Patterico's Pontifications

4/4/2008

Warren Jeffs’ Texas Compound Sealed; Children Removed

Filed under: Civil Liberties,Current Events,Law — DRJ @ 7:45 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

In 2004, polygamist Warren Jeffs moved about 150 of his family members and followers to a remote Central Texas ranch near Eldorado, Texas. Thursday, Texas Department of Public Safety and Child Protective Services agents visited the facility, removed and interviewed 52 children, and placed 18 girls into foster care:

“A 50-year-old man is accused of marrying and fathering a child with a 16-year-old girl at the polygamist YFZ Ranch in Schleicher County, according to a search and arrest warrant released just before 5 p.m. by Tom Green County district court.

The warrant, signed Thursday afternoon by 51st District Judge Barbara Walther, led state authorities to remove 52 children from the ranch, owned and run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

“We are dealing with many victims,” Child Protective Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner said in a news conference in Eldorado. “There’s evidence they have been abused, or are at imminent risk or harm. It is not safe for them to remain on the compound.”

The girls’ ages range from 6 months to 17 years, Meisner said. Eighteen have been placed in the custody of CPS, she said, and case workers are interviewing the children in Eldorado’s civic center, where they have been provided food and cots.”

Jeffs is in jail in Utah Arizona and that may have made his followers more amenable to state intervention, but I’m still glad this didn’t become a stand-off.

I wonder if Texas Ranger Captain Barry Caver was involved. That’s who I’d call on.

NOTE: Related posts here, here, here, and here.

— DRJ

13 Responses to “Warren Jeffs’ Texas Compound Sealed; Children Removed”

  1. You can always count on a Ranger.

    otcconan (cc3998)

  2. Man, those creeps are building a compound right where I grew up in southwest Colorado. *shiver*

    You want to talk about welfare parasites, those ones are the worst. When you’ve got five wives but you’re only actually married to one, you’ve got four single mothers, each with a mess of kids–gravy train! They sign ’em up for WIC, food stamps, welfare, you name it. Yuck.

    Russell (5ecf4a)

  3. *growl* In my husband’s words: MDK FTW.

    Foxfier (74f1c8)

  4. 50 year old polygamist. Teenage victim. Last time I saw that I was dealing with a Taliban mullah (who, unfortunately, was too small a fish to get a jet ride to a tropical resort). And I remember thinking, “These people are a mess,” (or maybe slightly stronger language), “I’m sure glad we don’t have folks like that at home.”

    Sigh. I guess we do. At least here we have the decency to lock ’em up. I dunno who’s got the keys to Jeffs’s cell in AZ, but I kinds hope it’s Joe Arpaio.

    Kevin R.C. O'Brien (88bf29)

  5. Waco sans the blood stream, the rest is just as real! In fact a demonstration of how the govt will act in the future with regard to ANY alleged infringement upon them or their totalitarian control over their domain, and citizens.

    Mohamed, as another pointed out, took a 9 (nine) year old female child as a bride! Yet he and his followers are worshiped across the globe today!

    Go figure.

    Don’t blame the polyigs for taking advantage of the laws we have passed in this nation and the MASSIVE flow of handouts to every female that can manage to get impregnated, (takes sum smarts ya know). Even if you took the entirety of their ill gotten gains, it would be but a single drop in the ocean by comparison to those we all support that have not any “taxpayer” in the household for decades!

    Lets see, as a nation we have gone so far in our definition of “freedom of Religion”, to include the average citizen having to spend ludicrous amounts of money to Accommodate Religion.

    Separation of church and state does not state that WE the people, are required to accommodate. Just says the nation will not impose any specific religion upon the citizens. That in fact where it begins and ends!

    There are no real clear cut answers to the handling of this type of entity and the way they may and do treat the citizens within. Remember that each individual belly button can and does view such a life with a different mind.

    One thing you can bet on, is that the State of TX will soon be way over budget on PD’s!

    TC (d16524)

  6. It’s good to keep all witnesses away when the government is going to tear crying children from their parents arms and violate the rights of US Citizens. First they issue a gag order to eliminate freedom of speech, next they take children away from their parents and interrogate them until they confess some false allegation against their parents and it’s all done out of the view of the public! The crimes these men committed are bad but the terrorist prisoners in Guantanamo Bay are treated better than this. This is religious bigotry in it’s finest form.
    Watch for the liberal leaning social workers to call the children ‘victims’ implying that the social workers have somehow ‘saved’ these children from their religious parents and will now teach them their ‘enlightened’ state sanctioned religion of liberalism.
    If all the warrant was for was to look for marriage documents, then why are they removing (kidnapping) the children? These people have been around for over a century. It’s hard to believe that suddenly the children need to be ‘saved’.
    Probably the only reason the citizens of Eldorado are creeped out by these people is that the FLDS are cleanest people they’ve seen and probably raised average IQ of the town by twenty points.

    PD (cb3056)

  7. He should get 50 years in prison poligamy is illegal in this country and having inercourse with a juvinile should get him another 50 years

    krazy kagu (5e1710)

  8. When a 50 year old man is having sex with a 15 year that is just gross. If the kids have been sexually abused why wouldn’t we want them removed?

    alli (dbfeab)

  9. It’s good to keep all witnesses away when the government is going to tear crying children from their “husband’s” arms and violate the rights of US Citizens.

    There. Fixed that for you.

    Pablo (99243e)

  10. These polygamists abuse women, children and boys on a scale few understand.

    Since the government is dealing with victims of mind control, they are going to have to be gentle. We like to think they understand that now. They’re getting help from women who have escaped the cult in the past. Hopefully that will tone the drama down.

    Elizabeth Conley (5146e1)

  11. In ref to commentor #6(pd), you should seek raising your own IQ before you give oppinons on a subject like 50 yr old farts forcing young children into sexual encounters and then impregnating them. Think of the years of incest and inner-breeding!! It makes me sick to think that anyone outside of that compound could condone what was going on behind closed doors.I would like to be in charge of castrating every man in that place that ever touched a child wrongly. It is sad that men in this world have the power they have because I would venture to say 80% of men think sex is a real top priority and would commit crimes to get it. I see it in the media daily. Women are of much stronger charater…GOOOOOOOOOOO Hillary!!!!

    helen bounds (fd91ef)

  12. Up to 401 children removed, perhaps to be placed into foster care. Salt Lake Tribune story

    htom (412a17)

  13. IT MAY BE THEIR RELIGION BUT IT IS ILLEGAL. WHY DO THEY GET A DIFFERENT SET OF RULES THAT THE REST OF US?

    tonya bridges (74af3b)


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