Search continues for FLDS men; Texas agency feels vindicated

SAN ANGELO — The search continued Wednesday for five men indicted by a Schleicher County Grand Jury in Eldorado, Texas.

Late Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced that Warren Jeffs, the imprisoned leader of the Fundamentalist LDS Church, and four of his followers were charged with sexual assault of a child. One of those men was also charged with bigamy, also a first -degree felony. A sixth man was indicted on three counts of failure to report child abuse, all misdemeanors.

The names of the five others cannot be released until they are in custody. Jeffs, who was convicted in Utah last year of rape as an accomplice for performing a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin, and sentenced to a pair of 5-to-life prison terms, is currently in a Kingman, Ariz. jail cell where he is facing trial on sexual misconduct charges accusing him of performing underage marriages.

Reaction from Texas on the indictments continued to flow in Wednesday.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, the agency that received criticism after taking more than 400 children off the YFZ Ranch in April during the initial investigation of reports of abuse, issued a statement today saying they feel some vindication by the indictments.

"The indictment seems to indicate CPS was correct in its belief that some children at the ranch had been sexually abused, and all children are at risk in a community in which adults do not take a stand against the abuse taking place in their homes," said CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins.

Ironically, the parenting classes the FLDS women were ordered to attend by Judge Barbara Walther as part of the condition for them to be returned to the YFZ ranch were scheduled to begin today.

Crimmins said the CPS parenting classes will be held throughout the state. He said the lessons are not "cookie cutter classes." While some basic elements are given in all parenting classes, each one is designed to specifically address the parent in question. In this case, Crimmins said the classes have been drawn up to deal with the FLDS women. He said they would likely be attending classes with only other women from the polygamist sect and not with women who are not from the ranch.

Natalie Malonis, the court appointed attorney ad litem for Teresa Jeffs, daughter of Warren Jeffs, said today she was not surprised by the indictments or the number of people indicted.

Also Tuesday, while the grand jury was meeting, San Antonio attorney Alan Futrell filed a motion once again seeking the removal of Malonis as Jeffs' ad litem attorney.