Posted on 04/09/2008 4:41:39 PM PDT by JRochelle
SAN ANGELO, Tex. - Adult FLDS men were having sex with underage brides inside the massive limestone temple at the polygamous sect's Texas ranch, a confidential informant told authorities.
According to a request for a search warrant unsealed today by a Texas judge, Schliecher County Sheriff David Doran has been working with a confidential informant who has shared information about the ranch over several years. On Saturday, as a sweeping raid was underway at the YFZ Ranch, the informant spoke to Doran and made the allegation about the temple, the court filing said.
The affidavit was from Texas Ranger Leslie Brooks Long, who reported being at the ranch and observing a bed inside the temple with disturbed linens and a long hair, apparently from a female.
The document was filed in support of the state's request for a second warrant to search the ranch, owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. That warrant was signed Sunday; an earlier warrant had been signed on Thursday, the day the raid began.
Since then, authorities have removed 419 children, accompanied by 139 women.
Tom Green County District Judge Barbara Walther unsealed the documents during a hearing today.
She also ruled three members of the sect have the legal right to challenge the massive search, and said she will appoint a special master to review documents and computer hard drives seized from the sect's ranch. The special master will determine what material is privileged and protected as strictly religious.
Gerald Goldstein, who is representing sect members, estimated that hundreds of boxes of documents have been taken from the YFZ Ranch.
"We ought to be able to cull out those that are sacred," he told the judge. "If it relates to the children, they get it. If it doesn't, they don't."
Police can seize any documents related to family lineage, he acknowledged.
Allison Palmer, assistant district attorney for the 51st District, argued that sect members did not have legal standing, or should not be allowed to challenge the search. No arrests have been made, she pointed out.
But the judge disagreed, granting legal standing to three men:
- Lyle Jeffs, representing himself and the FLDS church. He is the bishop of the FLDS church's Short Creek stake on the border of Utah and Arizona and the father of two children taken from the ranch.
- Ranch overseer Merrill Jessop, who is also is a presiding elder in the sect.
- Isaac Jeffs, a brother of the sect's leader.
Goldstein said the men are no longer seeking to quash two state search warrants used so far by officials, conceding the point is moot because a federal search warrant has been issued.
This is beyond words! DAMN THEM!
More to this than meets the eye according to this writer. Many times in my life I have been shown that those that haste to a judgement are often times found to be in error:
1. The affidavit, as I suspect most are in this type of situation, is based entirely on hearsay facts. This means that the facts alleged are not really facts the person who makes the affidavit has personally observed. In this case, Lynn McFadden, a woman over 18 years of age, and who is an Investigative Supervisor for the Department of Family and Protective Services (The Department) provided the sworn testimony which served as the basis for this affidavit.
2. Ms. McFadden claimed that she has personally reviewed the Department’s Original Petition For Protection of a Child in an Emergency and for Conservatorship in suit Affecting the Parent-Child Relationship (The Petition). This means, that the affidavit Texas Authorities relied upon to forcibly remove over 400 Children from the FLDS compound, is based on information that someone else apparently told Ms. McFadden. She is not the person to whom the original complaint was apparently made. Had she been, she could and should have so testified in her own sworn affidavit. It is also important to note that the allegations are not the actual allegations of the 16 year old minor child/mother. According to media reports, authorities can’t seem to find that person, as of yet. In fact, it is actually unclear from the affidavit whether Ms. McFadden was even present during any of this investigation. My sense is that she was not, or she would and should have so testified in the affidavit.
Now, I’m not suggesting that the McFadden affidavit would not be sufficient to remove perhaps the one pregnant minor child, who complained of sexual and child abuse, particularly if they actually found such a woman when they went in and initially searched the compound; however, I find it unbelievable that it would and could serve as the basis for a small armed invasion of an entire community, resulting in the the wholesale kidnapping under color of law hundreds of innocent children, with their mothers in tow.
3. Ms. McFadden’s allegations of the sexual and child abuse of the minor child, who herself is supposed to have an eight month old baby, and is currently several weeks pregnant with another child, chronicle a literal horror story of physical and sexual abuse. These allegations should absolutely be investigated, and if there is actual evidence to support such allegations, the abuser should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and never let out of prison, in my humble opinion. The abused minor child should certainly be removed from the compound, along with her own child, and placed in state custody. Further, the minor’s own parents should be investiaged for child abuse as well. If McFadden’s allegations are true, then the minor’s own parents’ actions are implicated and possibly merit criminal prosecution.
4. The remainder of the affidavit gets a little soft on why over 400 other children were removed from the compound. McFadden relates about how Department investigators while searching for the subject 16 year old minor victim:
observed a number of teenaged girls who appeared to be minors and who appeared to be pregnant, as well as several teenaged girls who already had given and had their own infants. Investigators determined that there is a wide-spread pattern and practice among the residents of the YFZ Ranch in which young minor female residents are conditioned to to expect and accept sexual activity with adult men . . .
OK, well, how many teeaged girls did they observe, one, two, five, ten, a hundred, four hundred? They appeared to be minors? How old, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19? How did they determine their ages in this whirlwind investigation? The age of consent in Texas is 17. So, the upper limits of the teen aged years, would appear to be outside the jurisdiction of The Department. How many are “several” teen aged girls? Did it number in excess of 400?
Appeared to be pregnant? You mean we don’t know? Texas didn’t find out whether there in fact were other pregnant teen aged children before removing over 400 other children from the compound? Certainly a good number of those children could not possibly have been pregnant, either from age limitations or gender.
How did the investigators determine there was a wide spread pattern and practice of anything at the compound? What investigation and what facts had they determined prior to their raid? How many of these observations are actually conclusions of the investigators and law enforcement at the scene? Why not take the other potential cases on a case basis, investigating each? Certainly none of these people were going to go anywhere.
5. Ms. McFadden concludes that based on their investigation The Department concluded that every single minor child at the compound, whether they had actually made any complaints at all, was in fact in immediate danger. Every, single minor child’s health and safety were in immediate danger. Every single minor child was the victim of neglect and/or sexual abuse. These are startling conclusions, but, not exactly based on any facts, at least as far as the facts are alleged in the “affidavit.”
http://messengerandadvocate.wordpress.com/2008/04/09/texas-authorities-release-flds-raid-affidavit/
Great source:
“Welcome to the Messenger and Advocate. We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons).”
Many, many of these posters are almost ‘gleeful’ that there maybe problems with the warrants or the initial search of the ‘compound’ (oops...my bad, gated community.) Texas Rangers = bad; FLDS = good. And its all out on the ‘net for the world to see. Which is why I feel compelled to post (if at all possible) to assure that FR doesn’t get tainted as supporting the FDLS ‘lifestyle.’ REASONABLE CONSERVATIVES ARE ANGERED AND REPULSED BY THE TREATMENT OF YOUNG GIRLS AND WOMEN AT YFZ.
Thx for the suggestion at researching prevous posts...you are right...alot of info can be gleened.
Well I know the cops are watching these threads.Trust me on that one PennsylvaniaMom.:)Like I said it reminds me of the Westerfield trial.They come out of the woodwork like roaches.
Hey, newb. Welcome to FR. So you jump right in trying to discredit Carolyn Jessup?
Why don’t you learn something about her before you start trashing her. So what? You expect a mother to ask her kids permission to take the out of a horrifying abusive situation? Get dad’s permission?
Her oldest daughter DID go back when she turned 18.
So why are you defending this group? Who are you?
Yes it should and will come out.
It seems quite a bit has already come out however.
I think people have to be blind however not see what what has probably gone on.
I think that after a fair trial; those found guilty should be executed.
I hope that you ( and everyone on this forum) agree with that sentiment.
Now go easy there...it's not like those people just pulled their religious beliefs out of hat or something.......oh wait....never mind.....
I think it is more a horror over the fact that a police screw up will provide an avenue for a protracted defense.
It appears the feds saved the posterior of the state prosecutors with a federal warrent which named the proper defendant.
The sooner the case gets to finality the better for these kids. Sloppy police work only helps the criminals.
“That is the root of the problem. They are following Joseph Smith. Every blasted one of them.”
No actually they don’t. It is the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ that does. They have since changed their name to the Church of Peace. They are out of Kansas City.
I haven’t read anyone posting hate to Mormons.
I have lots or Mormon relatives and I am well aware of the doctrines of Mormonism, and have pointed out the obvious contradictions and opposing doctrines of their religion on occaisions, to some of them, but I do not hate them because I have done that; nor do people hate Mormons who do the same here.
To point out what Mormon doctrine is and has been [and still is, in secret places] is not hate. Just as the movie Fitna is not hate for pointing out the truth of what is said and done in the name of religion, so to point out what is obvious in these sects, and where they got their beliefs from, is not hate.
Quite the link there. What I find trully disturbing is the outpouring of ‘sympathy’ for the FLDS in the comments sections of the articles posted in Salt Lake City papers. That, to me, speaks volumes...
No it won’t. They are doing the right thing, at least in this place. There are many more of these places that need the same actions taken.
I was refering to the multiple polygamist cults that broke off when polygamy was banned.
Those cults are all about sex and lots of it, with a variety of partners.
That is what they are about now.
I agree.
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