Thread: Texas had no right to seize hundreds of kids UPDATE

AP: Appeals court rules Texas had no right to seize hundreds of children from polygamous sect. CNN Email alert

I'm glad to hear that because I think this is a terrible case of child abuse perpetrated by the state of Texas on those children, by ripping them from their mothers and separating them from their families. And the audacity of those involved to want to put those kids in the care of strangers is vile.

Court: Texas had no right to remove polygamists' children
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NEW: State did not prove danger to children was "imminent enough," court says

Authorities removed about 460 children from the YFZ Ranch in April

The children were seized after authorities received allegations of abuse

Parents reject abuse claims, have pushed for state to return children

SAN ANGELO, Texas (CNN) -- The state of Texas should not have removed the more than 460 children it took from a polygamist sect's ranch, an appeals court ruled Thursday.

In its ruling, the Texas 3rd District Court of Appeals decided in favor of 38 women who had appealed the removals, as well as a decision last month by a district judge that the children will remain in state custody.

"The existence of the FLDS belief system as described by the department's witnesses, by itself, does not put children of FLDS parents in physical danger," the three-judge panel said.

The state's Department of Family and Protective Services "did not present any evidence of danger to the physical health or safety of any male children or any female children who had not reached puberty," the judges ruled.

According to the ruling, the mothers said the state should have proved that the children's health or safety was in danger; that there was "an urgent need for protection" that required immediately separating the children from their parents; and that the state made "reasonable efforts" to avoid removing the children.

Because no such proof was presented, the mothers argued, the District Court -- which backed the department's seizure of the children -- "was required to return the children to their parents and abused its discretion by failing to do so."

"The legislature has required that there be evidence to support a finding that there is a danger to the physical health or safety of the children in question and that the need for protection is urgent and warrants immediate removal," the ruling said.

It concluded, "Evidence that children raised in this particular environment may some day have their physical health and safety threatened is not evidence that the danger is imminent enough to warrant invoking the extreme measure of immediate removal prior to full litigation of the issue."

The children were removed last month from the Yearning for Zion (YFZ) Ranch in Eldorado, Texas, which is owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Mormon offshoot that practices polygamy.

The sect is linked to jailed "prophet" Warren Steed Jeffs.

Authorities raided the ranch after they received reports of child abuse.

All AboutFundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints








Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/05/22/flds.ruling

May 22, 2008, 11:28AM
Texas officials concede 15 mothers wrongly in foster care


© 2008 The Associated Press

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SAN ANGELO, Texas — Half the mothers put in foster care as children by Texas child welfare authorities have now been declared adults.

Attorneys for Child Protective Services have been conceding, one by one, that many of the mothers authorities cited as evidence that the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints committed widespread sexual abuse of girls are actually adults.

They've admitted 15 of the 31 mothers are adults, one is actually 27.

Another girl listed as an underage mother is 14, but the state has conceded she is not pregnant or have a child.

CPS officials in April raided a ranch run by a polygamist sect in west Texas. Their contention that abuse was widespread led to the removal of more than 460 children from the ranch.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5796458.html