Why Is CPS Forced To Defend Its Actions In Polygamist Case?

Anytime you turn on one of the major 24-hour news networks, chances are you’ll hear something about the West Texas polygamist compound child custody case pending before a West Texas court. And, in almost every instance, one reporter will ask another “why” it was necessary to separate the children from their parents or play up that some of the mothers have written to Texas Governor Rick Perry and complained about the whole situation.

Even in the Texas media, leads to stories make it sounds as though CPS is up against a wall, being forced to justify its actions:

With a critical court hearing over sexual abuse allegations looming Thursday, officials Tuesday defended Child Protective Services’ decision to separate some of the children removed from a polygamist community from their mothers.

Of course, anyone has sympathy for a child removed from its mother. However, in this case, the sympathy seems to be a bit overboard, and gets in the way of people realizing that the real purpose of this is to keep the children safe and determine exactly what happened. If you are at all familiar with the process CPS uses when sexual abuse is alleged, then you might be wondering why it has taken as long as it has to separate the children from their mothers. While I think CPS, given the nature of the situation, probably acted appropriately in waiting a while, there are many clear reasons why it was time to make the separation happen, at least temporarily (if not permanent in some cases):

Progress in getting credible information from children taken from the West Texas compound has been painfully slow, and agency officials said they could get better answers without the mothers present to coach them.

Marleigh Meisner, a CPS spokesman, said Monday’s decision separated at least 57 women from the 416 children taken into custody.

Child Protective Services is seeking state custody of every child it could find during a six-day search of the West Texas compound of a breakaway sect that has practiced polygamy in Utah and Arizona more than a century after mainstream Mormons renounced it.

Also Tuesday, a spokesman for the sect gave the Associated Press photos and video taken during the first few days of the search showing officers in body armor, assault rifles at the ready.

Some of the mothers told reporters late Monday that they had been lied to and threatened by CPS officials to return to the ranch.

I don’t know about the lies and threats, but you have to consider that, regardless of how much these mothers loved their children, it is likely that they are, at least in some cases, part of the problem. They had to know that underage marriages and sex were happening. Even though they are probably brainwashed into the beliefs of the sect, knowing that your underage child was used for sex (regardless of religious beliefs) is not normally something the criminal justice system, the courts, or the family justice system look upon very well.

I strongly suspect, at some point, that there will be a not insignificant number of indictments resulting from this raid.

And, I strongly suspect that it won’t only be males being subject to the indictments.

More coverage
• Sect’s kids are taken to new location
KENS video: Mothers say they’ve been treated unfairly

No threats were made to the women, said Meisner and Darrell Azar, spokesman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, the agency that oversees CPS.

All the women were informed of their rights and the procedures about to occur — that if a judge Thursday agreed that the children would remain in state care, they would be placed in foster homes, the officials said.

“We believe that children who are victims of abuse or neglect, and particularly victims at the hands of their own parents, certainly are going to feel safer to tell their story when they don’t have a parent there that’s coaching them with how to respond,” Meisner said.
More Information
Latest: Coverage from San Angelo
Talkback: Give us your thought about this story
Graphic: Map of Yearning for Zion Ranch
PDF: Read the girl’s description of life on the ranchLocal News Coverage:
San Angelo Standard-Times
Eldorado Success

In court Monday, CPS attorneys and some of the hundreds of lawyers volunteering from across Texas to represent the children described stonewalling by the children and their mothers against attempts to get information about possible abuse.

Children and mothers changed their names, and the women passed children back and forth, claiming to be mothers of different children every time CPS interviewed them, according to testimony.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Bookmark It