A judge in nearby San Angelo last month agreed to give the state temporary custody of all the children, arguing that none was safe in an environment where child sexual abuse seemed to be a fact of life.
But Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, which represented 38 mothers whose children were taken, argued in an appeal that the state never proved that all the children were in peril before scattering them in foster homes throughout Texas. The appeals court agreed and noted that, if anything, the evidence may have become weaker since the raid. Some of the supposed child brides identified by the state turned out to be adults. One was 27 years old.
Though the appellate court decision applies only to those mothers' children, it undermined the state's entire case, and legal experts said it could lead to most of the children being returned to their parents within weeks.
Attorneys for Texas RioGrande Legal Aid filed a response with the Texas Supreme Court on Friday, arguing that it was in the children's best interest to return to their parents while the legal dispute played out. The lawyers ridiculed the state's claim that it did not know who the parents were, noting that many mothers had visited foster homes to see their children.
"Right now these children are experiencing the irreparable harm, pain, and distress of enforced separation from their parents (and, in many cases, siblings)," the attorneys wrote.
While they challenged the appeals court decision on technical grounds Friday, Texas officials strongly reiterated their claim that all of the children had been in danger.
State attorneys noted that there is proof that some of the girls were married before 16, the legal age in Texas, including one who was bound to a man at age 12.
The state's evidence "clearly established that the practice of forcing underage girls into marriages . . . was an institutional practice, a practice that was supported by the alleged mothers," the lawyers wrote in their motion asking the court to act immediately.
Returning the boys and girls to the religious sect, Texas argued, "would subject the children to continuing sexual and emotional abuse."
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miguel.bustillo@latimes.com
