Texas Supreme Court upholds Appellate Court:

CaptainSchmideo

The Texas Supreme Court agreed with a lower court's ruling, that Child Protective Services did not present ample evidence that the children were being abused.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/05/29/texas.polygamists/index.html

crazyblondeb

SAN ANGELO, Texas (CNN) -- Texas officials had no right to remove about 460 children from a polygamist sect, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

A family waits at a San Antonio, Texas, courthouse last week for a reunion with a seized child.

The Texas Supreme Court agreed with a lower court's ruling, that Child Protective Services did not present ample evidence that the children were being abused.

The high court ruling could possibly clear the way for the children to be returned to their families. They were removed in April from the Yearning for Zion (YFZ) Ranch, near Eldorado.

"We are not inclined to disturb the court of appeals' decision," the ruling said. "On the record before us, removal of the children was not warranted."

The court's 6-3 ruling came in the case of 38 mothers who had appealed the removal of their children, but attorneys in the case have said the reasoning behind the court rulings can be applied to the removals of all the children from the Yearning for Zion Ranch raid which began on April 3.

About 460 children were removed, although 20 were later found in court to be adults.

The state has maintained that FLDS members live in an environment in which the sexual abuse of underage girls is allowed through forced marriage to older men, and that young boys on the ranch are groomed to be perpetrators.

FLDS members deny any sexual abuse takes place and claim they are being persecuted because of their religion.

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The 3rd District Court of Appeals said in its ruling that the state's Child Protective Services did not demonstrate that all the children on the ranch faced imminent danger, as necessary for their removal.

Attorneys for the mothers argued in documents filed Thursday, saying the child welfare workers failed to satisfy any of a three-pronged "test" in Texas law, which must be satisfied before a child can be removed from its parents.

"Rather than meaningfully address the three statutory criteria, the Department (of Family and Protective Services) offers diversionary reasons as to why it would be impractical, or 'wrong,' to return the children to their parents," the brief said.

Meanwhile, the ACLU added its voice to the argument on the mothers' behalf, saying in its brief, "the state's sole evidence ... was limited to general allegations that these parents are part of a 'culture,' and subscribe to a 'belief' and a 'mindset' that girls as young as 14 may be considered of age to marry," but that the state put forth no specific allegations of the harm the children face.

And a chaotic appeals court hearing last month, in which attorneys for groups of children were heard, was not sufficient for the state to retain custody of the children, despite a judge's ruling to the contrary, the ACLU said.

"When the state forcibly removes children from their parents' care, subsequent hearings must be held, must be adequate, must be fair and must include evidence sufficient to meet the state standard for every child removed," the organization said. "The state has broad powers to respond to actual threats of child abuse, but it may not separate families based on a parent's mere adoption of or association with a particular belief system."

Texas attorney Barbara Elias-Perciful supported the state in her filing. She has been a guardian ad litem -- an attorney representing children's interests -- in child protection cases for 16 years and is also the director of Texas Lawyers for Children.

"This case involves the systematic rape of minor children -- conduct that is institutionalized and euphemistically called 'spiritual marriage,'" she wrote. "Typically, there is no media coverage of the horrific acts sexual predators commit against children ... if the media showed the actual events of adult males demanding sex with 11-year-old girls, there would be no one questioning the graphic danger of returning these children to their home at this time." E-mail to a friend

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jamiebowers

I posted a similar article under "Child Sexual Assault and Child Abuse" before I saw this post. Hopefully CPS will have enough involvement with these kids to make sure none of the girls are married and having children before the age of 18 and the boys who are thrown away, AKA: the lost boys have a place to go.