Carolyn Jessop, whose ex-husband Merril Jessop runs the YFZ Ranch, suggested the mothers at least have a right to due process — something others cast out of the FLDS Church did not get.

"This whole thing is getting muddled and mucked into religion and polygamy. Hey, they (Texas authorities) went in and found abuse," she said. "They took these kids out because they physically saw and found abuse."

In interviews, the FLDS people on the YFZ Ranch have refused to address allegations of child abuse and sex abuse leveled against them.

Holm had to fight his wives for joint custody of his children. Even now, he says, the women tell their children that he is a "wicked apostate."

Jessop, who chronicled her flight from the FLDS Church in her book "Escape," took her eight children with her. One has gone back to the FLDS Church.

Jessop has relatives who are on the ranch, but insists that the case is about abuse.

"Everybody totally accepts that a little girl born into a monogamous family, that she has the right to help if she's being abused. But once you touch a little girl that's been born into a polygamous family, everybody goes through the roof and it's 'religious persecution,'" she said. "That is not the case. That little girl has as much right to protection by the United States government as a little girl that's born into a monogamous family. We just need to cut through the crap."

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com