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.

Keep reading

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.”

Keep reading

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.

——————

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.
Keep reading

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.
Keep reading

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.
Keep reading

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.

Ismael Estrada
360° Producer

Hearing’s underway in courtroom B in San Angelo, Texas.  The purpose is to review the state’s “family service plans” outlining what parents need to do to get their families back, and to make sure the parents understand what the state is requiring.  The state says the plans are tools to help family reunification.

Judge Thomas Gosset presided over one mother, Nora Jeffs, the mother of 8 minor children.  All the cases were grouped into one, as they had the same mother.

Child Protective Services (CPS) child case worker Irene Schweneger (SP?) takes the stand.

One problem, the caseworker says, that the state is looking to remedy is that all 8 of her children have been placed in different parts of the state.  Ms. Jeffs has been driving all over Texas to visit them.

CPS says it is aware that some health issues have popped up while the children have been in CPS care.  The youngest child, a 1- 1/2 year old boy, has had various illnesses including minor ear infections, but the child required hospitalization.  Unsure why.
Keep reading

David Mattingly
360° Correspondent

Why did the state have to take all of the kids when it raided the polygamous sect’s ranch in West Texas?  Come Monday, the state of Texas will have to start explaining itself one child at a time as these 400-plus custody cases go before judges in San Angelo.  Frustrations abound in this case.  Families say many of the girls in custody who are pregnant or have already given birth are actually adults.  State investigators say they continue to get conflicting information when they ask about ages and try to match kids to their biological parents.  Attorneys representing the kids say the state won’t give them the information they need.  No one is happy and no one has any idea how all this will end.  Judges start to try and make sense of it all on Monday when each mother and father begin to find out what the state says they will have to do if they want to get their children back.

You can read the entire petition filed on behalf of 3 fathers with the FLDS to regain custody of their children here.

David M. Reisner
360° Digital Producer

Hey Bloggers,

The FLDS is fighting back after last month’s raid that removed more than 400 children from its Texas compound after accusations of forced marriages and sex with underage girls.

The writ of habeas corpus, used to test the legality of a person’s detention, is being filed in San Angelo, Texas on behalf of 3 of the fathers with the FLDS.

I wanted to share another document with you.

Their claim is that they are monogamous families living in single-family residences on the compound… when their children were abducted:

“Each of these three Relators now before the Court, live in a monogamous relationship
with their wife (who was of age at the time of their marrage) and their children in single family, stand-alone, separate residences located on the YFZ Ranch property. There was no evidence nor allegation of physical or sexual abuse of any of these children”

What are your thoughts on the claim and the court case? You can read the entire article here