custody battles

Slightly off topic, but relevant to the whole Texas FLDS debacle, don’t you think?

A 1970s-era Texas law that allows parents to show “harmful material” to their children has come under fire after a prosecutor said he couldn’t file charges against a man accused of forcing his 8- and 9-year-old daughters to watch hardcore online pornography.

Randall County District Attorney James Farren has asked the Texas attorney general’s office to review his decision not to pursue charges in the case, which has prompted at least one lawmaker to vow to change the state’s public indecency law.

“Our hands are tied. It’s not our fault. I have to follow the law,” Farren said Thursday. “The mother of the victims in this case was less than happy with this decision, which I understand. We were less than happy with the statute.”

The law apparently was meant to protect the privacy of parents who wanted to teach children about sex education, but it states clearly that parents can’t be prosecuted for showing “harmful material” to their children.

Farren said police reported the incident to his office after one of the girls told a counselor in June that her father made them watch adults having group sex and various other acts at his home in Amarillo. The parents of the girls, and their 7-year-old sister, are divorced and share custody.

Source/Full Story: blog.taragana.com

From http://www.azfamily.com/news/local/stories/KTVKLNews20080219_polygamy_divorce.bc42bd3.html

 PHOENIX – Anybody who’s been through a divorce knows child custody battles can be brutal.But what happens when those battles are fought against the backdrop of polygamy?Mike Watkiss shares the story of a woman who ran away from polygamy and is fighting to protect her children from what she calls a cycle of abuse.In the minds of a lot of people, with the conviction of Warren Jeffs, the polygamy story came to an end.Far from it.