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Author Topic: Nearly 200 Taken From Texas Compound  (Read 3736 times)
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MuffyBee
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« on: April 05, 2008, 07:51:09 PM »

Apr 5, 6:07 PM EDT

Nearly 200 Taken From Texas Compound

By MICHELLE ROBERTS
Associated Press Writer
 ELDORADO, Texas (AP) -- Child welfare officials have now removed nearly 200 women and children from a secretive West Texas religious retreat built by polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, authorities said Saturday.

The investigation began after a 16-year-old living there complained of physical abuse. A search warrant authorized state troopers to enter the retreat run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and look for evidence of a marriage between the girl and a 50-year-old man.

The warrant said the girl had a baby eight months ago, when she was 15.

State Child Protective Services on Friday removed 52 girls from the compound. Marleigh Meisner, a spokeswoman for the agency, said that another 131 residents were removed overnight and that by Saturday afternoon 137 children and 46 women were being housed and interviewed.

"They seem to be doing fine," Meisner said. Four investigators remained inside the polygamist compound looking for additional children.

The whereabouts of the young mother who sparked the investigation are unknown, Meisner said.

State troopers who raided the religious retreat were looking for the girl, her baby girl and 50-year-old Dale Barlow. Under Texas law, girls younger than 16 cannot marry, even with parental approval.

Barlow had not been found by Friday night, officials said then. They declined to comment Saturday, saying a state judge had issued a gag order.

The search warrant instructed officers to look for marriage records or other evidence linking the girl to Barlow and the baby. The warrant authorized the seizure of computer drives, CDs, DVDs or photos.

Those inside the retreat did not respond to requests for comment.

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints broke away from the Mormon church after the latter disavowed polygamy more than a century ago.

State law enforcers declined to comment Saturday, saying a judge had issued a gag order, and the local sheriff did not return calls.

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints broke away from the Mormon church after the latter disavowed polygamy more than a century ago.

The compound sits down a narrow paved road and behind a hill that shields it almost entirely from view in town. Only the 80-foot-high gleaming white temple can be seen on the horizon. Authorities blocked access to the gate, keeping onlookers miles away.

The 1,700-acre property had been an exotic game ranch. It is surrounded by dusty, wind-swept land where sheep are raised and mohair produced.

Eldorado (pronounced el-dor-AY'-do) is a two-stoplight town of fewer than 2,000 people nearly 200 miles northwest of San Antonio. It consists of a cluster of government buildings, a couple of churches and a few blocks of houses.

State officials said they did not know how many people lived at the retreat, although local officials estimated about 150 two years ago.

The group, known by the acronym FLDS, has been led by Jeffs since his father died in 2002. In November, Jeffs was sentenced to two consecutive sentences of five years to life in prison in Utah for being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl who wed her cousin in an arranged marriage in 2001.

In Arizona, Jeffs is charged as an accomplice with four counts each of incest and sexual conduct with a minor stemming from two arranged marriages between teenage girls and their older male relatives. He is jailed in Kingman, Ariz., awaiting trial.

The San Angelo Standard-Times reported that children were being kept at a community center and a Baptist church in Eldorado.

The owner of the Sutton County Steak House in nearby Sonora fed the children dinner on Friday and breakfast on Saturday, owner Linda Love told The San Angelo Standard-Times.

"They're singing songs. So happy and sweet and precious. It's heart-breaking," Love said.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/POLYGAMIST_RETREAT?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US
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« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2008, 08:07:16 PM »

The cult had taken the notion to be marrying off underage girls to older men in a generational polygamy scheme. The parents won't talk straight about which child belongs with which parents, nor the ages. Furthermore, they've taught the children to lie about those things as well. All known children have been removed for partly that reason, considered to also be abusive, along with teaching boys that sex with underage girls is acceptable if their parents tell them to.

http://gosanangelo.com/news/2008/apr/15/former-member-praisesactions-taken-by-texas/

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« Reply #2 on: April 20, 2008, 09:47:07 PM »

This has been one of the most horrific stories, and I have been wondering what on earth the women that were all over FOX News were thinking.  They looked as if they were in a drugged out stated or something...

I don't know how to put my finger on it but there is something fundamentally wrong with them ... abuse? Stockholm syndrome?
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Author: Anatole
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« Reply #3 on: April 20, 2008, 11:49:53 PM »

The word zombie comes to mind and then of course stepford wife and a few other scary thoughts too.  This entire story is so horrific and I predict the DNA results will knock everyone for a loop.  Those children can't even tell anyone who is their mother or father.  What kind of world are we living in?   
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« Reply #4 on: April 21, 2008, 10:23:27 AM »

Here's a good story from a GREAT advocacy group.

Polly Franks of the Frank Foundation called the director of the child advocacy center, in San Angelo who is one of the people in charge of this God-forsaken mess.  Polly told her what Foundation's "Operation Fuzzy" does for sexually abused children and she said they absolutely could use their help.  So, Polly sent out an email asking for donations.  Her very first response was from singer Amy Grant's personal assistant, telling me that Amy was over-nighting me a nice check.  That didn't cover all their needs, but it certainly gave them a good start. 

If anyone would like to make a donation, they could absolutely use the help.  You can either mail a check to their P.O. box address or, you can make a donation online by going to the website (www.franksfoundation.org) and click on "Donations."

If you'd like details about our program, go to the bottom of our Home Page and click on "Announcing Operation Fuzzy."
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« Reply #5 on: April 30, 2008, 01:56:57 PM »

History of injuries to polygamist kids
At least 41 had broken bones; possible sex abuse of boys investigated

snip
AUSTIN, Texas - The chief of protective services in Texas told state legislators Wednesday that investigators have uncovered a history of physical injuries, including broken bones, in children taken from a polygamous sect.
Commissioner Carey Cockerell, who oversees the state agency now caring for the children, said medical examinations have revealed numerous physical injuries, including broken bones in "very young children."

Cockerell also told a state legislative committee that mothers who stayed with their children in state custody launched a coordinated effort to stymie investigators, coaching their children to not answer questions.

Medical exams and reports by the children indicate that at least 41 children have had broken bones in the past. We do not have X-rays or complete medical information on many children so it is too early to draw any conclusions based on this information, but it is cause for concern and something we’ll continue to examine."
"Based on interviews with the children and journal entries found at the ranch, we are continuing to look into the possible sexual abuse of some young boys."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24388249/

This is just horrible.  How can any human think this is okay to do and that God approves?

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« Reply #6 on: August 18, 2008, 06:04:05 PM »

Texas Authorities Seek Custody of Polygamist Sect's Children
Sunday, August 17, 2008
SAN ANGELO, Texas — More than two months after being forced to return children from a polygamist sect to their parents, Texas child welfare authorities want eight youngsters put back in foster care.

Individual hearings for the four mothers of the children, who range in age from 5 to 17, are set to begin Monday.

Child Protective Services has asked a judge to return the children to foster care because their mothers have allegedly refused to limit their contact with men accused of being involved in underage marriages.

"We continue to have concerns in particular for these eight children, which is why we have asked the judge to review the case," said CPS spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner.

None of the children live at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado, from where authorities took roughly 440 children into foster care in April. Officials said the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which established the ranch, was forcing girls into underage marriages and grooming boys to be adult abusers.

The Texas Supreme Court forced CPS to return the children to their parents six weeks after they were placed in foster care because the agency presented evidence of no more than a handful of teenage girls being abused. Many of the children taken into CPS custody were infants and toddlers.

In the new petitions filed by CPS seeking foster placement for the eight children, the agency detailed alleged underage marriages involving the children's fathers or stepfathers, though only one faces criminal charges.

The FLDS believes polygamy brings glory in heaven. It is a breakaway sect of the mainstream Mormon church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which officially renounced polygamy more than a century ago.

Its leader, Warren Jeffs, already convicted in Utah as an accomplice to rape, awaits trial in Arizona on charges of being an accomplice to sexual contact with a minor — all stemming from alleged underage marriages within the sect.
http://networks.org/?src=fox:0,2933,405129,00
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