FLDS mark anniversary of raid

SAN ANGELO, Texas — For Patricia Johnson, the difference between her April 2008 visit to Fort Concho and her trip there Friday was night and day.

"It's amazing," the mother of five said, standing in Fort Concho's stables, where she and dozens of other mothers one year ago slept with their children on a floor covered with cots. "I'm just so grateful — grateful we were protected and taken care of."

Johnson, a member of the Fundamentalist LDS Church, was one of the last mothers sent to the fort after the state raided the sect's Eldorado ranch. She and about 100 other FLDS members, some from the YFZ Ranch and others from Arizona and Utah, commemorated the first anniversary of the raid Friday with a gathering at the stables, where most of the women and children slept during their stay at the national historic monument.

The gathering served as a catharsis, members said, a chance to heal wounds that have festered since the state's Child Protective Services agency removed all 439 children from the ranch. All but one have since been returned.

"It brings back a lot of memories, for sure," said Sarah Steed, whose six children were taken in the raid and who also stayed at Fort Concho. "Not real good ones."

Responding to a call alleging that a pregnant 16-year-old was trapped in an abusive, polygamous marriage, child welfare workers removed all of the children. The child custody case became the largest in American history. The children were returned when two Texas courts ruled the state acted improperly and the children were not at immediate risk for abuse.

Texas child welfare authorities defended their actions and insisted no mistakes were made.

"The environment that the children returned to is safer than the one they left," Anne Heiligenstein, the commissioner of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services said Friday during a conference call with news reporters.

She credited her agency with educating mothers and children about abuse, and pushing the Utah-based polygamous sect to renounce the practice of performing underage marriages.

"Only time will tell if they will honor that pledge," she said. "But they know without a doubt today that Texas will not idly stand by while they abuse their children."

Heiligenstein accused the FLDS of being deceptive from the beginning, refusing to answer questions about family relationships and even trying to conceal identities.

"If we had cooperation from the mothers, perhaps removal could have been avoided," Heiligenstein said.