By Gretel C. Kovach and Kirk Johnson
New York Times
April 11, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/11/us/11raid.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
SAN ANGELO, Tex. — For years, the veiled world behind the doors of a fundamentalist Mormon polygamist temple tantalized local imaginations in the Hill Country south of here.
On Thursday, a Texas ranger described in detail what occurred last week when law enforcement officers, responding to a call for help from a 16-year-old who said she was being sexually abused in the compound, sought entry.
In essence, Capt. Barry Caver of the Texas Public Safety Department said at a news conference here, the officers knocked and asked for a key. The church members quietly said no.
"They opted not to do that because they would be aiding or assisting us in the desecration of their worship place," Captain Caver said.
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| The gate leading to the main temple at Yearning for Zion Ranch was locked Thursday in Eldorado, Tex. A SWAT contingent was called in during a raid to break down the temple doors. Photo by Tony Gutierrez |
The authorities called in a locksmith to open the gate, but they were unable to move the deadbolts to open the front doors of the temple. They tried to use a "jaws of life" tool, normally used to remove people trapped in cars after accidents, to open the doors. But the doors were too tightly constructed, Captain Caver said.
Finally, a SWAT team was called to apply brute force. As the team broke down the doors, about 57 men from the church stood in a circle around the building to bear witness, Captain Caver said.
The sect members sank to their knees in prayer, some sobbing, and one young man rushed to intervene. He was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of interfering with a public servant but has been released on bond.
Inside, the three-story temple held hints about possible under-age marriage rites, but no answer to what had happened to the 16-year-old who called the authorities. The authorities found shredded documents, but could not determine when they had been destroyed. The state also found beds on the top floor of the temple, where authorities suspect that older men had sex with under-age girls, court documents released on Wednesday said. In one rumpled bed, authorities found a long strand of hair, the affidavit states.
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or F.L.D.S., which bought the ranch in Eldorado, about 45 miles south of here, in 2003, is mostly concentrated in southern Utah and northern Arizona. Law-enforcement officials say the group, which has perhaps 10,000 members, broke from the Mormon Church more than a century ago and has no link today.
Sheriff David Doran of Schleicher County said at the news conference that he had been allowed inside the ranch gates several times, but that each time the authorities were allowed to meet with just a few leaders of the group while the rest of the sect stayed out of sight.
Sheriff Doran said he and other authorities were aware that the group had practiced polygamy and that some members had been convicted of "marrying" under-age girls in Utah and Arizona.
The sheriff said he was never able to see evidence of those activities on his visits.
"This group does not talk openly," he said. "You can only press someone so far without a court order."
Sheriff Doran said that the authorities "may very well" have the 16-year-old caller in custody, but that she had not come forward to identify herself.
A spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, Marleigh Meisner, said in a telephone interview that investigators had completed one-on-one interviews with all the young people taken in the raid and did not have a definitive answer.
"It may take some time for her to come forward," Ms. Meisner said.
In the raid, 416 children were removed and placed in temporary state custody on suspicion of being abused or under the threat of abuse or neglect; 139 women voluntarily left the ranch to care for them.
The women and children are at the Fort Concho National Historic Landmark and other temporary shelters in San Angelo.
The man originally named in the arrest warrant as suspected of sexually abusing the girl immediately reported to his probation officer in Mohave County, Ariz., last Friday and said he had never met the girl and had not been in Texas in more than 30 years.
Until the authorities find the girl, they will not be able to determine whether she was referring to a different man who may live at the Texas ranch, Captain Caver said.
In their search of the ranch, troopers used cadaver dogs to look for unmarked graves but did not find any, Captain Caver said.
Previously, leaders of the ranch had told the authorities that 200 to 300 people lived at the ranch, far fewer than the number encountered.
With most of the women and all children removed, 50 to 60 men and older women are now at the ranch, Captain Caver said.
Criminal charges in the abuse case have not been filed, he added, and the sect members are free to leave the ranch if they wish.
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