Attorneys raise concerns about FLDS child-custody cases
 
By Paul A. Anthony
San Angelo Standard-Times
 
Attorneys unleashed a litany of concerns this morning about how 51st District court will handle what is likely the most challenging case its ever received. The attorneys questioned the constitutionality of a state proposal that hearings for all 416 children be conducted en masse and alleged that adult women sequestered at Fort Concho have been told they will not be allowed back into the complex if they leave, even to talk to an attorney.

State authorities were not immediately available to respond to the concerns.

The concerns, initially expressed by local attorney Theodore A. Hargrove III, were echoed by Rod Parker, a former attorney for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who is serving as a spokesman for FLDS parents, after the informal meeting this morning between 51st District Judge Barbara Walther and nearly three dozen attorneys in the complex child-custody case.

"I don't see how this can be resolved by Thursday," when the first custody hearing is scheduled, Parker said. "I'm sure the court appreciates the issues."

Hargrove read a list of concerns on behalf of attorneys representing the adult mothers housed at Fort Concho.

Among them: The constitutionality of a state proposal that an evidentiary hearing be done en masse, allegations that the women have been tacitly discouraged from visiting with attorneys for fear of being barred from returning to the fort, and persistent problems with as many as 30 young women who have children but whose age - and whether they are adults - is uncertain.

"The adult women's attorneys don't feel en masse is the way this should be done," Hargrove told Walther. "Constitutionally, there are a lot of problems with due process."

Attorneys and Tom Green County court officials began the arduous process this morning of determining the logistics of the largest child-removal case in state history.

Child Protective Services attorney Gary Banks said the state wants to have at least the evidence portion of the case en masse, something Walther did not immediately reject.

"If I give everybody five minutes, that would be 70 hours of testimony," Walther told the attorneys, whose numbers filled the jury box and more than half of cavernous Courtroom A in the Tom Green County Courthouse. "There's got to be a more efficient way to do that."

Walther has appointed two San Angelo attorneys - Carmen Dusek and Randol Stout - as coordinators for the horde of appointed ad litem attorneys for the 416 boys and girls in the temporary custody of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.

Hundreds of attorneys from across the state are expected to arrive in San Angelo in the coming days, creating a hotel-room shortage. For Wednesday night alone, about 300 are seeking a place to stay.

Other steps also have been taken in the unique case, Walther indicated.

The Tom Green County and Schleicher County district clerks have formed an agreement to allow paperwork to be filed in either court and transferred, while the Texas Supreme Court is meeting in emergency session to consider a request from Walther to allow electronic filing in her court, in the hope that such a move could mitigate the tens of thousands of pages of paperwork expected in the massive case.

The case arises out of a raid launched April 3 by the state's Child Protective Services agency on the YFZ Ranch northeast of Eldorado, run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Over the next week, the state removed 416 children and obtained temporary custody of them, alleging a "pervasive pattern and practice" of forced underage marriage and sexual abuse.
 
gosanangelo.com
Originally published Monday, April 14, 2008
 
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