Posted on 05/27/2008 12:30:59 PM PDT by Alice in Wonderland
SAN ANGELO, Texas — While the custody fight for the hundreds of children seized from the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch has devolved into legal chaos, a criminal probe is quietly moving forward. "The investigation is continuing," Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Tela Mange said in an e-mail to the Deseret News. "When we have completed our investigation, we will present our case report to the prosecutors for their action."
An Austin appellate court's ruling that Texas child welfare authorities overstepped their authority in removing all of the children from the FLDS property has no bearing on the law enforcement investigation, Mange said. More than 400 boxes of evidence taken under the search warrants that were executed in the early days of the raid are still being examined.
Utah and Arizona authorities remain hopeful that they may be able to see some of that evidence to assist in their ongoing criminal probes into the FLDS Church and its leader, Warren Jeffs.
"We know there's going to be all kinds of stuff," Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff told the Deseret News on Monday. "The photographs, I think, are just the beginning."
Shurtleff was referring to a series of bombshell photos put into evidence during a custody hearing on Friday that show Jeffs kissing what Texas Child Protective Services lawyers said was a 12-year-old girl "how a husband kisses a wife." That hearing resumes here today. A handwritten note on the photos indicates they were taken in July 2006, a month before Jeffs was arrested outside Las Vegas. Jeffs was later convicted in Utah of rape as an accomplice for performing a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin.
In Arizona, Jeffs is facing charges of sexual misconduct and incest as an accomplice. He is also facing a federal grand jury indictment for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, stemming from his time on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list.
During a court hearing for Jeffs in Kingman, Ariz., earlier this month, the Arizona Attorney General's Office raised the possibility that evidence seized from the raid on the YFZ Ranch might be used to pursue evidence against him.
"We have not yet provided anything to out-of-state investigators but expect that we will," Mange wrote.
Lawyers for the FLDS Church have objected to the search warrants that were served, noting that it appears the raid on the YFZ Ranch was sparked by a hoax call. Authorities have dubbed a 33-year-old Colorado woman a "person of interest" in their investigation into the calls to family crisis hotlines, in which someone claiming to be a 16-year-old girl named "Sarah" said she was pregnant and in an abusive marriage to 49-year-old Dale Evans Barlow.
Barlow, a convicted sex offender who lives in Colorado City, Ariz., was questioned but not arrested. A warrant for him is not being pursued, and lawyers for the FLDS Church accuse Texas authorities of knowing that he wasn't on the YFZ Ranch, even as they raided the compound.
"The State's actions in invading and searching a place of religious significance raises important and sensitive issues which lay (sic) at the intersection of religious liberty and the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures," Gerald Goldstein, an attorney for the FLDS Church and leaders Merril Jessop and Lyle Jeffs, wrote in court papers.
He also suggested that any evidence seized may be protected because of clergy-penitent privilege.
On the final day of the police search of the YFZ Ranch, the FBI executed a federal search warrant. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas will only say it is part of a "pending investigation."
A task force examining polygamy-related crimes is gearing up. Shurtleff and his counterpart, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, are scheduled to meet next month with U.S. Justice Department officials, the FBI, the U.S. attorneys for Utah, Arizona and Nevada, as well as local law enforcement and prosecutors, to coordinate efforts.
"Right now, all I'm going to say is good stuff about the feds," Shurtleff said. "We're expecting great cooperation." The task force was born out of a public feud Shurtleff and Goddard had with Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who accused the two states of doing nothing about polygamy.
U.S. Attorney for Utah Brett Tolman told the Deseret News earlier this month that his office has tried to pursue mafia-style racketeering, corruption and child-bride trafficking cases but has been stymied by a lack of witnesses and other evidence to establish probable cause.
In San Angelo, Tom Green County prosecutors have said they are still interested in pursuing their own charges, which could include bigamy. The Texas Attorney General's Office has been named a special prosecutor for any criminal cases that may come out of the investigation.
The Mohave County, Ariz., attorney recently served a subpoena on the United Effort Plan Trust's court-appointed special fiduciary, demanding evidence seized from the Cadillac Escalade that Jeffs was riding in when he was arrested in August 2006.
The subpoenas seek iPods, CDs, notes, letters to the FLDS leader, religious papers, laptops and thumb drives by Friday. UEP fiduciary Bruce Wisan is fighting the subpoena, saying that he has a confidentiality agreement with Jeffs' defense attorneys. Copies of the evidence are in the possession of the FBI, Jeffs' defense team and Jeffrey L. Shields, the fiduciary's lawyer.
"Except for the requirements of the stipulated protective order, the fiduciary and Shields are ready, willing and able to comply with the subpoena as to all of the Escalade documents in the possession of the fiduciary," wrote Jeffrey Goldberg, another lawyer for Wisan. Wisan has served his own subpoenas on Tom Green County prosecutors in San Angelo, seeking to look at the evidence that law enforcement officers seized from the YFZ Ranch.
"Please produce all documents or tangible objects that mention or relate to possession or ownership of the structure referred to as 'The Temple,' located on the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado, Texas," one subpoena said. "Please produce all documents or tangible objects that mention or relate to the funding used to acquire the YFZ Ranch located in Schleicher County, Texas."
Wisan is trying to collect on an $8.8 million default judgment against Jeffs and the FLDS Church. In 2005, the courts took control of the UEP Trust amid allegations that Jeffs and other FLDS leaders mismanaged it. The UEP Trust controls homes, businesses and property in the FLDS enclaves of Hildale, Utah; Colorado City, Ariz.; and Bountiful, British Columbia, in Canada.
The fiduciary is seeking to determine if any UEP funds paid for the YFZ Ranch.
We heard 56, 31, 21, 18, 12, now 5 cases of children born to teenage moms or pregnant. All in dispute and teenage pregnancy again, as I have repeated many times, does not automatically mean rape, legally. Having those 5 or so disputed cases justifying the wholesale removal of all children, even those not in imminent “physical” abuse danger seems quite a stretch to thinking critical people.
If you watched Good Morning America this morning they were discussing Gloucester high school in Maine and the 17 teenage pregnancies that have occurred this year. They didn't discuss teenage pregnancy meaning unequivocally rape has obviously occurred. Matter of fact, they never even broached that possibility. They discussed the school providing birth control pills and condoms to correct the high numbers. The problem was that parents didn't have to be notified so a bit of a firestorm has erupted. Nevertheless, teenagers being pregnant and the subsequent rape assertion didn't seem to be the focus of discussion at all.
Not quite the same, but look at all the DU’ers teaching their kids that Castro is a loving caring man who cares for the Cubans, Chavez, Che, etc. etc. etc... Are we going to start prosecuting people for beliefs now rather than actions and monitoring what people teach their children? Now we are getting into thought crimes. Everyone would be guilty of something. Meanwhile I,,, shrug.
First cousin marriage is legal in 20 states??? After doing a bit of research I find that shockingly true. That needs to be changed. In fact, the genetic disorders from this practice are increasing everywhere it is allowed..
“..researchers and politicians say inter-cousin unions, which are highly prevalent among British Pakistanis, have led to a striking rise in the incidence of rare recessive disorders, many of them fatal, in areas such as Bradford. The trend has led to calls for cousin marriages to be banned.”
from an article in The Guardian
and more here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7404730.stm
The picture is a “specific.”
You haven’t been paying attention, common.
First, you are the one who raised the numbers as though they are significant — no “non sequitors,” here.
As she was shown the photograph, Louisa still said that Jeffs was perfect in her eyes.
In post #46 in this thread,http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2020879/posts , I posted at least one other “specific.”
In Texas, yes, pregnancy under the age of 16 is automatically sexual assault. There are certain defenses under the law, but mom and dad can’t consent under the age of 16, no one can consent outside of marriage if there are more than 3 years of difference in age, or even if they are the same sex. One reason we made the changes was because of claims that adolescent sexual predators and homosexual sex were justified by the lack of prosecution of other sexual immoralities.
Regardless of what happens in Florida, we will not stand for sexual predators, sex trafficking, or any other definition of marriage other than one man and one woman in Texas.
Ahhh.... conservatism.
Doesn’t mean trying to self govern and better yourself.
I guess it means telling everybody else how to live their life.
“selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, selfishness is wanting others to live as one wishes to live”
Oscar Wilde
“To deny my opinions (judgement, if you prefer), I would have to squelch my own mind...indoctrinate myself!
A jury decided that O. J. Simpson was “not guilty”. Apparently the great majority of the country set themselves up as “judge, jury, and executioner” because they honestly believe he IS guilty.
Do you? “
This suggests to me that we can dispose of our system of justice and just go with the justice of the mob.
This is what I was responding to.
Well, uh...no it isn't. A defendant is convicted or declared "not guilty" by a judge or jury. Potential jury members are questioned on whether they have pre-conceived opinions of guilt or innocence. As American citizens, we're not required to have no opinion on either the guilt or innocence of people accused of crime.
Again I ask, did you form an opinion on OJ Simpson's guilt or innocence before his trial ended?
Now ...gossiping over the back fence...is all that's needed to put someone in jail. Can't help lovin' that "deep thinkin'".
RE: OJ: I was not in the courtroom .. did not hear the evidence.. and therefore not qualified to convict or acquit.
I do have a personal opinion which should not sway the proper course of justice.
BTW... don’t snip portions of my statements in an effort to misrepresent what I posted....
You know what I mean...???
You are not that deep...
get over yourself.
Spoken like the true socialist you are....
Uh.. actually no.. that was my own true post... pinky swear.
Sorry it did not meet your literary criteria.
/not/
(BTW...isn’t there some courtesy rule on FR about copying other Freepers )when you are talking about them in a post... no biggie.. just would have been polite!
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Oh stop wth the arrogant sniveling...people need to be educated and/or enlightened. I did not say add more laws...as stupid as many of them are.
After all they are written by legalist drones.
1. Socialists believe human beings are just property
2. Non-Socialists believe human beings have inalienable rights
Here we have a situation where one side, the F(lds) and its supporters, believe human beings are just property.
The other side, my side, adheres to the words of the Declaration of Independence, particularly to: "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,....."
No socialist believes that. They, like the F(lds) think people are just property.
No need to apologize, sarcastically or not.
I apologize.
It was a smarmy remark, and undeserved.
The cut and paste thing is my fault.
Some posters go from thread to thread and cut/paste the same speech, over, and over, almost like spam.
The way I said it, it came out as an implication that antceecee does that, and that there is something wrong with doing any cut and paste.
Apology accepted.... I can see by your cumulative posts that you are trying to have a reasoned discussion. You contribute a lot to the discussion. Thank you.
Some government bureaucrats view children as property... guess that fits the definition of socialist. Therefore I distrust most government bureaucrats.
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