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I've been waiting for several months for them to announce this. It was pretty obvious that it was coming, particularly in light of the raid that Texas Child Protective Services took part in along with several other law enforcement groups earlier this year.

A Texas grand jury indicted polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs on sexual assault charges, and five of his followers also face a variety of charges, state Attorney General Greg Abbott said Tuesday.

Texas must be particularly pissed off in light of the results of the various court proceedings since the raid.

Jeffs was charged with sexual assault of a child, a first-degree felony, Abbot said.

Four of Jeffs' followers were each charged with one count of sexually assaulting a girl under the age of 17, and one of those four faces a count of bigamy. A fifth follower is charged with three counts of failure to report child abuse, Abbot said.

Warren Jeffs is supposedly the prophet for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Man, that's a mouth full. Just call 'em the PedoChurch. It's already been shown that Jeffs was guilty of the same kind of behavior. For the most part I say live and let live but there are just some things that you can't let go.

In May, DNA samples were taken from Jeffs as part of a criminal investigation into allegations that he "spiritually" married four girls ranging in age from 12 to 15, authorities said. A search warrant seeking the DNA samples said marital records -- known as bishop's records -- from the ranch show that Jeffs married a 14-year-old girl on January 18, 2004, in Utah.

The records showed that Jeffs "married" three other underage brides -- two 12-year-olds and a 14-year-old -- at the YFZ Ranch, according to the search warrant. One of the 12-year-olds, believed to have married Jeffs on July 27, 2006, was sexually assaulted by Jeffs later that day, the search warrant said.

The warrant made reference to pictures of Jeffs with his alleged underage brides. In one photograph, the warrant states, he is kissing one of the 12-year-olds. In another, he is shown with a 15-year-old wife at the birth of their child in October 2004.

Authorities had said the DNA samples would determine whether he is the father of the children born to underage mothers.

That's just fucking nasty. If that's the case they just need to castrate the bastard.

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A few days ago I posted about Pamela Jessop and what has happened with her since the FLDS Yearning for Zion Ranch was raided by Child Protective Services in cooperation with officers of the law. She's the girl who recently had a hearing in which CPS admitted that they had incorrectly placed her in foster care.

According to Jessop they were completely aware of her age when they took her, particularly considering the fact that she showed them her birth certificate which they completely ignored.

She thinks that the only reason they did it was to get her baby and place it in foster care so that it would not be born on the FLDS ranch. Texas officials deny that she showed them any documents demonstrating that she was 18 and that she was also happy to remain in foster care since that would allow her to stay with her one-year-old son.

According to the story on CNN her attorneys are considering a federal lawsuit against Texas officials for violation her civil rights. They certainly have every reason to do so and as much as I hate the ACLU and would love to see the socialists disbanded they are bound to get involved.

I sort of figured it would start to pan out this way.

Earlier today a three judge court of appeals ruled that the State of Texas had no right to remove children from the Yearning for Zion ranch belonging to the FLDS because it in no way proved that they were in imminent danger. They panel stopped short of ordering that the children be returned to their parents but they did give the lower court 10 days to vacate an order placing the children in custody.

The way that the law works in Texas is that CPS has the authority to take immediate possession of a child or children if they have reason to suspect that their is an "immediate danger to the physical health or safety" of the child that warrants their removal.

According to the ruling CPS obtained an emergency order to take custody of the children based on reports from a hot line caller that said she had been raped and impregnated on the ranch. Those calls have pretty much found to have been false and there is apparently no useful information on the "informant" that the state supposedly had on the ranch. As a matter of fact I haven't heard a word about the so-called informant in weeks.

The court also said that CPS didn't make any kind of effort to determine if they could do anything aside from removing the children and the entire thing was pretty much based on religious persecution. They also said that the lower court and CPS treated the ranch as one single household and was incorrect in doing so.

One thing I find pretty interesting is the fact that I read a report yesterday that I had forgotten to post about. It had to do with CPS officials showing up with a couple of sheriff's deputies getting turned away from the ranch because they had no search warrant. Apparently someone from CPS got wind that they might not have gotten all of the kids the first time.

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Elissa Wall is the former FLDS member that helped convict Warren Jeffs. She has also written a book about her life within the FLDS entitled 'Stolen Innocence'.

The Associate Press has an interview with Elissa Wall.

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If you're wondering what the links above are, I recently installed a plugin called Zemanta for Flock and Firefox that suggests links and tags while you are writing a blog post. I just figured I would check it out and see how I like it. It also suggests other articles as well as photos.

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So the State of Texas has figured out that two of the girls that they have in custody that have given birth while in custody are actually adults.

One of the girls is 22 years old and said that she showed state officials a Utah birth certificate to prove it. They held her in custody anyway citing the fact that her long hair and no makeup made her look young. After she gave birth on Monday officials immediately took the child and are saying that even though it may be proved she is an adult (it now has) they will most likely keep the child in custody. I have bitched about DFACS (our local child services) for years and the fact that they don't seem to have to follow the same laws as other government agencies. Since what they are doing is "for the children" they seem to be able to skirt around search warrants and other cool stuff like that.

She looked young? I know plenty of women that would kill to have that problem. How the fuck are they suppose to identify themselves and prove they are adults if the State of Texas ignores birth certificates and driver's licenses as they did with Louisa Jessop, who was born in 1986. How else are you supposed to prove your age? Carbon dating is a bit hard on a person.

Just like the government to ignore facts to make something fit their story. Originally I was llfor getting these kids out of there but this has become a fucking boondoggle over the last six weeks that just highlights government intrusion and inefficiency. Why don't you guys go catch some criminals and leave these people the fuck alone?

There are still 24 others that the state disputes are minors and if it turns out that they aren't then that means the number of pregnant minors or minors with children in custody is around five or six. Oh by the way that number is lower than the state average of teen pregnancies, which is what you would expect from a close-knit religious community. It's a bit hard to say they are doing something wrong if they have less teen pregnancies than your neighborhood.

I don't agree with the FLDS or their policies of basically subjugating women and children to the will of their religious leaders but this is NOT an issue for the government to deal with. Perhaps they need to be a bit more worried about Joe Baron, a pastor from a church in the Dallas area that was arrested in a sting this week after he thought he was meeting a teenager after driving 200 miles. Of course he states that he wasn't soliciting sex, he just wanted to buy her a coke...

With a condom in his pocket and a webcam in his car...

I always carry a condom when I take teenagers out for a coke...

Fucking dirtbag.

Damn.

This dude must be on prozac to have 21 wives. Of course the nice pliable women of the FLDS don't have an original thought in their head so I guess Wendell Loy Nielsen doesn't any issues with it.

In addition to his 21 wives he has 36 children ranging in age from 6 months to 21-years-old. Dude gets around don't he?

CNN and other news stations have been reviewing some of the documents from the church including what's called the Bishop's List. Basically it's a list of all the members of the Yearning for Zion ranch, their ages, marital status, children and addresses.

Some of the documents that have been released suggest some questionable family relationships as well.

Actually the number is 31.

Out of the 463 children that the government of Texas removed from the FLDS ranch in Eldorado 53 of them were girls between the ages of 14 and 17. 31 of those 53 girls either already have children or are pregnant. That's 58% of the girls. I've seen a bunch of bitching about how now the government is going to start going after catholics or they should be removing kids out of public schools, etc.

There are usually at least a girl or two in each of the schools around here that end up being pregnant but that certainly doesn't even approach the 2/3 of the teenage girls that ended up pregnant or with children at the YFZ Ranch. As has been reported, that's more than an accident, it's a pattern.

The Associated Press has done more interviews and has been airing them...

Also, according to the lawyers at the Texas Rio-Grande Legal Aid society, some of the kids have been hospitalized but nobody seems to be able to provide them with any information. Read the story for more information.

Now that the DNA testing has been getting done over a hundred kids have been removed from the San Angelo Coliseum and are heading into foster care across the state.

According to a spokesman for the FLDS, the temporary foster care facilities are inadequate because they don't understand the children. I can agree with that one. It's going to be pretty hard for these kids to adjust to life outside of the FLDS compound.

As this next video from CBS news says, the FLDS have opened a public relations web site called FLDS Truth.org showing videos of the raid that took their children into custody. Right now there are about five videos and some photos as well. The videos don't really show anything particularly disturbing. If anything I see law enforcement officials letting folks take their time and not mistreating them. If the FLDS wants photos or videos to get the American public to change their mind about what's been going on they need to show something more than these. The one titled "No Search Warrant" is pretty striking though. It deals with the fact that our government is overstepping it's bounds in law enforcement and interfering with our life, liberty and property. Isn't that what the constitution is supposed to protect?

The photos and videos would probably have a bit more effect if they explained some about them. Most of what I have seen are LEOs standing around with their thumbs up their asses and that's pretty much it.

In addition to taking DNA from the kids, the ranch residents have also been submitting to give DNA samples as well according to the local San Angelo news site.

In addition to all of this CNN is now reporting that the person of interest in Colorado Springs does own one of the telephone numbers that were used to report claims of abuse at the Texas Ranch. Oh, by the way, the woman is black, 33 years old, and lives in Colorado. Oh yeah, and she is known for making false reports of sexual abuse to police and other agencies.

ooops. Fucking ooops.

Texas authorities of course have not found anyone else that made the calls and although they now could not use any evidence gathered as a result of her phone calls, they say they have found evidence that girls as young as 13 are forced into marriages with older men at the ranch. There's where I have a problem. I'm all for following the constitution and leaving people the hell alone, but child abuse just ain't right.

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Updated 9:06 PM. The below raw video is of the San Angelo coliseum where lab workers are taking DNA samples from the children held in state custody there.

More than 400 kids are supposed to undergo DNA testing today to help figure out whose kids they really are. The bottom line is that they are trying to find out which ones belong to statutory rape victims so they can charge the men. Not only that but the government doesn't want anyone around that hasn't been numbered and cataloged.

Now the damnable ACLU has gotten itself involved. You know, the ACLU that is about socialism and Marxism, was founded by socialists and hates success and capitalism. There I was starting to feel sorry for these folks in Texas and the ACLU comes along and gets involved.

They are claiming as others have that taking away the children from their families is unconstitutional but don't list any specific instances of human rights or constitutional violations and won't comment any further on the story.

Texas Child Protective Services keeps sounding like a broken record. "This is not about religion - this is about keeping children safe from abuse".

No, it is about religion. AND child abuse. They certainly don't need to keep lying about that part. If you are trying to get the polygamy (which I could care less about) and the child-sex to stop in a society that accepts it, how as a government do you get it to stop? Is there some education you can provide them or deprogramming you can put them through? Heck, no. You do what governments have been doing for thousands of years. If you want to stop people from doing something that is at the core of their beliefs then you stamp out the society until it no longer exists and make it even more illegal than before.

That's the rub here. Spiritual marriages to kids as young as thirteen and polygamy are at the core of the beliefs of the FLDS and has been since before they splintered off from the Mormons back in the late 1800's. This isn't some lame brained idea that Warren Jeffs pulled out of his ass a few years ago. He was but the latest in a line of self-proclaimed prophets that subjugate women and children and promote the idea of rape, wife beating, forced marriages and white slavery.

I've read the comments a few times that "if they can do this why aren't they removing pregnant 15-year-olds from their homes" around the country. Perhaps they should. Obviously there is something that isn't being taught to their children. Sure, there will always be the occasional teenager that gets pregnant because they are having sex and if they do they don't use a damned rubber but that should be the exception to the rule. What do you expect though. How can parents teach their children anything when a large portion of them are stupid and can barely read themselves?

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Texas Judge Slaps Down on the Polygamists

Maybe it wasn't a surprise to some people but it certainly surprised me since I haven't been able to follow this the last few days. Judge Barbara Walther ruled that the over 400 kids currently under state custody will remain in state custody. She also ordered DNA testing for all of the children in order to determine who there parents are. Dayum.

There are sure to be at least a couple of appeals of the ruling and once the DNA testing is finished many of the separate cases will be back before the court. The DNA testing will also be used as evidence in the cases where children under 16 are the mothers.

Police still haven't located the girl that supposedly called but they are looking into a Colorado woman as a person of interest who may have done so as a hoax. It doesn't really matter because it just means that any evidence found by the police as a result of those specific phone calls might have to be excluded. Probably not though since the officers were acting in good faith, which is what the 4th amendment is meant for.

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That's what some of the folks in the FLDS claim, along with the fact that the great state of Texas has denied them their constitutional rights by taking their children based on an alleged crime that they still don't have any proof of. Now some of the women are being forced to leave their children in the care of others and either return home without them or go to a state safe house. The mothers of all children five and older were separated from them on Monday. FLDS members say that the mothers returned to the compound but child protective services is saying that six women had gone to the safe house. They also moved the kids to a larger place, the San Angelo Coliseum. Cool, maybe they can practice being gladiators.

I am still torn on what I believe in this whole deal. I believe in the constitution and I don't believe that messing with people, how they live or how they worship is a very cool thing to do. On the other hand, forcing children basically into sexual slavery is wrong. If the allegations are true for even say ten of the girls, does that make this whole thing wrong or is Texas right in what they did. What if the great state of Georgia decided that they didn't like the way I swatted my five year old on the ass when she was throwing a fit and took her from me? They can, you know. DFACs and the equivalent agencies in other states somehow doesn't seem to fall under the umbrella of things when it comes to their actions. They can force their way into your home with little or no provocation. I've seen it in action. For about eleven months one of the wife's friends and her son lived with us. She was 'seeing' this dude over the Internet. It was pretty serious, as a matter of fact she married him and is living in Alaska right now. The thing is there was this other crazy bitch that liked him as well as she called DFACs making all sorts of allegations. They ended up coming to my house to interview her as well as her son and MY WIFE. Needless to say, the proverbial fucking honeymoon was over at that point. I don't deal with drama. I live life on my own terms and that shit has no place in it. Had the DFACS investigator decided that there was some merit to those allegations she could have taken our friends son and even investigated us for anything they wanted. Assholes.

That's the problem with the damned government anyway. Anytime anyone acting in the capacity of officialdom says they are doing something 'for the children' you'd better put on your waders cause the shit is going to be getting thick. They are full of it. Whether it be force feeding us the bullshit CRCT tests my kid is taking this month or protecting our children from running on the pavement (my child is only allowed to run on the pavement, not the mulch because they don't want the kids to get splinters, how fucked up is that?) they are doing it to get more and more power. The dickwads.

Anyhow, Texas offers an update on the state of the children that have been removed from the compound. State Senator Robert Duncan speaks as well as a doctor.

Custody hearings start on Thursday for the 416 children. I am really interested in seeing how this battle progresses. The problem is that the folks in the FLDS feel that they are being prosecuted for their religion and compare themselves to the Jews and Nazis. The state (and the Federal government) feels like they are stopping child abuse. Where do you draw the line? I still don't know. That's one of the reasons I've written about this so many times lately. I just don't know and my feelings on the matter go back and forth. My daughter is ten. If I were to find that an adult was sleeping with her three years from now I would very likely cut their fucking throat. It's that wrong.

The FLDS does have a point though. Let's say there aren't the widespread cases of abuse going on that the state wants there to be. The mothers claim that the state of Texas is placing their children in even more danger by exposing them to things they would never have seen at the ranch and learning terrible things just from the questioning that they never would have heard.

A couple dozen of the adolescent boys have been moved into temporary foster care outside of the San Angelo area according to Child Protective Services. They are saying that it's just the first of placements and that a judge did order it. Of course a judge ordered it, the question is who asked for the order? They are saying that the boys are remaining together though,which means that they are most likely in some kind of facility together.

Although this is a very serious constitutional issue that most likely won't be decided any time soon, every time I hear or read anything about the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints all I can think of is 'Stepford Wives'.

Related Entries:

Pedophiles and the FLDS
FLDS Polygamy Ranch Sealed
More FLDS Kids Taken In Custody
Warrants Served at Polygamist Ranch

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DFACS, Child Protective Services, Child Abuse, Child Love, Texas