Removal is sought of 8 FLDS kids again

Texas child welfare authorities have filed court papers asking a judge to put eight children from the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch back into foster care.

Child Protective Services claims it is because the mothers have refused to limit the children's contact with men involved in underage marriages, suggesting the families are being uncooperative.

"We are concerned about the welfare of these eight children," said Marleigh Meisner, a CPS spokeswoman. "We have found in these particular cases, these children do not have a protective parent who is willing to ensure their safety."

The six girls and two boys, ages 5 to 17, will not be removed from their homes immediately. A judge in San Angelo has set a Sept. 25 court hearing to consider the request.

In affidavits filed with the motions, child welfare workers don't explicitly state that any of the children have been sexually abused. One of the children, a 14-year-old girl, was married at age 12 to FLDS leader Warren Jeffs. The girl said in an interview that "it isn't what CPS is making it to be."

"She said that the marriages are pure," CPS caseworker Ruby Gutierrez wrote in an affidavit. "Further, (the girl) stated that this can't be a crime because Heavenly Father is the one that tells Warren when a girl is ready to get married and that he is only following the word of Heavenly Father."

Texas child welfare authorities have claimed that children on the Yearning for Zion Ranch are at risk of abuse, with girls becoming child brides and boys growing up to become sexual perpetrators. As part of the massive custody battle, CPS asked parents to sign service plans to protect their children — including a requirement that the children be kept away from men who may have been involved in underage marriages.

In these cases, the parents refused to sign.

Amy Johnson, the mother of a 13-year-old girl, is accused of allowing her 15-year-old daughter to be married to an older man in 2005.

"Ms. Young refused to take any of those options stating it would be 'an insult to common sense,"' CPS caseworker Kerrie Blair wrote in an affidavit asking the state to take custody of Ellen Grace Young's two daughters, ages 9 and 10.

Young, CPS claims, "abandoned" her children for three years while working in Nevada, not knowing who they were living with on the YFZ Ranch. The agency alleges she also lied to a CPS caseworker about being married, first to a man named Nephi Barlow (the father of the children), and then to Merril Jessop, the ranch's leader, in a 2004 ceremony in a Cedar City motel room.

The whereabouts of some of the parents named in the court papers, including Jessop, are unknown.

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