Eldorado, USA - There's a new twist this morning in the court battles over 464 FLDS children in Texas.
One of the fathers fired a shot across the bow of the judge who authorized the raid on the YFZ ranch almost seven weeks ago.
In the midst of a three week marathon of hearings that began yesterday, FLDS member Dan Jessop filed a new motion asking for Judge Barbara Walther's removal from his case because of bias and prejudice.
Two of Jessop's children were taken into state custody early last month. A third child was born last week and placed in state custody just three hours later.
A supervising judge heard Jessop's motion for "recusal" of Judge Walther in a special hearing this morning. That judge quickly dismissed the motion.
If it had been granted, legal experts say it could have become a precedent, throwing all the other cases into confusion.
As the hearings resumed Tuesday, Child Protective Services officials acknowledged another young mother was actually 18. That acknowledgement, following earlier admissions about four other young mothers, reduces the number of underage mothers in state custody from 31 to 26. The women now acknowledged to be adults will be released from state custody, but can stay with any children under 1 year old.
The parents say they are being persecuted for their religion, which includes the belief that polygamy brings glorification in heaven.
In one hearing, attorneys complained that the Book of Mormon was confiscated from some of the children at a foster facility. "If they can openly admit they can take away the Book of Mormon from us today, it'll be the Bible tomorrow," Jessop said.
CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins says it may only be one case where authorities removed pictures and teachings of Warren Jeffs from some scriptures, then gave the books back. He says, "We obviously don't have any quarrel with the Book of Mormon, or the Bible, or the Koran." He says the problem is when children are reading the words of a convicted sex offender like Warren Jeffs.
None of the judges allowed much discussion on whether the initial grounds for removing the children from the ranch were valid. Such re-examination will likely depend on an appeals court.
Texas child welfare authorities argued that all the children, from newborns to teenagers, should be removed from the ranch because the sect pushes underage girls into marriage and sex and encourages boys to become future perpetrators.