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Apr 8, 2008 3:22 pm US/Central
Documents Released In Polygamist Ranch Case
CPS Says 416 Children Removed From Ranch; No More Remain
Reporting
Jack Fink
ELDORADO (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
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Construction at the FLDS ranch near Eldorado, Texas began in 2003.
AP
State officials and court authorities in Schleicher County have released documents related to the search for and seizure of children at the polygamist ranch compound near Eldorado.
The documents are part of the petition that the Texas Department of Child Protective Services made last week to a state district judge seeking authority to remove children from the ranch.
The statements made by CPS investigators paint a dark picture of life at the ranch for young girls.
In the documents, a local family violence shelter says it received a call from a 16-year-old girl on March 29 and 30.
The girl said she was the seventh wife of a male resident at the ranch, believed to be 50-year-old Dale Barlow.
Barlow is named in an arrest warrant on possible abuse charges, but is not specifically named in the documents as the girl's husband.
Dale Barlow is believed to be in Arizona.
According to the documents, the girl told authorities her husband hit her in the chest and choked her while another woman held her infant child. The girl also claimed that at one point, her husband beat her so badly that he broke several of her ribs.
She also told investigators that she has an 8-month-old child and is currently pregnant.
Describing how she came to live at the ranch, the girl told authorities her parents took her there three years ago. Two years later, when she was 15, she said, she was "spiritually married" to an adult male member of the church. She said he would beat her when he was angry. The last time he did so, she claimed, was on Easter Sunday. The girl also told investigators she and other girls at the ranch were not allowed to leave the property unless it was to receive medical care. When they were allowed to leave, she said, they were accompanied by a man from the ranch and other women, as well.
The girl's calls triggered the raid on the compound by state authorities. A total of 416 children have now been taken away from the polygamist compound. Investigators believe this is all the children who were living at the location. But CPS still does not know whether the 16-year-old girl is among the children it has removed.
In the documents, CPS investigators said when they first arrived at the ranch they saw several teenage girls who looked pregnant.
They also said they talked to several teenage girls who said they had already given birth.
One statement in an affidavit released Tuesday reads, "It appears that the cultural and moral climate at the ranch is one in which young girls are conditioned to expect and accept sexual activity with adult men at the ranch." It also says, "Under this practice, once a minor female child is determined by the male leaders of the ranch to have reached childbearing age--13 or 14 years old--they are then 'spiritually married' to an adult male member of the church. They are then required to engage in sexual activity with the men for the purpose of having children." The affidavit is signed by Lynn McFadden, a Department of Family and Protective Services investigative supervisor.
Later in the documents, an investigator wrote, "The department has also been advised that children at the ranch are deprived of nutrition as a method of punishment, as well as being forced to sit in closed closets as a form of punishment."
Investigators also said several children they interviewed were unable to provide the names of their biological parents, nor could they provide information such as their birthdays or places of birth.
CPS investigators stated that on at least one occasion while at the compound they could see children through the windows of houses on the ranch property, but had been denied entrance to those houses and denied access to those children.
In the documents, CPS also said "The Department is concerned about the possibility that some of these children have been denied a proper education."
CPS investigators also wrote that there is evidence that children have been the victims of sexual abuse, and that they believed there was a "substantial risk" that they would be abused again in the future.
The release of the court documents Tuesday follows an announcement that state troopers have arrested two male residents of the ranch. For more information about the men who were arrested and the charges they face,
click here.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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