Texas loses another court battle with FLDS family
The 4th Court of Appeals this afternoon denied a request by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to delay a hearing scheduled for Friday over the planned separation of Lori Jessop, 25, and her 1-year-old son, Joseph Steed Jessop Jr.
The court will instead hear the couple's request to allow her to stay with the infant.
The state challenged a judge's decision to issue a temporary restraining order to halt the separation of a mother and her child taken from the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch. The separation was scheduled for May 15, when the boy turned 1. Texas officials have allowed mothers of children under 1 to remain with them in foster facilities.
The judge had also ordered the government agency to disclose the locations of Jessop's other children — Zianna Glo, 4, and Joseph Edson Jessop, 2 — and allow daily visits with them.
"This is a truly shocking development. The writ of habeas corpus is one of the most precious of all legal protections, designed to protect people from illegal restraint by the government," said Rene Haas, a lawyer for the father, Joseph Steed Jessop Sr. "The Texas Constitution says that it can never be suspended. Yet, the department wants to prevent a judge from
In its filing, attorneys for the Texas DFPS essentially said Judge Michael Peder stepped on another court's authority.
"This is an extraordinary case involving a collateral assault of a child protection court of dominant jurisdiction by a sister court attempting to exercise habeas corpus jurisdiction in a case involving three children, two of whom are not in Bexar County, Texas," Michael Shulman wrote in his response.
He attached a statement of facts, repeating what Texas Child Protective Services has claimed is happening on the ranch — a pervasive pattern of sex abuse with young girls growing up to become child brides, and young boys growing up to become sexual predators.
Journal entries and interviews with children, CPS claims in the court documents, indicated numerous girls who were mothers at age 16 and one who was 13 when she conceived a child.
In court hearings playing out in San Angelo, attorneys have attacked the number of pregnant or underage mothers. CPS officials have conceded that many are actually adults. A 14-year-old girl on the list was not pregnant or even a mother, her attorney claimed in court.
However, one case involving a 17-year-old girl with a 14-month-old was recently brought up in court. The hearing was continued because the girl is pregnant and due to give birth soon. A spokesman for the FLDS Church has told the Deseret News there may be a few isolated cases of minors having children, but it is not as widespread as Texas authorities believe.
Recent comments
hopefully some lessons have been learned (by both sides) and the...
realitycheck | May 22, 2008 at 11:00 p.m.
With colossal blunders like this and the even worse fiasco at Waco...
samhill | May 22, 2008 at 10:37 p.m.
So there is one 17 year old with a baby. My son in Texas nearly...
married at 17 | May 22, 2008 at 9:36 p.m.
