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Documents: Sect Married Girls at Puberty
Apr 8, 2008 (9:10p CDT)
By MICHELLE ROBERTS (Associated Press Writer)
ELDORADO, Texas - A polygamist compound with hundreds of children was rife with sexual abuse, child welfare officials allege in court documents, with girls spiritually married to much older men as soon as they reached puberty and boys groomed to perpetuate the cycle.
The documents released Tuesday also gave details about the hushed phone calls that triggered the raid, by a 16-year-old girl at the West Texas ranch who said her 50-year-old husband beat and raped her. Days after raiding the compound, officials still aren't sure where the girl is.
Officials have completed removing all 416 children from the ranch and have won custody of all of them, Child Protective Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner told reporters in San Angelo, about 40 miles from the compound in Eldorado.
Court documents said a number of teen girls at the 1,700-acre compound were pregnant, and that all the children were removed on the grounds that they were in danger of "emotional, physical, and-or sexual abuse." Another 139 women left on their own.
"Investigators determined that there is a widespread pattern and practice of the (Yearn for Zion) Ranch in which young, minor female residents are conditioned to expect and accept sexual activity with adult men at the ranch upon being spiritually married to them," read the affidavit signed by Lynn McFadden, a Department of Family and Protective Services investigative supervisor.
McFadden said the girls were spiritually married to the men as soon as they reached puberty and were required to produce children.
Patrick Peranteau, lawyer for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment Tuesday.
An unknown number of men and women church members were at the ranch while authorities completed the search of the gleaming 80-foot-high temple, a cheese-making plant, a cement plant, a school, a doctor's office and housing units. Tela Mange, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety, said Tuesday the adults were not being held, but if they left the compound, they could not return while the search continued.
At least two FBI agents were seen entering the back entrance of the temple on Tuesday.
Spokesmen for the FBI and DPS declined to comment.
The compound was raided Thursday after the 16-year-old girl called a local family violence shelter March 29 and 30, using someone else's cell phone and speaking in hushed tones to avoid being overheard, McFadden's affidavit said.
The girl said she was not allowed to leave the compound unless she was ill. She told the shelter that her husband would "beat and hurt" her when he got angry, including hitting her in the chest and choking her while another woman in the house held her baby.
The girl also said her husband sexually assaulted her, and that she was several weeks pregnant. The girl told the shelter her husband went to "the outsiders' world" but didn't know where.
Authorities have issued an arrest warrant for church member Dale Barlow, who is believed to be in Arizona, but the girls' husband is not identified in the court documents released Tuesday.
In the March 30 call, the girl told the shelter she was being held against her will. If she left, church members told her, "outsiders will hurt her, force her to cut her hair, to wear makeup and (modern) clothes and to have sex with lots of men."
At the end of the call, she began to cry.
If you want to read the rest of the story, go to Quest.live.com
Apr 8, 2008 (9:10p CDT)
By MICHELLE ROBERTS (Associated Press Writer)
ELDORADO, Texas - A polygamist compound with hundreds of children was rife with sexual abuse, child welfare officials allege in court documents, with girls spiritually married to much older men as soon as they reached puberty and boys groomed to perpetuate the cycle.
The documents released Tuesday also gave details about the hushed phone calls that triggered the raid, by a 16-year-old girl at the West Texas ranch who said her 50-year-old husband beat and raped her. Days after raiding the compound, officials still aren't sure where the girl is.
Officials have completed removing all 416 children from the ranch and have won custody of all of them, Child Protective Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner told reporters in San Angelo, about 40 miles from the compound in Eldorado.
Court documents said a number of teen girls at the 1,700-acre compound were pregnant, and that all the children were removed on the grounds that they were in danger of "emotional, physical, and-or sexual abuse." Another 139 women left on their own.
"Investigators determined that there is a widespread pattern and practice of the (Yearn for Zion) Ranch in which young, minor female residents are conditioned to expect and accept sexual activity with adult men at the ranch upon being spiritually married to them," read the affidavit signed by Lynn McFadden, a Department of Family and Protective Services investigative supervisor.
McFadden said the girls were spiritually married to the men as soon as they reached puberty and were required to produce children.
Patrick Peranteau, lawyer for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment Tuesday.
An unknown number of men and women church members were at the ranch while authorities completed the search of the gleaming 80-foot-high temple, a cheese-making plant, a cement plant, a school, a doctor's office and housing units. Tela Mange, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety, said Tuesday the adults were not being held, but if they left the compound, they could not return while the search continued.
At least two FBI agents were seen entering the back entrance of the temple on Tuesday.
Spokesmen for the FBI and DPS declined to comment.
The compound was raided Thursday after the 16-year-old girl called a local family violence shelter March 29 and 30, using someone else's cell phone and speaking in hushed tones to avoid being overheard, McFadden's affidavit said.
The girl said she was not allowed to leave the compound unless she was ill. She told the shelter that her husband would "beat and hurt" her when he got angry, including hitting her in the chest and choking her while another woman in the house held her baby.
The girl also said her husband sexually assaulted her, and that she was several weeks pregnant. The girl told the shelter her husband went to "the outsiders' world" but didn't know where.
Authorities have issued an arrest warrant for church member Dale Barlow, who is believed to be in Arizona, but the girls' husband is not identified in the court documents released Tuesday.
In the March 30 call, the girl told the shelter she was being held against her will. If she left, church members told her, "outsiders will hurt her, force her to cut her hair, to wear makeup and (modern) clothes and to have sex with lots of men."
At the end of the call, she began to cry.
If you want to read the rest of the story, go to Quest.live.com
-The compounds were raided and the men were imprisoned anywhere from a few months to a few years.
-The children and mothers stayed together and other men who were not imprisoned helped support these families.
-The legally married woman remained in the family home with her children and the other wives were put up in different houses or apartments with their children.
-Once the men were released from prison, they returned to their legally married wives, but "visited" with their other families.
-Eventually some of these families moved down to Mexico or into the Western wide open spaces where they could live their lives without detection.
-Very Very few families broke up.
The bottom line is that many of the members of these families believe in the idea of plural marriage and the cult lifestyle. They are born into it and live it for so many years, that our way of life is completely foreign to them.
For those wanting to leave though, there are organizations in Utah, of former plural lifestyle women and men, who can help reeducate these children.
It is though a very hard thing for those leaving to adjust. It takes a lot of work, but it can be successful.
This will be such an interesting case to watch. I will interested to see if the Supreme Court gets involved this time.
On the one hand they are practicing their religion and the Constitution says that the state can not be involved.
On the other hand they are practicing, at the very least, sex with a minor.
It will be interesting.
I wish I would run into those men, so I could do some serious damage to them
I hope hell is big enough to hold so many evil people
Religious beliefs are very ingrained in most people. These people are just more intensified. They would rather have a beating at the hands of their "husbands and brothers" than take the chance of losing god.
So far they have not found the actual girl that made the call. There are apparently several men that go by this name, so no arrests have been made. They are saying that if they cannot locate her, they may have to drop this and allow all 416 children to go back to the home.
It is obvious that some of the moms that are staying with their children are communicating somehow with some of the moms at the compound.
The moms at the compound have written a letter to someone (cant remember exactly who right now) claiming their children are being abused and are kept in cramped quarters and are being scared to death by what is happening to them. Some of the children have been taken to the hospital for chicken pox and other illnesses and have been given anti biotics. So these moms at the compound, not with their children being held elsewhere, are wanting their children released back to them.
The moms that left willingly with their children are still with them. They are thinking that they are communicating with the other moms at the compound via cell phones so they have confiscated all phones, but are sure they didnt get them all yet.
This is what i do not understand,, they have several underage girls that are clearly pregnant, other that have some health issues from the sick ways they teach these children by having them have sex with grown men, even though this girl that made the call will not come forward, isnt this enough to do something about this? cant they keep these children from them? Isnt this enough evidence to arrest these men?
Im sure if they did a medical exam on these girls, they could find out by DNA who has had intercourse with whom and charge them that way? I just dont understand how and why they have not taken any of these men into custody. This appalls me and makes me so sad that these mothers and sorry humans that call themselves mothers and woman to allow their children to be treated this way.
Every female that the media has spoke to that has gotten away from this horrific cult has said how badly they treat u, esp. if u disagree or fight against someone who tells u to do something u dont want to do. They keep them locked up, they beat them, torture them, take away their souls and brainwash them.
For the girls and woman who are trying to or have fled, god bless them and thank god they got out, i just hope this opens the eyes of the general public.
there was also a statement made that if they are going to search and confiscate items from this specific ranch, the cult members at this specific location are saying they need to also search and invade all compounds like this.
insane, sad, pathetic, i so hope this doesnt take a wrong turn.
sorry for the rant, but this upsets me so bad.