Investigator says girls pregnant in polygamist sect
By MICHELLE ROBERTS, Associated Press Writer Fri Apr 18, 8:44 AM ET
SAN ANGELO, Texas -
After hours of lawyers popping up with similar objections and questions, a
custody hearing for 416 children seized from a polygamist sect finally turned
to whether they were abused: A child welfare worker said some women at the
sect's ranch may have had children when they were minors, some as young as 13.
The testimony came late Thursday, the first
day of a court hearing to determine whether the children, swept up in a raid on
the ranch two weeks ago, will remain in state custody. Child welfare officials
claim the children were abused or in imminent danger of abuse because the sect
encourages girls younger than 18 to marry and have children. (In another article
Child welfare investigator Angie Voss
testified that at least five girls who are younger than 18 are pregnant or have
children. Voss said some of the women identified as adults with children may be
juveniles, or may have had children when they were younger than 18.
Identifying
children and parents has been difficult because members of the
The court
hearing, which continues Friday morning, disintegrated into farce early
Thursday, as hundreds of lawyers who descended on San Angelo for the
proceedings shouted objections or queued up to cross-examine witnesses. (Confirmation)The judge struggled
to maintain order.
"I've tried to impose some structure
to this free-for-all," said Texas District Judge Barbara Walther.
The case — one of the biggest, most convoluted
child-custody hearings in U.S. history — presented an extraordinary
spectacle: big-city lawyers in suits and mothers in 19th-century,
pioneer-style dresses, all packed into a historic courtroom and an auditorium
two blocks away that was patched into the proceedings by a grainy video feed.
The state wants to keep the children in its
custody, and likely move them to foster homes while officials continue
investigating abuse allegations. The state must provide evidence the children
were physically or sexually abused, or are in imminent danger of abuse.
In 11 hours on Thursday, only three
witnesses testified, including Voss.
As lawyers shouted, dozens of mothers sat
quietly in their long cotton dresses and braided upswept hair. They were sworn
in as possible witnesses at the hearing's outset, but it was not clear when
they might testify.
In the satellite courtroom at City Hall,
hundreds of people strained to see and hear a large projector set up on the
auditorium's stage. But the feed was blurry and barely audible.
"I'm not in a position to advocate for
anything," complained Susan Hays, the appointed attorney for a 2-year-old
sect member.
No decisions were made on the fate of any
of the youngsters, and more cross-examination of Voss was likely Friday.
The children, most of whom
are being kept in a domed coliseum in
She said
she was concerned about how the children and women followed the orders of the
church's prophet, identified as jailed leader Warren Jeffs.
"The
children reported that if the prophet heard from the Heavenly Father that they
were to marry at any age, they were to do that. If the prophet said they were
to lie, they were to do that," Voss said.
Jeffs is currently awaiting trial in a Kingman, Ariz., jail on
charges related to the promotion of underage marriages. He previously was
convicted of being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old wed to her cousin
in a
The sect came to
Authorities raided the 1,700-acre ranch
south of here in Eldorado on April 3 and began
removing children while seeking evidence of underage girls being married to
adults. Walther signed an emergency order giving the state custody of the
children taken from the ranch.
The raid was prompted by a call from
someone identifying herself as a 16-year-old girl with the sect. She claimed
her husband, a 50-year-old member of the sect, beat and raped her.
The girl has yet to be identified, though
Voss said a girl matching her description was seen by other girls in the ranch
garden four days before the raid began.