| Lawyer asks to quit FLDS custody case | |||
|
By Ben Winslow Deseret News | |||
A lawyer appointed to represent a 14-year-old girl believed to have been married at age 12 to Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs is seeking to drop out of the child custody case. Court clerks in San Angelo, Texas, confirmed to the Deseret News on Tuesday that Carmen Dusek filed a motion to withdraw as the girl's attorney. The reasons why were not immediately clear as the filing had not been made public. "She does not comment on pending cases," said a woman who answered the phone at Dusek's law firm. A judge will consider the motion on Friday, the same day she plans to take up the case of 17-year-old Teresa Jeffs, the daughter of the FLDS leader. Meanwhile, a report on the 14-year-old girl accused her mother of text messaging her, urging her to "stay angry" and to "keep crying" because "CPS needs to see that you are miserable there." The Court Appointed Special Advocates, an independent body acting on behalf of a child's best interests, filed a report on the girl earlier this week. Court officials declined to release it saying that a judge had agreed to hear a motion to seal it Friday. The San Angelo Standard-Times obtained a copy and reports it recommended the judge halt visitation between the girl and her mother, Barbara Jessop. "CASA is shocked that Mrs. Jessop would place her daughter again in a situation where she would be forced to sneak around to communicate," the newspaper quoted the report as saying. "The text messages telling (the girl) how to behave are disturbing." The report claimed the girl secretly obtained the phone from her mother, who sent her 36 text messages while she has been in foster care. The report did not include a transcript of the messages, but quoted from them, the Standard-Times said. The girl is the only one from the YFZ Ranch to be ordered back into foster care after a judge ruled her mother was unable to protect her from abuse. Photos surfaced in connection with the custody case showing Jeffs and the girl at age 12, kissing in a manner that CPS lawyers described was "how a husband kisses a wife." Authorities have alleged she was married to Jeffs during a ceremony at the YFZ Ranch in 2006. Documents obtained by the Deseret News on Tuesday confirmed that the girl's 12-year-old brother, who was also under court oversight in the case, was among the four recently "nonsuited" by 51st District Judge Barbara Walther. "The Department no longer desires to prosecute its suit affecting the parent-child relationship as it relates to (the boy)," Texas Child Protective Services attorney Michele Surratt wrote in a motion to dismiss the case. Of the 439 children originally taken into state protective custody in April's raid on the YFZ Ranch, only three remain under court oversight. CPS abruptly nonsuited Teresa Jeffs on Monday, but a counter-petition filed by the teen's court-appointed attorney is still pending. Jeffs' mother, Annette, is seeking to replace Natalie Malonis, arguing she is not acting in her daughter's best interests. Lawyers for YFZ Ranch leader Frederick Merril Jessop (the father of the 14-year-old girl) and church spokesman Willie Jessop are also seeking to seal deposition transcripts related to the custody case. A dozen men, including Warren Jeffs, have been indicted by a Texas grand jury on charges that vary from sexual assault of a child and bigamy to performing a marriage ceremony prohibited by law and failure to report child abuse. E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com | |||
|
DeseretNews.com Originally published Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2009 | |||
| Back | |||
| For more information email: | |||
