Texas seeks custody of teen
Jeffs allegedly wed
SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) - The
mother of a girl allegedly given in marriage at age 12 to jailed
polygamist leader Warren Jeffs refused to answer questions Monday
from attorneys for the state child welfare agency that wants
to regain custody of the girl and her younger brother.
The state wants to remove the
girl, now 14, and an 11-year-old brother from the 55-year-old
mother's care, saying she isn't a suitable caregiver because
her daughter and several other children were involved in underage
marriages.
The woman has 10 children, and
Ruby Gutierrez, an investigator for the state department of Child
Protective Services, testified Monday that two adult sons took
underage brides and three daughters were given in marriage when
they were underage.
The children's father allegedly
blessed the girls' marriages. Two of the girls are now older
than 18.
The hearing ended after child
welfare attorneys finished presenting their evidence Monday evening
and was scheduled to resume Tuesday morning with witnesses for
the mother.
During the proceedings, Texas
Ranger Nick Hannah introduced into the record dozens of documents
seized from the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado showing marriages
recorded in certificates, photos and church census documents.
He said the 30 documents introduced at the hearing were among
"hundreds of thousands" of documents taken from the
ranch in April.
The mother refused to answer
about 50 questions asked by attorneys for the child welfare agency,
including what constituted abuse, the names of her children and
her relationship with their father.
Her attorney, Gonzalo Rios, said
the woman was exercising her right against self-incrimination
because of the continuing criminal investigation. Two of her
husband's sons have been indicted on charges of sexual assault
of a child, as has Jeffs.
In documents submitted with the
state's custody petition, the 14-year-old girl is quoted as telling
a caseworker that a young teenage girl marrying an older man
"can't be a crime because Heavenly Father is the one that
tells Warren when a girl is ready to get married."
Carolyn Jessop, now a best-selling
author, testified about her relationship with the girl's father,
from whom she ran away. Carolyn, his fourth wife, said the man
harshly disciplined her son, who was 1 at the time, by alternately
spanking him and putting his face under a running faucet until
it turned blue.
The father, who did not attend
the hearing Monday, allegedly described the discipline as "breaking
them" and used it on his children when they were young to
teach them to fear authority.
She said the girl's mother once
refused to take another son to the hospital when he broke his
arm.
Under cross-examination, Rios
sought to discredit Carolyn Jessop, saying most incidents she
described occurred two decades ago. He also criticized her for
the money she has earned from her book, "Escape," about
her experience in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints community.
Gutierrez, the child welfare
investigator, said she didn't believe the couple's younger children
could safely remain with their mother, citing the parents' previous
failure to try to prevent sexual abuse because of their blessing
of underage marriages. The state dropped its effort to also take
custody of their 17-year-old son, saying he is old enough to
protect himself.
But when asked about the danger
to the 11-year-old boy, Gutierrez said, "If a 12-year-old
has been married to a gentleman over the age of 50, there is
no way a sibling doesn't know that and hasn't had to cope with
that knowledge."
Child welfare authorities have
been investigating the cases of 440 children since the Texas
Supreme Court ordered that the children removed from the YFZ
Ranch in April be returned to their parents. The state has asked
the court to dismiss cases involving 76 children, including nine
who have turned 18 since the custody case began; the remaining
cases are still under investigation.
Monday's hearing was the first
Child Protective Services effort since the court ruling to retake
custody of FLDS children. The high court said the agency previously
overreached in sweeping all the FLDS children into state custody,
noting it showed no more than a handful of teenage girls were
abused or were at risk of abuse.
Willie Jessop, an FLDS spokesman,
said nothing has happened to justify the children being removed
again. None of the seven children the state wants back in foster
care currently live at the ranch.
"They couldn't find (abuse)
the first time it came up. What's changed?" he said.
Willie Jessop also noted that
the church made it clear it wouldn't sanction underage marriages
and that doctrine has been in place for more than two years.
The FLDS believes polygamy brings
glory in heaven. It is a breakaway sect of the mainstream Mormon
church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which
renounced polygamy more than a century ago.
Jeffs, already convicted as accomplice
to rape in Utah and awaiting trial on similar charges in Arizona,
was indicted along with four followers in Texas last month on
charges of sexual assault of a child. One of the followers was
also indicted on a bigamy charge.
A sixth man, Dr. Lloyd Hammon
Barlow, was indicted on three misdemeanor counts of failing to
report child abuse. Authorities are seeking custody of his two
daughters, saying he didn't report the babies he delivered to
underage girls and that he married a 16-year-old.
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