San Angelo's NewBridge to get help from Utah groups in aiding families from YFZ Ranch
 
By JAYNA BOYLE and MATT PHINNEY
San Angelo Standard-Times
 
Officials from NewBridge Family Shelter in San Angelo and the National Domestic Violence Hotline said this morning at a news conference that their agencies will work with similar domestic abuse groups in Utah to get training to help victims from plural families such as those from the YFZ Ranch.

Tammy Harris, NewBridge executive director, said her agency contacted Child Protective Services once it took calls from a girl at the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints compound near Eldorado and determined she is 16. On a separate day, NewBridge contacted law enforcement.

Harris said she did not know the number of calls the girl made to NewBridge but said it is fewer than a dozen. She said she could not comment on whether others from FLDS had ever contacted NewBridge.

Phone operators are not allowed to get help for a caller unless the caller asks for assistance, said Sheryl Cates, chief executive officer of the National Domestic Violence Hotline and the leader of the Texas Council on Family Violence.

"When we go to the phones, we have to believe that call," Cates said in response to a question about the authenticity of the FLDS call.

"Our job is to assess that situation," she said.

NewBridge does not record phone conversations, but phone operators take notes, Harris said.

Harris said she was surprised to learn of the number of women and children living at the compound. The state has removed 416 children from the ranch and taken them into custody, and 139 women have left, in many cases to stay with their children.
 
gosanangelo.com
Originally published Thursday, April 10, 2008
 
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