Judge orders Texas AG to appoint special prosecutor for FLDS cases(YFZ/fLDS Daily Thread - 5/6/08)

The Salt Lake Tribune ^ | 5/6/08 | Nate Carlisle

[Politicalmom]

SAN ANGELO, Texas -- A judge today ordered the Texas Attorney General's Office to appoint a special prosecutor to handle any criminal cases arising from the raid of the FLDS polygamous ranch in El Dorado. Two men were arrested on suspicion of interfering with police during the raid last month but have not been formally charged. Texas child protective services also say they found 31 teenagers at the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ranch who were pregnant or who had already given birth.

[Politicalmom]

5/5 thread, with articles on:

Canadian parents want Ottawa's help in getting daughter back from TX, attorneys complain about confusion with hearings, polygamous dad speaks out, mothers leave children while courts sort out case, Carolyn Jessop's "Escape" no. 5 on NYT bestseller list, deport's excellent list of links, Warren Jeffs under suicide watch, man has 21 wives, 35 children, town hall set for media, law discussions on polygamy .

5/4 thread, with articles on:

Recollections of life in the cult, polygamy summit in St. George, Utah AG reluctant to judge Tx action, UT, AZ polygamists retreated to TX, children adapt to new homes, states divided on approach to polygamy

5/3 thread, with articles on:

Colorado woman's (Laura Chapman) story of abuse in fLDS, letter from fLDS mothers to Utah governor, more on fashion, according to UT, "few answers in Texas", how families are torn apart by fLDS, Utah gives TX hints on handling of fLDS kids, reprint of TX law professor's assertion that raid was correct and legal, discussion on blood atonement with links, Polygamy's undergrond railroad, "Mormon Manson," comparisons between YFZ and Cold Creek, fairly complete listing of child child custody legal procedure, common pediatric fractures, look at how fLDS acquired land for compount using fraud in 2004

5/2 thread, with articles on:

Utah officials don't want federal help, feds claim they're stymied in probes of fLDS, residents of UT and AZ want crackdowns, home schooling for sect children, burden of proof high in such cases, kids' religious needs, older boys, not adults may be source of abuse of boys, Bishop's Record (pdf) list of YFZ families, Dr. Phil opines, warrant canceled for AZ man originally charged with molesting "Sarah," protesters supporting fLDS mothers show up at NBA game, letter from fLDS mothers claims rights violated, law professor says state correct to remove children from ranch, excerpt from "On the Lam with Warren Jeffs."

5/1 thread, with articles on:

FLDS doctor denies abuse, fLDS petitions court for return of children, denial of abuse of boys, commentary by Marci Hamilton (constitutional law expert), TX senator wants more info on YFZ, LDS response to situation, new evidence on abuse, NY Voodoo sex abuse case

4/30 thread, with articles on:

Investigations into fLDS government contracts, new compound built at 4 Corners area, strains on CPS capacity, Shurtleff & Reid agree to work together, interview with mothers in Amarillo, Colorado City fLDS watching events in Texas, NM removes 4 children from non-fLDS cult compound, sexual and physical injuries listed, proposed AZ bill would shield children of polygamists, Canadians want action on polygamists, fLDS denies child abuse, fLDS claims children have brittle bone disease, articles on brittle bone disease

4/29 thread with articles on:

"Lost" boys found, cult children statistics, more on WE documentary, sect doctors silent on abuse question, legal news and details, woman recalls life in sect, children's diet, Texans chip in to help, children at one shleter think they're all siblings, sect placement marriages "diabolical," sect threatens lawsuit, questions DNA tests might answer, teen mother gives birth (it's a boy)

4/28 thread with articles on:

Criminal charges urged for YFZ, new "prophet" film, debate over legalities of raid, Bountiful, BC fLDS group, reason in religious beliefs, former fLDS member shares insights, more on the Short Creek raid, documentary about group on WE TV.

4/27 thread with articles on:

Gene disorders in group, child custody processes, appeal to Gov. Perry, unusual way of life in YFZ, possibility of children held at YFZ whose parents were forced out, sheriff says authorities had spy inside sect.

4/26 thread with articles on:

Cost of care for the children of the sect, charges that two kids might be missing, how members of the sect dress, court rejects requests of mothers to stay with children, appeals court cancels hearing, Canadian involved in sect, culture shock for kids, oil drillers last laugh, possible involvement in human trafficking and drugs at Colorado City, Rep. Kay Granger's request to investigate financial ties to USG

4/25 thread with aritcles on:

Courts allowing state to place children in foster homes, legal challenges to the raid, beliefs on polygamy, protests against the raid and removal of children, Warren Jeff's appeal, portions of the Texas Family Code

4/24 thread with articles on:

Seized polygamous sect kids face tough adjustment, articles on how and where the children were placed, Carolyn Jessup on Canadian children possibly at the ranch, legal aid group challenges judge, interview with Benjamin Bistline, 40 women choose to go to safe house instead of back to cult, 25 girls claimed to be adults, now found to be minors.

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As always, for the sake of orderliness (and to prevent the pulling of threads and/or messages), let's do try to stay on topic and polite. You can't have a flame war if you don't take the bait.

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[Politicalmom]

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[wideawake]

Makes sense - there is so much evidence to sort through and it’s such a complicated case that it would be a huge distraction for a county prosecutor trying to deal with the regular responsibilities of his office.

[greyfoxx39]

Daily Thread Ping

[metmom]

IBTCA

[Soliton]

Normally special prosecutors are appointed to avboid conflicts of interest. This may well be a way of separating the AG from the prosecution. The AG has said some inflamatory things in public that could prejudice the state’s case.

[Zakeet]

Having served in years past as a consultant for the Texas AG, I can tell you this is not good news for the Mormon Cult.

[najida]

How so?

[Zakeet]

How so?

The AG's office is terribly constrained with respect to manpower and money. As a result, they typically concentrate on only the worst situations, and an Assistant AG will typically monitor and prosecute several of these at the same time.

By contrast, a special prosecutor will report either directly to the AG or to an Associate AG. This gives them special access to the top management, their pick of the best talent, and far more funds with which to work.

This is process is typically reserved for only the worst of the worst, and it virtually ensures the guilty will be prosecuted and punished.

[najida]

Yay!

[Pebcak]

Thank you for taking the time to explain it.

Will the Special Prosecutor be able to move outside crimes of family law and into such crimes as fraud?

[CharlesWayneCT]

They fixed the article you quoted:

Updated: 11:27 AM- SAN ANGELO, Texas - A judge has ordered the Texas Attorney General's Office to serve as the prosecutor on all criminal cases connected to last month's raid on the polygamous FLDS sect's compound in El Dorado.

The district attorney here filed a motion Monday requesting the Texas attorney general assume the cases. A state judge granted the request in a one-paragraph order issued the same day. The judge instructed the Texas attorney general to consider all cases arising from two search warrants served on the YFZ Ranch.

So it is not a "special prosecuter", it was handing the case from the district up to the state level. The article doesn't say why, but my GUESS is the cost and complexity.

The article says the district AG requested the case be taken by the State AG.

The article does not explain why they earlier apparently said "special prosecuter". They don't give a change history.

[Froufrou]

An excellent question! In my experience, the AG loves welfare fraud cases because they are rarely, if ever, lost. Most workers have extensive documentation in place and the cases therefore require very little work.

[najida]

I was thinking,
can you imagine being a WF case worker and dealing with the FLDS women week after week, year after year.

Talk about being witnesses. Seeing a girl come in as a daughter one month and a wife the next, knowing you had her recorded as 12 just last year (very hypothetical but) for them to get the money, they had to give up a lot of info on a consistant basis.

[Froufrou]

It isn’t that different from some other cultures. I had an older sister report her 15-yr-old sister for neglect. The CPS worker called and told me to call her in. He showed for the appt. but was not surprised when she didn’t. I don’t know if they ever removed the child from the child.

The father had ‘given’ her to a 30-year-old man, the CPS worker explained, which he did thinking the man would provide a better life for her. It creeped me out then, the same as now.

[Pebcak]

According to the order, “the court hereby orders that the Attorney General’s Office of the state of Texas, be and is hereby appointed as special prosecutor in these matters through all phases until final disposition.”

http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2008/may/06/judge-names-attorney-general-special-prosecutor/

[Zakeet]

Will the Special Prosecutor be able to move outside crimes of family law and into such crimes as fraud?

The AG can take on anything that violates Texas statutes. They are especially skilled and experienced at prosecuting fraud.

[najida]

No comment :(

[Pebcak]

Thank you very much.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Thanks. I think the original article posted here got confused and thought the AG was supposed to APPOINT a special prosecuter, not be APPOINTED as a special prosecutor.

I would also guess that in this case, the term “special prosecutor” is technical, as the state AG is “special” to the prosecution of a district matter, but not “special” as some others suggested the term to be used, as someone outside the normal chain who can command more resources.

I do think that the state will have more resourses to use than the district would have.

[arthurus]

they found 31 teenagers at the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ranch who were pregnant or who had already given birth.

That criterion for law enforcement action seems to be sufficient to justify massive sweeps in certain neighborhoods in all the big cities in Texas. Thousands of such "victims" could be rounded up and added to the Texas CPS system but, of course, those children would not be commercially as valuable as the FLDS kids.

[MizSterious]

Crackdown at the Canadian border urged

Raid on Texas compound of fundamentalist group sparks calls for Canada to police the movement of 'celestial brides'

ROBERT MATAS

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

May 6, 2008 at 6:08 AM EDT

The raid on the remote Texas compound of the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints sparked calls yesterday for the Canadian government to crack down on the movement of young girls across the border for so-called celestial marriages.

The border crossing, minutes away from the polygamist community of Bountiful, B.C., does not consistently enforce passport controls, Audrey Vance, who lives near the border and is involved with an anti-polygamist group, said yesterday in an interview.

It's a quiet border in an agricultural area with much of the traffic going to the U.S. for shopping or for the casino. "We're never asked for a passport or ID [when returning to Canada]. It's so easy to come into Canada," Ms. Vance said. "You just drive up. ... They ask where you have been. You say shopping and they wave you on."

Ms. Vance lives in Creston, a town of about 5,000 located 13 kilometres north of the border at Rykerts, B.C.

Bountiful, with a population of about 1,000, is midway between Creston and the border. Ms. Vance is one of the founders of Altering Destiny Through Education, which has previously raised concerns with the federal government over alleged ruses U.S. women in the polygamous sect use to sidestep immigration requirements.

A Globe and Mail investigation last week discovered that a 17-year-old girl from Bountiful was among a group of 463 children and teenagers under 18 years old who were apprehended during the Texas raid on April. 3. Authorities say they found at the compound indications of sexual abuse and a pervasive pattern of grooming girls for underage sex with older men.

The Canadian girl's parents have said their daughter was at the Texas compound to visit her grandmother. Former FLDS women said in interviews the sect regularly sends young girls across the border, in both directions, for religious marriages to older men. The men are encouraged in the religion to have at least three wives. Former members say the movement of women across the border is akin to trafficking of young girls for sexual purposes.

"They [the federal government] have to start paying attention to the border," Ms. Vance said. The government should increase enforcement of border controls to stop the trafficking of women from the U.S. to the polygamist community, she added.

Paula Shore, a spokesperson for the Canada Border Services Agency, said in an interview she could not discuss any individual case for reasons of privacy.

But in general terms, she said, it is up to travellers at every crossing to satisfy border officers that they are genuine visitors to Canada. Although the Rykerts border is closed from midnight to 8 a.m. during the winter and from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. in the summer, the border continues to be monitored, she said.

Also yesterday, Rosalind Prober, president of Beyond Borders, said a public inquiry should be called into the rights of children in Bountiful.

In 2005, the Winnipeg-based group urged the RCMP to press charges against Winston Blackmore, the former bishop of Bountiful, after one of his wives made comments about a 15-year-old child-bride of her husband. Ms. Prober said yesterday nothing ever came of the group's demand for criminal charges for sexual activity with a minor.

Canada will be on the spot in November at a world congress on sexual exploitation of children and adolescents in Rio de Janeiro, Ms. Prober said.

The trafficking of children will be a focus of the international meeting - sponsored by Brazil, Sweden, Japan, Unicef and two non-governmental organizations - and attention will be drawn to Canada's failure to deal with the child brides in the polygamist B.C. community, she said.

Source: Globe and Mail.

[MizSterious]

FLDS probe

DOD may look into polygamist contracts

By Trish Choate

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

WASHINGTON — The congressman representing Wichita Falls said he’s not opposed to a congressional probe into a defense contractor with ties to the polygamist sect raided last month in West Texas.

U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry thinks there’s a way for the Department of Defense to deal with law-breaking contractors if necessary, so that could be pursued.

“I think the key is to see what the Pentagon finds out when they look into it,” Thornberry, R-Clarendon, of the 13th Congressional District said.

A Texas congresswoman requested the House Armed Services Committee conduct an investigative hearing into Department of Defense contracts awarded to NewEra Manufacturing Inc. of Las Vegas, Nev.

The company was awarded $1.2 million in no-bid defense contracts, U.S. Rep. Kay Granger said in a recent letter to HASC leaders.

The Republican from Fort Worth is concerned tax dollars might have funded illegal activities and about reports in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that the company made sect members labor for little or no pay.

“While religious affiliation should certainly not be a determining factor, the DOD has a responsibility to closely scrutinize any company under consideration before contracts are awarded,” Granger said.

A NewEra representative said allegations about wages at the company are “just absolutely nonsense.”

And the firm has won bids from the government over a series of years.

“They chose us because we make a quality part on time,” Steve Barlow, human resources manager, said Friday.

If added up over several years, the minimal contract might match figures Barlow has seen in the press of more than $1 million, he said.

“I think they’re just nitpicking,” Barlow said.

But Granger wants to know if the DOD scrutinized NewEra Manufacturing, as well as the agency’s process for checking out all prospective contractors.

The congressman for the area where the raid took place said he favors a congressional probe, but he’s not rushing to judgment.

U.S. Rep. Mike Conaway, a HASC member, said the FLDS ran legitimate businesses.

“We still live in a country where you’re innocent until proven guilty,” Conaway, R-Midland, of the 11th Congressional District said.

The HASC had not yet scheduled the hearing Granger requested, Lara Battles, committee press secretary, said.

“But defense contracting issues are under examination as they always are, and that would also include questions that have been raised by that particular case,” Battles said.

Read more at source: Times Record News.

[MizSterious]

State to handle possible criminal cases, judge orders

SAN ANGELO, Texas -- The judge who last month ordered 463 children from a polygamist sect into state custody says the state attorney general should handle any criminal cases that may arise from an April raid on the sect's ranch.

State District Judge Barbara Walther's order, signed Monday, instructs the attorney general's office to prosecute any cases that may arise from two search warrants served on the Yearning For Zion Ranch during raids in early April.

The state executed the search warrants on the ranch, run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, after calls from a female who claimed to be a 16-year-old resident to a domestic abuse hot line.

The order does not indicate what criminal charges the attorney general could consider, but state child welfare authorities took the children, plus one born to a teenage girl earlier this month, on the suspicion that the children were victims of physical or sexual abuse.

The attorney general's office will handle "those matters through all phases until final disposition," Walthers order states.

Aides to Attorney General Gregg Abbott, and Tom Green County District Attorney Steve Lupton, did not immediately return calls from The Associated Press seeking comment.

The children have been dispersed to various foster care homes across the state, while most of the adults remain on the ranch in Eldorado, 45 miles south of San Angelo.

Excerpt. Read the rest at source: KRIS-TV online.

[MizSterious]

FLDS Update: Who Are The Lost Boys: Interview with Brent Jeffs Nephew of Warren Jeffs

Reported by: Cody Rodriguez

Monday, May 5, 2008 @06:20pm CST

Men Within The Fundamental Ladder Day Saints Church Are Required To Be In A Polygamous Relationship As The Male Children Grow Older They Are Taught That They Too Must Have Multiple Wives To Enter Spiritual Heaven.

Brent Jeffs Is A Former Flds Member And A Nephew Of Warren Jeffs. He Says Many Of The Young Men Like Him Are Seen As Competition For The Older Men. Its A Common Practice For Flds Church Elders To Send Maturing Teenage Boys Away.

Brent Jeffs--(The Reason) Most Of These Men, You Know, Just Like Me, Who Were Tossed Out Is If We're Not Following Every Little Single Thing That They Say And Do, They Just Find Little Reasons To Kick Us Out. And You Know, Merely For The Big Reason Of, You Know, We're Competition For These Older Men To Get These Younger Women.

The Number Of Lost Boys From Flds Communities Is Unclear But Many Say Is A Recent Trend That Began Five Years Ago About The Same Time When Flds Prophet Warren Jeffs Took Control Of The Church From His Father Rulon Jeffs.

Shannon Price- Around Five Years Ago An Increase Of Boys Kicked Out For Mis Behavior Within The Communities Of Hilldale And Colorado City

Price Works With A Rescue Organization To Help Lost Boys.

Brent Jeffs--("They'll Usually Find Something, You Know, That You've Done Wrong. Some Little Thing, Then They'll Say, 'well, You Need To Leave Town Because You've Done This Wrong Thing. And We Don't Believe That You Need To Stay In Here With Us."

Many Times Fathers Of The Boys That Have Been Deemed A Lost Spirit Are Forced To Take Their Own Kids To The Edge Of Town And Forced To Drop Them Off...

Brent Jeffs:... (When They're Kicked Out, These Boys, Their Dad, They're Told To Drop These Boys Off At The Edge Of Town And Just Tell Them, 'good Luck.'

Whether The Boys Leave On Their Own Accord Or Are Kicked Out Of The Church Many Do Not Have The Skills Necessary To Live In An Open Society They Lack Education And Simple Life Skills And Usually Have No Family Outside Of The Church.

Brent Jeffs:.--These Boys Have Nowhere To Go. They Don't Have Brothers And Sisters, You Know, Anybody To Go To.

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Formatting exactly as produced at source. Video at link. Source: Concho Valley.

[MizSterious]

Canadian citizens wanting to stop the flow of “celestial brides” to the US ping! (If you read the article, it looks like there has been NO effective border control there!)

[MizSterious]

New thread: Texas AG will prosecute any criminal cases from polygamous ranch raid(YFZ/fLDS Daily Thread-5/6/08).