State wants girl from polygamist compound evaluated
 
By Paul A. Anthony
San Angelo Standard-Times
 
Describing a series of alleged deceptions and roadblocks thrown up by a 17-year-old mother, the state's child-welfare agency is asking a Tom Green County judge to order her to undergo psychological evaluation.

The girl, alleged by the state's Child Protective Services agency to have been married to an adult man at age 14, has so obstructed investigators' efforts to assess her parenting skills that the agency worries she may be unable to care for the 8-month-old baby, according to a motion filed last week and released Monday by Tom Green County state district court.

"The department is concerned for the emotional welfare of" the girl, the motion, filed by CPS lead attorney John Dolezal, states. "Specifically, it appears that (the girl) has been separated from her child."

The girl's attorney, Kelly J. Ellis, was unavailable for comment, her office said.

Sect spokesman Willie Jessop said CPS' own actions have made the girl afraid the agency will take the infant from her.

"This girl is mortified at the state," he said. "She's terrified they'll take her baby. There's been a breakdown of trust."

The motion also states that CPS does not intend to seek permanent custody of the girl, one of two whose cases remain open since the April 3 raid of the YFZ Ranch, where the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has made its Texas home.

It's the first time CPS has said publicly it will not ask for custody of the 17-year-old girl, said CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins - bringing to 438 the number of children who have been or are likely to be dropped from the case out of the original 439 removed during the weeklong raid.

State District Judge Barbara Walther will take up the motion at a hearing Thursday, court administrators said.

The girl made headlines in November when she refused to divulge the whereabouts of her infant, even after an order from Walther.

Rather than find the teen in contempt of court, Walther recessed the hearing and ordered attorneys to strike a sealed agreement in which the girl, her mother and attorneys for both were to meet with CPS attorneys and caseworkers and produce the baby for genetic testing.

Instead, the motion states, she produced a baby that testing showed is not hers.

Attempts to meet again were rebuffed, as the girl refused to sign an agreement in which all sides would meet Jan. 9, the motion states, leading CPS to request that she undergo psychological evaluation.

Further attempts to agree on a time and a doctor also were rejected, according to the motion, leading CPS to ask Walther to order the testing be done on Saturday.

"Petitioner is concerned that (the girl) is being improperly influenced, against her best interest, into making choices not to produce her child and to produce another individual's child," the motion states. "These circumstances cause (CPS) to have great concern for (her) emotional well-being."

The girl's child was born in June, shortly after state appellate courts ordered the return of all 439 children taken in April from the YFZ Ranch. CPS has argued it found a "pervasive pattern and practice" of forced underage marriage and sexual abuse there, and that more than 25 percent of pubescent girls removed from the compound were married between ages 12 and 15.

CPS alleges the girl was married at age 14. She turns 18 in August.
 
gosanangelo.com
Originally published Tuesday, March 3, 2009
 
Back