Editor's Note: Today a former member of a polygamist group has taken the stand in the sexual assault trial of the first group member tried since Texas authorities raided the group's ranch last year.

The former member testified that jailed leader Warren Jeffs kept detailed notes on his interactions with church members because he believed God would hold him accountable. Jeffs' notes could become part of the prosecution's case against 38-year-old Raymond Jessop. He is charged with sexual assault of a child, stemming from his alleged marriage to an underage girl. We have been following this case ever since authorities arrested Jessop. Below, read a blog from one of our producers about meeting Carolyn Jessop - Raymond Jessop's fourth wife. She recounts her experiences in a book about her life on the FLDS ranch. Watch David Mattingly's report on the Jessop trial tonight on AC360° at 10 p.m. ET.

Betty Jessop at the FLDS compound.

Carolyn Jessop at 22, feeding daughter Betty.

Carolyn Jessop's book on her experience.

Ismael Estrada
AC360° Producer

It was the moment Carolyn Jessop had been waiting for. The mother of eight and the fourth wife of a powerful FLDS man wanted out of the only life she knew. It was a rare moment. All of Jessop’s eight children were home and her husband was not. She only had a few hours to gather her kids and leave the polygamist life where she was born and raised. She says she was desperately seeking a new life on the outside. She wanted to escape.

Carolyn Jessop broke free from a life of arranged marriage, polygamy and a male dominated and controlled society. She says she wanted more for her and her children. Jessop began a new life with her children outside the FLDS. Her kids attended public school and no longer practiced the religion with which they were raised.

After four years, when Carolyn’s daughter Betty turned 18, she told her mother this new life was not for her. Betty wanted to return to her former life. She was the only of the eight children who desired to go back. Carolyn Jessop was shocked, but her daughter was now an adult and could make her own decisions. She says she had no choice but to let her return.

Learn more about Carolyn's experience here.

Jenny Hoff
KXAN.com

Just over a year after the government raid on the FLDS ranch in West Texas, lawmakers in Austin look at what went wrong. Members from the FLDS sect and representatives with CPS are among the invited testimony on the state's actions.

"Are there things we would have done differently today? Of course," said CPS commissioner Anne Heilingenstein. "I wish we would have had the information we have today." Heilingenstein told the Human Services committee that CPS faced a dilemma on the YFZ ranch that they had never faced before. "If we could have only removed the children facing the worst abuse, we would have," she said. "But, we were facing organized deception."

However, Heilingenstein said if the situation were to happen again, she would still have the agency remove all the children. The only difference she would make is prohibit any mothers from accompanying the children into state custody. However, she said after parenting classes and counseling sessions with the families, she believes the children are now safe with their parents. "The FLDS have acknowledged our concerns and the children are now safe in their homes." Heilingenstein said CPS has instructed the children on what is abuse and the FLDS children know they can call for help.

Read More...

Editor's Note: Watch Gary Tuchman's exclusive interview with the family tonight on AC360° at 10 p.m. ET.

Betty Jessop at the FLDS compound.

Carolyn Jessop at 22, feeding daughter Betty.

Carolyn Jessop's book on her experience.

Ismael Estrada
AC360° Producer

It was the moment Carolyn Jessop had been waiting for. The mother of 8 and 4th wife of a powerful FLDS man wanted out of the only life she knew. It was a rare moment. All of Jessop’s 8 children were home and her husband was not. She only had a few hours to gather her kids and leave the polygamist life where she was born and raised. She says she was desperately seeking a new life on the outside. She wanted to escape.

Carolyn Jessop broke free from a life of arranged marriage, polygamy and a male dominated and controlled society. She says she wanted more for her and her children. Jessop began a new life with her children outside the FLDS. Her kids attended public school and no longer practiced the religion with which they were raised.

After 4 years, when Carolyn’s daughter Betty turned 18, she told her mother this new life was not for her. Betty wanted to return to her former life. She was the only of the 8 children who desired to go back. Carolyn Jessop was shocked, but her daughter was now an adult and could make her own decisions. She says she had no choice but to let her return.

Since Betty’s return the family has had little contact. Carolyn says she doesn’t know how to get in touch with her daughter. Earlier this week, we were invited on the FLDS compound. We came across Betty while interviewing other mothers and children. She agreed to give us a short interview and we showed the tape to Carolyn. It was the first time Carolyn would see and hear from her daughter in over a year.

With an FLDS leader close by, Betty says she has forgiven her mother for taking her from the life she knew. That she is at peace now that she is back in the place she loves. She adds that she doesn’t think she’ll ever be with her mother and family again. Carolyn says she is confident one day, Betty will return to her and life outside the FLDS. Gary Tuchman has their story tonight at 10pm on AC360.

Warren Jeffs

Gary Tuchman
AC360° Correspondent

Warren Jeff's fundamentalist polygamist sect has never been so vulnerable.

A grand jury in Texas has indicted three FLDS members on charges related to accusations of sexual abuse of children through marriage of underage girls to older men.

This follows the indictment of five others last month, including Warren Jeffs himself on new charges, Jeffs is already in prison after being convicted as an accomplice to rape for arranging an underage marriage.

There is no reason to doubt that more members of this church are being investigated.

One might think all this is giving some  members second thoughts. But in this church, where the hierarchy is as rigid and strict as old Stalinist regimes, no member in good standing would ever tell an outsider that.

On the contrary, one member I called tells me this "strengthens his faith." It's an attack against their religion, he says.

Justice may be getting served. But it's also increasing a martyr complex among members of this church. And you have to wonder what effect that might have on the men, women and children of this church.

FLDS women at the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado, Texas, reacting to the removal of more than 400 children in April.

Chuck Johnston
CNN National Desk

Two weekends ago, I saw the pictorial in the Sunday New York Times Magazine on the FLDS families living in San Antonio that were profiled, and thought to myself, what comes next in the investigation stemming from the April raid on the polygamy ranch in Eldorado?

And today we learned that the Texas Department of Child Protective Services is seeking foster care for eight children who returned to living with their families on the ranch back in June.

CPS is asking a judge to put the children into foster care because they say “their mothers have refused to limit the children’s contact with men involved in underage marriages.”

CPS is asking the mothers of all girls aged 10-17 to sign safety plans to protect their children from sexual abuse.

Mothers of the eight children who CPS is seeking foster care for have refused to sign the safety plan.

According to CPS, among other things, the safety plan requires that mothers keep children away from a man who “married underage girls or agreed to an arranged marriage on an underage daughter.”

CPS is asking hearings to be set for removal of the eight children.

No word yet on whether the court will grant the hearings.

The five men shown above turned themselves in after being charged with sexually assaulting a child at the Yearning for Zion ranch.

Laura Palmer
AC360° Writer
Co-author, with Carolyn Jessop, 'ESCAPE'

"Fabulous."

Carolyn Jessop, bestselling author of ESCAPE, her memoir about life in the polygamist world of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, had just heard the names of the five men under arrest in Texas.

She knows the men who surrendered on Monday. Four face up to 99 years in prison on charges of sexually assaulting a child. Two of them were her stepsons, Ray Jessop, and Leroy Jessop. "It's heart-wrenching, but justice needs to be served if they have truly injured young girls as charged," she told me.

The fifth man, Dr. Lloyd Hammon Barlow, is charged with failure to report three counts of child abuse. He is a physician, with a Texas medical license in family practice, and a member of the FLDS.

"He was born and raised in polygamy, multi-generational, like I was. I went to school with Lloyd," Carolyn Jessop said of Barlow. "I gave him my old textbooks so he didn't have to buy them. I thought he was incredibly nice, very kind, gracious, good manners. If you met him, you'd see him as an incredibly nice person.

"That's what makes him dangerous," Carolyn added. "Texas was not out to lunch in taking these kids" from their homes during an investigation into sexual assault allegations at the FLDS compound. "People, I think will be outraged to think of a medical professional, a doctor, charged as being involved in hurting kids."

Carolyn's ex-husband, Merril Jessop, who runs the compound in Eldorado was not indicted. But she wonders if he might be by the time the criminal investigation is done.

"I am so happy that something is being done. I hope these men go to jail. These polygamist men are cowards," Carolyn told me. "They have only gotten to this level because no one has prosecuted them. This is how polygamy will stop, when other men see polygamists going to jail."

Chuck Johnston
Assignment Editor, CNN National Desk

The gates outside the Yearning For Zion ranch in Eldorado, Texas, are usually locked. But they were open late Tuesday, as families returned to the sprawling ranch with children being returned from foster homes around the state.

“We just traveled day and night. Texas is a beautiful state, I had no idea I would see that much of it,” Zavenda Young said, holding her youngest daughter while her husband Edson Jessop embraced their sons.

“We are sure grateful to be home,” she added. “We’ve traveled 11,000 miles covering visits to the children, visits with attorneys, and all.”

Young told reporters the family had been temporarily living in the Houston area as they shuttled in between their four children and their caseworkers.

“The people that have been taking care of the children were doing such a wonderful job. They literally cried when we took them away,” Young said of the foster parents who cared for the children after they were removed from the ranch by state officials in April, citing evidence of underage marriages and statutory rape.

Young said the children had been hit hard by the removal to foster homes around the state. "They are dazed," she said. "They are not the same. We hope they pull out of it.”

Some reporters asked returning children how it felt to be back with their parents on the ranch. Clearly still shaken by the experience, children clung to their parents and shied away from the cameras.

Jessop said the raid had created misconceptions of the FLDS members of the polygamist ranch:

“We feel that everybody has been fed a whole bunch of garbage about us. I think when most people come to know us they come to learn that we are different than they suppose, but it’s really hard to change the spots on a leopard-we are what we are. I am the same kind of man that my father and grandfather was. I don’t know why the world wants to change me.”

Ismael Estrada and David Mattingly
AC360° Producer and Correspondent

ELDORADO, Texas - Schleicher County, Texas is the kind of small community where everyone knows your name. This tiny town has two traffic lights and gas stations, a few restaurants, a small, local weekly paper and now - possibly hundreds of new voters.

A few years ago, when the FLDS polygamist sect set up camp on their new 1,700-acre property, they told local officials they wanted nothing to do with local government. They say they just wanted to stay to themselves in their secluded YFZ ranch, where they were building massive homes and a temple as more FLDS members moved in.

But their promise to stay out of local government has changed since Texas authorities raided their property on April 3.

FLDS members are now grabbing up voter registration forms in hopes of sending hundreds of new voters to the polls. That's a concern for local residents here in Schleicher County where there are only 1,900 registered voters.

“This is the only thing the only thing you have to stop what’s happening going forward” said Willie Jessop, an FLDS member and spokesman.

Jessop says they're no longer going to sit back and avoid taking part in local government.

“The only chance we have that has been given to us by our founding fathers, is to vote,” exclaimed Jessop.

Since the polygamous sect members headed to the local county election registrar last week, rumors have been swirling about what their intentions may be. It’s the main topic for conversation at Rosa’s Casita restaurant.

“I think it’s very much a concern,” said Carolyn Mittel, a local resident. "“I think most everyone in town would be very concerned about it.”

Another resident, Joe Kotsch believes those new voters could swing an election: “They have so may new people out there, they could out power people who vote here.”

One man who is up for re-election this November is local sheriff, David Doran. He won his last election by less than 500 votes. His department helped gain access to the YFZ ranch during the raid that has become the focus of the FLDS - which feels they were slighted by the sheriff.

“Once you violate that public trust, the only recourse you have is to have them removed from public office,” said Jessop.

It’s a concern for Sheriff Doran who says hundreds of new voters could certainly swing an election.

“If we had a mass registration out of retaliation purposes," Doran said. "That concerns me that there could be a different factor coming in messing with the election.”

Of bigger concern to local residents is how far the FLDS would be willing to go.

When asked if they planned to have FLDS members as write-in candidates for local elections in the future, Jessop responded, "We are not ruling out any possibilities.”

David Mattingly
360 Correspondent

It looks like payback time in Eldorado. Members of the secluded, polygamist sect felt vindicated yesterday when the Texas Supreme Court agreed state authorities did not have the right to take all 400-plus children into custody. But the FLDS families don't plan to go home quietly. Come November...they plan to vote.

I spoke at length with sect spokesman Willie Jessop about plans to register five to six hundred FLDS voters. Schleicher County has fewer than 19 hundred registered voters and no candidate is safe.

Sheriff David Doran, one of the leaders of the April raid at the YFZ ranch was the leading county vote-getter four years ago with just 903 votes. He's in for the re-election campaign of his life.

The County Commissioner from the precinct where you find the FLDS compound should also be worried. He ran unopposed four years ago and got into office with just 154 votes. Just a couple hundred write-in votes could conceivably land a sect member a seat on the county commission.

A family waits at a San Antonio, Texas, courthouse last week for a reunion with a seized child

Members of a polygamist sect whose children were removed by Texas authorities could flee the state if a lower court ruling stands, according to lawyers for the state.

If sect members were to flee, they also would leave the courts' jurisdiction, attorneys for the state Child Protection Services said in court filings Tuesday to the Texas Supreme Court.

The case involves 38 mothers from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Mormon offshoot that practices polygamy, and their 124 children.

In a ruling last week, the Texas 3rd District Court of Appeals said the state had no right to remove those children in April from the Yearning For Zion ranch near Eldorado, Texas. Although that ruling applied only to those 124 children, attorneys said the reasoning could apply to all the youths removed during the raid - about 460. (Up to 20 of those later were found in court to be adults.)

Read full story...

You can view court evidence here.

According to testimony, one of the girls seen kissing Jeffs was the baby's aunt, lived in the same home with the parents and was only 13. The state provided no context for the photos–we don't know why they were taken or where authorities found them. But, it's clear, these pictures had an impact on this hearing and proved to be an effective weapon for the state when they try to prove the existence of a pervasive pattern of abuse at the Yearning for Zion Ranch.

The pictures are of Warren Jeffs and 2 minors...

These pictures were entered into evidence on Friday for the Jessops custody hearing but also released to the media...

Here is what we know about one of the girls in the photos

• Lived on the YFZ Ranch in the same building with the Jessops
• Is a minor
• Was supposed to testify in the Jessop's custody case, or called as a witness, but the two parties reached an agreement before that happened

Carolyn Jessop is a former FLDS Member and Co-Author of Escape

Carolyn Jessop
Former FLDS Member

I was shocked when I heard the news of the Texas Appellate Court ruling this afternoon.
Waves of horror washed over me at first as I thought that the children might have to be immediately returned. But that's not going to happen. This ruling will be appealed. It's not a knockout punch, but the FLDS obviously gained some ground today.

If those children go back to the complete, unsupervised control of the FLDS at the Yearning for Zion Ranch it would be like throwing gasoline on a fire that's already burning out of control. It would send a message that the FLDS can get away with any level of crime which would reinforce what society, through its inaction over the years, has reinforced for a very long time. The pattern in the FLDS is, from my experience, that once its leaders can get away with one level of crime they move on to the next.

I know from my conversations with those close to this case that Texas authorities feel they have found a system of abuse within the Eldorado compound. Remember the dozens of babies that were left unattended in a nursery? Or the news this week that 100 kids didn't match up with any parents in the compound? There will be more information about the physical and sexual abuse of these children when criminal charges are filed. A lot of evidence was taken out in the raid that investigators are still piecing together.

I've also been told that in many cases the feeling is that the children now in custody are making steady, if not great gains, in their foster placements. Returning the children to the compound when they are just beginning to feel safe and stable would be catastrophic.

A lot of feelings came rushing back to me this afternoon. Until I won full custody of my children, I felt like the legal system was set-up to protect the perpetrators and not their victims. I didn't feel that I could get protection for my kids.

As I wrote in Escape, there were times on weekend visitations their father would force my children to fast and pray for my death. I don't know if I have ever endured a more shattering experience.
Merril Jessop, my ex-husband, is now the most powerful man in the FLDS and running the compound in Texas.

Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints mothers smile as they leave the Tom Green County courthouse after hearing news of a court ruling in their favor.

Jeffrey Toobin
CNN Sr. Legal Analyst

The Third District Court of Appeals, in Austin, today ruled that the children seized last month at the FLDS ranch must be returned to their mothers. The decision made a lot of sense to me. The nine-page opinion is very much worth reading here.

To me, the key passage in the opinion is this one:

"Removing children from their homes and parents on an emergency basis before fully litigating the issue of whether the parents should continue to have custody of the children is an extreme measure. It is, unfortunately, sometimes necessary for the protection of the children involved. However, it is a step that the legislature has provided may be taken only when the circumstances indicate a danger to the physical health and welfare of the children and the need for protection of the children is so urgent that immediate removal of the children from the home is necessary."

The question is whether the Texas authorities put forth enough evidence to justify the 'extreme' step of taking the children away from their mothers. The court focused a great deal on the claim by Texas that the 'pervasive belief system' of the FLDS put the children in danger­ that males were raised to be perpetrators of sexual abuse and females were trained to be victims.

But the point of the Court's decision was that a "belief system," even a dangerous one, was not enough to justify the removal of children from their homes. The government had to do more than prove that FLDS members had bad thoughts; they had to prove bad actions. And that's where the proof was lacking. The government could not prove specific dangers to specific children.

I, for one, have a great deal of sympathy for the Texas authorities who had to investigate this case. It was difficult to find out what was going on inside that compounds, and there were certainly ample grounds for suspicion. But it¹s a good thing that the courts insist on a very high bar for the decision to remove children from their parents. My sense, as well as the appeals' court's, was that the government couldn't and didn't­ make its case.

You can read the court's ruling on the legality of removing of 400+ children from a polygamist compound here.

David M. Reisner
360° Digital Producer

This is just crossing the wires:

An Appeals court has ruled that the state of Texas should not have removed the more than 400 children it took from a polygamist sect's ranch

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

The ruling stated:

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

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

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

From our Ed Lavandera:

"This ruling out of Austin goes on to say the family and protective services division (the agency in charge of removing the children from the compound) did not prove the children were in danger and they needed to be removed from their homes."

"You can imagine what the reaction is going to be in the coming ours from those involved with the sect and those who live in the compound... "

"State officials are also saying they still need more time to investigate and they are still in that process. "

Watch 360° for in-depth coverage and share your thoughts here:

Editor's Note: The following is a dispatch from CNN's Senior producer Tracy Sabo inside the FLDS courtroom hearings.

Note: The next case was going to be postponed to take place at the same time as all the other 11 children in state custody… but the guardian for this child had dialed in by phone/”Court call” at the personal cost of $55, and the Judge could not guarantee reimbursement… so they proceeded in hearing this one case of the 10.)

Mother: Rebecca
Father: Marion Steed

Child: Angela, age 11

Highlights:

• Some confusion over the case plan which was filed here for the wrong Angela (one from the earlier hearing), but that was eventually sorted out by the Court.
• The father was first shown with the service plan as he walked into the courtroom, so he needed an extra 15 minutes to look it over. He filed an objection as to its “generality” but said that he would sign it and work the plan.
• Mother atty filed objections to the plan arguing that the summary at the beginning of the document included incorrect ages for all the children and was full of errors and therefore she was arguing that the 14-day hearing was unlawful). The argument was overruled by the court, but attached to the case file.
• The couple says they are legally married to each other and lived on the ranch in a single family dwelling with all their children.
• DNA testing was done for both parents and children.
• The caseworker spoke with mother Rebecca about the plan and about visitation plans thus far.
• Cross-examination from the father’s attorney, J. Roxane Blount, focused on working to get the children moved closer together due to some spots being opened at some of the shelters. She said the children are now in Amarillo, Waxahachie and San Antonio. The youngest child is now with the mother in custody at the San Antonio Children’s Shelter.
• Caseworker Kilpatrick says she does not yet have a date as to when the children can begin home school studies. She said family picture books are allowed at the shelters as long as they know who is shown in the pictures or can be told.
• The father’s attorney asked the caseworker if the father could visit more than one hour per week or make calls to all his children. The caseworker said, right now, only one hour a week was being allowed due to scheduling issues (case workers have to supervise all the visits).
• Regarding the possibility that another family member could petition for guardianship of the children in the meantime, the caseworker was asked by the father’s atty,” “Would a family member who has custody be able to live at the YFZ ranch or has that not been determined yet?” The caseworker responded, “The department has not made a determination on that?”
• The caseworker said she had not yet received birth records or social security #’s for the children or a marriage license for the parents.
• Under cross-examination by the mother’s atty., the caseworker asked if the mother had asked any questions about the case plan and signing it. The caseworker said, “She asked ‘is signing it admitting that I am guilt?’” The caseworker said she told the mother she was not.
• Angela is not placed with any of her other siblings as of now, and the mother is requesting she be moved to be with them as soon as possible. The caseworker assured the parents that she would call and check on any new openings “this afternoon after court.”
• Asked by the mother’s atty. whether CPS would hold it against he if she received financial support from her husband, the caseworker said, “It is based on family income. That would not be a problem as long as he is complying with the plan.” She was further asked, “Would you hold it against her if she received money from the FLDS church?” The caseworker said that would be okay, “as long as it was not her only form of income since the State wanted to show she had stability.
• The mother’s attorney asked if the State was discussing anything like adoption for these FLDS children, and the caseworker responded, “Not as far as I know.”
• Asked by the mother’s atty. if the children were being allowed to keep any items of religious significance and teaching, the caseworker said the children were allowed to have the Book of Mormon and several other items from their religious teachings.
• Angela’s parent reminded the court that Angela’s own wishes were to “return home” and be with her other siblings according to the atty’s recent meeting with her.

Judge Comments/Decision: Judge Gossett responded to the guardian’s last comment on record saying, “I feel for her, and I feel for the parents.” He said such wishes were “normal.” He asked the parents if they read and understood the plan, and both parents responded simply “yes” to all questions.

Editor's Note: The following is a dispatch from CNN's Senior producer Tracy Sabo inside the FLDS courtroom hearings

Courtroom B, Case #1
Mother: Louanna Jessop
Father: Leroy J. Jessop (not present)

Note: This mother/father have 7 children.

1. Angela, age 2
2. Virginia, age 4
3. Harmony, age 10
4. Zane, age 5
5. Shem, age 1
6. Leanna, age 7
7. Miranda, age 8

Highlights

• Caseworker has not had any contact with father, Leroy J. Steed, and has not been able to locate him thru calling the ranch, etc. Will continue trying to reach him thru the attorney name/number (court-appointed?) provided today by the mother (she does not know where he is, per her atty).
• Louanna has done DNA testing. None done on the father, as far as anyone in court is aware.
• Mother has signed the plan and added some comments and a home schooling curriculum as well as a complaint that it lacked specificity.
• When the caseworker was asked by the mother’s attorney, Charles Grimm, “Did you have anything to do with creating this plan?” Martinez answered, “I did not have anything to do with this plan. It was already created.” Martinez went on to say, “It was tailor-made for the FLDS parents.” He clarified by saying it was a fairly standard CPS plan “is very close to what we use all the time… This is a starting point… We will individualize it.”
• There was talk of consolidating the children. Angela and Shem are in Corpus and there is a request to move them move to San Antonio where Virginia is located. 4 of the other children are in Waco. The caseworker said there had been no effort to consolidate them all together before requests were made today.
• ”The children are all fine, medically,” Martinez testified.
• Asked by the mother’s attorney if he had found any evidence of abuse or neglect of the 7 children, he responded, “During visitation, there has been no evidence of that.” Pressed further whether he has seen any medical records indicating abuse or neglect, Martinez responded, “not that I am aware of.” The attorney asked the caseworker, “Does CPS normally take children from families where there is no evidence of abuse or neglect?” Before Martinez could answer, Judge Gossett tersely asking the atty, “Were you at the 14-day hearing?” And then followed up by asking “Are you confused about the findings in the 14-day hearing?” That line of questioning ended there.
• Cross-examination from the adlitem for Angela focused on a referral she asked for that would move Angela to San Antonio.
• Cross-examination from the adlitem for Shem was similar asking the Case Worker to consider his referral to move Shem to be with his older sister Angela.
• Cross-examination from the adlitem for Harmony (via phone) focused on the service plan and how it was drafted. The caseworker told Menduni that the service plan “Was formulated by Supervisors and staff with prior knowledge or information from people all over the country with information about the FLDS population.” He reminded the attorney that it was a starting point. The adlitem asked, “Is it possible that none of this plan may be applicable to this family?” Martinez answered, “Yes, that is a possibility.”
• Adlitem Medici also asked the case worker if he was aware that the mother of alleged father, Leroy Steed, was at Methodist in Waco last week and he could have asked her about her son’s whereabouts then. He said he was not aware of that.
• Court Conference off-the-record took place about the fact that the mother now wants the two kids in Corpus moved to San Antonio.
• Judge’s Comments/Decision: Judge Gossett addressed mother Louanna Jessop, commenting on the fact all the children are currently separated by the State, saying, “It is my strong, strong desire that these children get together and the only reason I have not ordered that is because we’d have chaos more than what we have now.”
• The Judge also said “The Court has no problem with the home schooling that is being suggested.”
• Judge Gossett signed the plan when he asked the mother if she read it, she responded, “I have read through it.” Asked if she understood the plan, she said, “I understand the basics, but I don’t understand how it applied to my kids.”

NOTE: THE JUDGE MENTIONED TO THE COURT THAT THE COURT STAFF HAS “BLOCKED OFF 5 WEEKS IN SEPTEMBER FOR PERMANANCY HEARINGS,” but gave no further details.

From a pool reporter inside the courtroom
Update from Courtroom A

Case #1
1 year old boy
Mother: 17 ½ years old

Attorneys asked for a continuance because the mother, who is a minor, has not been able to meet with her attorneys because she is 8 months pregnant and located in a shelter in San Antonio. The judge granted the continuance and the hearing will now be held 6/3. Attorneys expressed concern that they are not able to have private conversations, that social workers are taking notes on phone conversations.

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Case #2
9 ½ year old child

Father: Warren Steed Jeffs (incarcerated)

Highlights: The attorney asked which version of the Book of Mormon the children were given (new version of Book of Mormon condems polygamy). CPS worker Irene Schwaninger "Polygamy is not the issue, underage marriage is the issue here." Mother has signed CPS plan.

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Case #3
6 year old boy – only name listed on docket

Combined with siblings:
8 year old boy
Girl, missed age

Father: Warren Steed Jeffs (incarcerated)

Highlights: Mother has filed to expedite moving children to live with her mother. The children’s grandmother left the FLDS in 1983 and has recently relocated to San Antonio from Nevada. Judge ordered to expedite homesteading, said it could happen between 10-30 days.
There was a long line of questioning from the mother’s attorney about whether it is a detrimental to the child if the mother is part of FLDS.

CPS specialist "The only things we are concerned about in FLDS are those in the service plan, that girls were being groomed for marriage at a young age…This does not have to do with religion, we are not asking them to leave their faith."
Mother’s lawyer: "Would living with an FLDS member be considered adverse to the child's welfare?"
CPS specialist: "Not as long as they don't have a criminal history, a CPS history, or are a sexual perpetrator."

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Case #4
5 year old girl
7 ½ year old child

The father was not present, he was not served and is currently living in Arizona. He drove to Eldorado for the DNA test and would like to participate in the hearings.
The daughter recently had 3 stitches and a tetanus shot after injuring herself on a swing set. The ad litum and mother were not notified until nearly two weeks after the event. They were also not notified that the children were given bone scans.
Attorney asked if it would be possible to move the children to live with relatives in Utah or Arizona. CPS said it is a lengthy process and will be easier to get the two children in the same location (currently separate).
When asked if the children could go back and live on the ranch, the CPS worker replied "With the investigation still ongoing, people are very leery about any decisions regarding the YFZ ranch."

From a pool reporter inside the courtroom

2 cases so far:

Case #1
2 ½ year old girl

Janet Jeffs, the mother, was not in the courtroom, but she and her attorney spoke via speakerphone from Austin, TX. Janet and her child are living together at a shelter in Austin. There were questions about whether Janet was a minor, but at this morning's hearing the state agreed to accept the fact the she was over 18. The mother's court-appointed attorney had to withdraw from the case because she was assigned to represent Janet as a minor. The judge has given Janet a week to find an attorney who will represent her as an adult. Janet says she last saw the father, Raymond Jessop, about a year ago at the ranch. No one knows where he is now.

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Case #2
15 year old boy

The father in this case is believed to be in charge of YFZ ranch while Warren Jeffs was in jail.

Father was not present in the courtroom. His where-abouts are also unknown. Mother and father also have 4 other children. The major issue raised by the mother's attorney is that the siblings are not all together, but split between 3 homes. The mother's attorney pointed out that it will be difficult to comply with the terms of the CPS plan. One requirement is that the mom have a job in order to provide for the kids – difficult if she has to run around all over the state to visit with her children. The CPS case worker testified that efforts are being made to bring the 3 girls together in one place and keep the boys together.

Also at issue, the child's access to religious material. The CPS case worker confirmed that FLDS ministers are not being allowed to visit the Cal Farley Home, while children of other religions at the home can have ministerial visits. Another issue involves access to the Book of Mormon. The CPS case worker stated the department would have no problem allowing the Book, "as long as it doesn't have Warren Jeffs picture." The mother's attorney asked whether the "safe living environment" outline in the CPS plan meant "away from the ranch." He replied, "Yes, away from the ranch."

Ismael Estrada
360° Producer

Afternoon session in San Angelo, Texas. Judge Thomas Gossett presiding.

Kathleen Steed, mother of 12, possibly 13 (one child is being disputed): Father, LeRoy Steed, is not present, state has not been able to locate him. Hearing focused on only one of their children, an 8-year-old girl.

Paige Hawkins, Texas Dept. of Family and Protective Services, on the stand... She says the state formulated a "family service plan" for the family based on risks that officials felt the child faced when they removed her from the FLDS ranch.

They haven't had any contact with the father, nor was he included in forming the plan.

The 8-year-child is placed in Waco, Texas. The state is also aware that the mother has children spread out throughout the state and has been having to travel long distances to see them.

Re education: The state has received a home-school curriculum from the mother. Officials say they are being sensitive to the religion, and a book of Mormon has been passed to the children if it is provided by the parent.

Attorneys for the mother also asked if they could provide a book of sermons written in part by FLDS "prophet" Warren Jeffs.

The state says that due to Jeffs' conviction on chargees that he was an accomplice to rape after arranging a marriage to an underaged girls, requests like this are usually denied, but they'd like to see the book before passing judgment.

The Judge said the goal of this hearing is reunification of the family. He felt the service plan was appropriate, and made 2 observations:

"I am not a big fan of home schooling," he said. "I understand your concerns with public school, but I am also aware that unlike many other families who have put their kids in home schooling, you are actually schooling your children. " He said the children should be tested to see where they would best fit in the school system.

He also noted the absence of yet another father: "Mr. LeRoy Steed is not here, he needs to get involved with the process."

To the mother, the judge continued, "If you work the plan, the kids would be returned to you. However if the father does not work the plan, the kids would go only to you..If you decide to go live with the father and he has not completed the program, your kids can be taken away."

David Mattingly
360° Correspondent

Conversation with adults from the FLDS sect in west Texas are usually very polite and very short. Few have been willing to share more than a friendly "hello" with me and even fewer have been willing to discuss any details of this mammoth child abuse investigation.

But today, 32-year-old father James Jessop tells me he and his wife are weary. The couple has 5 children in four different foster care facilities.

State child protection officials say they've tried to keep family groups together. But that is not the case with the Jessops.

The kids are spread from Houston to Abileen. The Jessops figure that a single visit to each child is an 18-hundred mile journey.

James Jessop also has two other children by two other wives. He plans to be back in court when each of those cases are scheduled.

Jessop firmly believes the state has attacked the sect for its religious beliefs. But he is among parents who now say they will do anything the state requires to get his children back.