Texas Supreme Court Rules Children go back

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-polygamist-retreat,0,2747375.story

By Associated Press
4:18 PM CDT, May 29, 2008

AUSTIN, Texas - The Texas Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that hundreds of children from taken from a polygamist sect should be returned to their parents.

Parents and lawyers have been anxiously awaiting a ruling from the high court since a lower appeals court said child welfare officials were wrong to take the more than 400 children from their parents.

The children from the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado have been in state custody for nearly two months.
 
What a bunch of perverts our justice system houses... how, in good conscience, can these... these... THINGS rule that those children should go back to an incestuous, abusive situation? This makes me sick... absolutely sick...
 
I just don't see how - but I hope Texas appeals - they're flat out wrong on this one. I think they are thinking of it as if it is a situation where you have an apartment building and separate families making separate decisions, rather than a compound people cannot easily leave where there is one group making the decisions for all of the people and children there.
 
I am so sad, and bothered by this. You know they're going to move out of state and hunker down even more. As if they weren't in a "compound" before....oh boy. JMO.
 
Interesting detail - I think they're wrong about this too - but from this little quote, sounds like they didn't disagree that it's reasonable to think the children were in danger - only that the supreme court thought there were lesser steps that could have been taken. I think they're very wrong - the cult has a track record of shifting children, has documented information about "houses of hiding" - I don't think it's safe to leave the children in the compound - in a week they'll be gone, or they'll have machine guns and not let anyone in. You can't protect the children and leave them in the compound.
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=4958876&page=1
The court said Judge Barbara Walther, who ordered the children held in temporary state custody, could take other steps to ensure the safety of the children.
 
This is so tragic. I doubt it will be safe for ANYONE to drive by that compound now. They'll use this as an excuse to fire on innocent people that are passing by on their way somewhere else.

As for the children. We might as well say prayers for 462 souls that will leave this earth faster than they would if we could have kept them away from the compound. The Texas Supreme Court signed their death warrants. I really doubt that the cult will have ANY sympathetic neighbors and the neighbors will take the same stance as the perverts...shoot and then ask questions.

This is so horribly tragic.
 
*snip*
This is so horribly tragic.
It sure is. I wonder if some of the FLDS members are part of the system in Texas. I'm reading "Stolen Innocence"
by Elissa Wall who grew up in the FLDS cult and it is worse than what we have already heard. She had a relatively good life because she wasn't at the YFZ Ranch where they have absolutely no contact with the outside world.

I find it horrifying that the children would be ordered back to that abusive environment.
 
My heart totally sunk when I heard the News.......
They should make the members of the Supreme Court go to the ranch & stay for a year. See how they like it!
 
So it's totally acceptable in the state of Texas to allow old greasy disgusting men have sex and 'knock up' under-age girls? I can't believe Texas is allowing this. I am really shocked right now. Those poor children.
 
The fact of the matter is that this compound is a communal entity, and not individual homes. That's why the judge originally did the order for all of the children based on CPS's recommendation. You have dormitory style houses with one man and however many wives and children in each, and several families within some of them. I heard a journalist say that the law when written didn't take into account this type of situation, and now, lawmakers will have to consider it.

I read where one of the lawyers for some of the women was saying that CPS could have removed the men. How pray tell? By arresting them? Without an investigation? I can hear that lawyer's op if they had done it that way and it probably would have been to the tune of unlawful arrest etc.
 
So it's totally acceptable in the state of Texas to allow old greasy disgusting men have sex and 'knock up' under-age girls? I can't believe Texas is allowing this. I am really shocked right now. Those poor children.

Excuse me? If we thought it "acceptable", would we have gone through all of this to begin with? We knocked the scab off of a festering boil that Utah and Arizona have allowed to grow for decades. This battle isn't over. Those perverts merely took advantage of a situation that they assisted in creating with their lies and subversive actions.
 
This ruling doesn't surprise me at all. Our justice system is set up with the belief that it is better for 100 guilty men to go free, than for 1 innocent person to be imprisoned. (You can thank my hubby for that sentence).

There has been a lot of anti-Utah, Arizona, and Idaho conversation early on in this thread.
  • The fact of the matter is that nothing said by anyone that escaped will be allowable in the trial because they weren't there and it is heresay. Their books are published and they receive income from the sales.
  • The lost boys are not part of the case against abuse of these children.
  • There has been no evidence of a baby graveyard noted in the trial.
  • There is no evidence of water boarding.
  • The women do not claim to be raped.
  • Texas can not show that the children are likely to be immediately abused (imminent danger and must be removed).
  • The broken bones are suspect, but not proven abuse
  • The pregnancies cannot be documented as being created in Texas, especially since the girls have not all been in Texas very long.
  • The women are not legally married and thus there is no polygamy to charge the men with.
  • The mothers are single moms and are thus entitled to welfare etc just like any other low income single parent / family.
There simply isn't much to hold in place to justify removal of all of these children. We can all argue that it is best and that we are happy it occurred, but in the legal system there simply isn't the proof necessary.

I feel like a juror. I think that it is best to remove the children, but I can't say beyond a reasonable doubt based on admittable evidence that there is abuse and imminent danger to the children.

I still applaud Texas for trying, but this is the way I figured it would ultimatly go.
 
I think this is far from over. Texas won't back down, they'll be watching. They'll be proving it is NOT ok for young girls to marry. They'll probably go in & arrest any members of the FLDS found guilty of any unlawful act.

If the FLDS fails to conform it'll turn into WACO all over again.
 
Texas DOES recognize common law marriages. Therefore, each one of these men that have multiple "spiritual" wives are committing an offense and subject to prosecution.
 
Texas DOES recognize common law marriages. Therefore, each one of these men that have multiple "spiritual" wives are committing an offense and subject to prosecution.

What are the requirements for common law marriages to be recognized? Are they automatically recognized after so many years? How many years do they have to claim to be married before it is recognized. Does the time they were holding themselves as married in another state count towards the time they have to claim to be married to be recognized as legally married? Do they have to go to court and file for their common law marriage to be recognized?

Can someone who is an expert in Texas law regarding common law marriages please provide more input?
 
I am stunned that they are allowing the children to go back to the compound. I guess it doesn't matter that many of the girls that are pregnant are underage. So I guess the FLDS has a home in Texas and they can continue to abuse their children and marry them off in their early teens. This makes me ill. :(
 
I'm stunned at this news! What a terrible turn of events! :mad:
 

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