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Posts: 130596
04/21/08 10:48 AM
Co-Founder/Editor Administrator
04/21/08 11:31 AM
SAN ANGELO, Texas - Lab workers began taking DNA samples Monday from the more than 400 children in state custody since a raid on a polygamist compound more than two weeks ago.
Officials hope the samples, to be taken by cheek swabs from the children and their parents, will help sort out the confusing family relationships in a convoluted custody case that has strained the resources of the child welfare system and the courts.
The testing is being conducted in the San Angelo Coliseum, where most of the children have been held since last week.
• Click here for photos.
• Click here for Maggie Lineback's On the Scene blog.
Judge Barbara Walther ordered the tests at the request of state officials, who have complained that members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have continually changed their names, possibly lied about their ages and sometimes had difficulty naming their relatives.
The process will likely take about half an hour per sample because of the paperwork and care needed to avoid contamination, said Darrell Azar, a spokesman for Child Protective Services. The tests could take three or four days to be completed.
A certain number of DNA markers - segments of the DNA with specific genetic characteristics - are tested to determine whether two people are related. If any uncertainties arise, analysts test additional markers.
Three male members of the sect said in an interview aired on CBS's "Early Show" Monday that they would cooperate in DNA testing if it would help them get the children back.
"Whatever we need to do to get them back in their peaceful homes," a man identified only as Rulan said.
State prosecutors have argued that the FLDS church encourages underage marriages and births, subjecting children to sexual abuse or the imminent risk of abuse. "Rulan" said sect members are reconsidering whether girls under 18 should have sex with adult men.
"Many of us perhaps were not even aware of such a law," he said. "And we do reconsider, yes. We teach our children to abide the law."
When the DNA sampling is completed, state officials will begin to relocate some of the 416 children staying at the coliseum and will separate the children younger than 4 years from adult mothers.
Officials say family relationships in the sect can be confusing to outsiders because the children of more than one wife live in the same household.
The children identify all the women in the house as their mothers, and if a father leaves the community, children and mothers are reassigned to another man, a child welfare investigator testified during a hearing last week.
Mothers of the youngest children had been allowed to stay with the children before the judge's order on Friday. But that arrangement will end after they are moved from the coliseum, Azar said.
He said it's not clear how soon the children will be moved, but state workers will try to keep them grouped together with siblings or others from the community.
They'll also try to shield the children, raised in an insular community with no television and little contact with outsiders, from overexposure to mainstream society.
"We're going to try to keep the children in groups so I don't think we're talking about your traditional foster setting," Azar said.
After two days of testimony, Walther ordered that all the children swept up in the raid of the Eldorado compound remain in state custody.
The custody case is one of the nation's largest and most complicated. The ruling Friday capped two days of testimony that sometimes became disorderly as hundreds of lawyers for children and parents competed to defend their clients in two rooms linked by a video feed.
The children, including 130 children younger than 4 years and two dozen adolescent boys, will receive individual hearings before June 5.
Law enforcement officers raided the Yearning For Zion Ranch on April 3. The raid was prompted by calls made to a family violence shelter, purportedly by a 16-year-old girl who said her 50-year-old husband beat and raped her. That girl has never been identified. Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351921,00.html
04/21/08 11:48 AM
McCain has an update and links this Houston Chronicle piece:
The Rangers are "actively pursuing Rozita Swinton as a person of interest regarding telephone calls placed to a crisis center hotline in San Angelo," the DPS said.... "In her little baby voice, she said, 'If you rescue me, and I get out of here, do you think the black people will hurt me?' " Walker said. "She had done her homework. She knew it was a racist cult. We know that these kids are very frightened of black people. "The Texas Rangers told us she was obsessed with the FLDS. They confiscated tons of material on the FLDS (in the search of Swinton's home). She even gave real addresses and real names of FLDS people."
"In her little baby voice, she said, 'If you rescue me, and I get out of here, do you think the black people will hurt me?' " Walker said. "She had done her homework. She knew it was a racist cult. We know that these kids are very frightened of black people.
"The Texas Rangers told us she was obsessed with the FLDS. They confiscated tons of material on the FLDS (in the search of Swinton's home). She even gave real addresses and real names of FLDS people."
Check out the rest of McCain's post for his take on the race angle.
But there's more:
"There is no verbage or terminology used that leads me to believe the statements were made by someone inside," said Ezra Draper of Hildale, Utah, who left the FLDS sect six years ago. "I think it's bunk." Examples: The term FLDS use to describe other people is "gentiles," not outsiders, and they don't observe such holidays as Easter Sunday, when the alleged victim claimed she was last beaten. Susan Risdon, the crisis shelter spokeswoman, said the calls to the shelter were not recorded but that the two employees who spoke with the girl wrote down what she said. "I think it's the exact language," Risdon said. He points out that only the most worthy among the FLDS were called to live at the ranch. Those "FLDS wouldn't have tolerated any abuse like that [the girl's broken ribs] within their society," he says. Draper also wonders how the girl knew to call the shelter, given the isolation and control that authorities say those at the ranch experienced.
Examples: The term FLDS use to describe other people is "gentiles," not outsiders, and they don't observe such holidays as Easter Sunday, when the alleged victim claimed she was last beaten.
Susan Risdon, the crisis shelter spokeswoman, said the calls to the shelter were not recorded but that the two employees who spoke with the girl wrote down what she said.
"I think it's the exact language," Risdon said.
He points out that only the most worthy among the FLDS were called to live at the ranch. Those "FLDS wouldn't have tolerated any abuse like that [the girl's broken ribs] within their society," he says.
Draper also wonders how the girl knew to call the shelter, given the isolation and control that authorities say those at the ranch experienced.
UPDATE: As I said earlier: Another example of a Democratic activist making up a fake but accurate story? Sure, she lied about everything, but isn't the goal of removing children from parents who's lifestyle we don't approve of trump truth?
As to Gd. Lt's point in the comments, er, so? Let's just go into any community and take away all the kids since we know that some of them are abused, some get knocked up young, and some are molested. In some communities, these phenomena are pervasive.
No one is saying that the FLDS cult is a great environment to grow up in, but that seems to entirely miss the point. There is a bright line which government cannot cross under normal circumstances. That line is the home.
A raid on an entire community, without probable cause, in peace time is tyranny, plain and simple.
What next, raiding a hippie commune because we know they must smoke dope and we know they practice free love?
UPDATE 1a (Good Lt): Rather than rehash my position on this bizarre story here at length, I'll just reprint the response I wrote in the comments that I think best summarizes my take:
I agree that this has been handled poorly by the authorities from the get go, and I do have a twinge of skepticism at the heavy-handedness of the response. I'm sure we're all thankful this didn't turn into Waco II, but now there's a whole hell of a mess to clear up in the legal system. And Rusty and yourself are also correct that the constitutional question should be raised and factored in here. My stance is more from reading testimonials, seeing interviews and hearing the stories from former members of this cult. They are not allowed to leave the cult, but when they do or when they're excommunicated, they usually end up telling the same stories independently of each other to anyone that will listen - sexual abuse, physical abuse, rupturing of families, neglect, poor living conditions fostered by welfare abuse, stories of abuse of women, children and individuals by cult leaders, etc. When those women come out of that cult and tell us what is actually going on in it (after a lifetime of brainwashing forcing them to "keep sweet" and not speak out), I believe them. I don't think they have a reason to make it up, and the stories have been coming out of this particular group for a long time. Don't interpret this as my advocacy of rampant government intervention in the affairs of strange religious groups. Let's just say that I'm with the former child brides and ex-FLDS members on this one, and other anecdotal and historical evidence - including the leader of the cult being convicted of accomplice to rape of a 14 year old with previous members of the cult being convicted of similar crimes in the past - establishes a pattern of alleged and confirmed abuses by this group that are cause enough to err on the side of the kids and women locked up behind the fences.
And Rusty and yourself are also correct that the constitutional question should be raised and factored in here.
My stance is more from reading testimonials, seeing interviews and hearing the stories from former members of this cult. They are not allowed to leave the cult, but when they do or when they're excommunicated, they usually end up telling the same stories independently of each other to anyone that will listen - sexual abuse, physical abuse, rupturing of families, neglect, poor living conditions fostered by welfare abuse, stories of abuse of women, children and individuals by cult leaders, etc.
When those women come out of that cult and tell us what is actually going on in it (after a lifetime of brainwashing forcing them to "keep sweet" and not speak out), I believe them. I don't think they have a reason to make it up, and the stories have been coming out of this particular group for a long time.
Don't interpret this as my advocacy of rampant government intervention in the affairs of strange religious groups. Let's just say that I'm with the former child brides and ex-FLDS members on this one, and other anecdotal and historical evidence - including the leader of the cult being convicted of accomplice to rape of a 14 year old with previous members of the cult being convicted of similar crimes in the past - establishes a pattern of alleged and confirmed abuses by this group that are cause enough to err on the side of the kids and women locked up behind the fences.
Posts: 34817
04/21/08 11:58 AM
Reading this thread reminds me of the Duke University rape case discussions that were here a while ago !!!! Never fear, MJ and I may disagree on many things but we will always walk away friends.
My stance is more from reading testimonials, seeing interviews and hearing the stories from former members of this cult. They are not allowed to leave the cult, but when they do or when they're excommunicated, they usually end up telling the same stories independently of each other to anyone that will listen - sexual abuse, physical abuse, rupturing of families, neglect, poor living conditions fostered by welfare abuse, stories of abuse of women, children and individuals by cult leaders, etc. When those women come out of that cult and tell us what is actually going on in it (after a lifetime of brainwashing forcing them to "keep sweet" and not speak out), I believe them. I don't think they have a reason to make it up, and the stories have been coming out of this particular group for a long time. Don't interpret this as my advocacy of rampant government intervention in the affairs of strange religious groups. Let's just say that I'm with the former child brides and ex-FLDS members on this one, and other anecdotal and historical evidence - including the leader of the cult being convicted of accomplice to rape of a 14 year old with previous members of the cult being convicted of similar crimes in the past - establishes a pattern of alleged and confirmed abuses by this group that are cause enough to err on the side of the kids and women locked up behind the fences.
04/26/08 10:11 PM
SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) - The state of Texas made a damning accusation when it rounded up 462 children at a polygamous sect's ranch: The adults are forcing teenage girls into marriage and sex, creating a culture so poisonous that none should be allowed to keep their children.
But the broad sweep - from nursing infants to teenagers - is raising constitutional questions, even in a state where authorities have wide latitude for taking a family's children.
The move has the appearance of "a class-action child removal," said Jessica Dixon, director of the child advocacy center at Southern Methodist University's law school in Dallas.
"I've never heard of anything like that," she said. Rod Parker, a spokesman for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, contends that the state has essentially said, "If you're a member of this religious group, then you're not allowed to have children."
Attorneys for the families and civil-liberties groups also are crying foul. They say the state should not have taken children away from all church members living at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado.
Church members said that not all of them practice polygamy, and some form traditional nuclear families. One sect member whose teenage son is now in foster care testified that she is a divorced single mother.
"Of course, we condemn child abuse and we don't stand up for the perpetration of that," said Lisa Graybill, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. But "what the state has done has offended a pretty wide swath of the American people with what appears to be an overreaching action to sweep up all these children."
State and local officials had been eyeing the sect suspiciously since it bought the ranch in 2003 and moved hundreds of its members in. They raided the property April 3, with heavy weapons and SWAT vehicles, after a female claiming to be a 16-year-old girl at the ranch called a family violence shelter and said her 49-year-old husband beat and raped her. That girl has not yet been identified. State officials searched for a week for evidence of sexual abuse and rounded up all the children into mass shelters. As of Friday, the children had all been bused to foster group homes hundreds of miles away; only nursing infants still have their mothers with them.
Texas law has a "very low burden for removal of children from a parent's home, at least temporarily," Dixon said.
But state authorities are supposed to keep the children in their homes unless "a person of ordinary prudence and caution" believes there's a continuing and immediate danger to their safety.
"There was a systematic process going on to groom these young girls to become brides," said CPS spokesman Darrell Azar, noting that the state had no way to protect from possible future abuse if they stayed on the ranch.
"Removal is always the last option," he said. "In this case, there was no other choice."
CPS officials have conceded there is no evidence the youngest children were abused, and about 130 of the children are under 5. Teenage boys were not physically or sexually abused either, according to evidence presented in a custody hearing earlier last week, but more than two dozen teenage boys are also in state custody, now staying at a boys' ranch that might typically house troubled or abandoned teens.
Two teenage girls are pregnant, and although identities and ages have been difficult to nail down, CPS officials say no more than 30 minor girls in state custody have children. It's not clear how many other adolescent girls may be among the children shipped to foster facilities.
The sect believes polygamy brings glorification in heaven and its leader Warren Jeffs is revered as a prophet. Jeffs was convicted last year in Utah of forcing a 14-year-old girl into marriage with an older cousin.
Constitutional experts say U.S. courts have consistently held that a parent's beliefs alone are not grounds for removal.
"The general view of the legal system is until there is an imminent risk of harm or actual harm, you can't do that," said UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh.
Lawyers for the FLDS parents and civil rights groups complain that a chaotic mass custody hearing last week prevented state District Judge Barbara Walther from hearing any individual stories that might have led her to allow some parents to keep their children.
One FLDS member who did testify said she and her husband and their three children form a traditional family and live in a separate house from other sect members. An FLDS expert who testified at the hearing and a former member of the sect say only about half the marriages in the sect are polygamous.
Walther agreed to keep all the children in state custody after 21 hours of testimony in a hearing involving hundreds of lawyers.
"That's the hard thing about this. They want to paint everyone with the same brush," said Shelly Greco, an attorney who represents several children in the case.
An appellate court in Austin is scheduled to hold a hearing Tuesday on a motion filed by dozens of mothers to get their children back. Walther has said each mother will get an individual hearing by June 5.
If there was an underage mother in every home, the state might be able to make its case for removal of all the children, Dixon said, but it's likely that once individual hearings are held, some of the children may be headed back to their parents.
Another legal issue may emerge if investigators discover the call from the 16-year-old girl was a hoax.
Authorities are investigating whether the calls came from a woman in Colorado who has a history of making fake calls, but CPS officials and legal experts say the outcome of that investigation will likely have little bearing on the custody case, given that authorities went to the ranch believing the calls were legitimate and then found possible evidence of abuse. Source: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080425/D9095CA81.html
Posts: 173430
04/27/08 1:51 PM
Adminstrator Co-Founder Owner/Emeritus
04/28/08 8:23 AM
04/28/08 9:13 AM
MJM40 wrote: This entire cult depends upon welfare checks from our gubment to exist.
FLDS tax bill to be monumental San Angelo Standard Times, USA June 24, 2006 Matt Phiney Schleicher County officials expect levies to add $450,000 to budgets A huge white building towers above a vista of trees north of Eldorado, nearly as large as San Angelo's 1st Community Credit Union Spur Arena. It's an 80,000-square-foot monument built by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). Locals call it "the temple," a reference to the belief that it's a place of worship for the polygamist group that lives nearby. While the new building, and the church's presence near Eldorado, has drawn worldwide media attention, it also will be a financial boost for this rural county in the form of property tax revenue. The group has faithfully paid its property taxes since buying the land, and this year's note should be the biggest yet. The massive building was appraised for the first time this year and stands at a preliminary value of about $8 million. The entire YFZ Ranch north of Eldorado, where the building is located, has an assessed value of nearly $18 million, according to preliminary numbers by Schleicher County Appraiser Scott Sutton. Final values aren't certified until the end of July, but the building could well be the highest-valued property in the county. County entities don't get any tax money for PAVE PAWS, a huge early warning military radar system built near Eldorado during the Cold War that is now little more than a shell. The federal government does not use the site, but still owns the land, making it tax-exempt. The YFZ money will be divided between the county, the school district, the local hospital district and an underground water district, depending upon those entities' tax rates. If the numbers at the YFZ ranch stand, the group's tax bill would be about $450,000. The sect paid about $200,000 last year. All entities in Schleicher County offer an incentive for taxpayers to pay early. They get a 3-percent discount if the bill is paid in October, 2 percent in November and 1 percent in December. The YFZ Ranch paid its taxes in October last year, and in December in 2004 when it purchased the land, Sutton said. The county's tax rate is about 72 cents per $100 of taxable value. The county's budget is about $2 million, about 70 percent of which comes from oil and gas revenue. The county hasn't begun work on its 2007 budget, so the full impact of the new values is not yet known, but County Judge Johnny Griffin said it's obvious the group's money will benefit taxpayers in the county. "The more they pay, the less everyone else pays," Griffin said. "We are pretty close with the dollar (amounts). We don't have a choice. I wouldn't suspect commissioners would go with anything out of the ordinary. I think they will do what they can to maintain the level of services we have always had." Sutton was last on the ranch in February and said the ranch's residents were accommodating in providing accurate measurements of the buildings. Those measurements, depreciation, appreciation and other factors are used to determine taxable value. According to the state tax code, property owned by religious organizations may qualify for a property-tax exemption if the organization files for an exemption and shows it qualifies for the discount. Eligible property includes places of worship and residences of clergy, according to the code. Sutton said the group has never filed for an exemption. Church members bought the land near Eldorado, about 45 miles south of San Angelo, and constructed dozens of buildings on the land, but none as large as the temple. Construction on other buildings began after Jan. 1, the deadline for a building to be taxable in a given year. There has been no clear indication of how many church members plan to move to the ranch or whether church leader and prophet Warren Jeffs has ever been in Eldorado, or on the ranch. In May, the FBI placed Jeffs on its 10 Most Wanted list, alongside Osama bin Laden, and is offering a reward of as much as $100,000 for information leading to Jeffs' arrest. The church also owns property in Colorado, South Dakota, Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Canada. Jeffs, 50, is wanted in an alleged sexual assault on a minor in 2002, and one count of conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor in 2002. The alleged offenses took place near Colorado City, Ariz. Jeffs also is wanted on accusations of rape as an accomplice in Utah, according to the FBI's Web site. Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran was out of town at a conference this week, and FBI officials in Dallas and Phoenix did not return phone calls for comment on Jeffs and his cash flow. Commissioners don't expect to get tax money from the YFZ forever, Griffin said. With Jeffs wanted by the law, the funding source for the YFZ could dry up at a moment's notice. If Jeffs is arrested, his assets could be frozen. If the tax money ever stops coming, the ranch will face foreclosure like anyone else, Griffin said. "If they keep paying their taxes, then great," he said. "We won't get used to a custom of living off that income. We might get it, and we might not." Taxing the temple Following is a breakdown of last year's YFZ Ranch property tax bill in Schleicher County. The 2006 tax bill probably will be higher because construction is complete on a new building valued at $8 million. Taxing districts have not yet set property tax rates for the new fiscal year. Taxing entity 2005 levy Schleicher County $55,106.53 Schleicher County ISD $113,684.23 Plateau Underground Water District $2,620.79 Schleicher County Medical Center hospital district $25,002.95 Total $196,414.50 Source: http://www.religionnewsblog.com/15028/flds-tax-bill-to-be-monumental
Schleicher County officials expect levies to add $450,000 to budgets
A huge white building towers above a vista of trees north of Eldorado, nearly as large as San Angelo's 1st Community Credit Union Spur Arena.
It's an 80,000-square-foot monument built by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). Locals call it "the temple," a reference to the belief that it's a place of worship for the polygamist group that lives nearby.
While the new building, and the church's presence near Eldorado, has drawn worldwide media attention, it also will be a financial boost for this rural county in the form of property tax revenue. The group has faithfully paid its property taxes since buying the land, and this year's note should be the biggest yet.
The massive building was appraised for the first time this year and stands at a preliminary value of about $8 million. The entire YFZ Ranch north of Eldorado, where the building is located, has an assessed value of nearly $18 million, according to preliminary numbers by Schleicher County Appraiser Scott Sutton.
Final values aren't certified until the end of July, but the building could well be the highest-valued property in the county.
County entities don't get any tax money for PAVE PAWS, a huge early warning military radar system built near Eldorado during the Cold War that is now little more than a shell. The federal government does not use the site, but still owns the land, making it tax-exempt.
The YFZ money will be divided between the county, the school district, the local hospital district and an underground water district, depending upon those entities' tax rates.
If the numbers at the YFZ ranch stand, the group's tax bill would be about $450,000. The sect paid about $200,000 last year.
All entities in Schleicher County offer an incentive for taxpayers to pay early. They get a 3-percent discount if the bill is paid in October, 2 percent in November and 1 percent in December.
The YFZ Ranch paid its taxes in October last year, and in December in 2004 when it purchased the land, Sutton said.
The county's tax rate is about 72 cents per $100 of taxable value. The county's budget is about $2 million, about 70 percent of which comes from oil and gas revenue.
The county hasn't begun work on its 2007 budget, so the full impact of the new values is not yet known, but County Judge Johnny Griffin said it's obvious the group's money will benefit taxpayers in the county.
"The more they pay, the less everyone else pays," Griffin said. "We are pretty close with the dollar (amounts). We don't have a choice. I wouldn't suspect commissioners would go with anything out of the ordinary. I think they will do what they can to maintain the level of services we have always had."
Sutton was last on the ranch in February and said the ranch's residents were accommodating in providing accurate measurements of the buildings. Those measurements, depreciation, appreciation and other factors are used to determine taxable value.
According to the state tax code, property owned by religious organizations may qualify for a property-tax exemption if the organization files for an exemption and shows it qualifies for the discount. Eligible property includes places of worship and residences of clergy, according to the code.
Sutton said the group has never filed for an exemption.
Church members bought the land near Eldorado, about 45 miles south of San Angelo, and constructed dozens of buildings on the land, but none as large as the temple. Construction on other buildings began after Jan. 1, the deadline for a building to be taxable in a given year.
There has been no clear indication of how many church members plan to move to the ranch or whether church leader and prophet Warren Jeffs has ever been in Eldorado, or on the ranch.
In May, the FBI placed Jeffs on its 10 Most Wanted list, alongside Osama bin Laden, and is offering a reward of as much as $100,000 for information leading to Jeffs' arrest.
The church also owns property in Colorado, South Dakota, Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Canada.
Jeffs, 50, is wanted in an alleged sexual assault on a minor in 2002, and one count of conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor in 2002. The alleged offenses took place near Colorado City, Ariz. Jeffs also is wanted on accusations of rape as an accomplice in Utah, according to the FBI's Web site.
Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran was out of town at a conference this week, and FBI officials in Dallas and Phoenix did not return phone calls for comment on Jeffs and his cash flow.
Commissioners don't expect to get tax money from the YFZ forever, Griffin said. With Jeffs wanted by the law, the funding source for the YFZ could dry up at a moment's notice. If Jeffs is arrested, his assets could be frozen.
If the tax money ever stops coming, the ranch will face foreclosure like anyone else, Griffin said.
"If they keep paying their taxes, then great," he said. "We won't get used to a custom of living off that income. We might get it, and we might not."
Taxing the temple
Following is a breakdown of last year's YFZ Ranch property tax bill in Schleicher County.
The 2006 tax bill probably will be higher because construction is complete on a new building valued at $8 million. Taxing districts have not yet set property tax rates for the new fiscal year.
Taxing entity 2005 levy
Schleicher County $55,106.53
Schleicher County ISD $113,684.23
Plateau Underground Water District $2,620.79
Schleicher County Medical Center hospital district $25,002.95
Total $196,414.50 Source: http://www.religionnewsblog.com/15028/flds-tax-bill-to-be-monumental
04/28/08 9:17 AM
By JOHN MacCORMACK San Antonio Express-news
ELDORADO - After more than a century as Schleicher County's only settlement, tiny, unpretentious Eldorado found itself with an improbable new neighbor rising swiftly from the empty brush a few miles from town four years ago.
Members of a secretive, hardworking polygamist sect, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, spent the past few years building a town on the 1,700-acre ranch, including more than 30 large buildings and a soaring white temple that dwarfs any house of worship within hundreds of miles.
The market value of Yearning for Zion Ranch exceeds $21 million - with the approximately 80,000-square-foot temple valued at $8.7 million, according to the county tax appraiser. One of the county's biggest taxpayers, the sect paid last year's $424,000 bill on time.
There is little mystery about the source of all the money and manpower it took to build the ranch, according to dissident FLDS members, who still live at the sect's historic home on the Utah and Arizona border.
They say before Warren Jeffs was arrested in August 2006, the sect's self-pronounced prophet aggressively solicited the faithful at its base in Colorado City, Ariz., for donations of cash and labor to build its "New Zion" in Texas.
Jeffs has since been convicted in Utah of being an accomplice in the rape of a 14-year-old girl. He is in Arizona awaiting charges of sexual conduct with a minor, incest and conspiracy, but he is still believed to be in charge of sect affairs.
"The money came from Warren's milkers. It's like he's got electric milkers on a bunch of dairy cows. He's got all these people, and he's milking them for all they're worth," said Richard Holm, 55, a Utah businessman who left the sect years ago after contributing more than $5 million in cash and property. "The Texas compound is supposedly for some of the elite that were culled out of the common folks and riffraff who were left here to work and send money to the elite over there."
Marvin Wyler, 63, is a polygamist who broke with Jeffs several years ago but who still lives in Colorado City, which many residents call Short Creek. He agreed that many families made great sacrifices to build the ranch.
"A while back, even two or three years ago, they were asking $500 to $1,000 a month from each family. And they had scores of men go down there and do the building. They worked for nothing," said Wyler, who has 34 children by three wives and more than 100 grandchildren.
According to Ben Bistline, a former sect member who wrote a history of the polygamists, Jeffs raised additional millions by selling properties owned by the church's community trust, called the United Effort Plan, and by persuading sect businessmen to kick in large sums.
"We're talking about tens of millions. And you've got to remember the Texas compound isn't the only one he has," Bistline said. "There's one in South Dakota, a small one in Colorado and others in Canada."
Male sect members are sought by contractors in the construction and home-building trades, he said.
"They are very skilled, hard workers. You can hire them and get away with underpaying them, or in the case of young people, paying them nothing, and giving all the money to Warren," Bistline said.
Another source of church funds was the profitable businesses that employed sect members, Bistline said.
"There are people in the organization who are very skilled at producing money. There was one business, Western Precision, that did things for the military. That was bringing in millions," he said. "That's where the money came for Texas. They're not making any out there."
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has reported that John Nielsen, a former employee of Western Precision, which is now called NewEra Manufacturing, claimed as part of a civil lawsuit that sect members were made to work for little or no wages and that up to $100,000 in monthly profits were donated to Jeffs or the church.
The company has obtained government contracts worth more than $1.2 million in recent years, mostly for aircraft parts for the Department of Defense, the newspaper reported.
Roger Hoole, a Salt Lake City lawyer who has sued the sect and Jeffs several times on behalf of various former members, said his investigators tried to track what Jeffs and the FLDS church owned.
"Significant assets were sold by the FLDS church just prior to the land in Texas being purchased, including a property in Utah called the Steed Ranch, which sold for a little over $8 million, and a couple of other parcels in Apple Valley, (Utah)," Hoole said. "That money didn't stay in Short Creek. It's probably a very safe assumption that it went to Texas."
With ample money and a ready pool of skilled labor, the Yearning for Zion Ranch was built with a speed and efficiency that amazed the handful of locals who regularly flew over it.
Pilot J.D. Doyle, 48, recalls watching a 21,000-square-foot residence take shape in a matter of weeks, followed by the 120-foot tall temple.
"As far as work ethic, diligence and pure engineering skill, you just can't beat these people, even if they do have a dark side," he said. "They built a whole town out there in four years. It's laid out better than Eldorado, and the buildings are better. ... This place was built with a plan." Source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5716417.html
04/28/08 9:19 AM
By Isaac Wolf and Trish Choate Scripps Howard News Service Thursday, April 17, 2008
WASHINGTON - As new details emerge about the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a central question about the polygamous religious group remains unclear: Is it a legitimate church?
The answer is clearer to the IRS and tax officials in Schleicher County, location of the Yearning For Zion Ranch. But it's still in debate within the Mormon community, including as many as 70 churches spawned from the movement Joseph Smith founded 150 years ago.
"It's nothing more than a cult," said Benjamin Bistline, who spent years as a devoted FLDS member in Short Creek, Ariz. "A cult is controlled by one person. ... What he says goes, or you get booted."
But neither the FLDS nor the YFZ Ranch -- scene of suspected child sexual and physical abuse -- have filed for status as a nonprofit organization with the IRS, an IRS spokesman said.
In Schleicher County, records reflect the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado has not requested an exemption from property taxes as a religious organization, an option for qualifying property.
Indeed, the YFZ Ranch's property tax tab adds up to $1 million from 2004, when the sect first began paying property taxes, through 2007, according to the Schleicher County Appraisal District.
Whatever the taxman's viewpoint, an expert on Mormon splinter groups considers FLDS a church.
To meet the definition, a church needs only a small group of people meeting to share religion and some sort of chain of command, said Steven Shields, who teaches at the Community of Christ Church in Independence, Mo.
The Greek word for church, "ecclesia," simply means a gathering of people doing something together, said Shields, who wrote "Divergent Paths of the Restoration." The book explores some 400 "expressions" of Mormonism developed from Joseph Smith's prophecies during the mid-1800s.
A constitutional law professor agreed FLDS is a church.
But Douglas Laycock of the University of Michigan didn't think FLDS's status as a church would make any difference in court or in determining whether the raid on the sect in Schleicher County was lawful.
"If there's probable cause, the government can search churches like anyplace else," Laycock said.
After a tip, Child Protective Services removed 416 children from the 1,700-acre compound this month, and 139 women left with them -- although some women now claim state officials separated their children from them. The children are living in San Angelo as authorities sort through handling their cases.
The FLDS practices a form of plural marriage in which the men take several "spiritual wives" that are not intended to be officially recognized by the law. The sect split from the Mormon church decades ago when the latter renounced polygamy.
Brian Hales, who has written extensively about polygamy, said the FLDS "for many years, they wanted to not call themselves a church." Being a church implied responsibilities such as missionary work, a pillar of Mormonism, he said. The FLDS was not interested in missionary work, he said.
"They just wanted to live their own little lives and practice polygamy," he said.
Alonzo Gaskill, an assistant professor of world religions at Brigham Young University, refused to label the sect as illegitimate.
"One first has to define what is meant by 'legitimate,'" he said. "In the end, legitimacy must be defined by the believer. An onlooker might claim a faith is somehow 'illegitimate,' but that doesn't make it such to the practitioner."
And just because FLDS is a church doesn't mean its practices are acceptable, Shields said.
"As an American, I don't think there's any place for that kind of thing -- legally or psychologically -- for permitting 14-year-old girls to be married to their 38-year-old uncles. That's wrong," Shields said.
After 40 years in the group, Bistline left in 1987 because leaders of the religious community, formerly "Priesthood Group," refused to give him a second wife.
"The women and kids aren't criminals," Bistline said. "But the men, they need to suffer." Source: http://www.reporternews.com/news/2008/apr/17/a-legitimate-church-is-the-flds-a-cult-sect-or/
04/28/08 9:23 AM
04/28/08 9:36 AM
04/28/08 10:03 AM
05/02/08 10:50 PM
ELDORADO, Texas - An arrest warrant has been dropped for a man thought to be the husband of a teenage girl whose report of abuse triggered a raid on a polygamous sect's Texas compound, authorities said.
A Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman would not say why the warrant was dropped for Dale E. Barlow, 50, who lives in Colorado City, Arizona. Barlow has denied knowing the 16-year-old girl who called a crisis center.
The girl reported that she was a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and that she was beaten and raped at the sect's Eldorado ranch.
An investigation led to the April 3 raid, in which state welfare workers took 463 children living at the Yearning For Zion Ranch. A boy was born to one of the sect's mothers Tuesday; he and the other children remain in state custody.
Authorities have not located the 16-year-old girl and are investigating the source of the call.
Public Safety spokesman Tom Vinger would not say when the warrant for Barlow was dropped, only that "it is no longer active."
Rob Parker, an FLDS spokesman, said the dropped warrant shows the weakness of the state's case against residents of the ranch.
"I think that's just one more piece of evidence that the whole basis on which this raid was premised was unfounded and was inadequately checked out, to the formulation of what basically amounted to an army that went in there and took their children," Parker said.
The phone number used to call the crisis center is the same one once used by a Colorado woman, identified as 33-year-old Rozita Swinton of Colorado Springs, accused of making previous false reports of abuse.
Investigators have not said whether Swinton made the call to Texas authorities, though Vinger said she is "still considered a person of interest."
"There is an investigation centering on that," Vinger said. "We have quite a bit of evidence that still needs to be analyzed."
A judge has ruled that children removed from the ranch should stay in state custody until all can have a hearing.
Child welfare officials told the judge the children were living in an authoritarian environment that left girls at risk of sexual abuse and raised boys to become sexual perpetrators.
The FLDS is a group that splintered from the Mormon Church, which does not recognize the sect and disavows polygamy.
In Utah, members of the polygamous church have asked the state's governor to intervene in its fight with Texas authorities over the custody the children.
A letter written by FLDS elder Willie Jessop says Texas officials are rejecting Utah-issued birth certificates and other documents as "fake."
The letter asks Gov. Jon Huntsman to exercise his executive authority to assist in protecting the civil rights of native Utahns and FLDS members. FLDS parents claim they have been denied their due process by the Texas courts.
"Without your leadership and personal intervention in this matter, the parental rights of every Utah family is at risk," Jessop wrote.
Huntsman spokeswoman Lisa Roskelly said the governor has been in contact with Jessop and was reviewing his request. Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354039,00.html