167 kids taken in Texas raid

Authorities have removed 167 children from the Fundamentalist LDS Church's compound near Eldorado, Texas, after a raid over allegations of child sex abuse on the Utah-based polygamous sect's ranch.

School buses and church buses commandeered by law enforcement ferried the children from the YFZ Ranch. Some of the girls, wearing the prairie-style dresses so common to the fundamentalist border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., appeared nervous. Child protective services workers said they range in age from 6 months to 17 years.

Authorities said 18 girls were immediately placed in state protective custody.

"We concluded they had been abused or were at immediate risk of future abuse," said Darrell Azar, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. "Under Texas law, either one is grounds for removal."

The children are being kept at a civic center where cots have been set up and local churches are providing food.

"There's 96 boys and 71 girls," Randy Mankin, the editor of the Eldorado Success newspaper, said late Friday night. "I understand there's some underage girls that are pregnant."

The children are being interviewed by child welfare workers to determine whether they need to be placed in protective custody or foster care. A court hearing will be held on Monday, Mankin said.

"We're dealing with children that aren't accustomed to the outside world, and so we're trying to be very, very sensitive to their needs," said Marleigh Meisner with child protective services.

More people will be questioned on the YFZ Ranch today.

Meanwhile, police are also serving a pair of warrants for a man accused of marrying and fathering a child with a 16-year-old girl.

"We are now serving search and arrest warrants at the property for individuals covered in those warrants," said Tom Vinger with the Texas Department of Public Safety. "Nobody's been arrested at this time."

The warrant reportedly seeks records dealing with the birth of children to a 16-year-old girl, and any records of a marriage between a 50-year-old man and the girl. Texas authorities said their investigation began when a 16-year-old girl who lives on the YFZ Ranch called child protective services earlier this week.

"She said she was being sexually abused," Schleicher County Attorney Raymond Loomis Jr. told the Deseret Morning News.

Azar said the girl also claimed to have suffered physical abuse.

State and local law enforcement officers went to the ranch late Thursday with an armored personnel carrier, the Eldorado Success reported. Police set up roadblocks and blocked off the entrances and exits to the compound. Air space above the ranch was restricted, preventing small planes or helicopters from flying overhead.