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	Data May Have Inflated Number of Teen Mothers Age Dispute Could Be Blow to Claim of Widespread Abuse Associated Press, carried in Austin American-Statesman May 17, 2008 http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/05/17/0517eldorado.html SAN ANTONIO — When Texas child welfare authorities released statistics showing that almost 60 percent of the teenage girls taken from a polygamous sect's ranch were pregnant or had children, they seemed to prove what officials have claimed all along: The sect commonly pushed girls into marriage and sex. But in the past week, the state has twice been forced to admit that "girls" who gave birth while in state custody are adults. One, Louisa Bradshaw Jessop, is 22, and she claims to have shown state officials a Utah birth certificate shortly after she and more than 400 minors were seized in an April raid from the West Texas ranch of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The state has in custody 24 other young mothers and additional sect members whose ages are in dispute. If most of them turn out to be adults, it could deal a severe blow to the state's claim of widespread sexual abuse at the compound in Eldorado. Such a revelation would mean that the number of actual 14- to 17-year-old mothers could drop to as low as five. That would amount to about 20 percent of the girls in that age range who were found at the ranch, substantially higher than the average rate of teen pregnancies in Texas but a far cry from 60 percent. "It's not widespread, and you've got to look at every family individually to determine whether there's a problem in a family," said Rod Parker, a spokesman for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. "There's no reluctance on our part to go ahead and take appropriate action if and when we can determine these are adults," said Patrick Crimmins, a spokesman for Child Protective Services. All 463 of the children removed from the Yearning For Zion Ranch have been in state custody for six weeks and are in foster care facilities across the state. Crimmins said he is not sure how long it will take to resolve the disputed-minor cases. CPS has complained that sect members have refused to cooperate with the agency's investigation. Officials say the members have changed their answers or refused to answer questions about age and parentage. Parker says the state ignored evidence that the young mothers presented, including birth certificates and Social Security cards. Patricia Matassarin, Jessop's attorney, questioned how a person is supposed to prove her age if officials won't believe a birth certificate or driver's license, which Jessop also gave the state. A birth certificate, combined with testimony from Jessop's mother, was presented, and state officials conceded in Austin on Thursday that Jessop is an adult. Crimmins said many of the sect members whose ages are in dispute don't have documents that are typically used to establish age, such as birth certificates, driver's licenses or public school records. "We've been trying, sometimes with very little success, to get as much information as possible on the children," he said. "What we've said is consistent. We think there was some abuse — some physical abuse and some sexual abuse — at the ranch." The children are being treated the same as siblings of abused children in smaller households, where removal is common, Crimmins said. All the children from the sect's compound were sent to foster care after state District Judge Barbara Walther ruled that they were being abused or were at risk for abuse because of allegations that adults were pushing underage girls into sex and marriage with older men. No one has been arrested or charged in the case.
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