The State determines that birth certificates CAN be used to convict, but CAN'T be used to exonnerate.
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25 mothers taken from FLDS ranch now believed to be minors
SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) — The number of children in Texas custody after being taken from a polygamist retreat now stands at 462 because officials believe another 25 mothers from the compound are under 18.
Child Protective Services spokesman Darrell Azar says the girls initially claimed to be adults but are now in state custody. Earlier they had been staying voluntarily with their children at a shelter at the San Angelo Coliseum.
The official number of children taken from the ranch controlled by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has been rising since a state raid three weeks ago. One reason is that some mothers under 18 claimed to be adults.
Roughly 260 children remain at the coliseum. The others were bused to foster facilities.
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Shameful. No level of the State will protect these people's rights.
When will the Feds step in?
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April 24, 2008, 3:22PM
Appeals Court says state can take children to foster homes
AUSTIN — An appeals court rejected pleas from the mothers of more than 400 children seized from a polygamist sect to immediately stop authorities from busing their kids to far-flung foster homes, but it agreed to hear arguments in the case next week.
The children, who had been staying in shelters in San Angelo since officials removed them from the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado on April 3, were boarding buses Thursday.
The state won temporary custody of the children from state District Judge Barbara Walther last week. Child welfare officials removed the children on suspicion of physical and sexual abuse after a family violence center received a call from a female saying she was a 16-year-old girl inside the compound whose 49-year-old husband beat and raped her.
Authorities suspect that the call may have come from a woman in Colorado who has a history of making fake calls to authorities. The 16-year-old caller has not been identified among the 437 children in Texas custody.
Attorney Robert Doggett appealed the lower court's ruling on Wednesday and sought emergency action to halt the removal of the children to foster group homes as far away as Houston — 500 miles away — and elsewhere around the state.
The Third Court of Appeals did not address the request to allow the kids to remain nearby, but set a hearing for Tuesday.
"Obviously, we're disappointed with the court of appeals failure to act timely," said Doggett, an attorney representing 48 mothers in the case. He said "having a hearing after the fact" was pointless.
Attorneys for the mothers argued that a two-day custody hearing for all the children together — which devolved into a legal circus spread over two buildings with hundreds of lawyers jockeying for a single judge's attention — was inadequate.
Without adequate hearings for each child, removing them from their mothers is "in plain violation of Texas and federal law," attorneys said in the motion.
The youngsters will be held in foster group homes around the state until individual custody decisions can be made. Those hearings are expected to wrap up in June.
Two buses partially filled with women left the San Angelo Coliseum Thursday to be returned to the ranch owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints — a renegade Mormon sect — in preparation for moving the rest of the children out in the coming days. One woman held a hand-written sign out the window that read: "SOS. Mothers separated. Help."
Cynthia Martinez, a spokeswoman for legal aid attorneys representing the mothers, said the women were gathered and told that children older than 1 year would go with CPS. They weren't allowed to say goodbye, she said.
CPS officials did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press seeking comment.
"It could very well be there's some good reasons to remove some of those children, absolutely," Doggett said. "But to suggest all of them be painted with this broad brush because they belong to a particular religion is a very dangerous thing and that's why we have courts."
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