Texas CPS Self-Pleasures
Texas officials had their eye on a ranch owned by the Fundamentalist Church of the Latter Day Saints (FLDS) near Eldorado, Texas. The FLDS was a splinter from the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, much like the Protestant churches were splinters from the Roman Catholic Church and then from each other. The FLDS enterprises caused nervousness in various government levels and many citizens.
The mess began on 30 March, 2008 with an anonymous phone caller making allegations that were never checked by any Texas authorities. This was the opportunity that Texas authorities had been yearning for. That there was no factual basis for legal action was not considered. The behavior was that claiming to protect children negated all Constitutional rights of adults and minors.
The Texas Child Protective Services (CPS) and minions responded and on 3 April, 2008 approached the Yearning for Zion (YFZ) ranch along an armed force of local police and the Texas rangers. The assault included an armored vehicle.
The CPS proceeded to kidnap 465 persons from the ranch on various claims. Twenty‑six of the detainees were adults rather than minor children as the CPS people loudly proclaimed. The CPS eventually dispersed the children to foster homes throughout the state.
Despite The rubber stamping local Judge Barbara Walther, the action was foiled by Texas Third Court of Appeals. This Court ruled that CPS had overreached its authority, and the local judge had erred with her mass processing of children. The dreams of the CPS to get bragging rights for a mass kidnapping and the destruction of the Texas FLDS fell apart. Judge Walther tried to stonewall the Appeals Court, but eventually the children returned to their home.
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) performed an investigation to justify the behaviors and costs involved in the raid. The DFPS had been secretive about their internal rehash of the debacle.
On 17 December, 2008, the Houston Chronicle reported that the agency refused to release the results of the internal investigation despite a legal obligation to do so. DPFS finally released the report on 22 December, 2008.
The report is a self‑serving attempt to justify the thuggish behavior of the CPS. Although the report was published by the DPFS, it is a CPS authored report.
Justification started early in this publication. The CPS claimed that twelve underage girls were “spiritually” married. There was no explanation for their term. Further, the CPS reported that seven of these girls had at least one child. The conclusion was that all the children had been sexually abused. But, they did not give evidence that the males involved were more that two years older than the girls at the time of conception. Given the bogus claims made by the CPS and law enforcement early in their effort, more evidence is needed to verify these allegations.
The fact that all the children were removed from the FLDS ranch without any substantive determination of abuse was glossed over. CPS claimed the raid was all about sexual abuse and denied any religious basis. But, the attempted mass trafficking of children had its roots in religious persecution.
Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran told local Baptist authorities hours in advance of the impending armed confrontation at the YFZ Ranch, and that they would be furnishing busses for the dispersal of the children. The local Baptists thus were accomplices in the kidnapping. This as well as other services became part of the high expense for the fiasco.
The standard social services tactics of coercing children into making false allegations and becoming victims didn’t work. These children had already been trained to speak the truth and not waiver. First, the CPS people blamed their failure on the use of cell phones. When these were confiscated, the next blame fell upon the prayers of the children.
The CPS claimed that somehow the children praying in the presence of their mothers was mind control. When the CPS complained to Judge Walther, the judge wanted the local Latter Day Saints to monitor the prayers*.
The CPS eventually separated the children from their mother’s without success. The children remained resistant to the standard social services coercion techniques.
The CPS also consistently labeled the FLDS as a religious cult and claimed that the adult females were all brainwashed or coerced by church elders. This is line with the mythology that religious patriarchs pulled the strings. Keep in mind that the Texas legislature changed age of marriage law in direct response to the FLDS presence.
And, there was the Texas Ranger that decided a discovery of a long hair in a bed in the YFZ Temple was proof positive that young girls were being deflowered after underage marriages in the Temple. One long hair apparently contains a wealth of religious detail. News reporters and anchors, perhaps from experience, went along with this foolishness.
There was a sexist bent to the affair. The persons charged with failing to protect children are all male. When the CPS wanted to teach children about sexual abuse, only females were considered as students. This is a gender feminist tactic to attempt to make female sexual availability dependent on male subservience. The CPS already labeled all male children future sexual perpetrators.
And the CPS ruse was that the females of the FLDS were stupid and frightened since this was a result of the religious practices. Current legal practice is to claim that patriarchs rule females as a herd.
The report writer bragged about designating one‑hundred‑twenty‑four of the adult residents of the YFZ Ranch as perpetrators. Yet, grand jury indictments have been obtained against twelve males. No females have been subjected to an accusatory proceeding initiated by Texas authorities although many would be equally culpable if the charges are reasonably based.
The report claimed criminal activity as it were already a done deal. But, the grand jury system is an extremely low threshold to meet. There is no adversary present. The trials will not be guaranteed to provide convictions. Given that the grand jury indictments were initiated after the CPS grandstanding collapsed, the motivation is not to address criminal behavior as much as to justify the thuggish actions of the CPS and police.
The cost of the raid and aftermath was addressed but not well. The agency admitted to the nearly twelve, and a half million dollars expended in the attempt to disperse the FLDS children around the state. The dollars that flowed to religious organizations were buried in a category labeled “Goods and Services.” This money will not be recovered. Nor will the hours expended on the fiasco be recovered. People in need of services have been deprived because of the foolishness of the various agencies of the great State of Texas.
At the conclusion of the raid and dispersal, the great majority of the children returned to their parents. The attempt to convert the children to another faith was for naught.
There is a great sin of omission in this report as well. It is simply illegal to abscond with children based upon an unsubstantiated and anonymous allegation. A ruling from the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals has made that clear. In Gates et. al. v. TDPRS (now DFPS) the Court made it clear that any future activities involving Fourth Amendment violations will expose the agencies to lawsuits. The actions in the YFZ raid were more egregious than those in Gates.
The DFPS has issued a memo warning members of this bureaucracy to mind their behaviors. The memo does not mention that the behaviors of officials during the raid and dispersal were contrary to the Gates ruling. The CPS and DFPS ignored this aspect completely in their report. They were too busy stroking themselves.
One would hope that an honest and careful investigation would consider all the facts. But, as is characteristic of many social service bureaucracies, the report completely ignored the failings and shortcomings of the entire action against the FLDS. More important, the report did not address why nothing was identified as abuse until the failure of the involved agencies to behave in a professional and responsible way.
* It is not clear what Walther was expecting the prayer monitoring to accomplish. Was the CPS expecting the Latter Day Saints observers to prepare reports or to declare portions of prayers as out of bounds? The Judge was foolish to consider such an action. The local LDS members refused to take part in the opprobrious request.
by Brian McCorkle
in category FLDS
