Eldorado, USA - Texas child welfare authorities are apparently backing off their demand for DNA testing of a baby born to a 17-year-old girl from the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch.
Texas authorities confirmed to the Deseret News that the girl did not appear at a hearing scheduled Tuesday in San Antonio. Texas Child Protective Services spokesman Patrick Crimmins said that the girl was unable to be served, so they dropped the matter.
"We did inform the judge about our continued concern for the safety of (the girl's) baby and that if she or the baby were located, we would come back to court if needed," Crimmins said in an e-mail to the Deseret News on Wednesday.
The girl, whom CPS alleges was married to a 40-year-old man at age 14, has been defiant throughout the child custody proceedings. She gave birth to a child just after CPS returned all 439 children last year. She consistently refused to tell the judge over the custody case where her baby was, putting her at risk for contempt of court. At one point, CPS accused her of switching babies to avoid a DNA test and the agency demanded that she undergo a psychological evaluation.
That apparently never happened. At the same time the agency dropped the girl from court oversight, it also filed a court motion in San Antonio seeking a DNA test for her baby and some oversight over her to monitor her parenting skills.
Only one child remains under court oversight in what was once the largest child custody case in U.S. history. A 14-year-old girl, whom CPS claims was married at age 12 to FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, remains in foster care. A judge is set to rule next month on whether or not the girl should be placed with a relative in Texas.
Hundreds of children were taken into state custody when CPS and law enforcement raided the ranch last year on a call from someone claiming to be an abused teenage girl inside the cloistered Eldorado property. The call is believed to be a hoax.
CPS built a case on a culture of abuse, with girls groomed to be child brides and boys growing up to be sexual predators. They were all returned two months later when a pair of courts ruled the state acted improperly and the children were not at immediate risk of abuse.
A dozen men, including Jeffs, face criminal charges in connection with the raid.