The Flowers Cried in Texas: Battle for the FLDS Children

CPS In The Best Interests Of The Children: Flowers Cried In Texas

2011-12-06T15:49:00.001-08:00

Contents | Prev: Temple Standoff | Next: Bus Trip to San Angelo

The Flowers Cried in Texas

A Book by Arthur Hu about the Eldorado Yearning For Zion Ranch Raid and investigation

Chapter 8: Child Protective Services

National media broadcasts sensational but unverified abuse allegations that turned out to be a hoax call. But the story that has never gone beyond local media is that, instead of any obscure religious or Asian minorities, Child Protective Services may actually be America’s largest source of documented institutional child abuse. Googling “CPS” produces years of countless horror stories from coast to coast of armed SWAT police swooping in on bogus tips to remove children with no history of abuse and placing them in abusive homes, or returning children to parents who do have histories of abuse.

Bill Medvecky[1], a non religious man who stepped forward to the aid of an unpopular group tells people that he was motivated by first hand suffering at the hands of what he calls “Child Pilfering Services”, and others call “Child Kidnapping Services”.

In 2004, Texas, Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn’s major report, "Forgotten Children," detailed physical and sexual abuse of foster care children under poor living conditions. [2] In a 2006 report to Texas, Strayhorn said foster child deaths were outpacing the growth of children in the system from 26,133 children in Texas foster care in 2003 to a 24 percent increase with 32,474 in 2005. 48 children died, about four times the normal rate, under state care in 2004 or 2005. In the 2004 budget year, 63 foster children received medical treatment for rape while under state care, and 142 children and teens gave birth while in the system. About 100 children received treatment for poisoning caused by medications given while they were under foster care. Strayhorn stated “The state is supposed to be protecting our forgotten children, but in all too many cases these children are taken from one abusive situation and placed in another abusive situation,"[3]

Also in 2004, Strayhorn reported that the foster care system was spending $4 million a year on mind-altering drugs for children as young as 3 years old. She requested investigation to determine if the medications were to make the children more submissive, or “line the pockets” of doctors or pharmaceutical companies. She questioned why any child would need 14 different drugs, giving an antipsychotic to a 3 year old, or why a radiologist in San Antonio would prescribe psychotropic drugs to children in El Paso. Two antipsychotic drugs made up half of the drugs prescribed to the foster children. The two drugs, Risperdal and Zyprexa were later subject to a Food and Drug Administration warning of dangerous side effects, and the safety and effectiveness of the drugs has not been established for children.

The mother of one child said that her son on he began hearing "voices in his head," after taking Zyprexa, and after the age of 5 he experienced troubles in school and with the law and was hospitalized repeatedly. Various doctors had diagnosed him with attention deficit disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or sociopathy, but after he was taken off the medications, he was attending high school and playing baseball.

“Child Protective Services caseworkers are a beleaguered bunch – with potentially hundreds of cases on each worker's plate, generating relentless turnover. The attrition rate at CPS is roughly 34%. The Child Care Licensing division has a more modest turnover rate of 9.6%, but with fewer than 100 caseworkers and more than 10,000 foster facilities to monitor, the job can be daunting. (In 2003, there were more than 25,000 children in the foster system, and the state spent more than $315 million to take care of them. In 2007, the number of kids in custody of the state had grown to more than 33,000, with a cost for the state of nearly $371 million.)[4]

Lifttheveil.org quotes rates of abuse of foster children as high as 28 to 33 percent in some cities. YouTube is filled with Kentucky TV investigations of corrupt officials who maximize federal funds by taking and placing as many children as they can with foster parents.

The Texas attorney general has been instructed to prosecute the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints without any identified perpetrators, yet the office declined to investigate proven abuse committed by state employees at the Texas Youth Commission juvenile corrections facilities.

©2008 Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle
Click on thumbnail image for much larger view.
The FLDS Kids- From one frying pan into a much larger frying pan.

http://familyrights.us/news/archive/2008/flds/april_2008.html

file: \priv\flds\book\childprotectiveservices.doc

[1] http://fldsview.blogspot.com/2008/08/friends.html FLDS View blog, “Uncle Bill Medvecky” Aug 22, 2008

[2] http://www.ahrp.org/infomail/04/11/13.php Nov. 12, 2004, 11:39PM Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau Strayhorn will probe drug use on children By POLLY ROSS HUGHES

[3] http://www.window.state.tx.us/news/60623statement.html Comptroller Strayhorn Statement On Foster Care Abuse Friday, June 23, 2006 also http://www.hope4kidz.org/news/forgottenChildren.html The Forgotten Children in Texas

[4] http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A704806 NOVEMBER 21, 2008: NEWS Campfire Horror Story:How Carole Keeton Strayhorn and the state destroyed a healing camp for kids BY JORDAN SMITH

©2008 Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle
Click on thumbnail image for much larger view.
The FLDS Kids- From one frying pan into a much larger frying pan.

http://familyrights.us/news/archive/2008/flds/april_2008.html

file: \priv\flds\book\childprotectiveservices.doc

Temple Standoff: Flowers Cried In Texas

2011-12-06T10:43:00.001-08:00

Chapter 7: Temple Standoff

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“There were some tense moments last night, but everything has remained calm and peaceful and they are continuing their search” Allison Palmer

Authorities feared the worst as sect members refused to allow law enforcement access to the compound's temple in defiance of local prosecutors. We later learned that some of our men were working hard to get a “stay” on the judge’s orders. Citing their religious convictions that no nonbeliever should set foot inside the temple, the priesthood rejected authorities' requests to search the temple for the 16-year-old Sarah. While a gag order was still in place, Randy Mankin picked up conversations on his police scanner radio that the residents wouldn’t let them into the temple, and there might be a confrontation. It would seem to most to be extreme to risk fiery re-run of the Waco disaster just to keep nonbelievers out of churches when most Christian churches are open to just about anybody during daytime hours. But this was another tenet of faith inherited from original Mormon religion. Unlike most cathedrals, the LDS church had in some cases only opened up to the public to show them off only when they were shut down for renovation. In 1978, such an event drew over 100,000 people just from the island state of Hawaii, but the priesthood evidently felt this it would be a bad day to start giving tours to these hostile visitors, search warrant or no.¹

Allison Palmer, who as first assistant 51st District attorney, announced Saturday evening that they would prosecute any felony crimes uncovered as part of the investigation inside the compound. "Within the religion that we have encountered, their place of worship is very special to them," she said Saturday. "It appears to be of great concern to them if a person from outside their congregation even attempts to step inside their place of worship." This is a very sensitive area, and members of this church feel very strongly about nonmembers entering that area," Palmer said. "This is a very important to them. It is proving to be difficult to obtain their permission to enter that building."

Palmer threatened to forcibly remove the sect's followers "as peaceably as possible." if no agreement was reached. "They don't want to intrude on anyone's sacred ground," she said. "They just want to ensure the safety of children." It had not yet been determined whether the girl and her baby are among the 137 children removed from the ranch, and that made a search of the temple that much more necessary, Palmer said. "Anytime someone says, 'Don't look here,' it makes you concerned that's exactly where you need to look," she said.

Law enforcement met with leader Merril Jessop several times and with his lawyers to discuss the best way of entering the temple, which they would not permit due to religious prohibitions on allowing nonbelievers into Mormon temples. "I wanted to do it in the most peaceful and respectful way that we could," Caver said.

At 2:00, Marie noticed the Priesthood men gathering around our sacred sites, dominated by the temple. In our home, we didn’t know what was going on. Why would these people want to enter our sacred buildings? Soon, the rangers and state troopers moved into positions to enter the sites. She got a call at 3:00 that they would indeed try to enter our sacred sites, so they knelt down and prayed fervently. An hour later, they saw a helicopter flying over the temple, while a line of police cars passed by. At 4:30, trucks which resembled ambulances turned down towards the Meetinghouse. These carried trained search dogs which searched for the unmarked grave sites that some had spoken of, but none would be found.

The church members had quietly declined to leave the doors unlocked or provide the key. "They felt if they did that that they'd be aiding or assisting us in the desecration of their worship place. So we had to use other means to gain entry and breach the doors," Caver said. As a police helicopter circled the ranch that night, the faithful and their vehicles surrounded the gates to prevent entry. "They lined up 57 people, as we counted, around the walls of the temple. They didn't appear to be armed," said Texas Ranger Capt. Barry Caver.

Church members told him if they did so, they wouldn't be "in violation of their beliefs by not defending the temple." One man — Levi Barlow Jeffs, 19 — was arrested for trying to physically resist the entry, but Caver said they were mostly peaceful. Some men kneeled and prayed. Other men were sobbing at the desecration. "We knew the temple would be the most sensitive issue on the property. We opted to do that last."

Authorities brought in a locksmith to open the gate, but they were unable to move the deadbolts to open the front doors of the temple. A “jaws of life” tool, normally used to remove people trapped in cars after accidents was tried to pry open the doors, but they proved to be too tightly constructed.

Finally, the Midland County SWAT team was called upon once again to bring their equipment, including the M113 armored personnel carrier to apply brute force.²“They had the temple surrounded with their vehicles,” the sheriff explained. “We rolled the armored personnel carrier up and asked to be admitted and they complied." Other accounts say the sheriff put the options more bluntly: “Either make way, so we can search or risking being run over.” A photo might have shown a tank confronting two men knelling in prayer, a display of defiance not unlike the lone man who stood in front of the line of tanks in Tiananmen square in Beijing. Despite such confrontations, the sheriff reported no violence. “There was resistance. But that’s okay. Resistance we can handle.”³

Mother Marie Musser also saw the drama unfold. At about 5, she saw their faithful men fall to their knees in fervent prayer. She wrote they were "yearning unto the Lord that our sacred sites would not be desecrated." She saw what she described as a "tanker" drive up on the east road between the temple and the printing building, and it was followed by the tall SWAT van. They drove to the farthest gate to the west on the north side of the building, where armed men now surrounded the sites. On a signal, she saw about 30 men rush to the gate, where two of the ranch men were standing. She couldn't see clearly what they did to the two men, but they were given a body search. Other armed police approached the other men of the church to keep them back. The police brought out a ladder to the wall. They used the ladder to look over the wall, and then moved it to the gate. Soon after, the gate had been opened, and the law enforcement officers were on the sacred temple grounds.

By 11PM, it was heard over police scanners that authorities had "cleared" the church's temple. They moved on to the compound's annex, but there was no sign of the girl.

At 3 AM, Marie awoke and looked out the window at the glow coming from the temple The lights had been left on, which gave her an eerie feeling of a Heavenly light she look upon the surreal. She thought “ Though it was sad to witness, I knew the Lord had a purpose and a plan in these experiences.”

The next morning Allison Palmer announced “There were some tense moments last night, but everything has remained calm and peaceful and they are continuing their search,”

1http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081009/NEWS01/810090386&s=d&page=1 Mormon Temple in Laie to close for 18 months of renovations After 1 1/2-year closure starting Dec. 29, public may get rare look inside By Mary Kaye Ritz

2 (1) http://www.abc4.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=540ffaeb-dc67-40dc-8757-4f0aac3388c1 Women, children and pregnant teens removed from Texas FLDS compound Reported by: Brent Hunsaker Last Update: 4/05 2:33 pm

3 http://www.childbrides.org/raid.html

Protective Custody: Flowers Cried in Texas

2011-12-05T16:10:00.001-08:00

Chapter 6: Protective Custody
Prev:Eldorado's New Neighbors | Next: Temple Standoff|

The Flowers Cried in Texas

A Book by Arthur Hu about the Eldorado Yearning For Zion Ranch Raid and investigation

Chapter 6: Protective Custody

"If they, in fact, were held prisoner out there and were denied access to the outside world, then I think that ought to be changed." Mayor John Nikolauk

“Numerous people are going to have much better lives as a result of this raid. If even one person could be salvaged from child abuse, I think it was worth it."[1] Pastor Andy Anderson Eldorado First Baptist Church

At 2:30 P.M, escorted by police pickups with lights flashing driven by game wardens and other officers, the two church buses left. They transported what would be the first of many batches of children, infants and mothers from their familiar and comfortable homes at the ranch just six miles down the narrow paved road to Eldorado Baptist Church in the center of the town of Eldorado.

The mothers later described life on the Yearning for Zion Ranch as a wonderful experience. The children, who are put to bed at 7:30 PM are eager to rise by 4 a.m. There was always competition to get going earliest, and not the last ones up". As older girls would later take charge of their younger ones when their mothers were later forced to leave, they routinely helped the little ones get dressed and their hair combed. Meal preparation was a high calling. Instead of convenience foods with instructions on how to open and how long to set the microwave, it was a matter of taking the wheat, fresh from the fields into the grinder. "It's as precious as can be to make a meal that's nutritious and healthy for them” said one mother.

Though some critics characterized child labor as abuse, the mothers raised their children to love to work and learn. In the sect school, their first-graders were reading at fourth grade level books, while their peers in public schools were scoring far below state averages. Beyond the 3 Rs, there is singing, piano lessons, and depending on boys or girls, instruction in appropriate gardening, farming, or homemaking and chores. Even the smallest were helped out with chores such as drying dishes. Rather than a weekly recycle pickup, the boys would haul “bit buckets” of waste food to a nearby compost pile, and they would then help with gardening or milking the cows. The mothers gleefully told outsiders that they loved life on the ranch, and so did their happy children.

Eldorado residents were shocked in disbelief as the families walked out the buses as if out of a time portal or television set in their colorful prairie dresses. Likewise, the women and children were probably as scared and bewildered as when Dorothy emerged from her house and concluded that she was no longer in Kansas as most had never ventured into town before.

Very few Eldorado residents knew of the raid that would come their way in April. It was on Thursday April 3 when Randy Mankin noticed a small convoy of black vehicles parked outside Sheriff Doran’s office. Suspecting that something big was in the making, he called the dispatcher, but was surprised to hear a Texas Ranger taking over the phone call. It must have been the start of a raid, which had been a tightly held secret, known only to the sheriff. Only a select few had been chosen to help prepare the fellowship hall at the First Baptist Church at the center of town, and the Schleicher County Civic Center just a mile south of town as emergency shelters to be ready by Thursday evening when authorities planned to come knocking at the ranch gate. Eventually, about 100 women and children would be housed at the civic center, while 80 would stay at the church.

Andy Anderson, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Eldorado, said that his members embraced the opportunity to minister in Christ's name. Still, many commented that the fundamentalist sect also believed Christ was their savior as well, and suspect Anderson might have been motivated to sway them back to mainstream beliefs. He told the Baptist News that "Our folks were eager to step in, and not just our folks, but the entire community," [2]Anderson told Newsweek “Numerous people are going to have much better lives as a result of this raid. If even one person could be salvaged from child abuse, I think it was worth it."[3] Shea Politte, wife of a man who worked with the church told a reporter that the church had welcomed "plenty and [had] more coming."[4]

Church members provided much of the money needed to buy food which they prepared for meals. Some dropped off shopping carts filled with food and drinks. Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo which once ran the Pave Paws radar site sent nearly 200 folding cots to Eldorado. First Baptist offered the state of Texas use of its two 25-seat church buses which made many trips to help transport over 180 women and children away from the their compound. This actually wasn’t the first time that buses from this town had made national headlines. In 2003, nine people - with six from the First Baptist Church of Eldorado - died in Louisiana when their bus crashed on a church tour across the south. Thankfully, there would be no injuries in the short trips to the ranch and back into town.

Austin’s Channel 8 news showed church volunteer Helen Pfluger, 59 and wife of cotton Farmer Charles Pfluger, carting around a plastic cooler in the church hall while a girl placed a teddy bear into a crib. She helped to direct other volunteers who spent 4 days since the day their guests first arrived preparing the shelter with beds and cribs, and setting up tables.[5] "What this city did - plain, ordinary folk - was overwhelming," Nikolauk said. "You can't believe the compassion and the willingness to jump out and help." Many residents took a break from the tricycle races and goat kissing events of the town’s spring festival to help out. Nearby congregations brought in stuffed animals, juice, snacks and diapers to the church. Just down the street, the Church of Christ cooked up a fresh chicken and broccoli dinner for the displaced families. Oil field worker Gary Shipman unloaded $1,300 in supplies, telling reporters “They couldn't have picked a better community for this to have happened”[6], though he probably didn’t reflect on the fortune of having their families torn apart in such a generous community.

When Helen Pfluger first saw the families emerge on Friday evening at the church she would remark “I think just that these people seemed like they came out of ‘Little House on the Prairie’ at times. They seemed like they belonged back in the 1870s”. She noted they were very scared and very quiet. As far as she knew, they had not even been told why they had to be moved to their hastily prepared shelter. The women seemed non-responsive to glances, and had that “deer caught in the headlights” look in their eyes. “They huddled at the back of a room and did not want to communicate with us”.[7] Many were disturbed that many wanted their beds to be touching.

In the next 30 hours she would spend with the 70 women and children of the sect, she carried only the most basic of communications.[8] Eventually, “They did warm up with us, so they would smile”, but she did not have conversations. They would offer a few words to ask for specific requests to supply whatever need they had, but they did not encourage conversations. She felt like “I was from Mars, that I was alien to them. There was not one thing we had alike, except that we were female and had children," Volunteer Eva Jo Session thought they were fearful, that “all they have learned was that we were the devil. All the outside world was the devil." It was the first time any of the women from the church had met any of the families from the ranch.

While there had been press accounts of the misery of forced marriage, from what Pfluger could observe, their lifestyle “seems normal to them, I think”. The families seemed to bond well, perhaps uncomfortably so as the volunteers had trouble telling which mothers were associated with which children. It looked very communal with all of the women seeming to taking care equally of all the children. The children and mothers all loved each other. If these were mothers guilty of unspeakable abuses, the women by all appearances were taking wonderful care of their children, and the entire group looked to be very tightly knit. This would become more important for their survival as conditions were to worsen later.

They were shocked at how young the mothers looked. Pfluger didn’t think there were any people from the ranch that were over 18. The youngest went down to three months, but she was sure there were three pregnant girls who were in their early teens. Pfluger had overheard one girl telling an investigator that it was an "honor" to be a teenage mother. Barbara Arendt, who was secretary at the church, shuddered to overhear some of the girls who looked to be just entering their teens tell officials that they were already married, wondering about fulfilling all of their wifely duties. One girl not more than 8 years old had one of the babies as if she were the mother. “She was learning at that age to be a mother, not with a doll, because they don't have dolls. Their dolls are real," Pfluger said. Volunteer Jimalee Dutton said that they would not look at you and it was hard because they would not give you eye contact. Nikolauk remembered, "there were young ones carrying a kid, walking with a toddler and pregnant at the same time. They looked like zombies; there was no expression in their eyes."

They heard that inside the compound, they had no televisions, newspapers or magazines. Pfluger said that a mother of perhaps 16 didn’t know what to do with Crayolas. She asked “what are we supposed to do with these?'" Later, some would question this perception as photographs of their school released later would show crayon drawings hung on the walls. The children soon got sick from the food as well, as one photographer snapped pictures of crates of processed “junk food” such as mayonnaise being prepared for the shelter. The children were used to drinking raw milk with molasses from cows on the ranch. They asked for it, but it was nowhere to be found in the stores. Later, milk from the cows on the ranch would be spilled into drains because nobody was left to drink it while they were gone.

The clothing on hand that was donated did not meet their religious guidelines. Pfluger was at a loss when they asked for an all-cotton dress for a four-year-old, long down to the ankles, with long arms in a pastel shade of green. She couldn’t think of anywhere in Texas she could find a dress like that[9]. But there was one place in Texas, as some of the women on the ranch were still taught how to sew these outfits for themselves and their children. The ranch would later complain when CPS blocked attempts to send extra appropriate clothing to the families, as some would have to wear only the clothes on their backs for weeks. For the boys, they still needed long-sleeve shirts, and prints were not allowed. The women and girls wore black leggings, and the work-shoe-type styles in brown or black struck many women as clunky. For the most part, not only did the girls refuse to try on any of the clothes that were brought in, the boys also chose to stay in the same restrictive clothes they arrived in. One item of modernity did strike them when they were asked to provide contact lens solution.

http://www.trenthead.com/category/my-work/page/10/

Still, the children appeared to act as normal children, even if they hadn’t been exposed to many of the things average children are familiar with. Their prophet had given them strict dietary rules, but when the younger girls were offered boxed cereal, they tried some. Colorful Froot Loops quickly became a favorite, the plain shredded wheat biscuits not so much. The children had no idea they would have to stab Capri Sun foil-lined “juice” pouches to drink them, but were very happy and amazed once they could get their straws in. It might be noted that Capri Sun is made other many other ingredients besides juice. The package lists WATER, SUGAR, GRAPE AND PEAR JUICE CONCENTRATES, CITRIC ACID, VITAMIN E ACETATE, and NATURAL FLAVOR. The mothers might have been happy to know that Kraft soon announced that Capri Sun would be made with 25% less sugar[10]

Mayor John Nikolauk of Eldorado recalled that the children were wary of the toys at first. "We brought the girls dolls, and they just stared at them. Then they started holding and clutching them. The boys finally started playing with the trains we brought them, and they looked happy. That really made your heart feel good."[11] When they were allowed onto the playground or given toys, they became eager to play. "When those children went out to play you could hear those peals of laughter..." Charles Pfluger recalled he could still see a little toddler that he resisted picking up to avoid an incident: "There was a little boy about two feet tall with that 'puppy look'."

Everyone agreed that they were all very beautiful and well behaved children. The volunteers though that between their unconventional diet and physical labor, they were all in great shape and looked look wonderful, “very slim, with clear complexions and rosy cheeks." "They looked so fresh-faced," said Arendt. What they didn’t realize is that many of the adult women looked so young they had been mistaken for being underage by child protection officials who could not believe their documents and went with appearances just so they didn’t miss any victims. At this stage the children didn’t show any signs of what most people thought abused children should look like, though as the weeks dragged on, the children would eventually become fearful and depressed at their involuntary confinement by CPS officials.

Carolyn Jessop, who had just published a book of the escape from her FLDS marriage rushed to Eldorado, hoping to meet with her stepdaughters who she hadn’t seen in years. She feared that these girls would be just terrified. She told reporters "They are being exposed for the first time o mainstream society." The volunteers felt relief that the children have been removed to the safety of state custody, but they were saddened that the mothers had shed tears over their ordeal. Still, the volunteers were fearful of what crime might have been committed behind closed compound gates, and what was in the future of these children who had been rescued from a scene of abuse. Pfluger feared that "The abuse is not going to stop. This will be for naught. But any way you look at it the kids get hurt."

The arrest warrant was made public by the Tom Green County district court at 5:00 PM. Television news soon reported that a 50 year old man faced charges of impregnation of a minor, even though authorities had established that Dale Barlow was out of the state, and supposed girl still had not been identified. 52 children had been removed with 18 taken directly into protective custody. Midland County Sheriff Gary Painter reported that some of the girls were pregnant.[12] By 6 P.M. Marie Musser saw that the buses had returned and the SWAT team was assisting CPS workers in removing children house by house. The sun set at 7:49 P.M, and by 8:30 PM, these were the first families that were taken away. This time, mothers had been invited to come with their children, perhaps because authorities knew many FLDS women like Sarah wanted to escape, or perhaps because they would need help with supervising the children. That evening, there was a count of another 85 children (though some were women) and 46 adult women that were taken to the civic center just south of town. By 9:30 P.M., the Eldorado Success reported there were 96 boys and 71 girls who spent Friday night at the civic center. 167 children total had been taken off the ranch.

At the end of the day, CPS spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner announced that 18 children who were believed to be in immediate danger had been put legally into state custody, and that interviews would continue Saturday. They were looking for foster homes for the other children.

"Those are the ones we believe have been abused or they are in imminent risk of harm, and it would not be safe for those children to remain in the compound[13]

The Sutton County Steak House from nearby Sonora served dinner Friday night and breakfast Saturday morning to the families. The owner, Linda Love was told by officials to expect to serve as many as 225 people between their FLDS “guests”, volunteers and law officers for dinner on Saturday. Love told reporters outside the church that “They're singing songs. So happy and sweet and precious. It's heart breaking.”[14]

When photographer Trent Nelson of the Salt Lake Tribune woke up to the news of the raid in Eldorado, he knew that he had to be there, even if was all over by the time they got there. It took 11 hours to fly and drive (while eating KFC chicken) to the remote location in West Texas, braving security checks, delayed flights, missed connections, and even losing track of a bag with $20,000 worth of camera equipment which later turned up. It was dark by the time he arrived, when he saw volunteers arriving with shopping carts and SUVs filled with cases of water, milk jugs, peanut butter, diapers and other supplies into the church.

It was just before 10:30 p.m. when a van pulled up to the Fellowship Hall to deliver two dozen children from Schleicher County's Civic Center. Although official reports were that only girls had been removed, there were boys in this group.[15] He thought it would be as historic as the original 1953 Short Creek raid. At the evening passed, he realized he was about to capture a historic moment as mothers and girls emerged to enter the hall in the church. Realizing that there should be some sensitivity rather than a crowd of flashes from the paparazzi, he had a normal 50mm with a very wide 1.4 f-stop that could take low-light pictures without a flash, like a good backpacker that leaves a minimal footprint. With a slow 1/30 shutter and ISO 800, his shots of the walking figures were a bit blurry and noisy shots, but indeed historic. He noted in his blog

"Some of the volunteers at the church clearly didn’t want me taking photographs. They were good people looking out for the FLDS, who are very private people. I can understand their feelings. But this is an important story. I try to work with the same compassion they were feeling for the children"[16]

http://www.trenthead.com/category/my-work/page/10/

At the ranch, Marie Musser’s family slept in their clothes, not knowing who might come knocking at their door in the middle of the night. In the civic center, an older boy started to say his evening prayers. As he started reading a few paragraphs out loud from a sermon from President Leroy S. Johnson, he saw that two law officers had noticed and walked up to him. They seemed fearful that he might start an insurrection. They motioned and talked to him, so he closed his book, and walked out with the men, offering no resistance. He was locked in a mechanical closet for the night with a guard posted at the door. Ironically, Flora Jessop and “Sarah” had told false stories of being locked in a closet, yet authorities were committing the very same act of neglect and abuse. Nevertheless, the families persisted in singing a few songs which the officers decided to permit. The children’s sleep was restless that night.[17]

http://www.trenthead.com/category/my-work/page/9/ April 5^th, behind the Baptist church in the playground.

[1]Trouble in the Hills Gretel C. Kovach and Andrew Murr Newsweek Web

Exclusive Apr 10, 2008 Apr 10, 2008 http://www.newsweek.com/id/131379

[2] Texas raid prompts First Baptist ministry http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=27776

Baptist News Apr 7, 2008 by Ken Walker

[3]Trouble in the Hills Gretel C. Kovach and Andrew Murr Newsweek Web

Exclusive Apr 10, 2008 Apr 10, 2008 http://www.newsweek.com/id/131379

[4] http://agonist.org/20080405/texas_takes_custody_of_18_girls Texas police take 52 girls from FLDS compound, put 18 in state custody as they probe an allegation of underage marriage The Salt Lake Tribune, By Nate Carlisle & Brooke Adams, April 5

[5] http://www.news8austin.com/content/headlines/?ArID=205010&SecID=2 Polygamist ranch raided, more than 400 people removed Updated: 4/7/2008 9:35 PM By: CNN, video link

[6] http://www.crimeandjustice.us/forums/lofiversion/index.php?t9366.html http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/sto...d.3685ebcb.html 137 kids, 46 women removed from compound Web Posted: 04/05/2008 09:06 PM CDT Janet Elliott and Gary Scharrer San Antonio News

[7] Larry King Live transcript transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0804/08/lkl.01.html April 8, 2008

[8]"http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA041008.8A.Eldoradoaftermath.38a7a5a.html

THEY DIDN'T KNOW WHAT CRAYONS WERE Town residents were just miles from sect, but worlds apart Posted: 04/09/2008 11:41 PM CDT John MacCormack Express-News

[9] 400 children saved from Mormon sect amid allegations of abuseJ ames Bone in New York http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article3709067.ece

[10] http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS143695+16-Apr-2008+BW20080416 (Kraft Press release) Good Things Come in Small Pouches Wed Apr 16, 2008

[11] April11, 2008 08:52 PM PDT http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=8133037&nav=menu73_2_2

Children adjust to modern-day life away from compound

[12] http://www.kwes.com/Global/story.asp?S=8119046 San Angelo Judge Issues Gag Order After Raid in Eldorado Updated: April 4, 200808:41 PM PDT Staff Report NewsWest 9

[13] http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,346390,00.html Child Welfare Officials Remove Girls From Polygamist Sect Leader Warren Jeff's Compound Saturday, April 05, 2008

[14] http://gosanangelo.com/news/2008/apr/05/more-children-removed-flds-ranch/ More children removed from FLDS Ranch By Paul A. Anthony Saturday, April 5, 2008

[15] http://agonist.org/20080405/texas_takes_custody_of_18_girls Texas police take 52 girls from FLDS compound, put 18 in state custody as they probe an allegation of underage marriageThe Salt Lake Tribune, By Nate Carlisle & Brooke Adams, April 5

[16] http://www.trenthead.com/2008/04/raid-at-yfz/

[17] http://www.captivefldschildren.org/TimeLine.php FLDS website timeline

Eldorado's New Neighbors: Flowers Cried in Texas

2011-12-05T15:57:00.001-08:00

Chapter 5: Meet the New Neighbors

It's like a flying saucer landed out there or some - like an alien culture moved in.
RANDY MANKIN, ELDORADO SUCCESS WEEKLY[1]

Eldorado (pronounced “El-doh-RAY-doh”) Texas is just one of many cities named for the legendary golden city of “El Dorado”, which is Spanish for “the golden one”. The legend has been traced to South America, where a tribal chief was said to covered himself with gold dust before taking a dip in a lake of pure mountain water. [2]The Texas town was the setting of the 1967 western movie starring John Wayne and Robert Mitchum, though the town did not actually exist until 1895.

The small city limits were only 1.5 square miles in size with just two stoplights. Situated at the crossing of two state highways through the center of town, it boasts a cluster of government buildings, a couple of churches, a small airfield, a deactivated Air Force radar site just outside of town, and just a few blocks of houses. By comparison, Eldorado covered a smaller area than the 1600 acres or 2.5 square miles of the sect property. In 2000, its population was 1,951. Just 593 of the residents were children under 18, compared what would later be known to be 400-odd children and women who looked like children of the YFZ. Eldorado was the only incorporated city in the entire rectangle of Schleicher County of about 3,000 total residents.[3] The median value of a home in 2007 was $56,300 in 2007, compared to $120,900 for the state of Texas, and the median income was as modest $32,900 compared to $47,548 that year.

Though most of the key players in the raid would be “Anglo” English speaking whites, 54 percent or slightly over half of residents were Hispanic. Eldorado is a semi-arid prairie surrounded by gently rolling hills with scattered scrub and brush with mesquite trees. Mesquite trees range from Northern Mexico through up to southwestern Kansas and California. The drought-tolerant plant can draw from a long taproot, or draw from shallow ground after a rain.[4] Rusty old oil rigs still dot the landscape.The county also hosts sheep, goat and cattle ranches along with cotton farms dotting the landscape.[5]

Eldorado residents had 593 children under 18, who were only about 200 more than were housed at the ranch. The Schleicher County Independent School District houses just one elementary school, one middle school, and one high school, all in Eldorado. Compared to the national median of $41,994, the median income for a household in the city was a modest $27,682. About 20.8% of families were below the poverty line, including about a third of children. Only 68% of 11^th graders met the TAKS test standard, compared to 79% statewide, or even the 72% rate for statewide Hispanics. [6]In 2007-2008, Eldorado High School was rated “Academically Unacceptable” by the state.[7]

There have been situation comedies based on unusual neighbors, be the Beverly Hillbillies, Munsters, witches, genies, or even Coneheads from France. There’s always something a bit different about those folks, but they can never quite figure out what it is about them. Eldorado was about to get an entirely new flavor of neighbors from out of state. While most small towns give their new neighbors personal greetings, it was not so easy for the Zion ranchers who seemed to hide behind a big KEEP OUT sign while they were busy hammering, sawing and bulldozing something of an unprecedented scale.

In 2003, a builder from Washington, Utah (about an hour drive west from the old Short Creek FLDS community in Arizona) saw an advertisement in the Internet edition of Livestock Weekly that the Red Cheek ranch was for sale. It had been on the market for about a year, but he was willing to pay the asking price, which was reportedly between $800 and $1,000 an acre, and he was looking for land that was remote, and cheap. Others would later speculate that his boss might also have been attracted as well by looser Texas regulations, a liberal age-of-consent marriage law where teens could still marry at 14.[8]

The largest piece of land, about 1,370 acres was bought from Johnny and Susie Isaacs who lived in Rusk, Texas. They never met the mysterious buyer, or realized who he was working for until it later made the headlines. "We thought they were just going to have a game ranch," she said. The ranch had stocked elk, red deer and whitetails behind a high fence. [9]The developer’s name was David S. Allred, and people recalled that he seemed a nice enough middle-aged man. But as in horror movies when the town is about to be attacked by body snatcher pod people or invaders from Mars that seem to look like normal people, something was a bit odd about this fellow. He was proportioned tall and thin, reminding some of the scarecrow from Oz. He was polite to a fault, and most people noticed that he wore jeans and long-sleeved pearl-snap shirts that he always kept buttoned at the wrists.[10]

The real estate agent who worked with Allred pointed him to lawyer Drew Darby help him form the corporation YFZ Land LLC as the registering agent in October of 2003. Only later would locals learned that YFZ stood for Yearning for Zion, a favorite saying of the church’s notorious prophet and leader Warren Jeffs. W. John Walsh, a religious scholar and a member of the mainstream Mormon Church noted that Zion was the city built by the prophet Enoch. Its people were so righteous, its residents ascended to heaven As events would unfold, fate would have this little city considered to be so wicked that all of its children would find themselves transported by more earthly means off the ranch led by flashing lights and sirens.[11]

Darby didn’t meet any other associates besides Allred, who he described as “a man of very few words, very well mannered, just all business." Dan Gandy of Touchdown Real Estate in San Angelo handled the total purchase of 1,700 acres for $700,000[12]

Darby was told the property was for a corporate hunting retreat for well-heeled clients from Las Vegas and other places. The locals thought it was an odd story, considering that there were plenty of elk and bear in Utah, though those were the sort of animals the previous owners kept there. Some suspected this man’s Las Vegas clients were members of the Mafia, but never polygamists who some claimed also practiced a different sort of organized crime. Darby would be pestered with reports of all kinds of people coming and working and building like there was no tomorrow, but he’d tell them “Well, it's going to be a corporate retreat.”

Later, when Darby realized he had been duped when he saw the headlines of who Allred really worked for, he realized that any lawsuit would land in his inbox. He extricated himself, and handed his own part of this hot potato back to Allred, who the next day gave the job to Ernest Jessop who called the ranch his home. (According to Flora Jessop, Ernest would later be excommunicated from the church after helping early building at the ranch) Darby would later run for office and in 2006, Darby was elected as Texas state legislator for House District 72, which includes San Angelo and Tom Green County. He would become an opponent of the polygamists.

Some communities complain about neighbors who tear down an old house and put up an oversized mansion or Buddhist temple. In some cities, there will be a sign put up on a property that is slated for future development which gives some advance warning of what people are planning to put up there. But out in the Texas prairie, there weren’t any planning and zoning ordinances to worry about. The FLDS kept their plans secret, but they were pretty much free to build their Little Zion on the Prairie with minimal governmental oversight. [13] According to the county deputy clerk Sarah McNealy there are still no rules or regulations of any kind regarding subdivisions for the county. Drew Darby later told reporters even if they told everyone what they were planning to build on the site, there wasn’t much under Texas law that would prohibit them from going ahead and doing it. After the YFZ ranch was completed, the property was soon valued at $8 million, now $20 million, and the taxes were a boon to the rural community.[14]

Seemingly within hours if not days after the deal was closed, a small army of tall thin men who wore jeans long sleeve shirts just like Allred descended on the newly acquired little patch of land. They worked seemingly every hour of every day of the week. Soon a trio of three, three-story houses, each 10,000 square feet in size were up within weeks. Fields of limestone were plowed and filled with trucked-in soil to be made into fertile farmland. A massive rock-cutting quarry was set up. The white limestone blocks would be used to face the 4 foot thick concrete walls of a massive temple. Ascending into the west Texas sky, the structure was visible from town, looming as if “a flying saucer” had landed outside town.. A woodworking and cement-making plant also went up with their own water-treatment plant and electrical grid.

Eldorado Success Aerial overview of the YFZ Ranch (November 11, 2004)

On one chilly January morning in 2004, pilot J.D. Doyle and his father, who was the local justice of the peace took out their twin-engine Piper plane from the town airfield to inspect how the grazing fields looked after recent rains. While overflying the ranch, they were surprised to spot three giant barracks that seemed big enough to house a sports team, not just a few VIPs out to shoot some deer. On the ground, they asked retired engineer and computer tech Joe Christian who lived next to the ranch about all the frantic building. The new reclusive neighbors didn’t leave him any hints either at what they were up to either. They agreed to go up again and take some pictures this time.

Christian dropped off a shiny computer CD with digital photos snapped over the ranch at the office of the town paper, the weekly Eldorado Success which had a circulation of 1,200 in a town of just 2,000. The editor and owner was the burly, 49-year-old Randy Mankin. Before he bought the newspaper a decade before, he was an oil worker. The paper carried local ads, community news, and he wrote a weekly opinion column, Over the Back Fence. Their website offered computer and web services. His wife Kathy was the office manager, photographer and reporter, while their son covered sports. Asked if he thought those buildings looked like hunting lodges, Randy thought the three buildings together, each one three stories tall and as wide as a motel, could house a couple hundred people. There were rectangles that seemed to be foundations for even large buildings. In the city’s own imitation of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Mankin found himself the investigative reporting business interpreting aerial photographs of future temples instead of missile launching sites snapped by high flying U-2 spy planes. He would eventually publish aerial photographs of the ranch complete with circled captions of what it was thought each building was for.

When Mankin drove by the ranch, he saw a flimsy locked wire gate with a No Trespassing sign and an infrared surveillance camera which was a long drive back from the nearest visible buildings. Wife Kathy dug up the land deeds which told that the ranch was purchased by YFZ Land. They searched the internet but YFZ and Allred turned up nothing. Mankin returned to hang out at the front gate, but nobody would slow down for a quick question or two. Then the drivers were using dirt roads at the back of the ranch to avoid being seen at all by townfolk. A fence around the property and a gated entry to the long access road barred entry to outsiders. Deliveries had to be picked up from the entrance.[15]

The FLDS allowed very few visitors, but one of their few contacts was with Mayor Nikolauk, who was a retired Air Force colonel. As a member of the Upper Colorado River Authority, he was alerted when the ranch started to dump raw sewage into a dry stream bed that could pollute water downstream in heavy rains. Rather than having to allow an engineer on their land to design and build a sewage plant, they were allowed to haul sewage to the city plant. Nikolauk recalled that they always paid their bills in cash, but he only really talked with two or three of the members.

It wasn’t until March while they were at home watching television when the couple got a phone call from a frantic woman from Phoenix, Arizona. She said she was Flora Jessop, the antipolygamy activist. “A what?” they asked? She explained that she was just on ABC’s Primetime Thursday rescuing girls from a cult called Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or FLDS. In the twin towns of Colorado City Arizona and Hildale Utah, the men were told to marry as many wives as they could handle, and girls as young as fourteen were ordered to marry men would could be four times older. Their leader Warren Jeffs needed another location to get away from Utah and Arizona law enforcement agencies that were closing in on putting a stop to illegal underage and polygamous marriages in his community. She asked if Mankin thought that Jeffs and his dozens of wives could be moving to Eldorado. Mankin had never seen a man with that many wives walking around and thought somebody must be pulling his leg. Flora insisted she called because someone from Eldorado saw the television program and wondered if it had anything to do with all the odd development at the ranch.

Mankin asked. “Well, okay, ma’am. Do the names David Allred or YFZ mean anything to you?”

“My God, that’s them!” exclaimed Jessop.

On March 25, 2004, the website and front page of the Success proclaimed “Corporate Retreat or Prophet’s Refuge?” [16] In the expose, in which he joined the elite few experts on global polygamy, he outlined the progress and rumors about the ranch and its association with the FLDS.

“Repeated attempts to contact officials with YFZ L.L.C. at its headquarters in Washington, UT, have been fruitless. Neither has the Success been able to contact David S. Allred. Phone numbers for Allred’s company, Dave’s Builders, listed on a business card he left here in the community, are no longer in service. The construction site is located off County Road 300 (Rudd Road) behind a locked gate on the property once owned by the late Red Cheek. Entry to the site is prohibited by a locked gate so the Success was unable to contact any of the construction workers who reportedly live at the site in mobile homes”

The Success announced that Flora was coming to town for a news conference, to be attended by newspaper and television press. But Sheriff David Doran seemed unconvinced there was a crisis. Said Doran:

“I know that Ms. Jessop is committed to her cause, and I applaud her for it. But, at this time I am not aware of any connection between the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints and the buildings that are being built north of town… It is my hope that the people of Schleicher County will give this thing some time and let us do our job,” Doran added. “If there’s a need for law enforcement to step in, we won’t hesitate to do so. But until then, I hope cooler heads will prevail.”

After the press conference, the Success website would be a source for those tracking the polygamists, tracking not only progress at the ranch, but uncovering plans for similar compounds in Colorado and South Dakota. It wasn’t until May that Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran nailed down a meeting with David Allred and three other men.

Doran wasn’t able to get much information as to whether Jeffs himself would be moving to the ranch, but Allred finally admitted to Doran that the hunting retreat was just a cover story. He explained they didn’t want the usual mob of anti-polygamy press people and activists following them to Eldorado (though they ended up finding them anyways). But Allred assured that ranch would only be a retreat to be visited by at most a couple hundred of the most faithful church followers. They wouldn’t be trying to move over the twin towns of Colorado City and Hillsdale. Though sect critics always slammed the FLDS for fraudulent welfare claims, at least in Eldorado, they promised they would not be joining any welfare rolls, or even sending their children to the public schools. While their religion did allow voting, they wouldn’t try to take over county politics or run any candidates.

According to Texas Monthly, Doran had one last closing question. “Fellows, I’m sorry, but I have to tell you. I have enough trouble with one wife. Why would you want more than one?”

Holding a Book of Mormon, a man who was probably part of their priesthood explained that their founder Joseph Smith treated polygamy as a sacred act in the original Mormon doctrine. The mainstream Mormons had strayed from the true faith, which was that to reach the highest levels of celestial life, a man should strive to maintain three or more marriages.

He added “Our many wives are a blessing from God.”, to which Doran’s response was “Wow, That’s a new one on me.”

Afterwards, the Mayor held a town meeting where it was announced what the real intentions of the ranch were. Mayor John Nikolauk recalls that he calmed down some of the restless town folks who wanted to put a stop to polygamy and “living in sin”. He told an angry woman that “Two thousand years ago this young fella stood up in defense of a whore and said he who is without sin cast the first stone. I know there are some sinless folks here so why don't you stand up so we can applaud you." Nevertheless, owners of ranches that were next to the YFZ were advised to keep a lookout for girls fleeing from the compound. Sheriff Doran would stop by the gates and look at the compound through binoculars even as he was being monitored by sentries of the sect.

As construction continued unabated through the year, Mankin kept printing more aerial shots of new buildings, and a giant meeting hall the size of a small arena that might seat two thousand people, which was probably their temple. With a garden was the size of a football field, Mankin thought it was preposterous such a scale would be needed as just a retreat for 200 short term visitors.

But the veil of mystery remained. Allred vanished, probably back to Utah. The men left behind were all work and no talk whenever the Sheriff managed to get any of them to answer the phone. When they worked a bulldozer so hard it needed repairs, they hauled it to the front gate, out of sight of the buildings. Just about the only communications were a request on how they could set up their own volunteer fire department and ambulance service.

Alarmed at the threat of polygamy and other practice, in April of 2005, Texas state Representative Harvey Hilderbran, R-Kerrville filed an bill largely aimed at the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and their new toe hold in Eldorado. It promote bigamy and polygamy from a misdemeanor to a felony and raised the age of consent of marriage from 14 to 16. It would also outlaw stepparents from marrying their stepchildren and stiffen the requirements to run for office.[17] Hilderbran’s attitude was "If they leave the state that is fine with me. We don't want them here unless they are going to comply with Texas law and comply with Texas values of protecting women and especially children." Rod Parker, the Utah attorney who represented and often spoke for Warren Jeffs and other church members condemned the law, saying "I think it's inappropriate to pass laws or use your position as a lawmaker to essentially try to drive someone out of town, which is what he is trying to do.” Governor Perry signed what would become an amendment to State Bill 6 into law that June[18] that elevated and raised the state’s age of consent from 14 to 16. It was first proposed as House Bill 3006. The House Juvenile Justice Committee heard testimony from Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and Jon Krakauer, author of "Under the Banner of Heaven" along with Private Investigator Sam Brower of Cedar City, Utah and Eldorado’s Randy Mankin. It went into effect on September 1, 2005. [19]

Lawyer Kurt Schulzke who would host one of the most active blogs on the YFZ Ranch incident on iPercieve.net later remarked " I don’t want to hear any Texan claim that marriage of 15-year-olds is immoral. Suddenly illegal, maybe. Immoral, no" As he saw it, Texans had not suddenly got religion or morality , it was "the far more immoral and unconstitutional purpose of driving a religious minority out of their State". Others also thought it ironic that 14 was old enough for Texans to marry, but polygamists would have to live to a more stringent standard. The new higher age would set the stage for law enforcement to order a search warrant for an illegal impregnation at 15, by a man who was not in the state, of a girl who never existed, all based on a fraudulent tip.

When residents heard that Jeffs predicted Armegeddon would be fought in 2005, one resident paced outside the ranch outer gate as the Grim Reaper. Tourists could buy caps sporting “ELDORADO: POLYGAMY CAPITAL OF THE WORLD”. The town was treated to a local songwriter’s paean to polygamy, “The Plural Girl Blues”.

The world didn’t end. "Those people came under false pretenses to our area," says Lynn Meador, 62, a local sheep and cattle rancher who later left Eldorado. "Even though they brought a lot of things to our community, I think people deep down were afraid this thing would end up like Waco. We were all just waiting for the other shoe to drop." Some men could be seen visiting town for shopping, but they didn’t talk much, and their major shopping trips were usually reserved for the big box stores in San Angelo, an hour’s drive away. But residents wondered why no one ever met the women and children who never seemed to leave the compound, and nobody but the Sheriff was allowed inside. Mankin remarked the only women he had seen were the ones he saw flying in an airplane. But that was about to change.

[1] http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0804/06/sm.01.html CNN SUNDAY MORNING

Charlton Heston Remembered; Police Raid Polygamist Compound Aired April 6, 2008

[2] Wikipedia “El Dorado” retrieved 2/1/2009

[3] U.S. Census http://www.factfinder.census.gov/

[4] Wikipeida Mequite http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesquite retrieved 2/1/2009

[5] When the Polygamists Came to Town - TIME Apr 17, 200 8www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1731706,00.html

[6] Texas Education Agency report http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/reporting/results/swresults/taks/2008/g11.pdf

[7] Texas Education Agency http://www.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/account/2008/multiyearAU.pdf

[8] Yearning for Zion Sect saw Texas ranch as a haven By TRISH CHOATE, Standard-Times Washington Bureau Sunday, May 25, 2008 http://gosanangelo.com/news/2008/may/25/yearning-for-zion/

[9] State legislator helped polygamist group buy land for YFZ Ranch Times Record News, Kansas/April 13, 2008 http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/2008/apr/13/state-legislator-helped-polygamist-group-buy-land-/ By Trish Choate

[10] Sects with Strangers http://www.texasmonthly.com/2004-11-01/reporter.php Nov 11, 2004 Sects with Strangers http://www.texasmonthly.com/2004-11-01/reporter.php Nov 11, 2004

[11]

[12] Apr 4, 2008 4:45 pm (Texas) Girls Shuttled Away From Polygamist Ranch

Youngest Girl Was 6 Months Old http://cbs5.com/national/warren.jeffs.polygamist.2.692432.html

[13] Texans had been 'reining in' the FLDS via state laws By Andrew Kirk Deseret News June 2, 2008 http://www.deseretnews.com/article/content/mobile/1,5620,700231012,00.html?printVew=true

[14] From Hunting Ground To Polygamist Ranch ELDORADO, Texas, April 18, 2008 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/18/national/main4028781.shtml

[15] Raided! Inside the Polygamy Sect •April 21, 2008 Vol. 69 No. 15

Raided! Inside the Polygamy Sect

People Magazine April 21, 2008 Vol. 69 No. 15 By Bill Hewitt, Bob Meadows http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20196249,00.html

[16] The Eldorado Success Corporate retreat or Prophet's refuge? MARCH 25, 2004 Randy Mankin www.myeldorado.net/YFZ Pages/YFZ032504b.html text at http://www.religionnewsblog.com/6585/corporate-retreat-of-prophets-refuge

[17] http://www.kwtx.com/news/headlines/1471252.html Central Texas Lawmaker Files Bill Raising Age Of Consent For Marriage Apr 14, 2005

[18] The Eldorado Success MyEldorado.net http://www.childbrides.org/texas_YFZ_Gov_Perry_signs_SB6_into_law.html Originally published June 9, 2005

[19]Now that FLDS indictments have arrived . . .by Kurt Schulzke on July 22, 2008

The Big Raid: The Flowers Cried in Texas

2011-12-05T15:54:00.001-08:00

Chapter 4: The Big Raid

The big raid was yet to come. As the sun rose at 7:10, the entire ranch had effectively been put under house arrest as five DPS Crown Victoria patrol cars and three unmarked vehicles blocked Rudd Road which leads southwest to the nearby town of Eldorado. BCTV Kootenays, a television station near the FLDS Bountiful settlement in British Columbia, Canada reported on their website at 8:15 that a small army of law enforcement officers had set up a command post at the giant relic of the Pave Paws radar site of the defunct Eldorado AFS.^¹ The site was on a hill overlooking the ranch to the south, dominated by the 10 story high radar that looked like a pyramid from a science fiction movie set. Sheriff Doran had given tours of the site the year before to the press after the equipment which could track incoming submarine based missiles had been shipped to Alaska, telling reporters to watch out for rattlesnakes. BCTV also reported that witnesses had seen an armored personnel carrier being driven towards the ranch shortly after law enforcement officers set up their perimeter the previous late afternoon

Standard-Times photo by Brian Connelly

The Texas Department of Public Safety has blocked off access to the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado, where troopers are assisting on an investigation with Child Protective Serivices. A complaint was called in early Thursday afternoon.

By 9:15, the Federal Aviation Administration had been asked to closed off the airspace for 6 miles around the site.^² At 11, a convoy of over 20 pickup trucks^³ with Game Warden markings, each carrying one officer, was spotted, lights flashing, leaving Eldorado onto Rudd Road headed northeast toward the compound. The Game Warden Region 1 headquarters in San Angelo declined immediate comment on their mission, but Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Tela Mange said that it was “part of the agency responding."

More than 20 Texas game wardens approached this morning from U.S. Highway 277 South toward the YFZ Ranch compound. A CPS official said they are helping with the investigation.

The pastor of the First Baptist Church of El Dorado, Andy Anderson got a call from Sheriff David Doran asking for help with two of their 25 seat buses to transport some people from the ranch, and to provide housing and food as a shelter space. ^⁴ Reporters spotted a pair of Ford-van based buses with tall side windows marked “First Baptist Church” heading towards the ranch at 12:30 p.m. Sylas Politte, the youth pastor also went to the scene, but wasn’t able to comment either.

Standard-Times photo by Brian Connelly
Two First Baptist Church buses were escorted today by several law enforcement officers out of the FLDS compound near Eldorado. The buses carried dozens of people, mostly girls.

The operation would take seven days and involved police agencies organized by the DPS Department of Public Safety from six counties, the Texas Rangers, the state highway, FBI agents, patrol and wildlife officers, and the Midland County Sherriff’s SWAT team.^⁵ ^⁶ There were heated moments in the meeting house men from the sect argued and negotiated as to how this could be conducted in the manner that would least disrupt life on the ranch. Armed with their search warrant, they had their way though critics would note that warrant was based only on searching for Sarah and evidence pertaining to her. There was no permission for what critics would call a fishing expedition to establish a pattern of abuse among all the children, for which there had been no complaint, though such a warrant would soon follow. The names and ages of all children and parents would be identified by the CPS, along with a search of every house and building.

Tela Mange, spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said that overall, they were pleased that no shots were fired and there were no incidents of violence. She gave^⁷ credit to Sheriff Doran and Ranger Long for cultivating an understanding relationship with the residents."
Some law enforcement agencies objected to people loosely using the word “tank” for what was technically an old Army surplus M113 tracked armored personnel carrier. Lacking big guns to destroy other tanks, they are made out of a 1.5-1.75” thick military version of the aluminum that beer cans are made out of to protect its crew of 2 and 11 passengers from small arms fire. They were baptized in fire against Viet Cong guerilla forces armed mostly with AK-47 rifles. After 40 years in service, the M113 is still arguably the most successful and effective tank or armored vehicle ever fielded by the US and its allies.
Updated models are still protecting ground troops in Iraq, as advocates, who call them “Gavins” wondered why we were keeping these in storage while spending millions trying to turn unarmored Humvees into armored cars. These beasts weigh about 13 tons on tank tracks. They have a 600-horsepower diesel engine that can make up to 40 miles per hour, climb 60 degree grades, and even float while making four miles per hour. APCs can knock down medium-sized trees and make unique entries into buildings and through gates. Tactics include providing a means of safe approach, providing cover or for officers, or they can provide a safe zone to recover or care for a wounded man.
William Norman Grigg of the Pro Libertate blog wrote that the Pentagon’s Law Pentagon's Law Enforcement Support Office (LESO) was established in 1995 to make military hardware from boots and helmets and helicopters and “Peacekeeper” APCs available to local and state police agencies at little or no cost. But critics of federal power noted that “Any police agency that receives so much as a particle of federal aid is no longer a local police force. It is, in principle, a federal army of occupation.”^⁸
The only photos published of the raid were taken by many of the FLDS men who were so threatening to Voss with their video and digital cameras, and would prove to be a much more effective weapon in the guerilla public relation wars they would have to resort to. Perhaps the most notorious and horrifying photo of the raid was the shot of the carrier painted in gray with “Midland County Sheriff” on its sides. One watchful reader of the Deseret News noted a “victory tally” of two men and one vehicle stenciled near the cockpit, and it was even featured in a YouTube video. Photos show it mounting an M-16 automatic rifle with 4 officers in full combat helmets and gear peering out of the top hatches. The M-16 rifle and its variants was probably the “machine gun” mentioned by residents that has been the standard assault rifle of US forces since its controversial entry in Vietnam. Compared to the average police sidearm or shotgun, it is was designed using "space age" materials out of lightweight steel, aluminum and plastics. In contrast to the Russian build AK-47, it fires relatively small 5.56 mm bullets rapidly to hurt lots of people very quickly by using automatic or semi-automatic fire.
Various spokesmen said that the APC was only brought in as a precaution to remove people rather than to force entry onto the ranch, but it would be used as a show of force rather than the beast of destruction that it could have been.
While some residents had hunting rifles, the search warrants filed in district court in Tom Green County didn’t show that any weapons were seized in the operation. The Midland County Sheriff also brought in a big van similar to the one seen screeching into action on the old 70s SWAT TV series^⁹ The DPS disagreed with those that thought a tank was overkill. Midland County Chief Deputy Ed Krevit compared the M113 to “being a bullet proof vest for 12 officers.” Krevit stated that they were requested to assist by the Texas Rangers. Officers in full SWAT gear and body armor were positioned behind some of the limestone rocks that were carved out of a quarry for the temple to provide security. Later, curious residents captioned “boys”, but more likely men as all of the children would be removed, would be given a look inside the APC and talk with the officers about their training and weapons.

M113 Armored personnel carrier and SWAT van. FLDS.
The flatbed semi-truck was probably parked at the abandoned Pave Paws radar site north of Eldorado.

Looks like photos of men, as the boys were all removed by the end of the 6 day search.

First Removal: “You Are Going Out To Your Mothers”

By Friday afternoon, the mothers were told to pack up and load the girls who had been questioned the night before into church buses to be transported to the civic center in San Angelo for further questioning. They would be taken into protective custody, which meant that the state would take care of these children for them during the investigation, and they might not be returned if they could prove to the state that they could protect the children from “neglect and abuse”. The girls were told "Get your things! You are going out to your mothers." As mother Amy recalled, the mothers did not want the girls to leave them, and the teenage girls did not want to leave. The girls were clinging to the sides of the mothers, crying “Mother, do not let them take us”. The mothers pleaded that if they had to go, could they please let the mothers go with them, but the officers told them that they would be arrested if they interfered.^¹⁰¹¹ Voss recalled that a crowd of mothers standing with their children were becoming very uncooperative and refused to leave. But Sheriff Doran had spoken to the ranch leader Merril Jessop. Doran held up his cell phone and through the speaker, Merril announced that the ladies they needed to cooperate. Voss was dumbfounded that these women were so subservient that they would just stopped resisting at the word of one man. That started a flow of tears that would continue for months. At 2:30, the first group of girls 7 to 17 left the Meeting House and climbed into the buses without their mothers. Some of the girls were silent, just looking ahead. Others covered the windows with their jackets to block the view from the media. They traveled three miles southwest to Eldorado, first to the Schleicher County Civic Center about a mile south of town and then to the Baptist church near the heart of town. The buses returned with only the driver and another person one hour later. The buses would eventually spend the next two days transporting 180 women and children between the ranch and the civic center and church.

Search

By noon, the house-to-house search for additional children was well underway as officers in some cases forced themselves into some of the homes. The searches would continue until nightfall, when Voss says it was decided that it wasn't safe. Upon entering the CPS workers would follow, informing residents that they would be taking away the rest of the children soon into protective custody. Sect members attempted to record the events over three days with video, audio, still photography, and by written notes, but officials later seized much of the evidence that they had recorded. Longtime FLDS attorney Rod Parker told reporters that officials forced open locked gates, broke into doors, safes were ransacked and homes were searched many times, while residents also noted that many private and irreplaceable family photo albums and documents were also taken.

In Marie Musser’s home, her children were still kept inside. They had been told to really watch our water usage, so she skipped the daily laundry chore. Her bedroom on the southwest corner had a good view of the Big House, and became an observation post. Her older boys watched with their binoculars all morning until lunch time. As Marie helped her son Parley with his English poster, the question kept coming to her mind, “Why are they here; what do they want?”

After lunch, son Ray called Leroy about milking, but Leroy warned him to stay put as officials were already at his house, and they might be next.

The following are from Marie Musser’s account:

1:30 PM

Mary came up into my room and said she had been in communication with Rich. She said that these people were investigating underage marriages. He simply advised us to cooperate and answer their questions if they were to come to our home.

At this time the first buses left the Meetinghouse with girls between the ages of 8 and 18. They were taken to Eldorado for further questioning.

Flds Photo: CPS investigator Angie Voss in causal clothes on the ranch

2:00 PM

I was in my bedroom with my three boys, cleaning the room, when Mary came and asked us all to come down to the living room. Uncle Nate was there with a group of CPS workers. There were two armed men standing on the north side of the room. A very tall bearded man asked us our names and birth dates. During this time, the armed men walked through the home. The CPS man wrote down this information, and they soon left. This CPS man was friendly and kind. He was a little curious as to who did all the cleaning and cooking in our home. As he was walking out of our house, he turned to Uncle Nate and said, “They are a very nice looking bunch.” Uncle Nate said,

“Yes, they are.” Then this CPS man said, “See, they’re all smiling.” We all breathed a sigh of relief and thought that they would all go away now that they had got their information. I walked into the kitchen to set up the meat grinder on the Hobart to run the wheat through for whole-grain bread.

2:20 PM

I had put two cups of wheat through the meat grinder, when one of the older boys said there were more people at the door and asked me to come and answer the door. I think everyone must have heard the doorbell because we all arrived in the living room at the same time. As I walked in, I saw an older lady sitting on the piano bench by our computer table and a younger lady standing by her, who asked Mary to get her children together and give their names and birth dates. When Mary called Ephraim, Ray walked over, and she gave him a simple look of “It’s not your turn yet.” The older lady turned on Mary and started talking to her in a raised voice. Mary couldn’t understand what she had done wrong, and neither could the rest of our family. The kindness was gone. All the children went very quiet as she continued yelling at Mary. Then she turned to us and said to get the children up to the front of the room. We quickly walked up there, our children in total silence and with white faces.

The older lady had Mary go into the dining room as she continued yelling at her. The younger lady walked back in and began asking us our names and our children’s names. Around this time many armed men started coming into the home and walking through the home. When the CPS interviewer got to one of our younger boys, she brusquely asked, “What happened to your eye?” He was so scared he couldn’t talk. She said, “Come up here so your mother can see your eye.” His mother did not know anything about it. With a shaky voice and teary eyes, Moroni explained that he had tripped, fallen on the carpet, and gotten a carpet burn by his eye.

The younger lady would go in and out of the living room. During all this time, the older lady was still yelling at Mary. Feeling that I had to go give Mary some support, I walked into the dining room and sat across from Mary as the CPS lady continued yelling about a spiritual ceremony. Then she told me to leave the room. When I came back into the living room, all the children were still sitting in complete silence. At this time our front door opened, and a big gun swung into the room. As we all gazed upon this scene, a man poked his head in, looked at us, and then closed the door.

This interviewing continued until about 4:45 PM. They had armed men completely surrounding our home and some of them going through the home. They finally left. We were all very sober and shaken by this experience.

4:50 PM

I was on dinner, but although it was time to eat, no dinner was ready. Since nobody wanted to eat, I made a simple dinner of toast, fresh grapes, and banana shakes. Some of the ladies mentioned that the armed men had taken some of the family photo albums

(end of her account)

After pleading with authorities, this time mothers and caretakers would be allowed to go with the children. One father named Isaac recounted how he was turned away as he tried to say goodbye to his children. "My son was on the bus, crying and crying, and I was waving at him. A CPS worker came up and told me, 'You're not helping. They were fine until you came out.' He replied asking if he had ever had his torn away, and did not get an answer. Isaac would later complain they had been decieved. "They said they were going to question them at another place and bring them back", but the girls were not returned, it was all done under false pretenses."

Game Wardens pickups ^¹²escort two buses, April 4, 2008 from the retreat built by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, located near El Dorado, Texas. Child welfare officials and state troopers removed at least one busload of children from the secretive West Texas religious retreat built by polygamist leader Warren Jeffs following a complaint to state authorities. (AP Photo/Harry Cabluck)

As father Richard Barlow told the Salt Lake Tribune, as he walked eight of his children to the bus, he gave each one advice. "I spoke very freely. I said, 'Let us be at peace,' "he said. And: "Be strong."^¹³ His children would soon be scattered across Texas. Barlow, 40 would be one of the few fathers to share how his family was torn apart. Barlow married 20-year-old Susan, his legal wife at 23 after he graduated from college. Their eldest, a daughter was 15, with seven other children from followed, ages 4 to 13.

No one was very hungry in the tense evening. As Marie’s family cleaned up after a simple dinner of toast and grapes at 6, they saw a chilling drama that they would never forget. A bus pulled into her neighbors’ driveway east of us, with lettering that said “Baptist Church.” It stopped and let out some CPS workers. It was followed by a large SWAT van. Several armed men jumped out the back and walked over to the house. As one office with a big gun went up the deck stairs, and entered the front door. The other armed men gathered around the house, others gathered to where they could point their rifles at the doorway of the house in a scene that might have come out of a police show. As the first gunman entered, many of the CPS workers followed him.

Only 20 minutes later, the CPS workers came out, bringing the little children in single-file behind them. Marie’s heart melted to see the innocent children being marched out by armed men. The father also came out and followed his children to the bus. After the children were loaded, he got on, she imagined, to say his goodbyes. But then they had him get off. He walked around the bus and stopped at each window to wave to his children, who were waving at him. By this time the tears were coming down her cheeks. The bus pulled away, all the CPS workers and armed men left, and there stood this father with his two older sons. He put his hands up to his face and covered his face. He was weeping.

As she recalled, “It is not possible to write down or even to convey in words the feeling in my heart. But I continued to trust in God, knowing that we had been a people seeking diligently to live His laws, which far exceed the standards of man’s laws. I knew Heavenly Father would take care of us. All of our family witnessed this scene from the east windows of our home. The questions in all of our hearts and minds were, “Are we next?” “Why are they doing this?” “What have we done?”

By evening the first set of families with mothers and children had been rounded up, and were taken from their homes on the ranch. Skipping dinner, the hungry children were put on county school buses by 7:30, but they had to sit for another hour before they left for the Civic Center in Eldorado. Surprised at the change of conditions since their girls had been taken that afternoon, the mothers of the first group of girls taken earlier asked CPS if they could see their children. They were told they could see them by CPS workers the next morning.

Officers stand at the entrance to the El Dorado Civic Center, April 4, 2008, in El Dorado, Texas, after children were removed in the buses in the background from a nearby polygamist retreat. (AP Photo/Harry Cabluck)^¹⁴

When the state's attorney asked Voss how many in the crowd changed modes from being resistant to cooperative, she said it was about 30 or so. Jessop is the leader and bishop at the ranch.
Voss said in questioning the initial girls at the school, investigators learned "that there were Sarahs at the ranch and some of these girls they were talking about were underage with children."
Although press releases throughout would continue the refrain that the girl had not yet been found, when the state asked how many "Sarahs" were identified, Voss said there were five. Three of those could have been the Sarah they were seeking. "We learned that a few of the girls know of the Sarah we were looking for and that she'd been seen last week and she had a baby," Voss said. Voss later testified that records they expected to find during the raid were missing, including school attendance logs. She said many of the children could not or would not identify biological relationships, adding that the FLDS children "don't think that way" and said they would describe having a father of the house and several mothers. The supervisor also noted that the children's names and ages changed, even from the time they took the short bus ride to the time they arrived at the civic center.

^¹⁵

1 http://www.angelfire.com/film/tmtv/law_stand_off.htm

http://www.bctvkootenays.com/ Law enforcement surrounds YFZ Ranch Standoff continues into second day UPDATED 8:15 a.m. CDT, Friday, April 4, 2008

2 http://www4.reporternews.com/news/2008/apr/04/girls-taken-from-eldorado-compound/ Girls taken from Eldorado compound By Matt Phinney and Paul A. Anthony San Angelo Standard-Times Friday, April 4, 2008

3 Late model 4 door Ford SuperCab F-150 pickup trucks, some Chevrolet pickups were also used by other agencies to escort the buses.

4 April 8th edition of the Baptist Standard online,

http://texaslastfrontier.com/prairie_fire_journal/blog1.php/2008/04/09/el-dorado-baptist-church-complicity-in-f

5BREAKING NEWS: Authorities remove girls from FLDS ranch near Eldorado http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2008/apr/04/texas-authorities-investigating-mormon-sect-near/ By MATT PHINNEY and PAUL A. ANTHONY, Staff Writers 10:07 a.m., April 4, 2008

6 Polygamist Sect Mothers Deny Allegations of Abuse April 16, 2008 Fox News http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351450,00.html

7 FLDS at ranch detail raid by Texas officials By Nancy Perkins and Amy Joi O'Donoghue Deseret News April 15, 2008 http://deseretnews.com/article/content/mobile/1,5620,695270749,00.html

8 http://www.lewrockwell.com/grigg/grigg-w9.html From Local Police to Occupying Army, or LESO: The Greater of Many Evils by William Norman Grigg

9 FLDS at ranch detail raid by Texas officials By Nancy Perkins and Amy Joi O'Donoghue Deseret News April 15, 2008 http://deseretnews.com/article/content/mobile/1,5620,695270749,00.html

10 “We’re very private people” Fox News http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=25f73f48-ec9b-4044-acd3-5fee9058a422

11 Polygamist Sect Mothers Deny Allegations of Abuse Fox News April 16, 2008 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351450,00.html

12 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/04/national/main3994946.shtml

13 http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=POLYGAMY-DAD-05-05-08 Sect father speaks out By BROOKE ADAMS and NATE CARLISLE Salt Lake Tribune

2008-05-05

14 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/04/national/main3994946.shtml

15 Deseret News | Child welfare worker describes FLDS ranch as 'scary ...... investigators learned "that there were Sarahs at the ranch and some of these girls they were talking about were underage with children." ...
deseretnews.com/article/content/mobile/0,5223,695271299,00.html

Protect The Children: Flowers Cried in Texas

2011-11-30T00:02:00.001-08:00

Book: The Flowers Cried in Texas | Contents | Prev | Next

Chapter 3: Protect the Children

“Things were getting more scary to me. It was a situation of a very huge magnitude with so many law enforcement officers around.” CPS Supervising Investigator Angie Voss

Angie Voss at YFZ Ranch

It was Thursday, April 3^rd when CPS supervising investigator Angie Voss rounded up her team with the words "We need you now". She was from nearby San Angelo, and served on the board of the Board of Directors of the Children’s Advocacy Group of Tom Green County, which was just north of Scheicher County. At the age of 36, she had been CPS since 1997[1]. Oddly, information officers would not release information regarding whether she was married, or had children for privacy reasons. Observers commented that her later testimony indicated to some that perhaps she had a fear or dislike of men. She clearly disliked polygamy, but she didn’t seem to be one to promote even the traditional role of women in monogamous marriage and childbearing with men as the head of the household and primary breadwinner.

It was the end of the business day by the time they had met and briefed their plan at the Schleicher County Sheriff's Office in Eldorado. The small two-stoplight city of Eldorado was the seat of Schleicher County, the rectangular boundaries which sat at the crossroads of east-west state route 190 and north-south 277, about an hour south of the larger city of San Angelo which was about at the bulls-eye center of the megastate of Texas. In anticipation of the possibility they might need to save more than one girl, the Mayor would report that First Baptist Church and the Schleicher County Civic Center in town were already set up to be ready to be used as makeshift shelters by that evening. [2] In Waco, KXXV-TV would later report that the Methodist Church in Central Texas was also contacted on Thursday by Child Protective Services. During that phone call a CPS official wanted to know if they had enough beds and enough space to house at least some of the more than 130 children removed from the polygamist compound. [3] Oddly, by that time during the day, they had not even entered the ranch, which tends to support the theory that authorities fully intended to remove every child, using a call of dubious reliability only as an excuse to get in the door, and create a story that could justify a plan to remove every child and mother from the very start. No effort was ever made to authenticate the call until well after the raid it led to the nearly certain identify of a known hoax caller. Even then, no effort other than the statement that “it was under investigation” was ever made to establish if the call was ever a hoax, or charge the caller with any crime related to the raid.

Randy Mankin, editor and publisher of The Eldorado Success

PHOTO BY JORDAN SMITH AUSTIN CHRONICLE

The urgency of a girl in danger meant they couldn’t just wait for the convenience of the next day. They had to go now. Accompanied by law enforcement officers from the sheriff department and Texas Rangers from the Texas Department of Public safety, they drove to the gates of the YFZ Ranch which just a five minute drive north of Eldorado on a narrow rural road. In most photos on the ranch and outside court, Angie Voss has short boy-length hair and wears suits or shirts and slacks. But Voss would later recall that on this trip, the women who went diplomatically deferred to the FLDS dress code of long dresses with long sleeves with no jewelry or makeup.[4]

At 5 PM, they and law enforcement officers were at the gates. State and local law enforcement agencies blocked the road leading to the ranch, and no one was permitted to enter or leave the ranch. It also prevented journalists such as Randy Mankin, editor of the Eldorado Success, from seeing what was up. Mankin remarked "This came totally out of the blue” as he hadn’t heard of any reports of violence or other crime from the ranch.[5] At 5:30 p.m, men on the ranch spotted a boxy tracked tank, (actually an APC armored personnel carrier), two police cars, a tall cargo SWAT van, and a black Ford Expedition SUV advanced onto the Griffin property just north of the Ranch, opposite of the main entry at the south. The SWAT team was at the ready peering out of opened hatches in the roof. They were dressed for battle with body armor, helmets, face masks, and military-issue automatic rifles.[6]

A sheriff's department armored vehicle waits April 3 near the polygamist

compound that authorities raided in Eldorado, Texas. The photo was taken

by an unidentified member of Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of

Latter Day Saints, the sect that lives at the compound. It was one of three

photos released Tuesday by an attorney for the group.

Meanwhile at the main gate, nearly thirty police cars and unmarked vehicles arrived. Boys ran back to the ranch reporting "There's a bunch of police officers at the gate!" They counted as many as 20 vehicles [7]as men from the ranch went out to meet the officers. Schleicher County sheriff David Doran informed the men who came out to meet this large force that they were looking for a sixteen-year-old girl named Sarah Jessop Barlow that was being abused by her husband Dale Evans Barlow.

Mother Marie J. Musser gathered her children into her houses, closed the blinds and locked the doors and not knowing what to expect. The children would be kept inside for days as events unfolded. Other resident heard the news, but could not see anything out of their windows. Marie wondered why the world did not accept them. Law enforcement and child-safety officials moved to block access to the ranch, keeping out the local press who wondered if something big was going on at the ranch.

Carolyn Jessop and the wolves in frilly clothing known as her 'Sister Wives'

Sheriff David Doran negotiated with ranch leader Merrill Jessop at the gate for two hours. The ranch brought out the brother of Dale Evans Barlow, at 7:15 p.m. who told them there was no girl by the name of “Sarah Jessop” and that Dale didn’t even live there. Sheriff Doran and Captain Caver of the Rangers obtained Dale’s phone number in Colorado City, Arizona. He had not been in Texas since 1977, and he recited his driver’s license number to verify his identity. Dale Barlow’s April telephone records show two calls from Texas that night at 6:20 p.m. and 6:24 p.m. MST on April 3. They were heard remarking “Well, that takes care of half the problem. Now we need to find this Sarah Jessop Barlow.”

This is a photo from May when FLDS member Willie Jessop turns away the next time a CPS commissioner demanded access to the YFZ Ranch.They were let in the first time.

It was not until 9 before they agreed to let Voss and three other Child Protective Services investigators into the fenced compound. The ranches demanded to see a search warrant, but one was not produced until 9 p.m. even though warrant was signed at 5:50 PM which cited an "immediate need" for authorities to have access to the 16-year-old Sarah and an 8-month-old child with either the last name of Barlow or the girl's last name. The warrant sought records showing the birth of any children to a 16-year-old and any records listing a marriage between a 50-year-old man and the girl. Officials were irritated that they had to negotiate with these people. Iif the officers insisted, Merrill decided he would only allow the 4 women investigators into the compound. The men, including special investigators Paul Dyer and Eric Sanders stayed behind with the police officers, waiting outside the gate. Both Dyer and Sanders were retired police officers who acted to assist female workers, as well as work on investigations. Some slept in their cars or walked around while lightning flashed in the distance.

The road to the FLDS temple off Rudd Road in Eldorado, Texas. This photo was taken looking west towards the front of the FLDS temple, seen in the center on the horizon. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde)

The sun had gone down at 7:49, so turned on their headlights and drove the mile long path to the main community itself. They were escorted by two men of the sect. They passed what appeared to be the menacing guard tower which Sarah had mentioned that kept her from escaping. It appeared to be several stories high with stairs leading to the top, with men observers stationed at the top.

"It was very quiet in the vehicle," Voss remembers, as they were contemplating the importance of helping a girl they only knew as Sarah. But she must also have been aware that that local church and government agencies had been asked earlier in the day to prepare provide an emergency shelter for as many as dozens of children should she find what many suspected, that many children were suffering from a culture of systemic abuse as had been alleged by the most reliable sources on the group. Her decisions and observations over the next few hours would unleash the power of government to plunge hundreds of children and their mothers and fathers into two months of an existence of fear, anguish, and emotional trauma. Not accused of any crime except to be declared victims, the children and mothers would be forced to endure living conditions that some would say was unfit for convicted prisoners, and violated the state’s own standards of child and infant care.

Sarah’s call would later be revealed as one of several calls to many locations across the American west from Colorado to Washington State, and Arizona as well as Texas, by the same woman who had a history of making false abuse reports, and only later investigations would reveal the source of the calls. When the men asked Doran if calls been traced to be sure they were from inside the ranch, the reply was that the number’s ID was blocked and could not be traced. The men though the whole thing smelled like a prank call from Flora Jessop, though at the time they didn’t know that Flora had received similar calls, and even she thought they sounded fishy, though she chose not to share her doubts with law enforcement. Still, Doran was quite certain he had seen enough of details of the ranch described in the calls that he had no doubts the girls must have been from the ranch to know such details.

No one had evidently spent any time verifying if there was any other evidence showing it might be true, but it would trigger a series of actions that resulted in the neglect, trauma, injury, sickness, and hospitalization of the very children the state sought to deliver from immediate harm. It would seem incredible that so much time was spent planning an operation of such magnitude just to find and remove just one girl and her infant. That the operation so quickly turned into a carefully planned and massive re-location and internment of almost every mother and child and search for every written or recorded paper or data on the ranch would later bring into question whether the true nature of the search operation from the start was to shut down the community by removing all of their children permanently and to verify that indeed there would be much evidence to be found of crimes that could be related to their peculiar lifestyle and later prosecuted.

It was now 10PM and it would be another 28 hours before they finally left the ranch. CPS Investigator Ruby Gutierrez remembered seeing the coffee pot in the schoolhouse and thinking that it would be a long night. But the operation was only getting started at this late hour. Voss started by asking if there were any girls named Sarah Jessop living at the ranch. The residents just shook their heads and said there were no girls with that name and description married to Merrill living at the ranch. So Angie Voss told the men "Look, I want to sit down. I want to interview all girls who I perceive are 17 years and younger".

Voss was almost certainly unfamiliar with the bedtime schedule that the FLDS sets for children from toddlers through high school. They are to sleep at 7PM so that they can they wake up at daybreak at 5AM the next morning. Most of the girls would have to be awakened from bed to talk Voss and her staff in the middle of the night, a practice that CPS might certainly consider to be abusive or neglect if parents allowed their children to watch cable movies or forced them to do homework until 4 or 5 in the morning on a school night.[8] Men from the compound began escorting their older girls, 15 in all, into individual classrooms. Voss recalled that the girls filed in and appeared polite and respectful. Investigator Kelly Walker would also help in interviews when went on for almost 9 hours for some of the girls, until the next morning. "These are beautiful, innocent children," Walker would later tell reporters. "We were the only people who could speak for them".

In early night hours of Friday morning, CNN broadcast on the prominent cable television news channel and posted on their website a report that Texas authorities were investigating "the safety of children" at a ranch of 400 followers of polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs, and sealed off the ranch from leaving or entering. Child Protective Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner announced that “Child Protective Services "is conducting an investigation into safety issues of the children who live within the compound”. They had responded within days of the original report, but had "not determined that there is a safety issue with these children." [9] Those on the ranch had no access to television, or the internet due to their religious guidelines, and knew only what officials there had told them.

Voss remembered the situation was becoming tense and threatening. "It had been reported that there were men in trees with night vision, that there were men videotaping me and the children, and it appeared there were men posted at every entrance. It's hard to describe," she said, pausing. "It was a feeling of being very unsafe." She was fearful for her safety and for the other women who were CPS staff. "It was a very scary environment -- intimidating. I was afraid. I saw men all over. It felt like the schoolhouse was surrounded," she said, "It was a fearful kind of environment." Others commenting on news stories would compare that with ranch residents who were later threatened by men in combat armor and helmets armed with loaded guns tanks pointed at women and children, and worried why she was so worried about a relatively small number of unarmed men in a community dominated by women.

Officials would need to search and interview the entire ranch, but officers warned against a search until daylight because they could not protect her party adequately in the dark from behind the gate. More help was called in that would arrive by daybreak for a coordinated entry by noon. According to Voss, initial interviews were concerned about a specific group of girls who might be Sarah or have suffered from similar underage abuses. Voss later told reporters “A combination of things happened within the first two hours that caused me great concern for the children. I don't know how to describe it if you weren't there - the atmosphere and the feeling of it. It's not a place for children."[10] CPS would request permission from judge Walther to allow them to be brought into emergency temporary custody when Walther arrived at the ranch at daylight. Most of the girls and residents said they no such Sarah lived at the ranch, though some girls thought they knew of a Sarah who just recently had a baby. After more questions and answers, Voss became more concerned about all the children living on the ranch, of all ages. Within just six hours of arriving and talking to the few girls on the ranch, she felt sure that she had established a pervasive pattern of underage children having children.

Voss said that “a decision was made” then to remove at least some of the children from the complex. As Voss was the supervisor on site, the decision was probably largely hers.[11] Voss expected to find Sara among perhaps 100 residents, armed with an authorization to remove one girl and her infant baby into the safety of protective custody. But she would soon be surprised to learn there were over 700 residents, most of them children, and the scope of her investigation would soon turn to all of the children and their parents as potential or actual victims and perpetrators as soon as she matched the evidence she gathered with the briefings she must have had that Sarah might not be just an isolated case, but only part of a pervasive culture that put all children at risk.

Voss said that the concern progressed gradually. "There was not a global overall decision. As more interviews occurred, the decision was made." Most disturbing to her was that girls appeared to be unfamiliar with the state laws which had been revised in 2005 which increased the legal age of marriage from 14 to 16. The girls told her that no age was too young to be “spiritually united”, a sect term for the ominous practice of polygamous marriage outside of government sanction. Their views came from their interpretation of scripture. They did not appear to recognize the concept of an underage marriage, that there was a law that prohibited the marriage of persons below an age dictated by the government. Residents were not actually being charged with a crime of polygamy. Though polygamy was not legal in any state, that usually meant that such a marriage was not recognized by the government, not that such relationships were normally prosecuted. Similarly, although the nation would soon rejoice over California’s decision to allow gay marriages between same sex couples, relationships with unmarried multiple partners were rarely prosecuted as criminal acts in states where they were not legally recognized or permitted.

Voss was already familiar, probably from FLDS sources such as Flora and Carolyn Jessop that marriages were dictated by the prophet. At the time, the prophet was still the notorious Warren Jeffs who had just been convicted as an accessory to the rape of a 14 year old girl by her husband. The girls had been encouraged to have as many babies as they could. Voss was familiar with the incident where Jeffs expelled a number of men from the sect and “re-assigned” their wives and children to new husbands, and the girls didn’t seem to mind this.[12] Voss later testified “"If a father fell out of favor in some way, his wives would be reassigned to another man and he would become their father, so the children moved to different houses… The children were not at all upset by that”. In another account, girls told her that mothers who complained for any reason, or fell out of favor would be moved away[13]. One girl said that hadn't seen her own mother in two years.

Angie Voss would later testify that she realized that the boys must grow up knowing that they are supposed to have multiple wives and young wives. This would mean that the boys were being groomed to be perpetrators and willing participants in illegal marriages and statutory rape. All of the children in this culture were in immediate danger because they were immersed in a culture where every girl was at risk of growing up to be a victim as early as their teens. Every man and every boy was potential perpetrator well past their middle age. Even the mothers were enablers who would be condemned by outsiders for approving the practice of marrying girls off to old men as soon as they reached puberty at 13.

Picture: M113 on flatbed semi-truck in traffic on the way to Eldorado [14]

Voss had begun to realize there were many more children at the ranch than the few dozen authorities initially believed and the situation at the ranch was becoming tense. She was informed that DPS, the state Department of Public safety, was calling in many more officers, including the Midland County Sherrif’s SWAT team, which brought automatic and sniper rifles, and even an M113 tank from five counties away, a 152 mile, 4 hour drive. (FALKENBERG, 2008). Voss would later testify “Things were getting more scary to me. It was a situation of a very huge magnitude with so many law enforcement officers around…“The caseworkers wanted to interview the children in an environment that didn't seem so scary and dangerous."[15] Angie Voss and her team soon decided that 18 of the girls interviewed overnight, including some infants, were in immediate danger. That morning it was decided that they had to be moved out into the protective arms and safety of the CPS.[16] At 6:30 AM, shortly before sunrise, Voss’s team asked for another group of 34 girls to interview. They would be also be taken off the ranch to a “safe” location that afternoon, not because they had already been determined to be at risk, but to find out if they also needed protection. CNN reported Schleicher County sheriff's dispatcher said they were still there at sunrise Friday.[17] The operation had rapidly changed from one of assuring the safety of just one girl to establish the need, and then assuring the “safety” of every child. When Patrick Crimmins was askGo San Angelo on December 24, 2008: “People may have lost sight of the fact that the reason we went to the ranch was to do this investigation

Darrell Azar, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services would soon announce "We legally removed 18 children. We concluded they had been abused or were at immediate risk of future abuse. Under Texas law, either one is grounds for removal." Azar did not provide any specifics, but said children in suspected abuse cases are routinely taken to a neutral location for questioning. The typical child advocacy center or state office would be too small for these numbers. "We will continue to talk to them and make sure their needs are met until we can determine whether they had been abused or are at immediate risk of future abuse," The only motivation for the agency's investigation was the children's welfare, as Azar stated. "The actions we've taken today have nothing to do with religion or lifestyle, the pure interest is in protecting children from abuse and neglect. That's what we have done."

The boys would be allowed to remain at the Ranch but would still be questioned by investigators from Child Protective Services. [18] Midland County Sheriff Gary Painter told a television station that evening that he received reports that some of the girls who were removed from the compound are pregnant.[19] Another CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins stated that the agency would place them in foster homes or other temporary settings. "We're obviously trying to take care of them and assess their needs and trying to find placements for them."[20]

Robert Black, Gov. Rick Perry's spokesman announced that "There was reason to believe a girl had called in and said she was being raped… there also was reason to believe they were heavily armed out there." CPS had tipped off governor's office Tuesday that there would be a raid by week end. It was believed that 150 people lived at the ranch in 2006.

Judge Barbara Walther soon arrived on the scene when other authorities entered the ranch, possibly as part of the second, larger noontime raid. CPS asked Walther to allow the interviewed girls to be brought into emergency temporary custody. [21] Further, another order was issued that every child under 16 had to be produced to authorities. They would be taken temporarily off the ranch so they could be questioned carefully to determine if they, or any other children were also at risk of abuse. Walther also issued a gag order which prevented authorities from giving details of the operation to the press.

At 10 AM, well before the girls were put on buses that afternoon that the local newspaper, CNN, the San Angelo Standard-Times, and Fort Worth / Dallas CBS 11 TV posted on their websites under “local news” an AP story headlined “State Removes Children from Polygamist Ranch”. “Child welfare officials Friday took custody of 18 girls who lived at a secretive West Texas religious retreat built by polygamist leader Warren Jeffs following an abuse complaint to state authorities.”

Early in the day, Schleicher County Justice of the Peace, James C. Doyle,dismissed the reports as just “hearsay”, as many rumors circulated around Eldorado. Marie Musser recalls that everyone in the compound got a call telling residents their telephone calls were all being monitored. The warrants, and the affidavits were still sealed and had not been released to the news media. Spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner, who had served during the Branch Davidian incident, announced that CPS was "investigating whether any children are in danger” and only confirmed that CPS responded to a complaint.

[1] e-mail inquiry to CPS by Arthur Hu Sept 2008. CPS would not release her marital or child status. No press account gave any details about Angie Voss except her job title.

[2] Residents help sect women, children By Matt Phinney San Angelo Standard-Times Monday, April 7, 2008 http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/32232

[3] http://www.kwes.com/Global/story.asp?S=8124827 Some Kids from Eldorado Compound Could go to Waco Facility April 5, 2008 10:01 PM April 7, 2008 03:08 PM retrieved 4/14/2009

[4] http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2008/jun/08/cps-workers-recount-events/ CPS workers recount events By Paul A. Anthony Sunday, June 8, 2008

[5] http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/04/texas.ranch/index.html 1:46 p.m. EDT, Fri April 4, 2008 Agents at http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/04/texas.ranch/index.html#cnnSTCVideo polygamist ranch checking 'safety of children'

[6] http://www.truthwillprevail.org/index.php?parentid=1&index=161 YFZ Search Warrant Was Not Obtained in Good Faith 2008-12-29 11:54:28 By Donald Richter

[7]FLDS captive timeline. It is not clear whether these could be the 20 Game warden pickups that arrived at 11 the next morning, along with many other patrol cars in the main raid.

[8] A General Daily Schedule for FLDS Children Ages 2-6 Years http://www.captivefldschildren.org/Daily%20Schedule%20for%202%20-%206%20Year%20Old%20Children.pdf

[9] Agents at polygamist ranch checking 'safety of children' CNN Originally broadcast April 4, 2008 (CNN)

[10] http://conchovalleyhomepage.com/content/fulltext/?cid=6301 FLDS Update: CPS Workers Talk About Investigation Reported by: Kristen Clark Thursday, Jun 12, 2008 07:46am CST

[11] CNN Transcript April 18, 2008 http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0804/18/cnr.02.html

[12] CPS says sexual abuse encouraged at Texas polygamist ranch at hearing By KAREN BROOKS / The Dallas Morning News 07:08 AM CDT on Friday, April 18, 2008

[13]CNN NEWSROOM transcript Aired April 18, 2008 - 09:00 ET http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0804/18/cnr.02.html

[14] By Camaron Abundes NewsWest 9 Midland County Sends Aid to Eldorado http://www.kwes.com/global/story.asp?s=8121598&ClientType=Printable

[15] FLDS court showdown begins Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Apr 18, 2008 by Amy Joi O'Donoghue http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20080418/ai_n25352433?tag=artBody;col1

[16] http://www.kwes.com/Global/story.asp?S=8119046 San Angelo Judge Issues

Gag Order After Raid in Eldorado

[17] http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/AF9B79AA-BD2A-4D62-92F9-00E03D18EB07/, http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/04/texas.ranch/index.html 1:46 p.m. EDT, Fri April 4, 2008 Agents at polygamist ranch checking 'safety of children'

[18] http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5676830.html State removes 52 girls from polygamist ranch

[19] http://www.crimeandjustice.us/forums/lofiversion/index.php?t9366.html San Angelo Judge Issues Gag Order After Raid in Eldorado Posted: April 4, 2008 12:11 PM EDT Updated: April 4, 2008 11:42 PM EDT.

[20] http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/sto...N.2fd21b76.html

[21] http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy966.html Child-protection workers have no doubts of raid's necessity Scripps Howard News Service/June 11, 2008 By Paul A. Anthony

Contents: The Flowers Cried in Texas

2011-11-28T22:13:00.001-08:00

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The Flowers Cried in Texas

The 2008 Battle by Texas to Save the Children of the Yearning For Zion Ranch from the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints

A Book about the Eldorado Yearning For Zion Ranch Raid and investigation

Please send comments or information about publishing on your website/blog/newspaper/publisher to arthurhu *at* hufamily *dot* com. © October 2008-2011

Book 1:

0 Forward : Who is the monster and who is the victim?

1 A Desperate Cry for Help Young helpless Sarah Barlow is raped and beaten and needs help

2 Rescue Plan A Plan to rescue one child, or an entire village?

3 Protect the Children (Past midnight, Angie Voss determines "It is not a safe place for children")

4 The Big Raid Bring in the tank, pack up the girls.

5 Eldorado's New Neighbors (Will Eldorado become the next Waco disaster?)

6 Protective Custody (Rescue from Carolyn Jessop's idea of a concentration camp into the FLDS idea of a concentration camp)

7 Temple Standoff (Men stand in front of the SWAT tank praying, crying)

8 Child Protective Services: The Best Interests of the Child: (This is how CPS treats/abuses EVERYBODY)

9 Zion at Fort Concho (The last of the families are taken from an overcrowded shelter into a larger overcrowded internment camp)

To Be Done: Contents

Rescue Plan: The Flowers Cried in Texas

2011-11-28T22:02:00.001-08:00

Book: The Flowers Cried in Texas | Contents | Prev | Next
Chapter 2: Rescue Plan

Schleicher County authorities such as Sheriff David Doran and the State of Texas had left the sect alone for 4 years, even though Doran stated that “"We are aware that this group is capable of" sexually abusing girls”. Without a specific complaint or evidence of abuse, they could not simply walk in and shut the ranch down ¹ Sheriff Doran was appreciative that “Flora has provided us with a lot of information, and I find her to be very credible”. Before she left that evening, Flora told residents "I encourage people to educate themselves about the abuses and the FLDS”. Sheriff Doran would become one of the few outsiders that the FLDS would trust enough allow onto the ranch to discuss concerns. ²

But until Sarah’s pleading for help, nearly every one of Flora’s and other claims of FLDS abuses in the strongholds in Utah, Arizona and Canada had been investigated and found without merit. This late night phone call had changed the game. Now the authorities had a specific complaint from a person with a name, address, and a recorded voice, along with an infant child in danger. Sheriff David Doran was also working with the knowledge of “a good informant who has given me good information over the past four years… This person has been assisting us as we've gone forward on this operation." On more than 20 occasions, Doran's informant had provided him with details about life at the ranch, and was "instrumental in teaching me the group's ways." Many bloggers have guessed that since Flora was the only former FLDS member known to Doran, the secret informant could not be anyone but Flora Jessop.

There are no news accounts of what happened on Monday, but authorities probably worked feverishly on the new events because by Tuesday April 1, only the 2nd day after calls had first been received, an emergency plan for raiding the compound in the worst case scenario if children were put in danger was taken off the shelf. Texas Governor Rick Perry had been notified of and approved the raid³, as were a number of state agencies, including local, state law enforcement the CPS, and possibly the FBI which had sought Warren Jeffs.

On April 2^nd, Texas Ranger Leslie Long interviewed the two employees of the New Bridge Family Shelter in San Angelo who took Sarah's calls on Wednesday. ⁴As the girl who called was a minor suffering from sexual and physical abuse from her husband, the shelter probably immediately contacted Child Protective Services, if not also the local police, who would be the county Sheriff Doran. In case a child was in immediate danger of harm, the child and other children in the household could be removed into protective custody. It was anticipated that as many as 100 people might live at the compound, so many children might need to be removed. Sherriff Doran and the Texas Rangers were called in to assist the CPS workers in case there was trouble.

But law enforcement probably planned to do much more than simply protect CPS workers or the one scared girl. They had long suspected many possible crimes on the basis of four years of information fed by their "reliable confidential informant". Many bloggers have suspect that this "confidential" informant could be none other than Flora Jessop. She is the only former FLDS member that Doran has known for 4 years. Sheriff Doran stated when she first came into town in 2004 that "Flora has provided us with a lot of information and I find her to be very credible. However, at this time we have no firm evidence of any wrongdoing associated with the ranch." At the time he added "If and when we have evidence that a law has been broken out there, we won't hesitate to act."

Four years later, the affidavit used to obtain the second search warrant used to search the YFZ ranch temple would state "On April 6, 2008, Sheriff Doran advised Affiant that over the past four years, Sheriff Doran has worked with a confidential informant who is a former member of the FLDS; that the confidential informant has provided Sheriff Doran with information regarding the FLDS on more than twenty occasions over the past several years and that on each occasion, the information was proven to be reliable, true and correct; that the confidential informant has continued to provide Sheriff Doran reliable information as recently as April 5, 2008..." Law enforcement experience with the group in other states was that the FLDS would probably not willingly hand over financial and marriage records or photos which might be able to prove that there was not just an isolated incident, but a systemic and pervasive culture of abuse. So they would need a search warrant to find any evidence they needed to find the girl, who might have been hidden away, and any evidence that could prove her story.

Flora had made dire warnings about the dangerous men that ran the FLDS. “One day [the FLDS] will go to war with law enforcement and the streets will run red with the blood of the enemy. We were taught that from the time we could walk.” She said the “compounds” aren't like homes in that they are fortified, built with thick walls. “They are very much armed. They have many, many weapons," she warned, and even went so far as to say that Warren Jeffs is “David Koresh, Jim Jones, and 9-11 all wrapped up in one nice little package. These guys are very dangerous." At the October 13, 2006, Exmormon Foundation annual conference of people who had quit Mormon churches, Flora related "I’ve had many fun instances where we’ve dealt with bullets flying and things like that; I just think they need to get a better target to shoot at.”

Mark Shurtleff

The Attorney General for Utah, home of the main LDS Mormon church, Mark Shurtleff, also feared the FLDS. He said in an interview, “[Warren Jeffs has] a whole army supporting him, who thumbed his nose at the law for years, who ran from us, who had people surrounding him with guns, threatening to go down with him.” Shurtleff was in Texas in March at a speaking engagement on polygamy, speaking alongside Carolyn Jessop. Carolyn had written about her flight from the sect in her national best-selling book "Escape", and she would also assist authorities in providing information on the FLDS. She told the conference that "Texas is not going to be a state that's as tolerant of these crimes as Arizona and Utah have been," Jessop said. "In Eldorado, the crimes went to a whole new level. They thought they could get away with more." Jessop's statements especially carried weight because her ex-husband was none other than Merrill Jessop, the church leader who was now in charge of the Texas compound. At age 18, she said became Jessop's fourth wife against her will and had eight children with him. "My ex-husband would be the person who would be performing the marriages. He's managing everything and controlling everything," she said.⁵

On Thursday April 3, Texas Ranger Leslie Brooks Long drew up the search warrant, and asked local county judge Johnny Griffin in El Dorado for a warrant to search the compound.⁶ But Griffin refused to sign the document. Griffin would later tell reporters his reservations about going in. "I don't want them here, but whatever rapport we had with them is gone. To my knowledge we've never once had any trouble with them", fearing that rural county’s $2.4 million annual budget wouldn’t be able to handle the cost of sect members who didn’t have money for lawyers. "I don't know if they are violent or abusive, or if law enforcement knows more than I do. I'm just worried sick about how to pay for it," he told a San Antonio reporter. ⁷Griffin would later told Wanda 'Scooter' Brown, the Director of Nursing at MHMR in Kerrville that he didn't see that there was enough evidence to justify a search of the ranch. Griffin's brother owned a ranch next to the YFZ ranch who thought they were fine neighbors. His brother did business with them and they were always kind and paid their bills.⁸

Griffin would later tell the press that he never got the papers. He was not a lawyer, and was only authorized to hear minor cases such as misdemeanors or civil lawsuits under $10,000. The 51st District Court handled all other cases in Schleicher County. Ranger Brooks would have to go into San Angelo to get the warrants signed by the 51st District Judge, Barbara Walther. He would have the signed papers in hand by Thursday in time for the planned visit to the ranch by authorities. Griffin believed the raid should never have occurred and was upset that Walther had signed the warrant on such thin evidence as a phone tip from a person whose identity had not been verified. A self-proclaimed "simple country judge", Judge Walther usually ruled over more mundane affairs such as divorces and driving violations. Another San Angelo attorney reflected that her attitude was, "I may be right or may be wrong, but I'm not uncertain." Since 1992, Walther had been the first Republican judge to win the seat which covers five counties including the polygamist sect's Schleicher County. The 55 year old woman has roots in a longtime San Angelo family, and still wears a leg brace from the polio epidemic which hit San Angelo in the 1950s. Before becoming judge, the graduate of Southern Methodist University law graduate served as a special master in family law. She participated in parts of family law cases in the place of a judge. Though Walther in the back of her mind probably wondered if this might be the "big one" that the Sherriff may have warned her about. It only authorized finding and removing one girl and her infant child, so she certainly could not have expected the firestorm that would erupt as she would be asked to approve an escalating series of requests up to removing every child to foster care. Critics would later condemn this first of many decisions as one that would lead to a trampling of the rights of families to an extent unprecedented in American history.

1 Sheriff Had Polygamy Informant For 4 Years Texas Authorities Defend Handling Of Polygamist Sect, Say Their Hands Were Tied Until Now ELDORADO, Texas, April 10, 2008 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/10/national/main4007724.shtml

2 'I didn't bring this on FLDS,' sheriff says By Ben Winslow Deseret News

June 4, 2008 http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,700231682,00.html

3 “The governor's office learned of the planned raid on April 1, two days before it was carried out” E-mails detail early April plan to separate sect moms, kids The Associated Press June 4, 2008 www.gosanangelo.com/news/2008/jun/04/e-mails-detail-early-april-plan-to-separate-sect

4 [http://texaslastfrontier.com/prairie_fire_journal/blog1.php/2008/04/24/arrest-of-rosita-swinton-raises-new-ques ]

5 "Hildale and Colorado City worry over Texas raid"

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20080405/ai_n25144744 Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Apr 5, 2008 by Ben Winslow Deseret Morning News

6 "Court: Texas Had No Right to Keep Polygamist Kids" By SCOTT MICHELS abcnews.com May 22, 2008 http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=4911318

7 http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA041008.8A.Eldoradoaftermath.38a7a5a.html

Town residents were just miles from sect, but worlds apart 04/09/2008 11:41 PM CDT John MacCormack

Express-News

8 "Judge Johnny Griffin Refused to Sign Search Warrant" By Donald Richter http://www.truthwillprevail.org/index.php?parentid=1&index=86

Desperate Call For Help: Flowers Cried in Texas

2011-11-28T20:50:00.001-08:00

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Chapter 1: A Desperate Call for Help

"I know first-hand that what this little girl is saying is the absolute truth, and that she is in imminent danger. They do lock you up. They beat you. They whip you. They brutalize you and they psychologically destroy you. Most of the children would not be able to withstand the psychological torture that they put you through.” Flora Jessop, Good Morning America ABC television

"If you rescue me, and I get out of here, do you think the black people will hurt me?” Sarah

It was just before midnight Saturday on March 29, 2008 when the Newbridge Family Shelter[1] in San Angelo Texas received an alarming distress call. It was from a terrified 16 year old girl who identified herself as Sarah Jessop Barlow from a nearby ranch in Eldorado Texas. She was the desperate mother of an 8 year old infant, named Claire, trapped in an abusive polygamous marriage seeking help to escape the massive Yearning for Zion Ranch which housed the secretive community of the FLDS Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She said that she was only 15 when she was married in 2007. In 2005, Texas laws had been changed, raising the state legal age for a girl to marry from 14 to 16 because of concerns about childhood brides. If this call was genuine, then it was possible that a crime that had been committed against a child.

The FLDS were holdouts of the original 19^th century Mormon traditions which practiced polygamy outside of the law. “Mainstream” Mormons had long abandoned polygamy, yet even they were still viewed in the 21^st century as a heretical cult by other Christians and non-believers. By then, the national press had carried sensational accounts of FLDS beliefs and practices from anti-polygamy crusaders such as Flora Jessop and television book tours of authors of best-selling books from former members such as Carolyn Jessop’s “Escape” and Elissa Walls’ ”Stolen Innocence” who had narrowly escaped the bonds of the closely controlled community. They had painted a shocking picture of the FLDS as a violent and abusive mind controlling cult which routinely forced marriage of their underage teen girls to middle aged or older men in defiance of the law. Girls dreaded becoming “poofers”. According to Flora, and the Texas cultural guide to the FLDS she helped prepare, that was slang for girls who would vanish without explanation, sometimes across state lines to become instant brides for husband [2]

Women and girls were required to wear uniform long “prairie dresses”, so named because they looked straight out of the television series “Little House on the Prairie” which completely covered their arms, legs and necks. Cult expert Rick Ross stated “"They abuse children and they exploit members for virtual slave labor for nothing more than room and board.'[3]' Their children were forced to perform hours of labor, and were homeschooled to minimal standards largely to prepare them to be parents rather than for careers or college. Children were not allowed to watch movies or television, play with toys or laugh. An FLDS prophet declared that “God hates the sound of babies crying”, so Laurene Jessop, who grew up in the sect, told Arizona college students of the FLDS style of waterboarding where mothers could stop infants from crying by tightly hold its nose and mouth, or to put a crying baby’s face under running water.[4]

The “lost boys” were purged from the community after their teen years as a way to cast off excessive numbers of men, accused of seemingly minor lapses in moral standards. Women who were legally single were said to routinely cheat the government out of welfare payments. Their leader and prophet, Warren Jeffs had just been arrested, convicted and sentenced to 10 years in jail as a sex criminal for his part in arranging the forced marriage of Elissa Wall, then a 14-year-old girl into marriage to her 19-year-old cousin [5]

As Sarah told her story, her parents had brought her to the ranch in 2005 just 3 years before. Two years later, she was forced to marry at the age of 15 as the seventh wife of a man now 49 years old. Since she lived at the ranch, she had been abused by an adult man who would beat her whenever he became angry. She would be hit in the chest and choked while other women in the home held her infant child as recently as Easter Sunday of 2008, though FLDS members would point out that their church didn’t celebrate any of the holidays observed by most Christians, only the birthday of their own prophet. On one occasion, she had been beaten so severely that she suffered several broken ribs, for which she was hospitalized. The doctor wrapped her torso in a bandage and told her to “take it easy for a few days”. This man forced himself on her sexually. To make matters worse, she had just become several weeks pregnant with another child.

The girl felt trapped as she could not leave the ranch except for medical care when the man would drive her along with other women from the ranch. She had planned to pretend to be ill to escape, but feared she would not be able to take her child with her. She spoke using someone else’s cell phone very quietly to avoid being overheard and found out. Her parents were no longer at the ranch where she could tell them she wanted to get out.

The next night on Sunday March 30, Sarah told authorities that she was being held against her will, and church members had told her that she would be found, returned and locked up, much like other escaped FLDS women. She was told by the church that if she left, she would in the hands of outsiders who would hurt her and cut her hair. She would be forced to wear make up and have sex with many different men. Her parents who had returned to their home outside of the state were preparing to send her 15 year old sister to live at the ranch, perhaps also to be forced into a spiritual union. Then she ban to cry. “I’m happy and fine, I don’t want to get into trouble”. She hung up after telling them that everything she had said should be forgotten.

Flora Jessop: Crusader for Truth

By that second day, Flora Jessop, executive director of Phoenix-based Child Protection Project, had also received similar calls, along with founder Linda Walker. They recorded 40 hours of the conversation from a girl who also said her name was “Sarah”. Sarah also reported of abuses at Colorado City, Arizona, another community of the FLDS

religion.[6] While the caller initially did not volunteer her last name, phone number, or location, nor the name of her husband, the calltaker at NewBridge identified the perpetrator as 49 year old Dale Barlow after doing an internet search on Barlow and the FLDS.[7] She reported that her husband link beat her and that she wanted to escape the YFZ Ranch. She feared if she were caught, she would be locked in her room and not allowed to eat.

Just hours after Sarah's call Saturday night to Texas, Flora Jessop got calls in Phoenix at about 8:30 Sunday morning on her personal phone, which had a number which had been given out to other girls that wanted to escape the sect, but not made public. It was from another 16 year old girl named Laura, who would turn out to be the same as Sara. Jessop didn’t say whether she was in the office at this early hour, personally taking hotline calls, or took the call at home on a personal phone. She gave out an address in Colorado City Arizona, the original FLDS settlement that was once known and raided as Short Creek. As Flora recounted on Greta Van Susteren on Fox news, Laura also reported she was a victim of sexual abuse from her father, but she also said she was the twin sister of the girl, Sarah, who was in Texas. She was to be sent to Texas a month after her child marriage. Flora was certain this was the same woman would call her for the next two weeks.

That did not come as a complete shock to Flora Jessop, who had “spent three years in solitary confinement with them trying to beat Satan out of me because I stood up against God's commandments," as Jessop told "Good Morning America." "I know first-hand that what this little girl is saying is the absolute truth, and that she is in imminent danger. They do lock you up. They beat you. They whip you. They brutalize you and they psychologically destroy you. Most of the children would not be able to withstand the psychological torture that they put you through.” said.[8]

Still, not everything about Laura’s story quite fit. The girl who called Texas was married to a Dale Barlow, but the Dale Barlow Flora knew was in Colorado City, Arizona not Texas. When confronted that something didn't add up, the voice asked if they could pretend that the Texas girl couldn't tell the real name of her husband for fear of being hurt worse, so Dale Barlow was actually hurting the twin sister in Colorado City. Flora asked "So are we pretending that Sarah was trying to get help for both Sarah and Laura because they were both being hurt?", and the reply was yes. But Flora didn't pass on any of her suspicions to law enforcement. She saw that as hotlines get calls from children reporting abuse, it was not her responsibility to investigate whether the calls are legitimate, that was up to the proper authorities. The most important thing to Flora was remembering that hundreds of children were suffering under abuses of their culture, and it had to be stopped.

Walker would recalled that in a little baby voice, Sarah said, "If you rescue me, and I get out of here, do you think the black people will hurt me? Flora Jessop had fled from the FLDS and was now one of the leading critics of the church and its practices. She had helped many girls leave the closed community as a member of support and rescue groups, and traveled between conferences and served as an advisor on television and movies about polygamist practices. Flora was impressed that Sarah knew that the church was a racist cult. Their children would be frightened of African Americans because of widely known teachings of Warren Jeffs against blacks. [9] Even the mainstream Mormon church had been accused of having racist beliefs, which had only relatively recently opened up their priesthood to blacks.

Sheriff David Doran addresses a question during a news conference in San Angelo, Texas, on Thursday April 10
(Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press)

Given Flora's trusted relationship with Schleicher county Sherriff Doran and Texas Ranger Long, she must have called authorities in Texas not long after the first calls. The Texas Rangers, who would play a major role in the ranch custody case, were first organized by Stephen F. Austin, known as the "Father of Texas," in 1823 as a group to protect Americans settling in what was then the Mexican province of Texas. As their duties cover the entire range of the area, they became known as the Texas Rangers. In 1935, the new Texas Department of Public Safety incorporated the Texas Rangers and the Texas Highway Patrol. The Texas Rangers are the oldest law enforcement organization on the North American continent with statewide jurisdiction.

Sarah’s story had other parallels to accounts that Flora’s personal experiences.. As a rebellious teen, Flora had been confined to an isolated room after she had been placed in virtual detention with an aunt and uncle after she had accused her own father of abuse at the age of 13. She had fled a forced teen marriage with a cousin. She sought refuge on the streets, convinced that she was being hunted down by her church. At some points, she had resorted to working as a topless dancer known as “Jessie”. She was also known to have worked for an escort service and at times fell into cocaine and substance abuse. She became a single mother, eventually settling in Arizona.[10]

By 2004, things were looking up for Flora Jessop who had become married with two children, and had turned full time to fight the cult of her girlhood. She became an executive director of the Child Protection project in Arizona. That year, she paid a visit to the residents of Eldorado, Texas in 2004 to warn residents that a massive colony of fundamentalist Mormons was about to set up shop in their town. [11] Utah and Arizona had started to crack down on polygamy with the conviction of a Colorado City police officer Rodney Holm of unlawful sexual conduct with a 16 year-old girl, and one count of bigamy. Church leader Warren Jeffs was laying out plans to relocate his most faithful followers to another state. David S. Allred, a man with many close ties to Jeffs was involved in the purchase of over 1300 acres of land in Schleicher County Texas. Flora pointed out the similarity of the buildings to those occupied by an FLDS community in Colorado City, Arizona. Asked the site might simply end up being no more than a corporate retreat, Flora responded “I’m not wrong. This has all the signs and people need to be aware.” Though many doubted the reliability of Flora’s seemingly wild and unbelievable accusations, she would ultimately be proven right and gain credibility with law enforcement as a reliable and trusted source as Jeffs and other FLDS members moved into the compound as it became complete. Jeff’s picture would be mounted on the walls of every room in the gated compound, even after he would be convicted as a sex criminal.

[1] http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20080424/ai_n25353408 'Sarah's' calls kept on coming Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Apr 24, 2008 by Ben Winslow Deseret News

[2] Prescott Daily Courier, a four part series written by Al Herron Focusing on polygamy on the Arizona - Utah line 6/30/03 http://helpthechildbrides.com/articles/prescottcourier.htm

[3] The cult next door: Teen shares chilling tale of alleged abuse ..."They abuse children and they exploit members for virtual slave labor for nothing more than room and board,'' noted cult expert Rick Ross said, ...

www.rickross.com/reference/tribes/tribes24.html

[4] http://www.religionnewsblog.com/11118/cult-stories-enough-to-make-you-want-to-cry Cult stories enough to make you want to cry The Arizona Republic, USA May 1, 2005 Linda Valdez www.azcentral.com

[5] cnn.com November 20, 2007

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Polygamist 'prophet' to serve at least 10 years in prison http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/11/20/jeffs.sentence/index.html

[6] Woman arrested in Colorado Springs questioned by Texas Rangers written by: Jace Larson and Kyle Clark April, 2008 http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=90138

[7] http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2009/apr/15/flds-attorneys-seek-suppression-of-yfz-evidence Attorneys: Walther misled into issuing FLDS warrant By Paul A. Anthony 1:26 p.m., April 15, 2009 “the caller did not volunteer the name of her alleged 50-year-old husband, Dale Barlow, but that the NewBridge calltaker supplied it after doing an Internet search on Barlow and FLDS;

[8] http://texaslastfrontier.com/prairie_fire_journal/blog1.php/2008/04/24/arrest-of-rosita-swinton-raises-new-ques

[9] April 22, 2008 FLDS: THE VICTIM THAT WASN’T Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John Floyd discusses Developments in FLDS Case http://www.johntfloyd.com/comments/april08/22a.htm

[10] http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy197.html Facing down polygamy The Salt Lake Tribune/April 12, 2004 By Brooke Adams

[11] http://www.myeldorado.net/YFZ%20Pages/YFZ032504a.html Who is Flora Jessop and why is she coming to Eldorado? The Eldorado Success, USA Mar. 25, 2004

Forward: The Flowers Cried in Texas

2011-11-28T20:09:00.001-08:00

Book: The Flowers Cried in Texas | Contents | Prev | Next

The Flowers Cried in Texas

Forward

“Any action taken to protect children is never misguided.”

Krista Piferrer, Texas Governor Rick Perry's deputy press secretary.[1]

"It seems as though, often times people judge from their own hearts — other people — and this is what we are victims of."[2]

Janet, FLDS woman with 5 of 12 children in custody.

This is a tale of a American horror story within an American horror story. How could America allow such a tragedy to happen? Wasn’t this the land of freedom which had throughout history fought to rid the world of tyranny, genocide, and for the rights of women, sexual and racial minorities of all kinds? At the dawn of the 21^st century, an increasing number of Americans were becoming alarmed by television news stories, documentaries and bestselling books written by women and men who had either fled or been cast out from the communities of an obscure, renegade sect of the Mormon church. Even the main church was still controversial as governor Mitt Romney made his bid for America’s presidency.

An alarming picture was emerging of a growing and dangerous cult that hid behind tall compound walls with guard towers. They clung to beliefs in polygamy and childhood marriage long abandoned and outlawed by most modern civilizations. By some claims, this society enslaved and physically and sexually abused their wives and even the most innocent of children. This was all in the name of some perverted pursuit of religion led by corrupt and dangerous men, some convicted as sex criminals who claimed to receive prophecies directly from God.

“Now here is a riddle to guess if you can
Who is the monster and who is the man?”

“Bells of Notre Dame” from “Hunchback of Notre Dame”

America had an ironic saying in the Vietnam War, “We had to destroy the village in order to save it”. Can government work so hard to protect children that it can actually put children and their families to even more peril than if it hadn’t acted at all?

It would be a series of fraudulent phone calls from single woman would awaken a giant. An enormous effort was mobilized from the local to state and federal levels to react to this threat of this small band of people who chose to live by a set of rules and morals both aberrant and abhorrent to most Americans. It started as confidential phone call from a girl in danger, and a week of secret planning. At the start, it was a small local story ignored by the national press, though the regional Mormon and Texas press quickly took notice. But within a day, it would draw the attention of the entire world for several weeks.

The ugly head of an entirely different beast and nightmare of bigotry, persecution, oppression, suffering and misery would show itself. There was another threat besides living under the leadership of a small, obscure cult. These were the actions of the same powers of “child protection” of American state and federal authorities which have similar powers throughout America, as well similar child protection and police authorities throughout the English speaking world and other nations.

The case would become infamous as the largest child custody case in Texas and American history. It would cause its participants, victims and observers to compare their experiences not only the concentration camps for Jews, but also the American and Canadian internment, the forced separation of North American Indians and Australian Aborigine children from their families. Many recalled the international legal definitions of “genocide” and posted them as responses to stories on newspaper article sites:

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

· (a) Killing members of the group;

· (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

· (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

· (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

· (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Adopted by Resolution 260 (III) A of the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948, Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment
of the Crime of Genocide

While the Americans appeared to be expending their largest efforts to end child abuse and statutory tape by targeting America’s polygamist communities, a fresh new light was shined on the institution of government sponsored foster care, and the Child Protection Services which had acquired its own legends of abuse across the English speaking world that implemented such institutions. Initially created to put an end to child neglect and abuse, it had in the view of many critics had gone out of control and perhaps become America’s largest single promoter of institutional child abuse and neglect.

As for a title, the one single theme that kept coming across in the story was the sheer amount of crying that was going on from start to finish. The cries of mothers afraid of losing their children, the cries of children afraid of being away from their mothers, the cries of fathers sad to see their families shipped off in buses, and even the cries of mental health and CPS workers as they some realized the depth of the travesty that they were participating in. What makes this story a challenge to tell is the huge difference in the point of view between the two main sides, the government which believed that there could be no error when the safety of children are at sake at the hand of alleged child rapists and molesters, and the other side that believes nothing that might have been done to the children by their parents could equal the unimaginable grief, trauma and misery inflicted upon the families and children of the YFZ ranch by state and local authorities. CPS spokesman continued to downplay the “inconvenience” of children “adjusting” and an “uneventful” separation after everyone had been done crying themselves out.

As it turned out, nearly every horror CPS asserted it was saving the children from would turn out to be false, from the wild claims of Rozita Swinton’s hoax calls to Angie Voss’s “proof” of multiple pregnant teens, the “standard procedure” of removing every child of a communal household if even one child was in danger, the argument of an imminent danger that infants would grow to become 13 year old brides and 52 year old fathers, and the use of judging girls by appearance, and denying the validity of identification documents that would be valid in an immigration case to illegally detain women up to over 30 years of age that they claimed were minors.

Almost none of the claims of innocence routinely dismissed by the press and the American public would be proven to be a lie. If there ever was an abused Sarah, she would never admit it to authorities even after hours of questioning, and every mother and child chose to remain in the community when the courts put an end after effectively declaring most of the operation to be completely illegal. The one girl Theresa Jessop, who authorities claimed had absolute evidence from church records and her personal diary that she had married as a teen and had a baby insisted she was still a virgin, could prove it, and wanted to fire her assigned lawyer who she said tried to force her to tell lies and things that never happened. Angie Voss, Flora and Carolyn Jessop and the other authorities all the way up to Governor Perry would never doubt the correctness of their actions. If human misery and injustice can be measured in tears, the YFZ ranch raid certainly stands out in American history with the quote from a mental health worker that the “floor was slick with tears”.

"In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;

And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;

And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;

And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up."

Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)

[1] FLDS raid costs surpass $14M Texas expected to see more bills from roundup at ranch By John Mortiz
June 14, 2008 http://www.deseretnews.com/article/content/mobile/1,5620,700234669,00.html

[2] Polygamist Sect Mothers Deny Allegations of Abuse Fox News April 16, 2008 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351450,00.html

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351450,00.html

Book Project: The Flowers Cried in Texas

2011-11-28T20:03:00.001-08:00

In 2008 I got interested in the 2008 battle to save the children of the FLDS "Yearning for Zion" Ranch in Eldorado Texas. I wrote enough notes to write out parts of a book, and now I'll be posting them on this blog. As it turns out, the State of Texas was delivering the children from a very dark evil, but less well known is the OTHER hell that the families wee put through in one of the biggest forced internment cases in the US since the Japanese American internment of WWII, which was also officially done for their own safety.

Start with Contents:

The Flowers Cried in Texas: Battle for the FLDS Children

CPS In The Best Interests Of The Children: Flowers Cried In Texas

Temple Standoff: Flowers Cried In Texas

Chapter 7: Temple Standoff

1http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081009/NEWS01/810090386&s=d&page=1 Mormon Temple in Laie to close for 18 months of renovations After 1 1/2-year closure starting Dec. 29, public may get rare look inside By Mary Kaye Ritz

2 (1) http://www.abc4.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=540ffaeb-dc67-40dc-8757-4f0aac3388c1 Women, children and pregnant teens removed from Texas FLDS compound Reported by: Brent Hunsaker Last Update: 4/05 2:33 pm

3 http://www.childbrides.org/raid.html

Protective Custody: Flowers Cried in Texas

Eldorado's New Neighbors: Flowers Cried in Texas

The Big Raid: The Flowers Cried in Texas

Chapter 4: The Big Raid

5BREAKING NEWS: Authorities remove girls from FLDS ranch near Eldorado http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2008/apr/04/texas-authorities-investigating-mormon-sect-near/ By MATT PHINNEY and PAUL A. ANTHONY, Staff Writers 10:07 a.m., April 4, 2008

7 FLDS at ranch detail raid by Texas officials By Nancy Perkins and Amy Joi O'Donoghue Deseret News April 15, 2008 http://deseretnews.com/article/content/mobile/1,5620,695270749,00.html

11 Polygamist Sect Mothers Deny Allegations of Abuse Fox News April 16, 2008 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351450,00.html

Protect The Children: Flowers Cried in Texas

Book: The Flowers Cried in Texas | Contents | Prev | Next

Chapter 3: Protect the Children

[15] FLDS court showdown begins Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Apr 18, 2008 by Amy Joi O'Donoghue http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20080418/ai_n25352433?tag=artBody;col1

Contents: The Flowers Cried in Texas

Contents

Rescue Plan: The Flowers Cried in Texas

Desperate Call For Help: Flowers Cried in Texas

Polygamist 'prophet' to serve at least 10 years in prison http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/11/20/jeffs.sentence/index.html

Forward: The Flowers Cried in Texas

Adopted by Resolution 260 (III) A of the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948, Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

[1] FLDS raid costs surpass $14M Texas expected to see more bills from roundup at ranch By John Mortiz June 14, 2008 http://www.deseretnews.com/article/content/mobile/1,5620,700234669,00.html

Book Project: The Flowers Cried in Texas

Adopted by Resolution 260 (III) A of the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948, Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment
of the Crime of Genocide

[1] FLDS raid costs surpass $14M Texas expected to see more bills from roundup at ranch By John Mortiz
June 14, 2008 http://www.deseretnews.com/article/content/mobile/1,5620,700234669,00.html