Texas Judge Orders Return Of Polygamists’ Children

SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) – A judge on Monday ordered the return of more than 400 children taken from their parents at a polygamist group’s ranch because of suspected abuse, bringing an abrupt end to one of the largest custody cases in U.S. history.

The order signed by Texas District Judge Barbara Walther, responding to a state Supreme Court ruling last week, allowed parents in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to pick up their children from foster care facilities around the state almost immediately.

In exchange for regaining custody, the parents are not allowed to leave Texas without court permission and must participate in parenting classes. They were also ordered not to interfere with any child abuse investigation and to allow the children to undergo psychiatric or medical exams if required.

However, it does not put restrictions on the children’s fathers, or require parents to renounce polygamy or live away from the sect’s Yearning For Zion Ranch in West Texas.

“We’re really grateful to get the order signed,” said Willie Jessop, an FLDS elder. Without elaborating, Jessop said he had hoped for a less restrictive order.

A spokeswoman for Child Protective Services, Marleigh Meisner, said the agency was pleased with the order but added that the investigation into possible abuse will continue.

“The safety of these children remains our only goal in this case,” she said.

The state had presented witnesses who alleged that underage girls were being forced into marriages and sex.

The judge’s order requires that parents allow children’s welfare workers to make unannounced visits and that the families notify CPS if they plan to travel more than 100 miles from their homes.

The order comes just days after the Texas Supreme Court said Texas Child Protective Services overreached its authority in seizing custody of the children nearly two months ago.

The FLDS denies any abuse of the children. Church officials say they are being persecuted for their religious beliefs. The FLDS, whose members believe polygamy earns glorification in heaven, is a breakaway sect of the Mormon church, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago.

Andrea Sloan, an attorney for some of the children in the case, said she believes logistics will keep many of the children in foster care until at least Tuesday.

“I know the parents agree that the return needs to be orderly and safe,” she said. “We don’t want parents rushing the doors of the shelter.”

The Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed an appeals court ruling ordering Walther to reverse her decision in April putting all children from the ranch into foster case. The Supreme Court and the appeals court rejected the state’s argument that all the children were in immediate danger from what it said was a cycle of sexual abuse of teenage girls at the ranch.

Half the children sent to foster care were no older than 5.

The Third Court of Appeals last week ruled that the state failed to show that any more than five of the teenage girls were being sexually abused, and that it had offered no evidence of sexual or physical abuse against the other children.

Walther’s order does not end a separate criminal investigation. Texas authorities last week collected DNA from jailed FLDS leader Warren Jeffs as part of investigation into underage sex with girls, ages 12 to 15. He has been convicted in Utah as an accomplice to rape and is jail in Arizona awaiting trial on separate charges.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)