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As Texas officials sort evidence that could lead to new criminal charges against polygamous sect leader Warren S. Jeffs, charges against him in another state are shrinking. Just two of five cases originally brought against the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints leader in Arizona are still in play, and a significant portion of those two cases have been dismissed. Now, a judge has set a July 11 hearing on whether the remaining charges, based on Jeffs' alleged role conducting marriages for underage girls, came out of a tainted grand jury proceeding. Defense attorney Michael Piccarreta argues...

A week after 440 children from a polygamist sect were reunited with their parents, a majority still haven’t returned to the Yearning for Zion Ranch in West Texas. Child Protective Services spokesman Patrick Crimmins said 178 children are living in 33 households in the San Antonio area and 143 children are living in 30 households at the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado. The remaining 19 children are scattered across Texas, but Crimmins said CPS officials are not providing more details about their whereabouts to protect their privacy. Under the court order signed last week by District Judge Barbara Walther, families cannot...

As a district judge heard the state's case for keeping children from a polygamous sect in custody, hundreds of electronic and telephone messages were pouring into Texas Gov. Rick Perry's office. They came from around the country - including Utah - and most made the same point: Send the children home to their mothers. By April 17, three days after separating mothers from their children, the office had received 449 messages opposed to the removal of the children and just 32 from people who supported it. "If you do nothing to protect these rights, you can be assured that you...

Texas Gov. takes blame if FLDS raid 'stepped across some legal line' The Salt Lake Tribune Article Last Updated: 06/06/2008 02:15:33 PM MDT Texas Gov. Rick Perry says he accepts personal blame if Texas "stepped across some legal line" in its raid on a polygamous ranch, while at the same time defending the removal of more than 400 children from the FLDS' Yearning for Zion Ranch in April. In a report today in the Dallas Morning News, Perry said, "I still think that the state of Texas has an obligation to young women who are forced into marriage and underage...

COLORADO CITY, Arizona (ABC 4 News) - Since the raid by Texas authorities on the FLDS ranch, Willie Jessop has become the voice of the FLDS people. It's assumed that Jessop is a leader, perhaps Warren Jeff's right hand man. Jessop is Jeff's body guard. "Willie was always the strong-arm man. He was the guy who would show up just to intimidate people," said Sam Brower, a private investigator. He is useful to FLDS leaders. "They put him up front because he is the type that will say or do anything," said Brower. Ross Chatwin was one of the few...

State officials, fearing a violent reaction from members of a West Texas polygamist sect, considered a secret plan to haul hundreds of children and their mothers to Midlothian to be separated, internal e-mails show. But a judge vetoed the plan. They also worried that mothers would try to make a "run" from the shelter with their children, feared a rampage of infections among the families and fretted about the fear of violence and state resources being overwhelmed by events. More than 1,500 pages of e-mails between the governor's office and Child Protective Services, obtained by The Dallas Morning News under...

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.... Authorities raided the FLDS compound in April after receiving an anonymous phone call. Although they did not find the caller, who said she was a minor being sexually abused on the compound -- the call appears to have been a hoax --...

---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...

Walsh: Past time for FLDS to question their prophet Tribune ColumnistSalt Lake Tribune Article Last Updated:05/28/2008 02:25:41 PM MDT Posted: 2:11 PM- The moment demanded a Raymond Burr flourish:     Still reeling from an appeals court ruling that cracked the foundation of the largest child welfare case in the country, Texas attorneys produced a photo just this side of kiddy porn - a lanky Warren Jeffs kissing a tiny, flat-chested girl "how a husband would kiss a wife."     That kind of courtroom drama only happens on "Perry Mason" or in a John Grisham novel. And Judge Barbara Walther,...

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...

Criminal investigation of polygamous sect unimpeded by court wrangling But officials say uncovering crimes is slow work By Mike WardAMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Saturday, May 24, 2008 The state's decision to put hundreds of children from a polygamist sect into foster care bogged down in legal maneuvers this week, but authorities said Friday a criminal investigation into sexual-abuse allegations at the sect's West Texas ranch is moving ahead unimpaired. However, it's unlikely that any charges will be filed soon, officials said. "The Rangers and the DPS are methodically going through all the evidence," said Tela Mange, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department...

Plural marriage has Utah promise State law enforcement tells a forum it plans no anti-polygamy raids. By Kirk JohnsonThe New York Times Article Last Updated: 05/09/2008 10:55:09 PM MDT ST. GEORGE, Utah — Polygamy is probably here to stay. But child abuse in the polygamous world must be eradicated at all costs. That was the two-part message Thursday night from top state officials from Arizona and Utah, who spoke to a packed audience of fundamentalist polygamists and curious local residents. "We do not plan a raid to end polygamy," said Utah Attorney General Mark L. Shurtleff. "I know you're worried about...

Group Discusses Decriminalizing Polygamy Last Update: 5/09 9:41 pm It's outlawed under the Utah constitution and that's unlikely to change. But decriminalizing it could mean lesser penalties for bigamy convictions. “I think something needs to happen. Something needs to be changed. It needs to be decriminalized,” said Dorothy Allred Solomon. Solomon is the daughter of Rulon Allred she says she grew up in polygamy and said she had a happy childhood. Allred was murdered in 1977 in a hit ordered by rival polygamist Ervil Lebaron. “What happens when a way of life is outlawed is that it attracts outlaws. And...

Texas officials drafting plans for FLDS children By Ben WinslowDeseret News Published: May 8, 2008 Texas child welfare authorities have begun drafting service plans for the children taken from the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch. "It's the plan that has to address the permanency," said Mary Walker, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. "Whether or not children will be unified with their parents or whether or not they will remain in foster care." Children and parents are being interviewed this week, and Texas Child Protective Services will make recommendations. A judge would ultimately sign...

Texas AG will prosecute any criminal cases from polygamous ranch raid By Nate Carlisle The Salt Lake TribuneSalt Lake Tribune Article Last Updated: SAN ANGELO, Texas - A judge has ordered the Texas attorney general's office to prosecute any future criminal cases connected to last month's raid on a polygamous sect's Eldorado ranch.     In a request filed Monday, Tom Green County District Attorney Stephen Lupton asked the state to step in. In a one-paragraph order issued the same day, a state judge instructed the attorney general to review any possible charges arising from two search warrants served on...

Parents seek Ottawa's help Daughter is among children in custody after raid on compound in Texas ROBERT MATAS From Monday's Globe and Mail May 5, 2008 at 4:32 AM EDT SAN ANGELO, TEX. — The federal government should intervene to speed up the return to Canada of a 17-year-old girl who was apprehended during a raid of the Yearning For Zion polygamist compound in Texas, the parents' lawyer says.The Canadian teenager was among 463 children under 18 years old who were taken into custody during a raid of the isolated compound run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ...

Published: 05.04.2008 Woman recalls life in polygamist sect By David Perlmutt MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS CHARLOTTE, N.C. — She was raised by her father and his three wives, surrounded by 12 siblings. There was no TV, no radio. At school, she was taught that man never landed on the moon. She and other girls in the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints were required to "keep sweet," free of jealousy or anger, or risk beatings or humiliation. And by the time Kathy Jo Nicholson turned 14, she was sewing her wedding dress, knowing that any day she could...

Colorado Woman Makes Plea To Sisters In Polygamist Compound Story Of Arranged Marriages, Abuse Chronicled In New Book Lane Lyon, 7NEWS Reporter POSTED: 9:23 pm MDT May 2, 2008 UPDATED: 9:29 pm MDT May 2, 2008 DENVER -- When Texas authorities raided a polygamist compound last month, Laura Chapman took special interest."I thought about when I was little and thought about how I wanted to be adopted, and I wanted out of my family," Chapman said Friday.Now living in Durango, Chapman was born into a polygamist family in Utah.Chapman said she grew up on 6 acres in Sandy, a suburb...

Combating polygamous crime: Utah officials say they can handle it Harry Reid calls for task force, but local officials say they have it coveredBy Thomas Burr The Salt Lake TribuneSalt Lake Tribune Article Last Updated:05/02/2008 02:47:25 AM MDT WASHINGTON - The U.S. attorney for Utah and the head of the FBI's Salt Lake City field office said Thursday there should be no rush to establish a federal task force on polygamous crimes because existing partnerships already offer cross-agency cooperation.     "What's also lost in this debate is let's not ignore that just announcing a task force doesn't give you probable...

FLDS doctor denies abuse at YFZ Ranch By Heather May and Brooke Adams The Salt Lake TribuneSalt Lake Tribune Article Last Updated:05/01/2008 01:20:20 AM MDT The physician who cares for the polygamous community now in the national spotlight - and who has treated its prophet in a Utah jail - is described by his mentor as "very kind, very sensitive, very concerned."     Lloyd H. Barlow, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, graduated from the University of Utah's School of Medicine in 1995.     He completed a one-year internship in internal medicine...

Lawmaker: Investigate FLDS-linked contract The transaction was made with New Era Manufacturing, then based in Hildale By Thomas Burr The Salt Lake TribuneSalt Lake Tribune Article Last Updated: WASHINGTON - A Texas congresswoman wants the House Armed Services Committee to look into a federal contract awarded to a company linked to the polygamous sect raided earlier this month and under fire for alleged child abuse.     Rep. Kay Granger, a Republican from Fort Worth, wrote to committee chairman Ike Skelton and ranking GOP member Duncan Hunter asking for a hearing to look at the vetting process for Department of...

One phase of FLDS work is complete SAN ANGELO, Texas — The last of the extra Texas state troopers, child welfare investigators and others involved in the massive effort of caring for Fundamentalist LDS Church children in custody have rolled out of town. "The demobilization of resources in San Angelo was completed only (Monday)," said Gov. Rick Perry's spokeswoman Krista Piferrer. "It was a large scale effort with a tremendous law enforcement presence, nonprofit presence and (Child Protective Services) workers from all around the state. We basically transformed a coliseum into a shelter.-SNIP- Boys locatedAttorneys identified Monday the location of...

On the lam with Warren Jeffs A single misstep and Musser's world comes apart By Brooke Adams ©2007, The Salt Lake TribuneSalt Lake Tribune Article Last Updated:04/28/2008 03:36:12 PM MDT     Story originally published April 29, 2007     For seven months, Wendell Musser served in Warren S. Jeffs' inner circle, working as a courier and family caretaker for wives of the fugitive polygamous sect leader. Musser's clandestine "mission" had a story line drawn from a spy novel. There were midnight rides to secret locations; shifting hideouts; disposable phones; high-tech tracking equipment; a fleet of expensive vehicles; disguises.     There...

31 of 53 teen girls at FLDS ranch are pregnant or had baby By MICHELLE ROBERTS, Associated Press Writer 2 minutes ago More than half the teen girls taken from a polygamist compound in west Texas have children or are pregnant, state officials said Monday. A total of 53 girls between the ages of 14 and 17 are in state custody after a raid 3 1/2 weeks ago at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado. Of those girls, 31 either have children or are pregnant, said Child Protective Services spokesman Darrell Azar. Two are pregnant now, CPS officials have...

This won't be 'another Short Creek' Action: Criminal charges are urged By Amy Joi O'DonoghueDeseret News Published: April 28, 2008 SAN ANGELO, Texas — A Texas lawmaker who helped pass legislation strengthening the state's marriage laws in response to the Fundamentalist LDS Church presence in his state said he believes criminal charges will result from the Eldorado raid earlier this month. "I don't think this will be another Short Creek," Rep. Harvey Hilderbran, R- Kerrville, told the Deseret News. The controversial Short Creek Raid of 1953 in Arizona rounded up polygamist wives and children and jailed the men. No...

Gene Disorder Complicates Sect Custody FightApril 27, 2008 · Lawyers for the mothers of 462 children taken from a polygamist ranch in West Texas will ask a state appeals court for relief, but the process is slowed by problems in determining the children's parentage. Texas family law officials continue to investigate allegations of physical and sexual abuse. Wade Goodwyn and Liane Hansen discuss the legal proceedings.Meanwhile, many of the children in the FLDS group suffer from fumarase deficiency, a genetic disease that causes acute retardation and physical deformation. The disease was spread through decades of inbreeding, according to John...

Care of sect could top $5 million Web Posted: 04/25/2008 11:37 PM CDTNancy Martinez and Janet ElliottHearst Bus convoys carrying 265 children bound for foster homes around the state pulled out of San Angelo at midday Friday, ending a three-week emergency shelter operation launched in the wake of a raid on a West Texas polygamist sect. The cost of the massive effort, which cared for 462 children and, at one point, more than 100 mothers, could top $5 million, a source familiar with the operation there said. The governor's office said Friday it did not have final cost figures. The...

Texas court: State can take sect children to foster homes By: Associated Press Posted: 4/25/08 SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) - Dozens of mothers from a polygamist retreat were bused away from their children Thursday, their legal efforts to stay united rejected as Texas officials sort out their massive custody case. Two buses took the women from the San Angelo Coliseum, where they had been temporarily housed with their children. Texas officials were preparing to move the last of more than 400 children to group homes, shelters and residences, some hundreds of miles away, over the next few days. One woman...

Culture shock: Seized polygamous sect kids face tough adjustment The Associated Press Article Last Updated: 04/24/2008 07:32:33 AM MDT Posted: 7:33 AM- SAN ANGELO, Texas - The hundreds of children from a polygamist compound taken into state custody are on their way to group homes, shelters and residences, but experts and lawyers fear their transition may be much harder than it is for other foster children.     The 437 children taken from the compound in West Texas will be plunged into a culture radically different from the community where they and their families shunned the outside world as a hostile, contaminating...

5:32 p.m. - The CPS witness says many children at the compound said they were excited about coming to the YFZ Ranch; many said they came from Arizona and Utah. Later, they told investigators this ranch is Zion, and this is where they want to be, the witness testifies. Women and children began giving different names when they got to the Schleicher County Civic Center. Lists were made of the people taken to San Angelo. Again, the records from the bus didn't match up with records from the shelters. The judge rules that children will be identified by numbers. The...