Daily Mail (United Kingdom)
April 19, 2008
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=560679&in_page_id=1770
More than 400 children seized from a ranch run by a polygamous sect will remain in state custody and be subject to genetic testing, a judge ruled today.
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| Polygamist mothers: They packed in court to hear whether their childen would be kept in care |
Judge Barbara Walther said the 416 youngsters would be kept by the state and, along with their parents, must undergo genetic testing to determine their relationships.
The ruling came after the judge at the district court in San Angelo, Texas, heard 21 hours of testimony over two days in one of the largest custody cases in US history.
Individual hearings are due to be set for individual children over the next few weeks.
Child welfare officers have faced problems determining how the children and adults are related because of evasive or changing answers.
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| Chaos: Sect members mix with lawyers to get into packed court for child abuse case |
A mobile genetic lab will take DNA samples on Monday at the main shelter where children are being kept and parents will be able to submit samples on Tuesday in Eldorado, closer to the Yearning For Zion Ranch in west Texas.
The ranch was raided on April 3 after someone identifying herself as a 16-year-old girl with Mormon splinter group the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), which operates the ranch, claimed her 50-year-old husband beat and raped her.
The scale of the case, which involved almost as many lawyers as children, meant defence barristers lined up in the courtroom aisles to take turns asking their questions.
But the judge was able to exercise more control over the mass custody hearing than on Thursday, when the case descended into chaos, mainly due to hundreds of lawyers competing with one another for their clients.
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| Huge lines: Tom Green County courthouse was unable to control the enormous crowds |
Earlier, experts for the state told the court that girls in the polygamous sect entered into underage marriages without resistance because they were ruthlessly indoctrinated from birth to believe disobedience would lead to their damnation.
Psychiatrist Dr Bruce Perry, an authority on children in cults, said the renegade Mormon sect's belief system was "abusive".
"The culture is very authoritarian," he said.
But under cross-examination he admitted the sect mothers were loving parents and that there were no signs of abuse among younger girls or any of the boys.
Dr Perry said the girls he interviewed said they freely chose to marry young, but he added that those choices were based on lessons drilled into them from birth.
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| Different worlds: The church's women share husbands |
"Obedience is a very important element of their belief system," he said.
"Compliance is being godly; it's part of their honouring God."
Dr Perry was applauded by dozens of FLDS parents when he admitted that the children would suffer if placed in traditional foster care.
John Walsh, a witness for the parents, told the court a bed in the retreat's gleaming white temple was not used to consummate the marriages of underage girls to much older men.
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| Female sect members board a bus after the raid. |
"There is no sexual activity in the temple," he said. Instead, he said it was used for naps during the sect's long worship services.
Mr Walsh also disputed that the young girls had no say in who they would marry.
"Basically, they're into matchmaking," he said of the sect.
The children were seized in the raid on the desert compound because of evidence of physical and sexual abuse, including the forcing of underage girls into marriage and childbearing, the judge heard.
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| Bereft: Mother Marie, 32, sobs after being separated from her three sons, aged five to nine |
Only a few of the children were teenage girls, roughly a third were younger than four and more than two dozen were teenage boys.
But about 20 women or more gave birth when they were minors, some as young as 13, authorities said.
The Child Protective Services agency argued that the teachings of the FLDS - to marry shortly after puberty, have as many children as possible and obey their fathers or their prophet, imprisoned leader Warren Jeffs - amounted to abuse.
Jeffs is in prison for being an accomplice to rape and he was convicted in Utah last year of forcing a 14-year-old into marrying an older man.
Mr Walsh told the court that the sect did not promote underage marriages until Jeffs took over as the sect's "prophet".
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| Marie and fellow mother Brenda, 37, talk with the press at the Yearning for Zion ranch |
"He encourages marriage," Mr Walsh said. "In some ways, he's indifferent to their age."
Meanwhile, Colorado Springs officials arrested 33-year-old Rozita Swinton this week on suspicion of making a false report.
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