Posted on 04/06/2008 5:27:22 AM PDT by SkyPilot
Local and state officials entered the temple of a secretive polygamist sect late Saturday, said lawmen blockading the road to the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado.
The action comes hours after local prosecutors said officials were preparing for the worst because a group of FLDS members were resisting efforts to search the structure.
The Texas Department of Public Safety trooper and Schleicher County sheriff’s deputy confirmed that officials have entered the temple but said they had no word on whether anything occurred in the effort.
The incursion into the temple caps the three-day saga of the state’s Child Protective Services agency removing at least 183 women and children from the YFZ Ranch since Friday afternoon. Eighteen girls have been placed in state custody since a 16-year-old told authorities she was married to a 50-year-old man and had given birth to his child.
Saturday evening, ambulances were brought in, said Allison Palmer, who as first assistant 51st District attorney, would prosecute any felony crimes uncovered as part of the investigation inside the compound.
“In preparing for entry to the temple, law enforcement is preparing for the worst,” Palmer said Saturday evening. They want to have “medical personnel on hand in case this were to go in a way that no one wants.”
Apparently as a result of action Saturday night at the ranch, about 10:15 p.m. Saturday, a Schleicher County school bus unloaded another group of at least a dozen more women and children from the compound.
Although members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or FLDS, have provided varying degrees of cooperation to the sheriff’s deputies and Texas Rangers searching the compound, all cooperation stopped once authorities tried to search the gleaming white temple that towers over the West Texas scrub, Palmer said.
“There may be those who would oppose (entry) by placing themselves between law enforcement and the place of worship,” Palmer said Saturday afternoon. “If an agreement cannot be reached … law enforcement will have to — as gently and peaceably as possible — make entry into that place.”
Sect members consider the temple, dedicated by then-leader of the sect Warren Jeffs in January 2005 and finished many months later, off-limits to those who are not FLDS members, said Palmer, who prosecutes felony cases in Schleicher County.
Palmer said she didn’t know the size or makeup of the group inside the temple.
The earlier refusal to provide access was even more disconcerting because CPS investigators have yet to identify the 16-year-old girl or her roughly 8-month-old baby among the dozens removed from the compound, Palmer said.
“Anytime someone says, ‘Don’t look here,’” she said, “it makes you concerned that’s exactly where you need to look.”
The girl told authorities in two separate phone calls a day apart that she was married to a 50-year-old man, Dale Barlow, who had fathered her child, Palmer said.
The joint raid included the Texas Rangers, CPS, Schleicher County and Tom Green County sheriff’s deputies and game wardens from the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife.
Although CPS and Department of Public Safety officials have described the compound’s residents as cooperative, Palmer disagreed.
“Things have been a little tense, a little volatile,” she said.
Authorities removed 52 children Friday afternoon and 131 women and children overnight Friday. About 40 of the children are boys, said CPS spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner.
No further children have been taken into state custody since Friday, when 18 girls were judged to have been abused or be at imminent risk for abuse. CPS has found foster homes for the girls, Meisner said, and will place them after concluding its investigation.
Meisner declined to comment on the fate of the 119 other children and said authorities were still searching the ranch for others Saturday evening.
“They’re in the process of looking,” she said. “They’re literally about halfway through.”
If you are near a Costco in TX, they have a very good selection of cheeses.
I visit my girlfriend in Texas every two weeks and she kept bragging about Blue Bell ice cream. I was very unimprressed when compared to the quality available from several brands in the Pacific NW.
Resty, I would appreciate it if you not ping me in your defense.
You have said some very disturbing things to me, even suggesting that my family doesn’t love me and is ashamed of me.
I have forgiven you, but you should be aware that you continue to say very hurtful things about individual people. I don’t understand why the mods put up with it.
Thuggery? You give lessons.
You have a very convenient memory. You posted a FM from me.
but what does that matter to Elsie just throw out accusations and see if they will fly!
What does that MATTER? You jump on Sky Pilot and ping the mod and what does it MATTER?
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - -
/hɪˈpɒkrəsi/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[hi-pok-ruh-see] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation | 1. | a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not really possess. |
| 2. | a pretense of having some desirable or publicly approved attitude. |
| 3. | an act or instance of hypocrisy. |
When such ordinance is not sanction by or the Lord or taken upon one self with out the Lord Blessings it is wicked and abominable in the eyes of the Lord.
It is also wicked to make accusations Elsie you have no knowledge of!
I asked a question there is a differents!
You were collective I did not read even who was there among the list so boo hoo!
Oh, since you didn’t read who was on the list before you pinged me, you are not responsible?
resty, my prayers are with you as always. Have a good day.
There are times when vengeance is much better than forgiveness.
MR. Apostate the Deist has spoken.
Elsie just throw out accusations
I have forgiven you, but you should be aware that you continue to say very hurtful things about individual people. I don’t understand why the mods put up with it.
****
Surly you and others have not said very hurtful things here for months about my faith nor provoke the LDS because some maiinstream have real or imagine vendetta and take delight whenever they see an LDS just to let them know with out a care of what they are saying to them!
It is so much easier and convenience it is to vent on a real live LDS. When I left the Presbyterian Church I never felt the need to vent on them or the mainstream, because it was lacking in all of the ordinances or unable to fulfill my spiritual needs!
There is a squeeky noise that keeps popping up in the new software.
They would say that it was God's will for the early Mormon Church to practice polygamy.
So they think it is wrong but they still defend it.
CC, if I am wrong, please correct me!
Look resty, I have been very outspoken about the abuses within MORMONISM. I will maintain my belief that they are not a Christian organization and in fact might be under the very influences of Satan that the Bible warns us about.
I believe that many members of the LDS Church are the elect that might be deceived, and pray that God in his infinite plan knows why, and for what purposes the LDS organization can be used for HIS glory. I leave that up to God.
I hold nothing against YOU personally, nor any other truthful Mormon, and have never attacked personally nor called them names such as “viper” or “liar. All the while I abhor lies and will point them out as I see them.
I love you resty, you know that.
As one Freeper put it, it is mormonism's idea of 72 virgins.
I was reading on another thread about the “baby graveyard” investigation. Believe it or not even a link to food stamps was being linked here too. It seems that at every turn, welfare benefits keep popping up.
The mods have stated over and over that critizing a FAITH is within the rules. Personal attacks are NOT!
When I left the Presbyterian Church I never felt the need to vent on them or the mainstream, because it was lacking in all of the ordinances or unable to fulfill my spiritual needs!
Perhaps you should have chosen a new faith that wasn't founded on calling ALL Christian faiths "abominations"! Your missionaries, leaders and your church itself continuously call other faiths untrue. What makes you think that mormonism is therefore immune to criticism?
You yourself keep posting that the rest of us don't have all the perks you think God gave mormons. You can dish it out but you can't take it!
Oh dear, Bluebell. Gotta tell ya, when we first moved to TX we didn’t “get it”. Even at school ice cream socials when the BlueBell ran out, no one would eat the other ice cream. Parents would whine “My kids ONLY eat BlueBell!!” We thought it was hilarious.
Then we tried the vanilla/cherry. OMG
We moved from TX 4 years ago and we have actually thought about having it shipped on dry ice!
I used to belong to Costco in TX but at that time there wasn’t much cheese selection that I can remember. Don’t have one near me now and I SOOO miss it.
I just plain miss TX and hope to get back there ASAP. Got a house to sell here in Ohio so I imagine it will be a few years. :(
I NEED MY BLUEBELL!
Hagar could not received the marriage of Sarah and Abraham they were not of the same faith so they marriage was until death we part.
Just like most marriages today are until death do we part so that could be called a bondman marriage!
It is not that they were living in sin it just that under those conditions Hagar could not receive an increase after life.
Yet somewhere along the line the Lord did give Ishmael and his people a covenant!
Sam’s sells good cheese. I never ask where they get it.
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