Texas asks state justices to overturn polygamy sect ruling
Authorities acknowledge that if the appellate court decision is not thrown out, the state may have to return more than 400 children to the sect's gated compound.
HOUSTON — Texas authorities on Friday asked the state Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that found child welfare officials had no right to take more than 400 children from a gated polygamist compound.
Lawyers for the Department of Family and Protective Services also requested that the high court allow the state to keep the children in foster homes until their fate is decided. Otherwise, they said, Texas would be forced within days to return more than 120 boys and girls to sect members who have not proved they are the biological parents.
Officials acknowledged that if the appellate ruling were not thrown out, the state may have to return all the children to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a group that broke away from the mainstream Mormon Church after it banned polygamy in 1890. The ongoing child custody battle is one of the biggest in U.S. history.
Also on Friday, a legal aid group said lawyers had persuaded a San Antonio judge to allow 12 of the children to be returned to their parents until June 9. Among the mothers who was set to be reunited with her children was Lori Jessop, an emergency medical technician whose son turned 1 year old last week.
"After yesterday, our clients have a new sense of hope and belief that the court system is working," said Kevin Dietz, an attorney for the group, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid. "They are not giving up, and neither are we."
In making their argument to the Supreme Court, Texas attorneys said the Third Court of Appeals in Austin had overstepped its authority by basing its Thursday ruling on the current body of evidence, as opposed to what was known last month about alleged abuse inside the compound.
"The court of appeals engages in a full out re-trial of the issues at the appellate level, including re-weighing the evidence and second guessing the trial court's resolution," the state's attorneys wrote.
Texas authorities raided the Yearning For Zion Ranch in West Texas on April 3, after a caller claimed she was a 16-year-old child bride suffering abuse at the hands of her husband -- a call that since has been shown to be a likely hoax.
Inside the secluded compound, child welfare officials have said, they were shocked to find numerous pregnant teenagers and child brides living in a communal setting with older men, bound in "spiritual marriages."
