Reactions split regarding FLDS compound raid

**AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez**Team Coverage

Opinions are divided on whether Texas authorities are doing the right thing. Some say, yes, the safety of children is at risk; others say no, it's a violation of FLDS members' First Amendment rights.

The Texas Department of Child Protective Services says the hundreds of children removed from the compound were in imminent risk of abuse. Others say authorities violated multiple civil rights by taking away so many when, originally, they went looking for just one.

Former prosecutor David Leavitt has a special interest in following what's happening at the YFZ Ranch in Texas. He prosecuted polygamist Tom Green, a case that resulted in a conviction in 2001. Leavitt's take on the raid at the compound is that it's the right thing to do. "My guess is they went in there, and they were sickened by what they found," he said.

On the flip side of the controversy, attorney Mike Piccarretta says, "What's going on in Texas is an abomination." He's the attorney representing Warren Jeffs in his Arizona trial and believes what's happening just outside Eldorado isn't right.

"Our country is based on leaving people alone, letting them practice their religious faith, and it seems like if this was happening to any other religion in this country, there would be a huge outcry," he says.

Then there are those who have lived the FLDS religion. Carolyn Jessop, a former FLDS member, spoke on the Today Show this morning. She said the problem of abuse starts with the men in charge. Her former husband, Merrill Jessop, took over as leader of the FLDS faith after Warren Jeffs was convicted last September. She said, "Life with him was horrible. It was like living in a police state."

Carolyn Jessop left the religious sect in 2003, when she was 35. She never lived inside the Eldorado compound, but she said if it's anything like the life she had with her former husband, abuse is taking place. She said, "He was just a horrible man, and the way he controlled me was being violent towards my children. The method Merrill used was a form of water torture. He would spank the baby until it was screaming out of control, and then he would hold the baby's face up under the tap of running water so it couldn't breathe. And he would do this repeatedly, sometimes it would go on for an hour."

Wendy McDonald, from West Valley City, was also born into polygamy and became a plural wife. She too left FLDS beliefs behind but feels there's a different side to the story that isn't being told. She said, "I think they're making them all sound like what a few are doing. To me it's like if you went into the Mormon Church and one family abuses their children, you don't go arresting the whole ward." She says 400 children taken is a little extreme.

Salt Lake civil rights attorney Brian Barnard has tried to have Utah's ban on polygamy overturned in the past on the grounds the government shouldn't interfere with religious beliefs.

He believes the government can and should intervene if there's evidence of abuse, but that does not justify swooping into a small community and taking all the children into custody. He said, "It's inconceivable that all 400 children in that community are in immediate danger to justify the drastic action of the state of Texas."

The major announcement from the Texas Department of Child Protective Services today was that the abuse was not isolated and that it's a "pervasive pattern" of forced marriage and sexual abuse.

Wendy McDonald feels the police action in Texas will likely force die-hard polygamists to go further underground. But Carolyn Jessop says protecting the children comes first.

The people we haven't heard from thus far are the people living in the compound, those practicing the FLDS religion. Jeffs' attorney doesn't see that happening; he says they've grown distrustful of the mainstream media over the years.

E-mail: gkennedy@ksl.com
E-mail: bbruce@ksl.com
E-mail: sdallof@ksl.com

Related topics