Eldorado, USA - The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services continues to argue it does not have sufficient evidence to match FLDS children with alleged mothers, in a new document filed today with the state Supreme Court.
On Friday, the department asked the court to stay a lower court's ruling that children from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints were kept in state custody improperly and that they should be returned to their families.
The initial request from DFPS contends the ruling issued Thursday by the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin was overbroad and would "irreparably" affect the outcome of cases involving hundreds of children taken from the polygamous sect's ranch in Eldorado last month.
The new filing discusses the possibility that if children are released from state custody, mothers may take them out of Texas and out of the jurisdiction of the state's courts.
Responding to a filing from attorneys representing more than 30 mothers, the state repeated its assertions that women have engaged in deliberate obfuscation about their maternity. It states that DNA testing to definitively match children to mothers - and fathers - is not complete.
"Failure to grant a stay will mean that approximately one hundred twenty-four children will be returned to alleged mothers without any male sexual perpetrators being identified," state attorneys wrote.
A spokesman for the court says there is no immediate indication the court will rule today.
In its 11-page response, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid argued that returning the children to their parents would not inhibit the state from continuing its investigation. Any concerns that the parents might flee with the children could be overcome by imposing travel limitations on them, the agency said.
Legal aid firms filed the two petitions granted by the appeals court on behalf of more than 30 mothers, but have said the rulings' legal reasoning applies to all 450-some children taken from parents at the YFZ Ranch. The ranch is home to members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.