Posted on 05/10/2008 7:06:46 AM PDT by greyfoxx39
Texas child welfare attorneys say children were removed from the YFZ Ranch and should not return there because its residents live as one big family and all have the same dangerous belief system. The agency that has taken legal custody of 464 children sent its response Thursday to a petition from dozens of Fundamentalist LDS Church mothers. The petition asks the Texas 3rd Court of Appeals to order Judge Barbara Walther to return the children to their mothers.
"The community has one common belief system that young girls are called on to be wives and no age is too young to be married," wrote Texas Department of Family and Protective Services attorney Michael Shulman. Some adults and children at the ranch described it as "one large community," even though there are several houses at the complex.
"All of the women are called mothers to all of the children in the home, and the children call each other brothers and sisters," the response states.
When a victim of abuse is found inside a home, child welfare investigators have concerns for all of the children in that home. The court filing also states that a polygamous environment "would make a 15- or 16-year-old child highly vulnerable to individuals who are willing to exploit them and take advantage of their child-like qualities."
Previous court rulings have determined that it isn't necessary to prove that a parent personally abused their own child in order to show that a child is in danger, the court documents state.
Texas officials say several teens at the ranch were either pregnant or had children when they were underage. As for the boys and younger children, the agency argues says they are still in danger if allowed to continue living in that environment.
The new filing refers the appeals court to testimony from child psychiatrist Bruce Perry, who described an "unhealthy" belief that it's OK to have sex with and marry young women. "This pervasive practice and belief creates an environment that develops people who have a high potential of replicating sexual abuse of young children as a part of their belief system," the court document states.
"Part of the danger to the boys is that their belief system requires that they follow the prophet," it also stated.
The original petition, filed on behalf of 38 women by Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, also argued that an April 17-18 adversary hearing for the children was improperly held "en masse" instead of holding hearings for each individual child. But the agency says the actions of the parents forced the judge to hold the single hearing.
"It is the department's contention that (the mothers), by their conspiracy of silence, purposefully confused the identity of the children, which forced Judge Walther to conduct the proceedings as she did."
The new court papers claim the FLDS women have no legal standing to have the judge reverse her ruling because they have "repeatedly declined" to even identify their children and the fathers.
The document says neither the court nor the child welfare agency should "be forced to play guessing games when the safety and well-being of these children are at stake."
The agency argued in the court filing that all the mothers had an opportunity, through their attorneys, to confront and cross-examine the witnesses during the April 17-18 hearing. To hold individual hearings would have taken weeks or even months and would have been an "extraordinary waste of judicial resources."
In removing the children, attorneys for the mothers say the judge failed to consider less restrictive options such as ordering the men ("the alleged perpetrators of abuse") to leave the ranch or ordering mothers and their children to live elsewhere during the investigation.
The agency argues that if the state does not have physical custody of the children, what's to prevent the mothers from leaving the state with them? It also asks how the court could know for certain which child legally belongs to whom.
As "the largest child protection case documented in the history of the United States," DFPS or, CPS as it is commonly called, said the sheer numbers of FLDS children prevented them from pursuing other options it might have considered in a more typical case.
As for possible temporary restraining orders against men at the ranch, DCFS says that wasn't practical. "How could the department have identified the alleged perpetrator or perpetrators when the evidence demonstrated that the entire male and female population at the YFZ Ranch had been enculturated into the belief that underage marriage was sacrosanct?"
The Court of Appeals could rule on the issues in the petition or may hold a hearing to consider arguments.
“Another good example of your fine research and referencing. No doubt! “
Well..., Thank you.
: )
Have you seen the movie?
I forgot the (/sarc), didn’t I?
It will be interesting, whatever the outcome, that's for sure.
The problem is that people take everything to the extreme.
I have a liberal friend who thinks that I'm doing this with my daughter. I'm raising my kid to go to college, to be everything she can be; BUT, once she becomes a mother all bets are off. Her commitment is to her children first. My friend sees this as raising her to be a slave to her family and to forget her own ambition. In *her* mind, I should be raising her to "have it all".
Yes, this is a cult. But there are people out there who would see conservative values to be right along the same lines.
And the sweet kid is a big fan of Ann Coulter of course......
Is the “Desert News” a real newspaper or an lds propaganda paper?
The deserert News is a LDS paper founded in the mid 1800s and they so admit......
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2014398/posts?
Adoption of FLDS name is akin to identity theft
Joseph A. Cannon, Editor
........In the days following the raid on the Texas polygamous compound, I took a call from a St. Louis radio host requesting one of our reporters to come on his show to “talk about the situation in Utah.” Early in this cordial conversation, I informed him that this newspaper is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that I am a member of this church. .......
This past Saturday my oldest grandchild graduated from college at age 25. It was a long, hard road for him, and for his mother, grandfather and me. (He lives with his Pop and me), along with the advice he received from my other children...his uncle and aunt.
This young man graduated cum laude despite his belief that he has suffered brain damage due to withdrawal from Prozac and has been adamant against antidepressive meds ever since.
That any of us truly believed it was important for him to be degreed could remotely be considered "cult" thinking is absurd. My grandson looks forward to a month of study in Germany in June to enhance his knowledge of the language.
Too often labels are bandied about where they don't apply...sheer ignorance.
I question whether the judge will allow any child to return to the YFZ polygamous community. The Texas authorities removed these children from what they claim is an abusive environment. How can they allow even one to go back?
The only reasonable solution I can think of is that a mother who can prove which children are hers would have to give up this polygamous lifestyle and live in the "real" world with her children.
And its agents are busy aren’t they? Right here. Pointing.
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