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.”
Any takers on that truck yet?
Removed as much wallpaper as possible. Painted over it with an alcohol based primer. Texture over that.
now shush......it’s working and the walls are caving in.
yet.
How many pictures and paragrahs are you thinking about?
Just one or two at a time, it was frustrating to not be able to post a quote from a poster, a response from me, a description of a chart or photo, and the photo itself all at the same time in a way that was readable.
I sold it and bought another (newer, but not new!)! I'm too cheap, for new, especially when Towncars usually go cheap as second handers! I can buy one a couple years old with 50k for $5k or less... instead of $40k.
I use liquid laundry softener mixed with water and scrapers. It would have taken me 10 years to get all of it off. Not worth the time.
Jesus is the ONLY Truth, and your ideas are a false testament to His Eternal Reign. Your ignorance of Greek, and Hebrew, is astounding, but I understand, since you you don't know claim to be educated in them.
If you actually think that the ramblings of joe smith have any bearing on truth, you are sadly mislead? Try obtaining a simple greek-english lexicon, and a copy of the Hebrew Texts with expository trnslations. Send me a note when you have them. I will try to help you understand the writings inspired by God, not joe!
You think you can become like Him. So does Lucifer! But, you already think ole' Lucifer is an alright guy, don't you?!
He looks like "such a nice man."
An affidavit says "Sarah," 16, said Dale Evans Barlow, shown in
2005, beat her and forced her to have sex.
i stand corrected.
Suffice it to say that not all marriages are made in Heaven. :-)
“Polygamist ranch raid climaxed with nonviolent protest at temple”
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/04/10/polygamist.ranch/index.html
not sayin’ a word. nope. not gonna.
You just have to have the right connections, like me. ;0
This is for them, from the latest news headlines.
Expert: FLDS Polygamist Group is A Classic Cult
Excerpts:
The Fundamentalist Church of Latter-day Saints, which operates the compound near Eldorado, Texas, along with other communities around the country -- including Colorado City, Ariz. -- fits the classic criteria of a cult, according to Rick Ross. He says there are about 50,000 polygamists living in North America and Mexico. ``The level of harm done by polygamist groups is horrific, and, in particular, this group (FLDS) has a long history of very seriously damaging children through sexual abuse, neglect and physical abuse."
Jeffs' group has been funded for years by taxpayers who didn't know it, Ross says. ``Seventy percent of the people in Colorado City were on food stamps, 40 percent of the women were receiving assistance through a WIC (women's and children ) fund." The group also got money ``through state funds, through federal funds which were accumulated for infrastructure within their township." ``When they began to basically clamp down on this group for its illegal activities, it had accumulated assets in excess of $200-million dollars," he said. ``So this was a group that grew very rich, very powerful, often through taxpayers' money."
Thanks for that post. I can't begin to express how angry I am taxpayer $$$$$ has been given to this cult...........
http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=8133037&nav=menu73_2_8
"The mayor of Eldorado was with the children after they left the compound, and he described a touching moment. "Those kids had never seen toys," said Mayor John Nikolauk. "We brought the girls dolls, and they just stared at them. Then they started holding and clutching them. The boys finally started playing with the trains we brought them, and they looked happy. That really made your heart feel good."
So what did these kids do all day long? No toys, no crayons, etc.
Just what were they doing?
There is no doubt that this "marriage" was the result of sin inasmuch as it was the result of a lack of faith on the part of both Abraham and Sarah and the ultimate consequences of this sin are still being felt by Abraham's descendants today.
Delphi's argument that this marriage was in any way blessed by God is simply laughable. Nothing good came out of that episode. The fact that Joseph Smith referred to it in D&C 132 as a good thing and stated that God COMMANDED Abraham and Sarah to enter into this vile, illicit, and destructive relationship is clear evidence that D&C 132 is a DOCTRINE OF DEMONS!
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