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Carole Mikita reportingWe asked and you responded. This child custody case surrounding the FLDS community in Eldorado, Texas, has brought us hundreds of e-mails after we asked on KSL.com what hasn't been clearly explained in the coverage of the case.
We divided the hundreds of e-mails we received into categories and decided to begin with one of the most often asked questions about the constitutionality of removing 462 children from the YFZ ranch.
If the original calls were a hoax, why are the children still in state custody?
Legally it's probable cause. The cell phone calls got investigators a warrant. Once inside, they say they found evidence. Darrell Azar, with Texas Child Protective Services (CPS), says, "Based upon what we found when we got to the ranch, not based upon what we had in the original report, we found that there were a number of children that had been sexually abused, and there were other types of abuse."
Why take all of the children?
CPS says even the youngest were not safe because no one was protecting them. "Not only did we have adult men who may have been sexually abusing children, but you had adult women who had not protected them in the past. And in that situation, you cannot allow the children to be there at this time," Azar said.
What about in Utah, where we see individual polygamy cases versus the mass-scale actions in Texas?
In Texas, investigators have three weeks to decide whether to put children in foster care. In Utah, they have three days. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has explained, "That's why we've said we're going to focus on just those cases of abuse, and we'll take them one victim at a time, one case at a time, one house at a time."
What are the differences between the FLDS Church and the LDS Church's early polygamy?
Paul Reeve, Ph.D., an assistant history professor at the University of Utah, said, "There were no arranged marriages. Brigham Young was very liberal in his divorce policy, was not marrying underage children, or reassigning people the way that the FLDS have done under Warren Jeffs."
The FLDS mothers will be able to visit their children in foster care. An appellate court in Austin will hold a hearing Tuesday on a motion from dozens of mothers who want their children back. And prosecutors are still investigating to bring criminal charges against the FLDS men they believe are the abusers.
E-mail: cmikita@ksl.com
