From Deseret News archives:

Search: Were beds in temple used for teen sex?

Published: Thursday, April 10, 2008 12:11 a.m. MDT
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The first warrant only authorized authorities to locate evidence to help them identify a 16-year-old girl, whose calls to a family shelter claiming physical and sexual abuse prompted the raid and other court orders that eventually led to all 416 children taken from the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado.

Additional details of her phone calls to a crisis hotline for domestic violence were also released Wednesday from the first search warrant.

During the first call on March 29, which lasted 42 minutes, the girl said she lived on the ranch, was pregnant and had an 8-month-old child. She said her husband "hits her and hurts her" and said she would try to get help to get off the ranch, according to the court affidavit.

During several calls to the hotline the next day, the girl described physical and sexual abuse from her husband and said she wasn't allowed to leave the ranch because a guard was posted at a guard tower near the gate. She expressed fear that if she was caught trying to leave, "she would be locked in her room and not allowed to eat as punishment for her disobedience," Long wrote in the court documents.

The girl also said she feared the "outside world" away from the ranch, saying "she had been told that outsiders would hurt her."

Story continues below
While officers continued gathering evidence as ordered in the second search warrant, a third search warrant was issued Wednesday — this time from a federal judge. No details were available, but late Tuesday a Department of Public Safety spokeswoman said only that "the FBI is not out there now."

The 416 children, and 139 mothers who have "voluntarily" joined them, are expected to remain at the two shelters in San Angelo at least until an April 17 hearing.

That means it's not likely the state will try to place the children into foster homes until after that hearing, Marleigh Meisner told the Deseret Morning News.

"This is all decided on a day-to-day basis, but the children will remain for now in a shelter-type setting," the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services spokeswoman said.

Parents will be notified of the hearing and they will be allowed to attend with or without an attorney. Each child will be appointed an attorney ad litem and a guardian ad litem, she said. Child Protective Services will then make a recommendation about what should happen to each child and a judge will decide whether the child remains in state custody or is returned to family members.

"Then there are further court appearances over the next few months with a judge making a decision at each interval," Meisner said.

In the meantime, she said 700 staff members are trying to make them "as comfortable as possible. We understand this is not easy for them."


E-mail: bwest@desnews.com

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Image

Newly unsealed portions of a search warrant have provided a glimpse of some of what officers saw at the FLDS ranch, including inside the temple.

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