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.
The same mantra that breeds higher taxes.
Yeah. I wasn’t saying it was right or that it worked but that there was a time when LE expected people to take care of some things themselves. Today though, the men that straightened the step dad out would probably be arrested and later sued by the step dad. We seem to have gone from one extreme to the other.
Pendelums do swing to extremes.
Granted, as a kid who never saw an adult protect a child it would be nice to see some man some where get angry over a kid being hurt.
Too late for me, but not for others.
Perhaps that is why my daughter was so worried last night, when I told her that I would call her ex-husband today. No wonder that she was begging me to not get involved.
I expect men to do the honorable thing.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
— C.S. Lewis
They are there. We just need more of them. I brought this up because I’m wondering if this could be why a cult can operate for so long without being shut down. Men and women who can’t imagine things like what we have heard happening, can’t imagine the adults in the group allowing abuse to occur.
Hunble
Don’t take this the wrong way but maybe you need to back out of your adult daughter’s business. There comes a time when they must leave the nest.
Anything can be done to another person if all free will is taken away and a consistant dogma of “God wants this” or “God will send you to hell if you do that!” is fed to the members/parents. Plus breaking all normal bonds and ties between parents/children, siblings etc.
Believe me, the sickest, most twisted, most vile things ever will seem perfectly OK because God (the pastor, Joe the Messiah, Peter the Prophet, Dad the Deity) said it’s what God wants. The bad things that happen are their normal.
Like growing up in a house full of rattlesnakes, not until you understand what is real ‘out there’ do you realize the horror of ‘in there’.
Anything can be done to another person if all free will is taken away and a consistant dogma of “God wants this” or “God will send you to hell if you do that!” is fed to the members/parents. Plus breaking all normal bonds and ties between parents/children, siblings etc.
Believe me, the sickest, most twisted, most vile things ever will seem perfectly OK because God (the pastor, Joe the Messiah, Peter the Prophet, Dad the Deity) said it’s what God wants. The bad things that happen are their normal.
Like growing up in a house full of rattlesnakes, not until you understand what is real ‘out there’ do you realize the horror of ‘in there’.
Yeah, but how does it go on for so long without “outside”people being aware? How do they get away with it?
My daughter asked for my help last night, and her email text has been posted, so that you could read her exact words.
In all honesty, I think that she is in the wrong, but I wanted to hear what my "adopted" son had to say first.
..think every woman here is Aunt Bea.
I plead guilty!
For some reason, I have always considered every female Freeper as "an Aunt Bea" in my mind.
Perhaps out of respect?
Have you seen the freedom of religion arguments on these threads?
That’s how they get away with it....call it a religion. Also brilliant is make it seem ‘sweet’, you know, harkening back to the good ole days when the women dressed modestly, the children were quiet and mannered, where everyone carried a bible etc. People see them as just one of those nice, quiet super religious types and well, they’re odd, but at least they believe in God!
Honestly, if the FLDS looked like a bunch of Satan Worshipers, with loud music, leather, chains, whips, the women in short shorts and the kids running around screaming, how long do you think any community would have let such ‘devils spawn’ go unchecked? You could count the time in days if not minutes. ;)
Seriously, same behaviors, different clothes, music and ‘religion’....
I’ve lived under the ‘shield’ of relgious abuse, and it is probably the best way for the worst abuse to occur for years, if not decades, because it uses those things that the average good person wouldn’t think to question.
Nah,
I’d rather been seen as Sophia Loren (checking this month’s hair color).
As the director of immunization for the CDC, my father had a hard time convincing the Amish community to have their children immunized.
He was able to convince the community leaders, but in the process, found some outstanding new friends.
For years after that, my mother and father would vacation each year with the Amish community.
Thats nice,
and they appear nice....and probably are.
However, I’ve a jaundiced eye and believe/know that the most evil and those who would hurt children use that ‘look’ as a wall to hide behind.
My parents taught me about many other people and how they live, and I learned the hard way, to accept other people's choice of religious beliefs.
The Amish people are inspirational, if you take the time to understand what they believe.
For years, my mother and father would take their vacation time each year, and spend it with their Amish friends.
Erm,
I think what I said went ‘Woosh’ over your head. I have no problem with true religions and sincere beliefs. As long as they don’t go against the basic laws of the land, do not harm innocents and don’t break the basic laws of human rights.
The Amish do abide and live by the laws of this land.
The FLDS do not and break many of them.
NEVER EVER POST TO ME AGAIN. I MEAN IT!
So excuse me for my next few posts to Pandy.
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