Aug 18, 2008 5:53 pm US/Central
Testimony Begins In Polygamist Custody Case
SAN ANGELO (AP) ―
Attorneys for Texas child welfare authorities began presenting evidence Monday at a hearing on whether a girl allegedly given in marriage at age 12 to jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs should be placed back in foster care.
The state wants to remove the girl, now 14, and a younger brother from the care of her mother, saying the mother has refused to guarantee the girl won't have contact with men accused of being involved in underage marriages. The girl's father allegedly blessed her marriage to Jeffs and the underage marriages of at least two sisters.
The hearing, which was initially delayed while lawyers in her case and three other cases tried to negotiate settlements, began with Texas Ranger Nick Hannah helping Child Protective Services introduce into record dozens of marriage records, photos and church records outlining family relationships that were seized in the April raid of the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado.
Barbara Jessop, the girl's mother, invoked the 5th Amendment on roughly 50 questions asked by CPS attorneys, including what constituted abuse, the names of her children and her relationship with the children's father.
"I stand on the fifth," she said repeatedly in a flat tone.
Her attorney, Gonzalo Rios, said Jessop, 55, was exercising her right against self-incrimination because of the ongoing investigation.
Carolyn Jessop, a now best-selling author, testified about her relationship with the girl's father, Fredrick "Merril" Jessop. She said Merril Jessop harshly disciplined her then 1-year-old son by alternately spanking him and putting him face up under a running faucet until he was blue in the face. She said Barbara Jessop refused to take another son to the hospital when he broke his arm while she was away.
Under cross-examination, Rios sought to discredit her testimony, saying most of the incidents Carolyn Jessop was talking about occurred two decades ago. He also criticized her for the amount of money she has earned from her book, "Escape" about her experience in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints community.
In documents submitted with the state's custody petition, the girl is quoted as telling a caseworker that a young teenage girl marrying an older man "can't be a crime because Heavenly Father is the one that tells Warren when a girl is ready to get married."
The state dropped efforts Monday to get custody of the girl's 17-year-old brother but is still seeking custody of her 11-year-old brother. Lawyers also are still hoping to negotiate deals on three other children with different mothers. The state is now asking Texas District Judge Barbara Walther to order foster placement for four children from the ranch.
Child welfare authorities have been investigating the cases of 440 children since the Texas Supreme Court ordered the children swept from the YFZ Ranch in an April raid be returned to their parents. The state has asked the court to dismiss cases involving 76 children, including nine who have turned 18 since the custody case began.
The remaining cases are still under investigation.
Monday's hearing marked the first effort by CPS to retake custody of children whose parents belong to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints since the Supreme Court ruling. The high court said CPS overreached in sweeping all the FLDS into state custody, noting CPS showed no more than a handful of teenage girls were abused or were at risk of abuse.
Willie Jessop, an FLDS spokesman, said nothing has happened to justify the children being removed again. None of the children the state wants back in foster care live at the ranch currently.
"They couldn't find (abuse) the first time it came up. What's changed?" he said.
He also noted the church made it clear it wouldn't sanction underage marriages and that doctrine has been in place for more than two years.
The FLDS believes polygamy brings glory in heaven. It is a breakaway sect of the mainstream Mormon church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago.
Jeffs, already convicted as accomplice to rape in Utah and awaiting trial on similar charges in Arizona, was indicted along with four followers in Texas for sexual assault of a child last month. One of the followers was also indicted for bigamy.
A sixth man, Dr. Lloyd Hammon Barlow, was indicted on three misdemeanor counts of failing to report child abuse. Authorities are seeking custody of his two daughters, saying he didn't report the babies he delivered to underage girls and that he married a 16-year-old.
(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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