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	Polygamist Sect Cases Set for Status Hearings Monday By Robert T. Garrett and Emily Ramshaw Dallas Morning News May 19, 2008 http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-polygamists_19tex.ART.State.Edition2.46576a0.html AUSTIN As one lawyer put it, Texas is offering polygamist families "a chance at redemption." But the state also, in a way, will find itself facing trial. Beginning today, in five San Angelo courtrooms, judges will begin plowing through the biggest, most complex child abuse case in the nation, centering on more than 460 children swept from a polygamist ranch last month. The hearings will look ahead at how sect parents can regain custody of their sons and daughters by establishing new homes, attending parenting classes and undergoing psychological evaluations. State officials fear a horde of volunteer lawyers may seek to turn what will be at least a week of hearings into a prolonged, highly public attack on Child Protective Services. Outside the courtrooms, CPS faces other daunting challenges. It must mollify budget-minded lawmakers who worry about mounting costs from the raid and its aftermath, while trying to maintain credibility with a wary public. Also on CPS' worry list: Three groups of sect mothers have challenged the removal of their children in pleas to the Austin-based 3rd Texas Court of Appeals. A panel of three Republican appellate judges could respond by ordering the children returned, though some legal experts say that is unlikely. As the battle for public opinion intensifies, the sect has put forward some of its younger, monogamous couples who are attractive and well-spoken. They said they are loving parents in traditional marriages who are devastated at having lost their children for nothing they have done. The state maintains, though, that the entire community has tolerated the sexual abuse of young girls. CPS has said it removed the children from the ranch because the sect arranged "spiritual marriages" between underage girls and older men. Child welfare experts disagree on who will or should prevail the sect or the state. Martin Guggenheim, a child welfare and constitutional law expert at New York University, said there are serious flaws in the state's case from the way CPS workers "overreacted" by removing all the children from the ranch, to the "charade of a due process hearing" where children and families were lumped together. "We haven't heard any real evidence," he said. Still, he said, he's not optimistic that the parents will win legal challenges against the state unless the tide of public opinion changes. "If the public sees this as trying to destroy a community because it's a despised minority engaging in practices many don't like, that's not going to be enough," Mr. Guggenheim said. "If they see it as a community that's centrally connected to sex abuse, I think the state's going to win." Former state District Judge Scott McCown, though, who handled hundreds of child-abuse cases while on the bench in Travis County, cautions people to be skeptical of CPS' critics, who don't have all the confidential information that's before the state. Mr. McCown, who heads the Center for Public Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank, said CPS had few good options, given the sect's peculiar nature and a risk that families would flee the state. University of Texas law professor Jack Sampson, a family law expert, said once children leave state care, "all bets are off" as to their safety given what he said is an unusually high number of adult male "perpetrators" in the sect. Sect spokesman Willie Jessop said that's not true. He said CPS has made it look that way by classifying sect mothers who are adults as minors, even when given documentation. While the public relations salvoes and legal wrangling carry with them potentially high stakes, the unfolding story's biggest drama is personal especially for about 140 sect mothers. They want their children back. They believe the state is about to force them to pick their children or their faith. While "service plans" that CPS last week gave sect families call for providing "a home free of persons who have or will abuse" children, the state didn't say if that means no adult men from the ranch or only certain ones can move in with the women in newly established homes elsewhere in Texas. In recent interviews, sect women deflected questions about whether they practice polygamy, which is illegal. They also wouldn't talk about whether they've had "spiritual marriages" with multiple men that aren't state-licensed and thus, not technically illicit. One of the mothers, Richelle Barlow, 28, said the outside world underestimates the abilities and grit of the women of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. While they've lived in a male-dominated community, Ms. Barlow said, she's getting tired of the notion that the mothers won't be able to make it on their own. "We are capable and educated. We know how to use computers, use the Internet," she said one morning last week. Before moving to Texas with her family three months ago, Ms. Barlow said, she spent a decade in Utah working as an emergency medical technician. Last month, CPS removed her five children younger than 8 years of age. She said she'll look for an EMT job between Fort Worth and Waco, where her youngsters are in foster care. "I'm working on the basics, on what they're requiring of us," Ms. Barlow said. "I want my children back." But sect women who have lived through similar custody struggles say it's hard to maintain that optimism. In 1984, after 16 years in a polygamous marriage, Mary Mackert left the sect and struck out on her own in Salt Lake City, fighting her husband for custody of their five sons. Slowly, Ms. Mackert built a new life. A brother helped her get a rental house. She spent time on welfare, got her GED and learned secretarial skills at a two-year college. It took months for her to win visitation rights. Even after she gained custody, she and her sons struggled to adjust to an unfamiliar world. "For us, we felt like we didn't belong anywhere," said Ms. Mackert, a born-again Christian who wants to move to Texas to become a foster parent for children removed from the Yearning For Zion ranch. "We had been taught everyone outside was evil, was the devil. The boys and I really struggled with a lot of that." Back in Texas, women who still belong to the sect are scrambling. Their lawyers say they are calling on relatives for help, especially those who don't belong to the sect. Said Andi Sloan, an Austin lawyer for several of the women: "Without exception, they're committed to doing everything in their power to comply with their service plans to get their children back." Contact: rtgarrett@dallasnews.com, eramshaw@dallasnews.com.
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