Austin, USA - A Texas appeals court ruled today that state child welfare authorities had no right to seize dozens of children living at the ranch of a polygamist religious sect, saying they were in no immediate danger of abuse.
The 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin ruled in favor of 48 mothers seeking the return of more than 130 children who had been living at a ranch near Eldorado, Tex., associated with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
An attorney for the women said the ruling is likely to become a precedent for other mothers seeking the return of the 468 children in all who were taken from the ranch last month by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.
Texas authorities launched a week-long raid on the 1,700-acre Yearning for Zion ranch starting April 3 after receiving an anonymous tip that underage girls were being forced to marry older men and bear children. Under Texas law, girls younger than 16 are not allowed to marry, even with their parents' permission.
In its ruling, the appeals court directed a district court to vacate its temporary orders granting custody of the children to the Department of Family and Protective Services. The department can appeal the decision, however, and attorneys for the mothers said it was not immediately clear when they might be reunited with their children.
"It's a great day for families in Texas," said Julie Balovich, an attorney with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, which represents the 48 mothers in the case. "It's a great day for justice in Texas."
She told reporters that the appeals court decision gives the trial court 10 days to comply. The decision "covers only the mothers we represent," Balovich said. Ultimately, however, "I believe that it's going to apply to all the children and all the mothers," she said.
"The fact that the court would rule this way provides a lot of hope for all the other mothers as well," said Cynthia Martinez, a spokeswoman for the legal aid group. "There's a legal argument they can work with."
In its nine-page ruling, the 3rd Court of Appeals said the Department of Family and Protective Services had failed to prove that there was any danger to the physical health and safety of the children of 38 mothers, that there was any urgent or immediate need to take custody of the children or that it made any reasonable efforts to avoid the removal. Ten other mothers and their children were covered by a second opinion from the court today, Martinez said.
The ruling harshly criticized the department's rationale for acting in the case and refuted the evidence it presented. It said the only danger identified by the department to the prepubescent children was a "pervasive belief system" at the ranch that the department said groomed boys to be perpetrators of sexual abuse later in life and taught the girls to submit to sexual abuse after reaching puberty.
"There was no evidence that the male children, or the female children who had not reached puberty, were victims of sexual or other physical abuse or in danger of being victims of sexual or other physical abuse," the court said in its opinion.
Except for five girls who became pregnant between the ages of 15 and 17, "there was no evidence of any physical abuse or harm to any other child," and none of the five were among the children whose return was being sought by the mothers in the case, it said.
The court said the department conceded that teenage pregnancy by itself is not a reason to take children away from their parents. But the department argued that immediate removal was necessary in this case because of a "mindset" at the ranch encouraging young girls to marry and bear children.
"The Department argues that the fact that there are five minor females living in the ranch community who became pregnant at ages fifteen and sixteen together with the [church's] belief system condoning underage marriage and pregnancy indicates that there is a danger to all of the children that warrants their immediate removal from their homes and parents, and that the need for protection of the children is urgent," the court said in its ruling.
"Evidence that children raised in this particular environment may someday have their physical health and safety threatened is not evidence that the danger is imminent enough to warrant invoking the extreme measure of immediate removal prior to full litigation of the issue as required" under Texas law, the court said.
The ruling came amid a series of hearings in San Angelo, Tex., designed to establish procedures for parents at the ranch to regain custody of their children. The hearings have been marked by confusion over the ages and identities of both children and parents in the case.
During the course of the hearings, child welfare authorities have acknowledged that a number of those in custody who were originally identified as underage mothers are actually adults. Officials initially listed 31 young mothers taken from the ranch as being underage. They were placed in child foster care along with the hundreds of children who were seized.
But as of today, authorities have conceded that 15 of the 31 are really adults, and that one of them is actually 27 years old, the Associated Press reported. A few are as young as 18, but many are at least 20, the agency said.
Another girl listed as an underage mother is 14, but her attorney said in court that she neither has a child nor is pregnant, AP reported.
The sect, known as the FLDS church, was formerly headed by Warren Jeffs, 52, who is currently serving a prison sentence in Utah on charges stemming from his role in arranging illegal marriages between his adult male followers and underage girls. The sect broke away from the Mormon church in the 1930s in an effort to preserve polygamy, which the Mormons had officially renounced.
The FLDS church is estimated to have as many as 10,000 adherents residing in communities in Utah, Arizona, Texas, Colorado and South Dakota, as well as in the Canadian province of British Columbia.