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SAN ANGELO, Texas — A Texas judge ruled Friday that prosecutors could use thousands of documents seized during a weeklong raid of a polygamist sect's West Texas ranch in upcoming criminal trials snip- Texas District Judge Barbara Walther heard four days of testimony on the issue in May but didn't issue a ruling until Friday. snip- first sect man to face trial, Raymond Jessop. snip- The 38-year-old pleaded not guilty to sexual assault of a child during a pre-trial hearing on Friday. snip- Prosecutors accuse him of sexually assaulting a teen who was allegedly one of nine wives. In 2004,...

State District Judge Barbara Walther has approved a motion appointing the Attorney General of Texas as a special prosecutor to assist with any criminal cases that may arise from the state's raid of the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado. The request - described as routine in large, complex cases such as this one - was filed and granted Monday. Local prosecutors, meanwhile, said they anticipate filing charges in the case. "It's early in the game," said First Assistant 51st District Attorney Allison Palmer, "but I expect that ultimately there will be some criminal prosecution coming out of this." The Attorney General's...

AUSTIN - An appeals court rejected pleas from the mothers of more than 400 children seized from a polygamist sect to immediately stop authorities from busing their kids to far-flung foster homes, but it agreed to hear arguments in the case next week.

While many have wondered how a Mormon splinter sect financed its multimillion-dollar development near Eldorado, one man thinks he knows the answer. Bruce Wisan, an officer for the sect's $100 million real estate trust, said he believes sect spiritual leader Warren Jeffs drained the trust to pay for the YFZ Ranch and improvements there now valued at $21 million altogether. "Warren was converting trust assets into cash at fire-sale prices to get the cash to build up the community in Eldorado," Wisan said. Rod Parker, an attorney who has acted as a spokesman for the sect, could not be reached...

In deviations from the normal practice in child-removal cases, infants removed from the YFZ Ranch will not be separated from their adult mothers if they are still nursing, and older children will continue to be home-schooled in their foster placements. The details, revealed at an informational gathering today presided over by 51st District Judge Barbara Walther, appeared to defuse much of the tension that had been building between attorneys for the hundreds of children housed at the San Angelo Coliseum and the state's Child Protective Services agency. "I would like for this case to take on the normal progressions these...

As DNA testing samples were being taken from the children removed two weeks ago from the YFZ Ranch, attorneys representing their mothers filed several restraining order requests in 51st District Court. Janece Rolfe. a spokeswoman for the Texas Attorney General's Office, said the genetic sampling started at 8 a.m. today at the San Angelo Coliseum. Judge Barbara Walther convened a hearing at 10 a.m. to deal with motions and other paperwork filed over the weekend and today, and then set another hearing for 3 this afternoon in the Tom Green County Courthouse. That hearing could determine whether parents of infants...