Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

[jon1856]

Texas Polygamy Raid May Pose Risk
ELDORADO, Tex. — The raid last week on a polygamist compound here is complicating law enforcement efforts in Utah and Arizona, where there are far more offshoot Mormon polygamists but where the authorities try to avoid such large-scale confrontations.
Officials in those states have dealt for many years with the tangled and delicate problem of opening communications with polygamist groups while also winning the confidence of girls who are taken as under-age wives. The Texas authorities say the raid here was prompted by a 16-year-old who called on a cellphone from the compound in a cry for help.
But the raid’s scale — 416 children were removed, making it the largest raid in more than a half century in the West — and the fact that the 16-year-old has not been identified, has sharply eroded trust in the government among polygamist groups, according to law enforcement officials in several states.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/12/us...ss&oref=slogin

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by jon1856

Texas Polygamy Raid May Pose Risk
ELDORADO, Tex. — The raid last week on a polygamist compound here is complicating law enforcement efforts in Utah and Arizona, where there are far more offshoot Mormon polygamists but where the authorities try to avoid such large-scale confrontations.
Officials in those states have dealt for many years with the tangled and delicate problem of opening communications with polygamist groups while also winning the confidence of girls who are taken as under-age wives. The Texas authorities say the raid here was prompted by a 16-year-old who called on a cellphone from the compound in a cry for help.
But the raid’s scale — 416 children were removed, making it the largest raid in more than a half century in the West — and the fact that the 16-year-old has not been identified, has sharply eroded trust in the government among polygamist groups, according to law enforcement officials in several states.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/12/us...ss&oref=slogin

Not that I really have any problem with the raid in practice, the fact that they can't find, or identify if they did find her, the girl who made the complaint does kind of make you wonder a tiny bit about a relatively low standard for probable cause for the raid.

Suppose all it took for anyone's house to be raided was a cell phone call by someone who later couldn't be found? It seems a little troublesome.

Sure, in this instance, coupled with it being a FCJCLDS compound, the call seems like enough. But it's troublesome on some level too even if you aren't a a member of polygamous group.

[Benzgirl]

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaind...270.xml&coll=2

San Angelo, Texas - All their lives, the girls in the polygamist sect in the west Texas desert were told that the outside world was hostile and immoral, and that venturing beyond the brilliant white limestone walls of their compound would consign them to eternal damnation.
Now, if the state gets its way, hundreds of the girls could be put in foster homes, in what could be a wrenching cultural adjustment that may require intensive counseling.
"What they are up against is having to deprogram an entire community," said Margaret Cooke, who left the sect with seven of her eight children near the end of 1994. The children "are so naive and they have been sheltered to the point that they don't even trust their own judgment."

[jon1856]

Rangers talk with polygamist ranch suspect

ELDORADO, Texas (CNN) -- Texas Rangers on Saturday met with -- but did not arrest -- the man accused by a teenage girl of physically and sexually abusing her at a polygamist compound.
Arizona probation officials said the meeting with Dale Evans Barlow, 50, happened just across the Arizona state line in St. George, Utah.
"The Texas Rangers met with him. He was allowed to go, and no arrest was made," said Friend Walker, director of the Mojave County, Arizona, probation office.
Barlow's attorney, Bruce Griffen, said the meeting was voluntary
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/04/12/...rss_topstories

[jon1856]

Attys: Texas Polygamists May Recant
PHOENIX (AP) - Polygamous sect members who were moved to a Texas compound from their longtime homes along the Utah-Arizona line were hand-picked for their fierce loyalty to leader Warren Jeffs, and that allegiance may be a stumbling block for law enforcement, authorities say.

Jeffs, the imprisoned leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, transferred people to Eldorado, Texas, to escape growing government scrutiny on the sect's base in Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said.

"This was Warren Jeffs' all-star cast," said Goddard, who has been investigating the sect since 2004. "They had the strongest sense of obedience."

As a result, their extreme devotion could make it hard on Texas authorities as they push for prosecutions, said Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/attys-t...4?ecid=RSS0001