Loading ...Judge Orders FLDS Girl Back into Foster Care
By joshuah | August 19, 2008
Source: News Radio 1200 WOAI San Antonio Texas
A judge in San Angelo ruled this afternoon that a 14 year old girl who was ’spiritually married’ to Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ‘prophet’ Warren Jeffs when she was 12 must be taken away from her mother and placed into foster care, 1200 WOAI news reports.Merrianne Jessop, the daughter of sect leaders Merril and Barbara Jessop, is believed to be one of the two girls what Jeffs was shown kissing in a photograph seized from the Yearning for Zion Ranch in west Texas during a raid by police in April.
State District Judge Barbara Walther ruled that by allowing her daughter to participate in underage marriage, Jessop was not a suitable parent for the girl.
She allowed another of the Jessop’s children, an 11 year old boy named Benjamin to remain in her care. Texas Child Protective Services dropped custody motions against a third Jessop child, Samson, 17, because he is of legal age.
“We were able to present our evidence to Judge Walther, and she agreed that there were serious concerns,” CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins told reporters after the hearing.
In the case of Merrianne Jessop, she ordered the child back to foster care. Benjamin can stay with his mother, but with some very specific conditions which will allow Child protective Services to monitor his safety.”
Crimmins said Judge Walther also ordered that both of the children not have any contact with Merril Jessop.
Crimmins said Walther ordered that Merrianne Jessop be turned over to state care immediately. He didn’t know if the girl has actually been turned over.
He says the state is prepared to present its evidence in the other children involved in motions to remove, although he said it two of the cases, an out of court settlement is possible.
The two children are among eight which Texas Child Protective Services officials have asked be taken away from their parents because the parents declined to adhere to a court approved conditions forbidding the children from having any contact with men involved in ‘underage marriage.’
The two children involved in today’s court proceeding are among the 460 children who were removed from the YFZ Ranch by state officials during a raid in April, and then returned to their parents by order of the Texas Supreme Court in June. Crimmins says motions to reclaim custody of dozens more FLDS children are likely to be field as the investigation continues.
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Mother mum in polygamy custody case
By joshuah | August 19, 2008
Source: CNN.com
The mother of a girl allegedly given in marriage at age 12 to jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs refused to answer questions Monday from attorneys for the state.
Warren Jeffs and four followers were indicted in Texas last month for sexual assault of a child.Warren Jeffs and four followers were indicted in Texas last month for sexual assault of a child.
The state wants to remove the girl, now 14, and an 11-year-old brother from the mother’s care, saying she has refused to guarantee the girl won’t have contact with men accused of being involved in underage marriages.
The girl’s father allegedly blessed her marriage to Jeffs and the underage marriages of at least two sisters.
The hearing was initially delayed while lawyers in the girl’s case and three others tried to negotiate settlements. Later, Texas Ranger Nick Hannah helped Child Protective Services introduce into record dozens of marriage records, photos and church records outlining family relationships that were seized from the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado.
The girl’s mother refused to answer roughly 50 questions asked by attorneys for the child welfare agency, including what constituted abuse, the names of her children and her relationship with their father.
“I stand on the Fifth (Amendment),” she said repeatedly in a flat tone.
Her attorney, Gonzalo Rios, said Jessop, 55, was exercising her right against self-incrimination because of the continuing investigation.
In documents submitted with the state’s custody petition, the 14-year-old girl is quoted as telling a caseworker that a young teenage girl marrying an older man “can’t be a crime because Heavenly Father is the one that tells Warren when a girl is ready to get married.”
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Topics: FLDS, Warren Jeffs | No Comments »
Texas Authorities Seek Custody of Polygamist Sect’s Children Again
By joshuah | August 17, 2008
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.
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FLDS hearing held in closed court
By joshuah | August 16, 2008
Source: Deseret News
Lawyers for a member of the Fundamentalist LDS Church may be trying to prevent that person from testifying before a grand jury investigating crimes within the polygamous sect.A hearing on a motion to quash a subpoena was held behind closed doors here on Friday. Little else is known about what happened at the hearing or why there is concern about anyone’s testimony.
A Deseret News reporter was not allowed inside the courtroom on Friday afternoon because the hearing involved matters of grand-jury secrecy, a bailiff said. Texas 51st District Judge Barbara Walther also would not release a copy of the motion to quash that was filed with the court.
As they left the courthouse, lawyers for both the FLDS and the Texas Attorney General’s Office declined to comment.
“I can’t talk about it,” said Michael Gross, a San Antonio attorney who represents FLDS members.
He said he could not even say whom he is representing.
“It’s confidential,” said Angela Goodwin, Texas assistant attorney general.
The grand jury is expected to meet in nearby Eldorado again next week, where more FLDS members may be called to testify. Six members of the church already have been indicted, including FLDS leader Warren Jeffs.
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Court lets CPS end oversight of 34 FLDS children
By joshuah | August 16, 2008
Source: Houston Chronicle
A West Texas judge on Friday agreed to end court oversight of 34 children from a polyamist group.Child Protective Services indicated last week that it would no longer pursue legal action against the parents of 34 children because the agency felt they were not in immediate danger. On Friday, State District Judge Barbara Walther agreed to the motion, without comment.
Friday’s court action doesn’t mean CPS ends its involvement with the 10 families of the 34 children, all members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a group that allegedly practices underage marriage.
CPS may still investigate the families or deliver services.
The child protective agency typically drops custody cases either when a thorough investigation leads them to believe no abuse occurred, or when they conclude that despite past abuse, a caregiver can now protect a child without the court’s help, said CPS spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner.
Meisner said she could not discuss the specific reasons for CPS’s decision to ask for an end to court oversight, nor the ages or gender of the 34 children.
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Bail hearing canceled for FLDS men
By joshuah | August 14, 2008
Source: Deseret News
A court hearing for four men from the Fundamentalist LDS Church’s YFZ Ranch indicted by a grand jury here was canceled after they hired lawyers and bailed out of jail.A bail reduction request for Raymond Merril Jessop, 36; Merril Leroy Jessop, 33; Allan Eugene Keate, 56; and Michael Emack, 57, was scheduled to be heard Thursday. However, court clerks said the hearing was canceled at the last moment when attorneys entered notices of appearance, and by the fact that the men had posted $500,000 in bail nearly a week ago.
In court papers, attorneys for the FLDS men argued that the $100,000-per-charge bail was excessive and they surrendered themselves once they became aware they had been indicted.
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FLDS questions state management of trust
By joshuah | August 14, 2008
Source: Chron.com
http://www.ueptrust.comA spokesman for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was in state court Thursday to ask a judge if members can ultimately own their homes, now held by a state-managed church trust.
A state-appointed accountant has managed the $110 million United Effort Plan Trust for three years.
The UEP is the charitable arm of the FLDS church. The trust was formed in 1942, when church members turned over their property and other assets to the church to establish a communal order along the Utah/Arizona border where they had lived since the 1920s. Church leaders served as the trust’s managers.
Judge Denise Lindberg on Thursday told Willie Jessop that under the newly revised trust managed by accountant Bruce Wisan, members can own their own homes, with some restrictions. She also sought to assure him there is no bias against the church in the management of the trust.
“I can honestly tell you I have no bias against FLDS. I don’t have a bias for FLDS or for people who have been formerly FLDS. I truly have no view on that issue,” Lindberg said. “I believe that in the long term efforts toward where this trust is going that the most appropriate thing is … to allow and create the opportunity for people to be able to own their property and be able to control it. I’m not going to put a religious test on that.”
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Topics: FLDS, UEP | No Comments »
Ex-husband of teen bride could face trial in Utah
By joshuah | August 13, 2008
Source: KXAN.com
The ex-husband of a teen bride who helped convict polygamous church leader Warren Jeffs on counts of rape by accomplice — could face trial.
Allen Glade Steed is charged in Utah with one count of first-degree felony rape for his sexual relationship with Elissa Wall after the couple married in a 2001 religious ceremony.
She was 14 and he was 19, and both were members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Steed attorney Jim Bradshaw says plea negotiations recently ended with no agreement.
A hearing is October 22nd to determine if prosecutors have enough evidence for a trial.
If convicted, Steed could spend the rest of his life in prison.
He didn’t immediately comment.
Jeffs has also been indicted in Texas on sexual assault charges for an alleged relationship with an underage bride in 2006.
The Associated Press does not generally identify people who say they were sexually assaulted, but Wall has spoken publicly and published a nationally distributed book, “Stolen Innocence.”
Topics: Allen Glade Steed, Elissa Wall, FLDS | No Comments »
Current number of cases against FLDS is unknown
By joshuah | August 13, 2008
Source: Salt Lake Tribune
While Texas authorities were initially investigating 20 cases of sexual assault and 50 bigamy cases involving FLDS members, it is unclear how many of those cases remain open four months later.Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Tela Mange confirmed the number of cases - outlined in an April e-mail - was accurate in the month officials raided the Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado.
But she said she can’t confirm the current number of cases still being investigated. And Salt Lake City attorney Rod Parker, a spokesman for the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, thinks that more than likely the numbers have drastically changed as the investigation has progressed.
So far, the Schleicher County grand jury hearing evidence against sect members has indicted six men, including sect leader Warren S. Jeffs, on charges of sexual assault, bigamy and failure to report child abuse.Parker said he wonders in particular about the volume of bigamy charges that had been predicted back in April.
Based on the number of men on the ranch in plural marriages, prosecutors likely would need to charge women in order to file 50 bigamy charges, he said - a departure from the typical bigamy suspect. He said women typically have been viewed as victims of bigamy, not perpetrators.
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Topics: FLDS, YFZ, polygamous sects | No Comments »
Texas widens FLDS probe
By joshuah | August 12, 2008
The modern Pharisee had a few words to say about all of this…check it out.
Source: Deseret News
Texas Rangers are investigating 20 cases of sexual assault and about 50 bigamy charges involving members of the FLDS Church, the Deseret News has learned.Texas officials on Monday confirmed the number of open cases but would not say how many suspects were involved.
“We are working with several other agencies on this investigation, and I do not know what ultimately the team will decide to do as far as possible charges filed,” Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Tela Mange said.
The investigation has already prompted five indictments, including one against the church’s leader, Warren Jeffs. A Schleicher County grand jury will convene again next week and may consider further indictments.
Rod Parker, a Salt Lake attorney acting as spokesman for the Fundamentalist LDS Church, was surprised by the sheer number of sexual assault and bigamy cases.
And he insists there aren’t enough men practicing plural marriage at the Yearning For Zion ranch outside Eldorado, Texas, to come up with 50 bigamy investigations.
“I think they would have a problem coming up with 50 bigamy charges without charging the women,” Parker said.
Mange would not go into specifics on suspects.
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Topics: FLDS, YFZ, polygamous sects | No Comments »
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