Child welfare in Texas removes children from polygamist compound UPDATE #13

[Catty1]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/u...rmons_abuse_dc

Sat Apr 5, 6:11 AM

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - Texas authorities said on Friday that they were investigating a potential child-abuse case at a ranch operated by followers of a breakaway Mormon sect linked to jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs.
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No arrests had been made as of late Friday afternoon but officials said 52 girls have been removed from the secretive sect's compound.

"We took 52 children out, they were all girls between the ages of six months and 17 years," said Patrick Crimmins, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.

"Eighteen of the 52 have been legally removed into state custody," he added.

A spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety said no suspect had been taken into custody but a search and arrest warrant had been issued.

The ranch is about 120 miles northwest of San Antonio and is a compound for a renegade Mormon sect called the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which is under the sway of Jeffs, a self-proclaimed prophet.

In November, Jeffs was sentenced in a Utah court to 10 years to life in prison as an accomplice to rape for forcing a 14-year-old girl to marry her 19-year-old first cousin. Jeffs is awaiting trial on similar charges for arranged marriages in Arizona.

Local media reports said the Texas compound had been sealed off by investigators.

Crimmins earlier said he could not comment on the nature of the investigation but said "generally speaking, an abuse and neglect investigation is triggered when there is a complaint to the agency."

The mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the Mormon faith is officially known, renounced the practice of polygamy more than a century ago and is at pains to distance itself from breakaway factions that bless multiple marriages, often involving adolescent girls.

(Reporting by Jim Forsyth in San Antonio and Ed Stoddard in Dallas; Editing by Philip Barbara)

[Catty1]

http://cfcn.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNe...retreat_080405

Standoff emerges at polygamist retreat in Texas

Standoff at polygamist retreat

CTV.ca News Staff

Sat. April. 5 2008 9:23 PM ET

Sect leaders on a remote polygamist compound in West Texas are refusing to let authorities search a temple for a 16-year-old girl who was reportedly physically abused.

In preparation for the worst, ambulances have been sent to the compound, Prosecutor Allison Palmer told the San Angelo Standard-Times on Saturday.

Since Friday, child welfare officials have removed nearly 200 women and children from the religious retreat, built by polygamist leader Warren Jeffs.

The whole series of events was triggered last Monday when the 16-year-old girl in question made a call to officials and alleged physical abuse, said Marleigh Meisner, a spokesperson for Texas Child Protective Services (CPS).

A search warrant was then issued, allowing state troopers to enter the retreat to look for evidence of a marriage between the girl and a 50-year-old man.

The warrant states that the girl had a baby eight months ago, at the age of 15.

On Friday, CPS removed 52 girls from the compound.

Meisner said another 131 residents were removed overnight.

By Saturday afternoon, 137 children and 46 women were being housed and interviewed by officials.

"They seem to be doing fine," Meisner said.

Meanwhile, four investigators remain inside the polygamist compound searching for more children.

The ranch, once an exotic game farm, covers 670 hectares and is near Eldorado, although the nearest major community is San Angelo.

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), bought the property in 2004 for US$700,000.

Members moved there from another community on the border between Arizona and Utah.

Earlier Saturday, Meisner said the whereabouts of the 16-year-old who called officials and the girl's baby is unknown.

Police are also believed to still be looking for Dale Barlow, 50.

Officials, who said Friday that Barlow had not been found, declined to comment on his status Saturday -- stating that a state judge had issued a gag order.

Texas law forbids girls younger than 16 from marrying, even with parental approval.

Most of these girls have little experience outside the closed world of the FLDS, said Meisner.

FLDS leader Jeffs is currently in prison. A Utah court sentenced him to five years to life in prison for being an accomplice in the rape of a 14-year-old girl in 2001. She married her cousin in an arranged marriage.

Jeffs is also awaiting trial on charges in Arizona. He is charged with four counts each of incest and sexual conduct with a minor. The charges stem from two arranged marriages between teenage girls and their older male relatives.

The FLDS split from the more mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormons, decades after the latter renounced polygamy in 1890.

With files from The Associated Press

[smokey the elder]

Mormonism gave up polygamy because they agreed to live by the law of the land they lived in.

[shepgirl]

LADY ZANA--------sorry, I should have mentioned that. I took it for granted that everyone knew about the break off from the regular church of Latter Day Saints.
Not all Latter Day Saints believers follow the church rules, some still believe in harsh punishment for children. The cult is something beyond comprehension though.