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ELDORADO, Texas — He was the man at the gates in the white cowboy hat and the folksy southern drawl. Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran was one of the few outsiders whom the FLDS would initially allow onto the YFZ Ranch, and he cultivated a relationship with them. That relationship has been severely strained in the aftermath of the raid on the YFZ Ranch. "I did not have the power to step in and stop this," Doran said. "The state of Texas had an investigation. They had a call, an outcry of a child they had to investigate and we...

YFZ RANCH, Texas - Anne Sweeter Jessop puts her arms around her mother's neck and hangs on, her smile a Texas-mile wide. She is home. Her mother is here. So are her father and three brothers. And that is all this 3-year-old cares about.

ELDORADO, Texas -- Hours after signing an order releasing FLDS children from state custody, 51st District Judge Barbara Walther arrived at the Schleicher County Courthouse in Eldorado to swear in a grand jury that may be considering indictments related to the polygamous sect. By the end of the day, 18 indictments had been issued, although no details were immediately available. The number was more than the usual; it is more typical for five to 15 indictments to be returned, a court clerk said. Walther arrived at at the Eldorado courthouse at 12:30 p.m., accompanied by two bailiffs and her court...

Judge Walther issues emergency order keeping one child, an alleged sexual abuse victim, from returning to the YFZ Ranch. READ EMERGENCY ORDER: http://www.myeldorado.net/graphics/Motion%20and%20Order%20to%20stay%20enforcement-1.pdf

ELDORADO, TEXAS -- As officials haggled Friday over how to return more than 400 children to their parents, it was becoming increasingly clear that Texas' audacious attempt to rein in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints had backfired -- and become a lesson in the difficulty of cracking down on the 10,000-member polygamist sect. .... The town also was abuzz over an anticipated mass voter registration by the FLDS. Hours after the court first ruled against the state, two members of the sect walked into the county clerk's office and requested 300 voter registration forms, a...

SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) — For nearly two months, Texas child welfare officials had insisted conditions at a polygamist group's ranch were so abusive that none of its members should be allowed to keep their children. Now, however, one of the of the largest custody cases in U.S. history is unraveling, and some are looking for what went wrong when the state raided the Yearning For Zion Ranch and removed more than 400 children. Since the state Supreme Court ruled that the Texas Department of Child Protective Services overreached when it swept the children into foster care, agency officials have...

The devil was in the details. Discussions about a proposed order involving the return of children taken from the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch broke down late this afternoon when attorneys for the families wanted to review proposed changes with their clients. Judge Barbara Walther announced the attorneys had better get all of their clients' signatures before she would sign the agreement and abruptly left the bench late this afternoon. A lawyer for the families, Laura Shockley, said she expected attorneys would return to an Austin appeals court Monday to push for an order returning the children. It was the...

SAN ANGELO, Texas — Lawyers for Child Protective Services have made a proposed agreement to return hundreds of children taken from the Fundamental LDS Church's YFZ Ranch. The agreement is being discussed by lawyers for mothers, children and child welfare authorities in a hearing underway that is in response to a Texas Supreme Court ruling that the children should be returned to their parents. A copy of the order, obtained by the Deseret News, seeks to have children returned to their parents beginning Monday. The proposed agreement also requires parents to complete parenting classes and cooperate with an ongoing investigation...

Thursday's turn of events had Martha Emack, one of the parents whose children were taken, optimistic about a reunion. HARRY CABLUCK: ASSOCIATED PRESS May 29, 2008, 11:47PMState officials prepare to reunite sect children with parents AUSTIN — Texas child welfare officials began preparations Thursday to reunite more than 450 children with their parents after the state's highest civil court said their removal from a West Texas polygamist ranch seven weeks ago was illegal."We are disappointed, but we understand and respect the court's decision and will take immediate steps to comply," said Marleigh Meisner, a spokeswoman for Child Protective Services....

Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- The Texas Supreme Court has ruled that children taken from a polygamist sect's ranch should be returned to their parents, saying child welfare officials overstepped their authority. The high court on Thursday affirmed a decision last week by an appeals court that said Child Protective Services failed to show an immediate danger to the more than 400 children swept up from the Yearning For Zion Ranch nearly two months ago.

Headline only now

---Why a Texas Appellate Court Seriously Erred In Concluding that Texas Child Protective Services Should Not Have Rescued All of the Children at the FLDS CompoundBy MARCI HAMILTON ---- Thursday, May 29, 2008 Last week, the Third Court of Appeals in Austin, Texas, issued a very significant – and very seriously mistaken – ruling, In re Sara Steed et al.The case involved 38 women from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), who challenged the state’s removal of all the children from their FLDS compound in Eldorado, Texas when authorities entered on the basis of reports...

My sister and brother-in-law decided to pursue adoption after many attempts at natural pregnancy. They began working with CPS when they received two little angels (same mom, different dads) last year in OCT/NOV. The girl was 5 at the time, the boy 2. In their young lives they had already been in the 'system' and had been through 4 previous foster families. The girl was already traumatized. She had nightmares, bed-wetting issues and had a violent sense of humor. Both her and her little brother had experienced starvation because of the mom's dependance on drugs resulting in sever neglect. Neither...

SAN ANGELO, Texas — While the custody fight for the hundreds of children seized from the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch has devolved into legal chaos, a criminal probe is quietly moving forward. "The investigation is continuing," Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Tela Mange said in an e-mail to the Deseret News. "When we have completed our investigation, we will present our case report to the prosecutors for their action." An Austin appellate court's ruling that Texas child welfare authorities overstepped their authority in removing all of the children from the FLDS property has no bearing on the law...

SAN ANGELO, Texas - One watchdog of the Texas child-welfare system called last week's status hearings for FLDS parents highly unusual. "In every single hearing I heard it was rubber-stamping and not caring what the Texas code says about family service plans," said Johana Scot, executive director of the Parent Guidance Center in Austin. Scot is a former court-appointed special advocate volunteer who has spent the past four years helping parents navigate the state's child-welfare system. She spent two days sitting through hearings in San Angelo last week. Her conclusion: The process has been altered and parents shut out.

Court ruling puts everyone on hold By Paul A. Anthony (Contact) Monday, May 26, 2008 Life hasn't been particularly kind to Dan Barlow in what should be his golden years. The soft-spoken retiree saw three children taken during the infamous Short Creek raid of 1953. He got them back, fathered many more children and rose to prominence in life - as mayor of Colorado City, Ariz. - and in his faith through the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. That all changed in 2004. Sect leader Warren Jeffs excommunicated Barlow, his son and 18 others, forcing them...

Utah, Texas laws are similar; FLDS population isn't By Amy Joi O'DonoghueDeseret News Published: May 25, 2008 Could the raid on the FLDS ranch in Texas happen here? Critics of the April action accuse Texas of cowboy-style justice, trampling over constitutional rights by using lax laws that must be more liberal than other states. That general point of view received a boost this week when a Texas court of appeals ruled that child protective services authorities acted improperly when they removed all 400-plus of the YFZ Ranch children and subsequently placed them in foster care. However, the basic Texas...

It was the call for help that launched one of the largest raids on a religious compound in U.S. history. But on Monday, a Child Protective Services attorney asked for the case involving a 16-year-old known as "Sarah," who claimed sexual and physical abuse at the hands of her husband, to be dropped. The state has all but declared the call a hoax after the phone number was traced to a Colorado woman with a history of pretending to be an abused child. The Texas Department of Public Safety even withdrew its arrest warrant against Dale Barlow, alleged husband and...

Authorities acknowledge that if the appellate court decision is not thrown out, the state may have to return more than 400 children. A judge allows 12 children to reunite with their parents.