Texans had been 'reining in' the FLDS via state laws

Before the session ended, he successfully attached the marriage amendments to a Child Protective Services bill that also contained certain family law matters and was less controversial. (The bill received no opposition in committee and passed the House with about 85 percent of the vote.) His amendment raised the minimum marriage age from 14 to 16 and made violation of the law a first-degree felony. It also reaffirmed the state's prohibition of bigamy and polygamy and made clear that ceremonies performed in place of legal marriage would not be exempted.

The new laws are already being used to prosecute the leader of another religious sect practicing polygamy (the group is also suspected of underage marriages) called The House of Yahweh. The group is in a compound near Abilene, Texas, 120 miles northeast of Eldorado. The sect began in the 1980s and is not as private and secretive as the FLDS but has been described as "darker."

Yisrayl Hawkins, the 73-year-old self-proclaimed prophet, was charged in February with performing polygamous marriages, and another leader, Yedidiyah Hawkins, is accused of sexually abusing a teenager, among other charges. Like FLDS leaders, they also say they are being persecuted for religious beliefs.

Prosecutors say they are investigating potential criminal charges against some men at the YFZ Ranch. If they do file charges, the accusations may be similar.

Later, while preparing new legislation, Hilderbran sought to increase his watchdog role by "energizing" local agencies to make sure they "did their job" in monitoring the compound — particularly regarding the environment.

"You can't control who comes, but you can enforce and update laws," he said. "Because our hands were tied, we needed to use the laws we had."

Hilderbran has spent much of his 20-year career in the Texas House concerning himself with land-use and wildlife issues. He believes in using and benefiting from the land but doesn't want to see it "used up, chewed up and discarded," explained lobbyist Bill Miller.

The only laws FLDS members were violating were environmental laws.

The FLDS were building a "small municipality" but were not taking appropriate measures to protect the environment, said Ricky Anderson, director of the San Angelo office of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, whose office received dozens of anonymous phone complaints in 2005 and 2006 about the ranch.

Violations ranged from the mundane — unauthorized composting and burning solid waste — to the major, improper disposal of treated waste water and operating a cement plant without a permit.