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	Judges: CPS Improperly Removed FLDS Children By Chuck Lindell Austin American-Statesman May 22, 2008 http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/politics/entries/2008/05/22/ judge_cps_improperly_removed_f.html A Texas agency improperly removed children from a polygamist sect's ranch in West Texas, an Austin appeals court ruled today. The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services failed to prove that children at the YFZ Ranch were in danger and needed to be removed from their homes, the Texas Third Court of Appeals ruled. In addition, the appellate court ruled that District Judge Barbara Walther abused her discretion by failing to return the children after three days of hearings last month. "Even if one views the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) belief system as creating a danger of sexual abuse by grooming boys to be perpetrators of sexual abuse and raising girls to be victims of sexual abuse as the department contends, there is no evidence that this danger is 'immediate' or 'urgent,' as contemplated" by state law, the court opinion states. Today's ruling was sought by 38 mothers of the sect, and the ruling directs Walther to remove their children from state custody. That is about 130 of the more than 450 children now in state custody. The ruling should apply to most of the other children removed from the ranch, said Robert Doggett with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, which filed the appeal on the mothers' behalf. Doggett anticipated lawyers for other affected parents to file motions asking Walther to reconsider their cases in light of the appeals ruling. "The arguments in the opinon, and the logic of it, is going to apply to the vast majority (of children) out there. This opinion obviously has great weight so it's going to impact all of those custody cases," he said.
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