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	Child Welfare Officials Say Child Abuse, Neglect Common at Texas Polygamists" Ranch By Robert T. Garrett The Dallas Morning News December 27, 2008 http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AbuseTracker/Child%20welfare%20officials%20say%20child%20abuse,%20neglect%20common%20at%20Texas%20polygamists%27%20ranch [Download: Read the Child Protective Services report] AUSTIN — A dozen girls in a polygamist sect have been sexually abused in underage “spiritual marriages” performed with their parents’ consent, Texas Child Protective Services said Tuesday. More than one of every four pubescent girls at the Yearning For Zion ranch near Eldorado was married at an inappropriate age, CPS found. “The 12 girls were ‘spiritually’ married at ages ranging from 12 to 15, and seven of these girls have had one or more children,” CPS said in a report wrapping up a nine-month investigation in the largest-ever U.S. child welfare case. Sect spokesman Willie Jessop called the report a “sensational” bid by state bureaucrats to win over public opinion after they rashly ordered a mass removal of children last spring and managed to keep only one girl in foster care. A state appeals court, later upheld by the Texas Supreme Court, demolished CPS’ legal rationale for sweeping all children from the ranch. The appellate judges called the removals an “extreme measure,” and said CPS should have probed more deeply how five sect girls then in foster care became pregnant at ages 15 and 16. On Tuesday, CPS reported that nearly two-thirds of the 146 sect families it investigated had children who were abused or neglected. It concluded that the dozen sexually abused girls and 262 other sect children were improperly supervised because they were exposed to the underage marriages. Under Texas law, that’s parental neglect, the report said. Also, CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins said one child was neglected while in the state-supervised care of its parent. He declined to elaborate. According to the report, the parent put the child “in a situation in which there was a substantial risk of immediate harm.” The report, sent by state Family and Protective Services Commissioner Anne Heiligenstein to social services czar Albert Hawkins, defended CPS’ actions. “For the Department of Family and Protective Services, the Yearning For Zion case is about sexual abuse of girls and children who were taught that underage marriages are a way of life,” the report said. “It is about parents who condoned illegal underage marriages and adults who failed to protect young girls – it has never been about religion.” Stephanie Goodman, spokeswoman for Mr. Hawkins, who runs the Health and Human Services Commission, says he’s satisfied that CPS acted properly. “There was a pattern of underage marriages at the ranch and hopefully that will change,” she said. Mr. Jessop, though, said the Utah-based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints didn’t mistreat girls at the ranch, which it owns. He said teen pregnancies do occur but at no higher frequency than in society at large. Stopping just short of threatening a lawsuit against the state, Mr. Jessop said CPS’ actions threaten the security of all Americans, especially religious minorities. “This is a desperate attempt for Texas officials to justify their barbaric actions they did on April 3,” he said of the report. The department, CPS’ parent agency, pointedly dismissed in the report one of the sect’s main criticisms – that CPS and law enforcement officers entered the ranch based on a report of child sexual abuse to a San Angelo women’s shelter. The tip is now thought to have originated with hoax calls from a Colorado woman with a history of filing false police reports. “The report met the statutory definition of abuse; therefore, DFPS was required to act,” the department said. It said child abuse investigators quickly learned of several underage marriages and removed 18 girls the next day, April 4. “Over the weekend, investigators discovered wedding photos involving young girls and records indicating a pattern of underage marriages and births,” the report said. It referred, not by name, to now-jailed sect president Warren Jeffs, the group’s leader who is believed to receive revelations directly from God. “Girls told investigators that no age was too young for marriage and that ‘the Prophet’ determined when and who a girl should marry,” it said. CPS workers, though, encountered “a pattern of deception” as they tried to sort things out, the report said. Sect members shredded documents and women and youngsters withheld information about their identities and family ties, CPS said. The child welfare agency said it feared immediate harm to more than 400 other children at the ranch and successfully sought approval by state District Judge Barbara Walther of San Angelo for a mass removal. It later got her to approve keeping the children temporarily in foster care. CPS cited evidence the polygamist group “functioned as a single household with a pervasive belief system that groomed girls to become future victims of sexual abuse and boys to become future sexual abuse perpetrators.” On May 22, however, the Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals reversed Judge Walther. Appellate judges said CPS didn’t show that prepubescent children were in danger or that a mass removal was unavoidable. Speaking of the older girls, the judges said a belief system alone wasn’t enough, there had to be evidence that specific mothers would subject their daughters to underage marriages and sex. A week later, the Texas Supreme Court upheld their ruling. CPS returned all of the children to their families by June 4. It since has obtained agreements by some mothers to keep teenage girls away from certain men. CPS also provided parenting classes and taught certain sect girls about Texas laws on marriage and sexual abuse. Mr. Jessop called the report another attempt by CPS to smear the sect’s reputation. He noted that in late April, CPS said it had removed 53 girls ages 14 to 17, and that 31 of them already had children or were pregnant. However, nearly half of the 53 – 26 – turned out to be adults. Also, Mr. Jessop recounted then-Commissioner Carey Cockerell’s testimony to a Senate panel that 41 sect children had broken bones, “several … in very young children.” Experts interviewed by The Dallas Morning News, though, said the number wasn’t unusual and that more information about types of fractures was needed to say if abuse had occurred. On Tuesday, Mr. Crimmins acknowledged, “We were not able to link any of the broken bones to physical abuse.” Said Mr. Jessop, “Where’s the smoking gun that says this is what justified ripping this whole community apart?” Ms. Goodman, the Health and Human Services Commission spokeswoman, said Mr. Hawkins believes the mass removal was necessary. “There was so much confusion, there was really no other way to get any answers – to even sort out what age the kids were, who they were,” she said. Contact: rtgarrett@dallasnews.com
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