New round of hearings will begin on May 19
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
The second round of hearings will begin May 19 in San Angelo for the 464 children removed from a West Texas polygamist compound, but it is unlikely that any will be returned to their families then, officials say.
The 60-day hearings are typically a time for parents to work on service plans that could eventually lead to the reunion of families, said Marleigh Meisner, a state Child Protective Services spokeswoman.
Typically, the children are not present at the 60-day hearings, Meisner said Thursday.
"A service plan is much like a contract between the parents and Child Protective Services," Meisner said.
"If the family is apart, the mom will get one, the dad will get one and every child will get one.
"It's all done with the goal to heal whatever issues need to be healed."
The children were removed after the April 3 raid on 1,691-acre YFZ (Yearning for Zion) Ranch after a caller alleged she was an underage bride who had been forced to have sex by her husband at the sect's compound near Eldorado.
Those calls now appear to have been a hoax, but CPS officials said they found a pervasive pattern of physical and sexual abuse on the ranch, owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Five hearings at once
The second round of custody hearings for the 464 children won't bear any resemblance to the chaotic mass hearing that took place last month in San Angelo.
Instead of trying to deal with all the cases at once, the hearings will take place on a much smaller scale.
But it will require using five courtrooms at once to get all the cases heard by June 5.
"There will not be individual hearings for each child but they will be grouped by family groups, where siblings will have hearings together," said Guy Choate, a San Angelo attorney who is helping coordinate the hearings for the State Bar of Texas.
DNA results still pending
These hearings are unlikely to deal with the mass round of DNA testing that was conducted several weeks ago to determine the parentage of some children.
"I don't think any DNA will be back until late June so mostly they will be working on the service plans," Choate said.
Cynthia Martinez, a spokeswoman with Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid, which is representing 48 of the FLDS mothers, said some have received their notifications for the next round of hearings. But she said the mothers remain frustrated that their initial appeal with the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin hasn't been heard. "It's important to understand these hearings won't revisit the custody issue," Martinez said. "We are not happy at this point. The mothers have the right for these kids to question why their kids were taken."
Under state law, the mothers can submit their own service plans. Some mothers are working on the plans, Martinez said.
Mothers visiting kids
For now, the mothers must travel across the state to visit their children.
"We had one mother who got up [Wednesday] at 5 a.m. in San Antonio and drove to Corpus Christi to see one of her children and then drove to Waco to see another child. That is pretty typical. They have multiple children spread out in multiple locations hundreds of miles apart across the state," Martinez said.
She said it has been a relief for the mothers to finally see their children.
"I think the mothers are finding strength in seeing their children," Martinez said. "They miss their children and want to make sure they're OK."
Utah wants due process
FLDS member Willie Jessop sent a letter last week to Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman asking him to intervene in the mass removal of children from the Eldorado ranch. In his letter, Jessop said "atrocities" were being inflicted against FLDS women and children in Texas. He said some of the children in state custody are Utah residents.
Lisa Roskelley, a spokeswoman for Huntsman, said the governor reviewed the letter and asked the Utah Department of Human Services to ensure that Texas officials have a complete list of Utah residents who were at the ranch.
"The letter basically said that some Utah residents were involved in this and that some of them hadn't shown up on the list as receiving hearings," Roskelley said. "Our only concern is that the children are being taken care of and given due process. I think the governor has confidence that Texas is doing all they can and that everyone involved will be guaranteed due process."
The background
The FLDS members came to West Texas in 2003, when the church bought the stark, rolling ranchland four miles north of Eldorado. The sect split from the Mormon Church when the latter rejected polygamy in 1890. Most of the estimated 10,000 members of the FLDS live in Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah. There are an estimated 37,000 polygamists nationwide, mostly in the intermountain West, according to the Utah attorney general's office.
Warren Jeffs, the group's leader, has been sentenced to two terms of five years to life in prison in Utah for forcing an underage girl to marry an older cousin. He is awaiting trial on additional charges in Kingman, Ariz.
billhanna@star-telegram.com
