Shocking News!!!
SAN ANGELO, Texas (CNN) — Hundreds of children who were taken from a polygamist ranch by Texas child welfare authorities will remain in state custody, a judge ruled Friday night.
Women arrive Friday at the courthouse wearing their traditional high-collared, pioneer-style dresses.
Judge Barbara Walther also ordered court DNA testing for all 416 children who lived at the YFZ (Yearning For Zion) Ranch in Eldorado to determine their biological parents. (Apparently, they don’t know who are the biological parents coz these children don’t have birth certificates!)
The compound is run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — a Mormon offshoot that practices polygamy.
Walther made her ruling after two days of testimony at a hearing to determine whether the children were properly removed by child welfare authorities.
Walther said she found sufficient evidence for Texas Child Protective Services to keep custody of the children.
Officials are now looking for “the very best temporary placements for these children,” said Marleigh Meisner, CPS spokeswoman.
“This is not about religion — this is about keeping children safe from abuse,” she added.
An attorney representing some of the children said he planned to appeal the ruling.
“We’re a little disappointed in what the process turned out to be,” said Cody Towns.
The ranch raid stemmed from a series of phone calls in late March from a 16-year-old officials referred to as Sarah, who said she had been beaten and forced to become the “spiritual” wife to an adult man.
FLDS members have denied that the girl, supposedly named Sarah Jessop Barlow, exists. Authorities have been trying to locate her, but have been unable to identify the girl.
Texas Rangers said Friday they are pursuing a Colorado woman as a “person of interest” regarding the phone calls that touched off the raid. Authorities said a search of the home of Rozita Swinton, 33, resulted in evidence that may link her to phone calls made about the YFZ ranch.
Earlier in the day, a defense witness testified that it is uncommon for a polygamist sect to force girls as young as 13 into marriage, as the state alleged. (Uncommon doesn’t mean not possible? So there are such cases?)
Religious scholar John Walsh also addressed a particularly damning piece of evidence: At least one bed found inside a temple that was allegedly used to consummate such marriages immediately after the ceremony. (OMG!!! Blasphemy!!!)
“Historically, the only use of a bed in a temple is for temple worship itself,” said Walsh, who said he has studied the FLDS practices for 18 years. “The worship lasts a couple of hours, so all the temples will have a place where someone can lie down.”
But, he said, “To my knowledge, there has never been any sexual activity in a Mormon temple.”
Walsh said he also studies the mainstream Mormon church, which renounced polygamy a century ago and has no ties to the FLDS. He said without the polygamy aspect, the FLDS would resemble the Baptist or Catholic religions.
Walsh was followed to the stand by FLDS member Marilyn Jeffs, who said she was not forced into marriage before age 18. It wasn’t clear whether Jeffs is related to jailed FLDS leader Warren Steed Jeffs.
Another FLDS woman, Maureen Jessop, said she was a mother of two toddlers and an infant, but also was trained as an emergency medical technician — despite her husband’s wishes. Jessop said she is a stay-at-home mother by choice. “I have a wonderful life in Eldorado,” she testified.
Also testifying Friday was child psychiatrist and state witness Bruce Perry, who said FLDS children are taught that disobeying orders leads to eternal damnation and have little opportunity to learn how to make independent choices.
Young children are not mature enough to enter into a sexual relationship or a marriage, he added.
Perry, who has worked with families in groups such as the Branch Davidian sect near Waco, Texas, said that if the children are allowed to remain in state custody, “There have to be exceptional elements in place for these children and their families. The traditional foster care would not be good for these children.
The state had the burden of demonstrating to Walther why removing the children was necessary.
In court Thursday, Texas state officials presented records they said show 10 women were either married or pregnant as minors. The list was found during the raid, locked in a safe at a main ranch office building, the officials said.
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Another report apparently revealed that there were several pregnant teen girls at a polygamist ranch who called each other “sister wives” and who believed it was acceptable to be “spiritually united” with a man at any age.
It was the belief that no age was too young to be married. About 130 of the children removed were under the age of 4 and that girls as young as 13 had conceived children at the ranch.
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I find the news really disturbing. It kinda reminds me of the HBO show Big Love where this Mormon guy has 3 wives and the prophet has a wife who is 16!!
Personally, I don’t approve of polygamy. Not because I don’t like the idea of sharing a husband, but more of the fact that these children are being abused without knowing it! They have no say about how their lives should be and they can’t break free from this cycle. Its as if the girls from compound are being “bred” to be wives and for reproduction purposes.
And i don’t know what is worse – The fact that the men are so perverted and horrid or the fact that these women are so cruel and dumb.
That female Judge and DCFS spokeshag Marleigh Meisner look like total w*h*o*r*e*s. I’ll bet the judge has at least four tattoos. I’d guess that Meisner probably has w*h*o*r*e*d around with at least 84 different men.
Only a slut would want those kids taken from their wonderful families. I am praying that they both comes down with brain cancer–several large tumors each. I would enjoy a youtube video showing their diseased bodies flopping around on a hospital bed.
The patriots who are standing up for these kids and the constitution need to get together and form an organization to resist this and other atrocities by the government and their henchmen.
Further, all baptist churchs should be picketed on sunday to protest the invovlement of the el dorado baptist church in assisting the pigs, providing buses and acting as collaborators. this is a huge problem.
I can’t wait to see what religious, ethnic or social group is next to have their kids seized and put into “better” homes. What the hell does the government know about what’s good for these children? Having read all of the transcripts and followed this case, there is still zero evidence that child molestation occurred. What’s really frightening is that if you walk into any school in America with 14 year old children, you’re bound to find some of them pregnant. Oh well, I guess we need to take every child in that school away from their parents!
I’m so mad over this whole thing! I can’t believe the gov can go in and take children away from parents with such little evidence of wrong doing! How many girls get pregnant at early ages/ it’s not right, but that doesn’t mean they should be wards of the state or taken away from their families. It’s laughable that the media claims these people obey leaders, and don’t question parents. Back in the day, that was called respect, and children were expected to obey.
I don’t see the government going in and arresting priests for abusing little boys, and then taking them away from their families–after all the parents allowed them to be alter boys!! Where does it end? Oh, and by the way the Baptists love being part of this whole thing/ they’ve hated and spread anti-Mormon/ anti-fundamental Mormon lies for years.
are the above commments made by spam bots or idiots?
i have no idea what spam bots are so i’m inclined to think its the latter.
if those commenting are humans, this is my response:
yes it seems “wrong” for the government to be interfering too much, esp when it comes to religion. but u have to consider that this polygamy thing is getting waayyyyyyyy out of hand right?! imagine 416 kids without birth certs!! i mean, what will happen to them when they grow up and need jobs or health care services?! they kinda legally “don’t exist” in this world!
and besides, how healthy is this whole morman thing? yes, granted that there are teens who go and get themselves knocked up anyway, but at least we have a chance of helping those kids thru education. what about these poor kids who have been brought up to know about nothing else except the “truth” that their prophet teaches them? the “truth” that its ok to marry a guy who is 60 yrs old and be his 1000th wife even though you are still 13. its all twisted!
take a look at the mothers of these kids! they have been soooooo oppressed by men that when the time comes, they don’t even dare to step up to acknowledge their kids without their husbands’ approval.
so, yes, i do agree and totally support what the government is doing coz this whole polygamy thing is just plain wrong!
wasn’t oprah winfrey about 15 years when she
had an out of wedlock baby that died?
erm i’m not too sure. why?
I believe the Goverment is right for taking those kids away. who would let a grown man take their 13 year old daugghter an dmarry her and have sex with her? She isn’t even done growing or maturing, shes still a baby and just because they get married 1st then have sex dosent make it ok, its still wrong. i dnt think bible ever meant oh yeah as long as ur married have all the sex u want! no matter what the age. i support the goverment n think they’re right.
Marleigh meisner should be set on fire with gasoline. The reasons given for the raid were lies, and those children will suffer much more in texas foster care. Someone patriotic should come forward to blow meisners head off. Marleigh meisner is a criminal degenerate whore. Someone please off her
Hooray!! Texas has decided they had no right to take the children away from their parents. I couldn’t believe that the authorities were waiting in the hospital hall for a mother to give birth, so they could take the baby and put it in Foster Care~~ Why?? What had the mother done wrong to deserve this? At the rate our government is going we’d all better watch out. I’m surprised they haven’t gone into the Amish communities and taken their children away also–Oh, and by the way the reason for taking the children away from their families wasn’t because they were practicing polygamy, it was because they were supposably being abused. And falsely accused at that!