Legal News

Debate Over Yearning for Zion Children Lands Back in Court

By Dan Slater

Just when you thought you could relegate the Yearning for Zion Ranch to the stockpile of 2008 news-that-wuz, the story’s legal side has taken a new turn.

So let’s focus our eyes on that house of worship to your left, and transport ourselves to Texas, where lawyers are currently negotiating over the future of eight children who in May were taken from the polygamist sect’s ranch, placed in foster care and then eventually returned to their parents. (For LB background on the legal wrangling, click here.)

Today, Texas child welfare authorities are asking Texas District Judge Barbara Walther to put the children, ranging in age from 5 to 17, back in state custody, alleging their mothers have refused to limit contact with men accused of being involved in underage marriages. Here’s an ABC News report.

Individual hearings for the four mothers involved were scheduled to begin today. But late this morning, just before the custody hearing was to begin, the Houston Chron reported that attorneys representing the mothers announced they wanted to settle the case and negotiate terms that could keep the children with their parents, members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Patrick Crimmins, a spokesman for Child Protective Services, said he didn’t know any details of the negotiations. State investigators reportedly say they have reviewed thousands of documents, including marriage records that show a pervasive pattern of “spiritual marriages” between older men and girls age 12 to 17.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on August 18, 2008 (boomark / email).