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Court: Texas had no right to take polygamists' kids 3 minutes ago
AP via Yahoo ^ | 5/22/08

Posted on 05/22/2008 10:46:31 AM PDT by ElkGroveDan

SAN ANGELO, Texas - A state appellate court has ruled that child welfare officials had no right to seize more than 400 children living at a polygamist sect's ranch.

The Third Court of Appeals in Austin ruled that the grounds for removing the children were "legally and factually insufficient" under Texas law. They did not immediately order the return of the children.

Child welfare officials removed the children on the grounds that the sect pushed underage girls into marriage and sex and trained boys to become future perpetrators.

The appellate court ruled the chaotic hearing held last month did not demonstrate the children were in any immediate danger, the only measure of taking children from their homes without court proceedings.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: betterthancrispy; biggovernment; constitution; cpswatch; cultists; donutwatch; duplicate; fascism; feminism; firstamendment; flds; freedomofreligion; governmentnazis; jeffs; kidnapping; longdresses; mobrule; molesters; mormon; patriarchy; polygamy; property; ruling; statistapologists
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To: atruelady

They acted on what they thought was a true emergency. I don’t doubt their veracity in believing something horrible was going on.


And we have a system of justice in Texas. The Appellate Court said their actions were wrong. Now that may be appealed, we’ll see. Until then the Appellate Court has spoken.

Now do you have evidence to ‘bleeding the beast’ or Texas welfare recipients among the FLDS members from the YFZ ranch in Eldorado, Tx?


361 posted on 05/22/2008 2:24:09 PM PDT by deport ( -- Cue Spooky Music --)
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To: WayneS; dragnet2
Please cite ONE post on this thread where someone states that they think nothing abusive was going on at the cult’s compound.

Well, if you look a few posts down from yours you'll see that Dragnet2 said:the only abusive thing I see going on here is with cults like the Texas CPS and our government. That's just one example on THIS thread. Perhaps there are no others on this thread, but I have read every thread on this topic since the whole thing began, and I've read plenty of comments that indicate that they believe the FLDS to be complete innocents in this.

362 posted on 05/22/2008 2:24:33 PM PDT by Flo Nightengale (Keep sweet? I'll show you sweet.....)
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To: jpl

Unfortunately, if this ruling stands and the state actually jhas to give the children back or even return status quo nte, it pretty much means that the next Waco type operation will complete the analogy and make sure that all the targets are dead so they can’t go to court themselves.


363 posted on 05/22/2008 2:24:34 PM PDT by arthurus
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To: atruelady

“Point to me EXACTLY where Texas has lied here? They acted in good faith on what they believed was a danger to a minor and they found information in the course that showed there is a huge problem her.”

Yeah, and the Red Army was only trying to restore order in Lhasa a couple of months ago. I saw them personally the day the protest began — they were heroic in keeping the peace. Don’t take my word for it just because I wqs in Lhasa, you can read any publicantions from the Vhinese government. Please note my sarcasm.


364 posted on 05/22/2008 2:26:20 PM PDT by Bushwacker777
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To: Soliton

Most have not. The ranch opened about 4 years ago, but most of the residential buildings are newer than that. They have been continuously moving new people to the ranch as additional construction of residential space has been completed.


365 posted on 05/22/2008 2:27:41 PM PDT by GovernmentShrinker
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To: commonguymd

The State of Texas reported nothing of the kind. I live here and have heard nothing to acknowledge this. Plus, what makes you think Social Service record information is made public anyway? Also, because of the felony non-support issues that are sure to come up, that information would be told.


366 posted on 05/22/2008 2:28:13 PM PDT by atruelady
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To: Peter Libra
Better get those women and children back from the clutches of the Texas authorities.

Before they are deprogrammed and want a normal existance.

Before tehy become mind-numbed robots of the socialists.

367 posted on 05/22/2008 2:29:33 PM PDT by TBP
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To: atruelady

The MSM quoted a CPS source that said that they found a “sex bed” in the chapel. If that was real evidence as someone said then there is no way this court would have ruled the way it did. I believe the state did either lie or exaggerated the truth but I also believe they did it to keep the investigation alive because they know there is some illegal stuff happening. The unfortunate thing about it is the way they approached the mess and it may have screwed everything up.


368 posted on 05/22/2008 2:30:04 PM PDT by tobyhill (The media lies so much the truth is the exception)
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geraldo called the place the children lived in a hellhole...
guess he's been there...or maybe saw photographs of the hellhole
369 posted on 05/22/2008 2:30:15 PM PDT by firewalk
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To: Old Mountain man
I believe that the “child protectors” are totally out of control and are capable of any fiction to make their case.

They are. Reember the McMartin Preschool case?

370 posted on 05/22/2008 2:30:34 PM PDT by TBP
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To: tobyhill
The state has found zero abuse or otherwise the appeals court would have ruled otherwise.

I suggest reading the ruling for yourself. It doesn't say no evidence of abuse was found.

It says the CPS improperly treated the ranch as a single household, and that the abuse was limited to girls in a certain age bracket. Therefore the CPS had other options that taking all the kids, and was required to only take the kids as a last resort.

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site297/2008/0522/20080522_114730_Mandamus%20Decision.pdf

The warrant should have ended the second they found out that the call was fake.

The warrant had already been executed by the time they determine that the call was fake.

The fourth amendment requires probable cause to justify a search. The judge who decides if a warrant will be issued has to weigh the credibility of all the evidence and determine if it adds is probable cause.

An anonymous call by itself might not amount to probable cause, even though in this case the caller had a lot of information about the ranch. However the fact that Jeffs had already been convicted of similar crimes had to add to the credibility of the allegation. They couldn't independently confirm the allegation, but there was substantial supporting evidence to justify the judge's decision that probable cause existed when the warrant was issued and executed.

After the warrant was executed, the call became non-credible. However, that doesn't mean that the warrant had not been properly issued, and that the search was legal. The constitution requires the government to have evidence to support suspicions that are probably accurate in order to search, but does not require that those suspicions were 100% accurate in hindsight.

371 posted on 05/22/2008 2:30:36 PM PDT by untrained skeptic
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To: Bushwacker777
Explain taking a newborn baby away form its mother

No newborn babies have been taken away from their mothers.

372 posted on 05/22/2008 2:30:37 PM PDT by GovernmentShrinker
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To: GourmetDan

Like teaching our kids that Christianity is true or that homosexuality is wrong or something radical like that.

I don’t think that is radical at all to teach kids that homosexuality is wrong. It is wrong and the comparison to this situation is not even on the same page with the pedophile child-rape circus going on.

A lot of you have to stop comparing apples and eggs.


373 posted on 05/22/2008 2:31:16 PM PDT by atruelady
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To: CharlesWayneCT
Sarah Draper, 37, has moved to Abilene, Texas, and taken a job as a registered nurse to be near her four children

If all the women were kept on the ranch as we are led to believe probably barefoot and pregnant as well.

How in the heck was this one able to become a REGESTERED NURSE when my niece became one it took college.

I am thinking we are being mislead on this area too.

374 posted on 05/22/2008 2:32:10 PM PDT by mouser (run the rats out its the only hope we have)
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To: Soliton

Where is one to be compared with the other? They are BOTH wrong. The only thing similar is that they are both crimes under God and humanity.


375 posted on 05/22/2008 2:32:12 PM PDT by atruelady
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To: HeartlandOfAmerica
And you obviously believe pretty much what Obama and Hillary belive about DUE PROCESS and the US Constitution!

I meant that it's funny that this religious group has the same immoral social values as Obama and Hillary.

I didn't mean you or the objections people have as to how the state mishandled things. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

376 posted on 05/22/2008 2:32:41 PM PDT by donna (Before they gave us McCain, they tried to give us Rudy.)
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To: GovernmentShrinker

I don’t see any probelem what so ever. If you have your children you get to raise them as you see fit within very wide parameters set by government. If you adopt a child, you are under more rules at least until the adoption becomes final.

Certainly there are some ways that a NAMBLA sect might produce children. Finding cooperating women seems a bit far fetched. Certainly some men and women wed, have children and later decide they are homosexuals. I would guess among the tiny percentage of people who after marriage and having children decide they are homosexual an even tinier percentage decide they want to have sex with their same sex child. So you are worrying about a tiny percentage of a tiny percentage and sorry I am not willing to throw away the US Constitution to try to correct such possible problem.


377 posted on 05/22/2008 2:33:03 PM PDT by JLS
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To: TBP

No, big brother wants to stop this perverted mess.


378 posted on 05/22/2008 2:33:15 PM PDT by atruelady
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To: mnehrling

Don’t worry about posting it. CharlesWayne does not see that certain information should and will not be public because there will come criminal charges. Why give the pedophiles a chance to hide?


379 posted on 05/22/2008 2:34:42 PM PDT by atruelady
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To: atruelady; Marie
I'll tell you where they lied.

Number one, they lied by omission when they were willing accomplices to that hoax phone call that started all of this off.

Number two, there's this:

State Rep. Harvey Hilderbran, R-Kerrville whose district includes Eldorado, speculated that law enforcement and CPS probably had a loose plan in place. Hilderbran remembers talking to CPS officials about the ranch in 2005, when he worked to pass a bill targeted at the sect that raised the legal marriage age with parental consent from 14 to 16. The bill passed.

This was a setup from the get go and the removal of these children and the abrogation of parental rights by the government was planned long before it happened.

380 posted on 05/22/2008 2:34:57 PM PDT by HeartlandOfAmerica (Don't blame me - I voted for Fred and am STILL a FredHead!)
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