Details of Polygamy Sect Laid Bare Records indicate underaged marriages, multiple wives

By Jim Forsyth WOAI NewsRadio 1200 - San Antonio, Texas

An investigator for Texas Child Protective Services told a chaotic hearing in San Angelo today that officials decided to remove more than 400 children from a polygamist ranch in west Texas after interviews with some of the girls in the Yearning For Zion compound revealed a ‘pattern that children having children’ was acceptable, and that ‘no age was too young for spirits to unite,' 1200 WOAI's Michael Board reports from San Angelo. Angie Voss, the agency’s Supervisor for Investigators, recalled receiving a telephone report from a pregnant 16 year old girl named Sarah on March 29, indicating that she had been abused by her husband, a 50 year old man. She said she went to the ranch to find ‘Sarah,’ and was first told that there was nobody named Sarah living there, but later was told there were several ‘Sarahs.’ Voss also told of being ‘frightened’ when she was interviewing girls at the sect’s schoolhouse. "There were men all over," she said. "They surrounded the schoolhouse." But she said when sect leader Merrill Jessop got on the speakerphone and told the men to cooperate, they immediately left. Texas State Police Sergeant Danny Crawford, who led the raid on the 1700 acre compound which was prompted by the call from Sarah, testified of finding a safe, and inside the safe was a complete list of 38 families living on the YFZ ranch, including the names of men, their wives and their children, and gave the ages of the women and their children. He indicated that one man was listed as having nine ‘wives,’ and other was listed as having 22. The hearing before Tom Green County State District Judge Barbara Walther, is chaotic, with several hundred attorneys packing the courtroom, and an overflow room set up nearby, where the proceedings are being shown live via TV hookup. On several occasions, proceedings had to be halted while bailiffs made copies of court documents for the attorneys in the overflow room to examine. The case is believed to be the largest child custody hearing in U.S. history, as Walther will determine whether 416 children removed from the ranch will become wards of the state, be placed into foster care, or be returned to their mothers at the compound. Attorneys for the mothers and for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints repeatedly objected to Voss’ testimony, telling Walther that she was simply repeating what the children had told her, which amounts to hearsay testimony. Walther rejected attorneys’ objections that the raid violated the group’s freedom of religion, and stressed that the sect and its religious beliefs are not on trial. Outside the courtroom, fathers of the children discussed their families with the reporters who had gathered for the case. "I think its all just a bunch of hoax," sect member William Jessop said. But when he was asked about evidence indicating men with multiple underaged wives, Jessop said he ‘had to leave.’ Voss testified at length about the control Merrill Jessop, the leader of the FLDS community, clearly had over the sect’s members. She said officials also ‘grossly underestimated’ the number of people living on the ranch before the raid. Officials have still not identified the “Sarah" who made the phone call, and don’t know if she is among the children removed from the compound. One question facing the judge. Texas law requires that a child who has found to have been a victim of abuse be ‘removed from the home.’ But attorneys differ about whether the ‘home’ in this case means the individual houses where the FLDS families live, or the larger compound, which the residents consider to be their communal ‘home.’ Voss also testified of finding the journals of several of the young girls. One of them told of seeing ‘Sarah’ in the garden of the compound, describing her as aged 16 and pregnant with another baby. One girl, identified as ‘Girl Number 9’ wrote that ‘Uncle Merrill (Jessop) will decide who and when she marries.’ Another, called ‘Girl Number 8,’ wrote that it is ‘okay to lie to the authorities because the Prophet (Jessop) gets all his information from God.’ The hearing was continuing late Thursday evening.

radio.woai.com Originally published Thursday, April 17, 2008

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