?
Where do you think it derived its longstanding practice of polygamy? (From its first 5 or 6 "prophets" who practiced it) Where do you think it derived its practice of compulsory marriage of underaged girls to 45-year-old men? (Or older in the case of other LDS general authorities)
Mormons like Muslims use power to sexually exploit children, the two are the same as far as I’m concerned.
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