Posted on 05/01/2008 4:44:54 PM PDT by Politicalmom
SAN ANTONIO — A judge ordered that the baby boy born to a girl taken from a polygamist sect's ranch in West Texas be placed in state custody, according to documents released Thursday.
Texas District Judge Barbara Walther signed the order Wednesday giving the state custody of the 1-day-old infant born to a teen believed to be 15 or 16 years old.
The girl has claimed to be 18, according to an affidavit signed by Ruby Gutierrez, a Child Protective Services caseworker, but officials believe she is younger and placed her in foster care with other children taken from the ranch.
The newborn is the teen's second child; the first is a 20-month-old boy. The father of both children was identified as Jackson Jessop, 22, but state officials say they don't know his whereabouts.
Child welfare officials now have 464 children in their custody, swept from the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado because authorities believe underage girls were forced into marriages and sex with older men. Authorities are also now investigating possible sexual abuse of boys.
Church members have vehemently denied there was any abuse, and civil liberties groups have raised concerns at the sweeping nature of the removals.
Individual custody hearings are set to be completed by June 5.
CPS and law enforcement raided the ranch on April 3 after a girl who was purportedly 16 called a domestic abuse hotline to complain of abuse at the hands her much older husband. Authorities are investigating whether the calls were a hoax.
Regardless, child welfare authorities say 31 of the 53 girls aged 14-17 have children or are pregnant.
Under Texas law, children under the age of 17 generally cannot consent to sex with an adult. A girl can get married with parental permission at 16, but the girls who belong to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are not believed to have legal marriages.
FLDS is a breakaway sect of the mainline Mormon church, which disavowed polygamy a century ago.
PING!!
FReepmail to be added to the FLDS Eldorado Legal Case Ping List
Even if she is 18 as she claimed, she was 15 when she got pregnant the first time.
PURE EVIL. There was no reason to take her baby away.
Ping
So how does CPS know that the “identity” claimed is the actual identity of the father? DNA of the man and the children? If they don’t know the whereabouts of the father, they can’t match DNA.
And if she’s 15, then she was 12.
Are mormon church attorneys demanding this caveat be placed by the press on every article published?
true!!
I would bet on it!
Yep, all the government has to do is say they believe something to be true and it is true.
Just how are they justified in taking this woman's children? Her age?
Is that it, or are the women and girls the victims or the criminals?
Anyone who thinks the governments actions, many of which are illegal, including the original warrant, are justified in this action are communists at heart because they certainly believe in the "ends justifies the means", don't force law enforcement agencies to obey the law, oh, no, self righteousness trumps law and citizens rights every time.
(And he would have been 19 or so--depending on where his birthday falls...So, a likely 19 yo being "set up" with a 12 or 13 yo...sounds like grounds for a statutory rape investigation + accomplice charges for the leader in a position of spiritual trust + the 1 or 2 parents of this girl...people tend to forget the "multiplier" on each of these potential charges)
For the sake of discussion, let’s assume 100% of the men women and teenagers are guilty of child abuse. Everyone of them, knew about or participated in pimping out young girls to older men. How does it help the baby to be removed from it’s mother? Where is the imminent harm?
Except of course, to protect the child - if one cares about such things.
I hope you are proud of what you have allowed the government to do.
Do you have idea how this can and will be abused?
Oh well, I have been talking to a wall for several weeks now.
As for the FLDS, I honestly do not give a damn. I worry about taking children away from their parents.
Uh, they DIDN’T separate the girl from her children.
"disavowed" = "no vows." (So a modern Mormon being "married" for "eternity" to multiple women in the LDS temple, which is 100% sanctioned by the LDS Church, involves absolutely no "vows?" Who can provide us with a "script" of a typical LDS temple sealing "for eternity?" I always thought it indeed involved "vows").
When you go to court and prove that, then ping everyone , until then you are the one fabricating things.
Get a grip.
They didn’t separate her from her children. They are ALL in state custody together.
Protect it from it’s mother? Please. The only reason they’ve given here is that the Almighty State thinks she might not be 18.
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