A Self-serving Cover-up by the State of Texas, Newspaper Tree, December 29, 2008

A Self-serving Cover-up by the State of Texas

Newspaper Tree

December 29, 2008

http://www.newspapertree.com/opinion/3248-a-self-serving-cover-up-by-the-state-of-texas

Harrington

Editor's note: The state issued a report Dec. 22 on its activities investigating allegations of child abuse at the Yearning for Zion (YFZ) Ranch in Eldorado. James C. Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, issued the following statement. Previously, he wrote about the state's actions in a piece titled The Children of El Dorado: Suffering at the Hands of the State?, posted on April 21, 2008.

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"The fact the Department of Family and Protective Services released the report right at the beginning of the holidays reflects the Department’s effort to cover up its gross misconduct that cost the taxpayers of Texas $12.5 million and severely disrupted the lives of 439 children without proper legal cause.

"Ultimately, the Department, after being chastised in the courts, brought a handful of cases, which together could never justify the wholesale raid it did and its unconscionable scattering of more than 400 children across the state. There are now only 15 children involved in cases; the other 424 cases were nonsuited and dismissed.

"The report ignores the sham anonymous call that the Department used to justify the Eldorado raid. It tries to gloss over the rulings against it by the Austin Court of Appeals and the Texas Supreme Court.

"Even though the report begins with a disclaimer that religion had nothing to do with the raid, the end of the report again cites the FLDS belief system as a cause for child abuse.

"Nor did the report contain any self-criticism or recommendations for the future to avoid the same kind of serious errors again that would injure other people.

"If the Department really wanted to do a good and proper review of the matter, it would have asked for an independent auditor to do a report. Having employees review their supervisors’ decisions will only produce the result the supervisors want, especially when decisions were made at the highest level of the Department and in consultation with the Governor’s office (something the report also glides over).

"The Department could have spent the $12.5 million it wasted on this case in actually helping to protect children in Texas. That’s the final question the report doesn’t answer: how many other children it could have helped with that $12.5 million and as the result of the Department's actions will continue to live in abuse and neglect, rather than finding help."