FLDS member asks Huntsman for help

A representative of the Fundamentalist LDS Church is urging Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. to intervene in the massive child custody battle in Texas over the raid on the YFZ Ranch.

A letter was sent to Huntsman's office on Friday urging him to get involved, noting that many of the FLDS members caught up in the raid by Texas authorities are from Utah.

"This siege ended in Utah residents being held hostage by the Texas authorities," FLDS member Willie Jessop wrote in the letter.

Jessop wrote that "atrocities" were being committed with their children being taken into state custody and placed in foster care facilities across Texas. He also complained of the way Texas authorities searched homes and sacred places, accusing them of ransacking the buildings on the YFZ Ranch.

"In the name of 'protecting children,' the state has torn apart functional, productive, self-sustaining and loving families — children purposely never exposed to the constant mind numbing diet of violence, promiscuity, alcohol and drugs found on prime-time television," Jessop wrote, adding that the YFZ community teaches "good citizenship through family values, home-based education, and honest work ethics.

"These children were not abused until ripped from their mother's arms and taken from their safe, comfortable homes — their fathers watching in anguish from a distance, held at bay by gunpoint and heavy artillery," he wrote.

Jessop accuses Texas authorities of ignoring parental rights and asks Huntsman to "put an end to the blatant criminal acts and civil rights violations." He also extended an invitation to Huntsman to visit the YFZ Ranch.

"We received the letter," Gov. Huntsman's spokeswoman Lisa Roskelley said Sunday. "Our office has been in communication with Mr. Jessop and we're reviewing the request."

Jessop sent a similar letter to Texas Gov. Rick Perry, as did three FLDS mothers who complained about the conditions of a makeshift shelter the children were kept in at the San Angelo Coliseum. Perry declined to meet with them.

The raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch began April 3 when Texas authorities responded to a call from someone claiming to be a 16-year-old girl named "Sarah," pregnant and in an abusive polygamous marriage. When child protective services workers arrived on the ranch, they said they found evidence of abuse, including teenage mothers. That prompted a judge to order the removal of all the children on the ranch.

Texas authorities said 464 children are now in foster-care facilities across the state. The girl whose call triggered the raid has not been found. Authorities are investigating if it was a hoax.

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com

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