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John Hollenhorst reporting Last night police raided the FLDS temple in Eldorado, Texas. Today, on the fourth day of a massive law enforcement effort, huge numbers of women and children were on the move again.
There's still no indication whether authorities have found the 16-year-old girl who triggered this enormous and highly-unusual law enforcement action. She reported being abused at the FLDS ranch.
At last count, we believe 219 people have been removed from their homes. Eighteen of the children are in formal state custody because a judge ruled they're at risk of abuse.
Today, officials loaded most of the women and children on buses. They were removed over the last three days from the ranch founded by followers of imprisoned polygamist Warren Jeffs. The buses took them to a military base in San Angelo, a restored historic frontier fort called Fort Concho. The historic frontier post is now guarded by lawmen, watching over women and children.
Marleigh Meisner, public information officer with Child Protective Services, said, "Early this afternoon, we did move some of the children, in fact, all of the children and adults. And we have moved them to a shelter in San Angelo, Texas, that's going to afford us a bigger facility, and it's going to allow all the children to be together in one location."
The most Texas officials have said is the old historic park is a convenient place to keep mothers together with their children while authorities investigate allegations of abuse. But so far they haven't said much about civil liberties and the legalities of the situation.
It's a scene that hasn't been re-enacted for more than half-century: women and children from a polygamist community taken away from their homes for no one knows how long.
"We have trained staff, special investigators, who have come in from Child Protective Services offices throughout the state. They continue doing one-on-one interviews with the women and with the children to obtain further information," Meisner said.
The move comes after officials began searching the FLDS temple on the compound last night. Jeffs' followers initially refused access to the temple, but eventually a SWAT team was able to get in and look for the 16-year-old girl who had made a phone call last week complaining about abuse.
Child Protective Services says it hasn't been able to verify if the girl is still missing. "We don't know if she's in the group of children that's been removed. It's very difficult for us to identify these children," Meisner said.
According to court documents, authorities are looking for evidence that 50-year-old Dale Barlow married and impregnated the young girl who called police. Barlow served jail time last year in Arizona for conspiracy in another case involving a similar accusation.
Barlow's probation officer told the Salt Lake Tribune that Barlow is in Colorado City and does not even know his accuser.
One of the odd things about this situation is that authorities have not explained exactly what legal basis they have for keeping so many people out of their homes. Law enforcement officials are being extremely tight-lipped. They're under a gag order from a judge.
The closest parallel to this incident is the famous 1953 raid on Short Creek, which later was re-named Colorado City and Hildale. In that case, public opinion backfired on the crackdown and the governor of Arizona was voted out of office. It's too soon to say if this one will pass muster in the courts of law and the court of public opinion.
Eldorado residents say they've lived peacefully with the FLDS members since they arrived.
Randy Mankin, with Eldorado Success Weekly, says, "Like a flying saucer landed out there. Like an alien culture. We've spent four years trying to educate ourselves and the public as to who our neighbors are."
E-mail: jhollenhorst@ksl.com
