Posted on 04/23/2008 12:02:27 PM PDT by Politicalmom
SAN ANGELO — Lawyers from across the state will return to a courtroom here this afternoon to voice their dissatisfaction over foster care placements of their child clients, the children of a polygamist sect who have been in state custody for nearly three weeks.
''A lot of attorneys have very specific concerns,'' said Guy Choate, a San Angelo attorney who is speaking for hundreds of volunteer lawyers who have been assigned to represent the children's interests.
The attorneys were caught off-guard Tuesday when 114 of the 437 children who had been staying in San Angelo public buildings were put on buses and transported to group homes and emergency child shelters around the state.
The lawyers sought a delay in further foster placements so they could review the 15 facilities selected to house the children. They also are raising concerns about mothers being separated from their nursing babies and some sibling groups being separated.
The attorneys will appear before state District Judge Barbara Walther, who yesterday ordered that the 437 children seized from their parents be placed in foster care once each child underwent DNA testing.
The group of children transported by bus Tuesday ranged in age from 5 to 17.
Authorities raided the Eldorado-area compound of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on April 3 after receiving an abuse report. Child welfare officials sought custody of all of the children, alleging that the sect's practices of marrying underage girls to older men put them at risk.
Judge Walther ordered all children and adults who lived at the Yearning for Zion Ranch to be fingerprinted and photographed and to submit to DNA testing in an effort to untangle family relationships.
On Tuesday, 54 men and women living at the ranch submitted to tests at a public building in Eldorado. Child welfare officials said testing was completed Tuesday night of all of the children and adults staying at the San Angelo Coliseum.
More than 100 adults are believed to be on the ranch. It's not clear what will happen if some of them don't show up for testing.
A spokeswoman for the Texas Attorney General's Office acknowledged that authorities have no complete list of the adult followers of the FLDS church in Eldorado.
''We can guess, but we don't have a name of every parent for every child,'' said Janece Rolfe. She said noncompliance by parents could result in jail time or the permanent severing of parental ties.
''They jeopardize their ability to have their children returned,'' Rolfe said.
Of course, parents who fear the tests could indicate that underage sex occurred might be inclined to forgo it just the same, Lynn Kamin, a family law attorney in Houston, said this week.
''I think it's naïve to think everyone's going to submit to DNA tests when everyone's been giving different names every time an official asks a question,'' said Kamin, who is not involved in the case.
Rolfe noted that parents, ''or individuals who assert themselves to be parents," must submit to testing.
But she added that, at this stage, ''we're not going to force them to do it.''
lsandberg@express-news.net
It looks like a lovely place.
PING!!
FReepmail to be added to the FLDS El Dorado Legal Case Ping List
Meanwhile back at the ranch....
Subpoenas to see whether sect’s $100M trust was drained to fund YFZ Ranch, improvements
http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2008/apr/23/subpoenas-to-see-whether-sects-100m-trust-was-to/
Can you put me on the list?
Yep.
It does look like a lovely place to you or me. However, to those children who most likely just want their mom(s) and siblings, there are going to be some scary things there that will reinforce the teaching they have had.
Tinkerbell on the wall and a book of fairy tales on the dresser: the sect believes that both are of the Devil and this will reinforce the view that everything outside the compound is evil.
I suspect Spiderman will have the same effect.
Competitive games, like Foozball, are another thing these kids have been taught to avoid.
I’m not sure why they could not have removed the men from the compound and done the tests and such in place.
I do not agree with their beliefs and lifestyle, but this looks like the same sort of trumped up charge that brought about Waco. I have to wonder if they will use this “success” to start going after home schoolers or other “misfits” next.
They had no legal right to move the men anywhere, unless they were under arrest.
You consider a temple document listing underage rapes as being
“trumped up”?
Multiple underage pregnancies, and testimony of statutory rape is “trumped up”?
What are they doing? This is crazy. This is wrong.
Ok, you’re on.
What’s the old saying, “If they say it’s not about the money, it’s about the money?”
When all the dust settles, this will be about claiming an $8.8 million judgment; and, enough salacious material to keep Nancy and Greta busy for years to come.
But she added that, at this stage, ''we're not going to force them to do it.''
What the heck is that supposed to mean? Crappy news source + crappy reporter + crappy writing = ... crap.
And then there is the delight of entering puberty---where (tradtionally and via oral testimony) the boys get tossed out for 'getting hair down there' and the girls have the delight of experiencing their first period, followed by having someone like this 'marry them'
And introduce them to sex... as he's been convicted of doing and as his followers continue to do....
So yeah, you're talkin' about taking them away from heaven./sarc
If they had approached them with this alternative and the men truly believed as they say they do, they would have accepted the alternative. If not, that is more evidence against their motives.
I heard the kids were ask what they did for fun. Pulling weeds and feeding chickens.
The trouble with leaving the kids and women at the ranch; They might not be there the next time the authorities check.
Their reasons for going in came from a faked phone call with obvious errors in the information. That raid resulted in the information you bring up. I was speaking to their original zeal to find a way in the door and not what they found later.
No... I'm talking about perhaps they should have taken some more steps to allow the children to feel more secure and at ease before they hit them with even more, to them, alien concepts.
” do not agree with their beliefs and lifestyle, but this looks like the same sort of trumped up charge that brought about Waco.”
What about the convictions against the cult so far? Their leader was just sentenced in Utah five months ago and arrived for new trials in Arizona the other day, all for leading the practices of the cult, the charges are rape.
He is the guy who’s picture hangs over the kids beds.
Other members have been convicted and face trial for the “marriages”
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