| Dismissals end case of sect chief's daughter | |
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By TERRI LANGFORD Houston Chronicle San Antonio Express-News | |
The contentious Texas child welfare case involving polygamist leader Warren Jeffs' 17-year-old daughter ended Friday when a West Texas judge dismissed the girl's attorney and the custody case itself. The teen, married at age 15 to a 34-year-old man, was one of 439 children taken from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' ranch last year by Child Protective Services after the agency found evidence that underage girls were being married to adult men. While CPS officials have returned all of the children to their parents after the Texas Supreme Court ruled against the action, the teen's case had been one of the most high-profile ones still working its way through state District Judge Barbara Walther's court in San Angelo. The teen's father, the leader of the FLDS, the nation's largest polygamist sect, is serving two prison terms of five years to life for his role in the 2001 marriage of a 14-year-old girl to her 19-year-old cousin. The 17-year-old's story was one of several central to the state of Texas' criminal case. She divulged in her own diary, recovered from the raid of the sect's Yearning For Zion Ranch, that she was married by her father to Raymond Jessop, son of Jeffs' chief deputy, Merril Jessop. Jessop was indicted last year by an Eldorado grand jury on one count of sexual assault on a minor. Last week, CPS officials informed Walther that court oversight no longer was needed in the teen's case. Sources close to the case, who asked not to be identified, said the "harmful, abusive environment" the girl faced last December no longer was a threat. Her father is in jail and her husband can't contact the girl as part of his bond condition. On Friday, Walther agreed with CPS and informed the girl's attorney, Natalie Malonis, that with the CPS case gone, she no longer was needed as court-appointed counsel. After the hearing, Malonis said CPS is failing to keep her former client safe. "There's no way I can force the department to do their job," Malonis said. "But in statements as recent as mid-December, they said the home environment for these children is harmful and dangerous. Their (dismissals) puts the court in the position of returning children to the environment where they need protection." Mindy Montford, attorney for the girl's mother, who had asked for Malonis to be removed from the case, was pleased with Walther's decision. The decision also pleased sect members. "We're clearly grateful that the judge made a decision with good intelligence," said Willie Jessop, an FLDS spokesman. "It's been OK today." | |
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mysanantonio.com Originally published February 6, 2009 | |
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