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Sect members to undergo genetic testing

Members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints file out of the Tom Green County Courthouse following the custody hearing in San Angelo, Texas, on Friday. Presiding judge Barbara Walther ruled that the sect's children would remain in the custody of the state. PHOTO: AP

The more than 400 children taken from a ranch run by a polygamous sect will stay in state custody and be subject to genetic testing to sort out family relationships that have confounded welfare authorities, a judge ruled.

State District Judge Barbara Walther heard 21 hours of testimony over two days before ruling on Friday that the children would be kept in custody while the state continues to investigate allegations of abuse stemming from the teachings of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

“This is but the beginning,” Walther said.

Individual hearings will be set for the children over the next several weeks, and the judge will determine whether they are moved into permanent foster care or can be returned to their parents. All hearings must be held by June 5.

Walther also ordered that all 416 children and parents be given genetic tests. Child welfare officials say they’ve had difficulty determining how the children and adults are related because of evasive or changing answers.

A mobile genetic lab will take samples tomorrow at the main shelter where children are being kept; parents will be able to submit samples on Tuesday in Eldorado, closer to the ranch.

The custody case is one of the largest and most convoluted in US history. The ruling capped two days of marathon testimony that sometimes descended into chaos as hundreds of lawyers for the children and parents competed to defend their clients in two large rooms linked by a video feed.

Attorneys popped up with objections in a courtroom and nearby auditorium, then queued up down the aisle to cross-examine witnesses in a mass hearing that frustrated attorneys and stretched the small-town court system.

The April 3 raid on the Yearning For Zion Ranch was prompted by a call made to a family violence shelter, purportedly by a 16-year-old girl who said her 50-year-old husband beat and raped her. That girl has never been identified.

The state of Texas argued it should be allowed to keep the children because the sect’s teaching encourages girls younger than 18 to enter spiritual marriages with older men and produce as many children as possible. Its attorneys argued that the culture put all the girls at risk and potentially turned the boys into future predators.

A witness for the parents, who was presented by defense lawyers as an expert on the FLDS, disputed that the girls have no say in who they marry.

“I believe the girls are given a real choice,” said John Walsh. “Girls have successfully said, ‘No, this is not a good match for me,’ and they remained in good standing.”

But Bruce Perry, a psychiatrist who has studied children in cults, testified that the girls will not refuse marriages because they are indoctrinated to believe disobedience will lead to their damnation.

The renegade Mormon sect’s belief system “is abusive. The culture is very authoritarian,” he said.

Perry acknowledged that many adults at the ranch are loving parents and that the boys seemed emotionally healthy.

When asked if the belief system really endangered the older boys or young children, Perry said, “I have lost sleep over that question.”

He also conceded that the children, taught from birth to believe that contact with the outside world will lead to eternal damnation, would suffer if placed in traditional foster care.

“If these children are kept in the custody of the state, there would have to be exceptional and innovative programmatic elements for these children and their families,” he said. “The traditional foster care system would be destructive for these children.”

Four women testified on Friday and all said they were free to make their own choices.

Life on their 688-hectare gated ranch “is very peaceful. You can feel the peace when you are there. Very loving. We raise our children in a loving environment.”

Texas Rangers also are investigating a Colorado woman as a “person of interest” related to calls made to a family crisis center. Police arrested Rozita Swinton, 33, on Wednesday in Colorado Springs on a misdemeanor charge of false reporting to authorities for a call she made in late February.

Authorities did not say whether a call by Swinton might be the one that triggered the raid, but said officers who searched her home found items suggesting a possible connection between Swinton and calls regarding FLDS compounds.
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