Polygamy

SAN ANGELO (AP) ― The members of a polygamist sect raided by authorities two months ago have their children back, but with a criminal investigation looming, their troubles may not be over.

"There have been criminal problems located out there," said Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran, who was with state troopers and child welfare authorities when they raided Yearning For Zion Ranch in west Texas on April 3.

The Texas Department of Public Safety and the Attorney General's Office have taken over the criminal investigation at the request of authorities in the rural ranching community. While they confirm they are investigating, neither will say how long it's likely to take.

The roughly 430 children taken from the ranch were allowed to leave foster care after a judge bowed to a Texas Supreme Court ruling last week that the state overreached by taking all the children when evidence of sexual abuse was limited to five teenage girls. Half the children taken from the ranch were no older than 5, and were not the subject of any abuse allegations.

All but a few dozen children were returned to parents by Wednesday. One girl, who was to be held longer at her attorney's request, will instead be released to her mother under a separate order signed Tuesday.

The high court ruling and Texas District Judge Barbara Walther's orders returning the children only affects the custody case, not the criminal investigation, which involves several trailer loads of documents confiscated during a raid lasting nearly a week. Authorities removed all documents and photos that might show relationships between underage girls and older men.

"It's going to take a while. With any criminal case we investigate, we do as much as we possibly can before turning the case over the prosecutors," said DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange, who says investigators are still sorting documents and conducting interviews. "They want to be thorough as possible."

Last week, investigators from the attorney general's office took DNA from Warren Jeffs, the jailed prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, saying it was looking for evidence of relationships between Jeffs and four girls, ages 12-15.

Under Texas law, girls younger than 17 cannot generally consent to sex with an adult, and at a custody hearing, authorities showed a photo of Jeffs in an alleged wedding photo embracing and kissing a girl on the mouth.

Jeffs has been convicted in Utah as an accomplice to rape in the marriage of an underage sect member. He faces similar charges in Arizona, though no trial date has been set.

Authorities have DNA from all the children and many of the parents at the YFZ Ranch -- 603 samples in all -- but those results cannot be used by law enforcement without a court order because they were taken from parents and children as part of the custody case, not under a criminal search warrant.

Even if the DNA shows children were born to underage girls and adult men, any prosecution is likely to be difficult unless a victim testifies, an issue that's proven a significant obstacle in cases elsewhere.

Utah successfully prosecuted three FLDS members and got a no-contest plea from Jeffs after years of investigation, but Arizona authorities have had to drop some charges because the victim quit cooperating.

"These were very difficult cases to prosecute because prosecutors need a victim who is willing to testify to make a case," said Paul Murphy, a spokesman for the Utah Attorney General's Office. "When anyone says these cases are so obvious and easy, they're a fool. They rely so heavily on the victim."

Without a victim's testimony, it's impossible to establish jurisdiction for prosecution, a key element that has prevented some charges of members who frequently move among the sect's residences in Arizona, Utah, Texas and elsewhere.

In any sexual assault case, it can be difficult to persuade victims to assist in prosecutions, but such cases are even more challenging when they involve a community as insular as the FLDS, Murphy said. Sect members are raised and work within the community, developing few financial or personal resources away from other FLDS members.

After a botched raid by Arizona authorities in 1953, FLDS members lived on the Arizona-Utah line with little interaction with government officials, who only got involved when allegations of underage marriages and abuse surfaced in 2001.

"Sexual abuse cases are difficult to begin with and you combine that with 50 years of isolation, they are extremely difficult," Murphy said.

Texas authorities raided the YFZ Ranch after three calls to a domestic abuse hot line, purportedly from a 16-year-old mother who was being abused by her middle-age husband. The calls -- which Doran said continued even after all the children were removed from the ranch -- are now being investigated as a hoax.

The FLDS, which believes polygamy brings glorification in heaven, is a breakaway sect of the Mormon church, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago. FLDS elder Willie Jessop said this week that the church would not preside over marriages between sect members who were not of legal age.

He sidestepped questions about whether such marriages ever occurred but has said the sect has been unfairly portrayed.

(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

In Case You Missed It ...

• RAW VIDEO: 100-Mile Police Chase
• FW Oil Man Hurt In Plane Crash
• Deaf Woman Attacked At Dallas Apartments
• DPD Names Suspect In Guard's Shooting
• RAW VIDEO: Sprinklers Leave Babe All Wet
• Local Airman Victim Of Medical Mistake