Search of FLDS temple site complete

SAN ANGELO, Texas — The search of the Fundamentalist LDS Church's sprawling ranch near here is over.

Law enforcement officers talked for the first time today, revealing some details about their search and removal of all 416 children living there, and specifically about raiding the sect's sacred temple.

"We are off of the property, and they have resumed their normal, everyday course out there," Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran said.

Dozens of FLDS faithful surrounded the gates of the temple in an attempt to prevent a SWAT team from entering it on Saturday night.

"They lined up 57 people, as we counted, around the walls of the temple. They didn't appear to be armed," said Texas Ranger Capt. Barry Caver. He said church members told him they did so so they wouldn't be "in violation of their beliefs by not defending the temple."

While one man — Levi Barlow Jeffs, 19 — was arrested for trying to physically resist the entry, Caver said they were mostly peaceful.

"Some would kneel and pray. Some of them were sobbing," he recalled.

Authorities had to use the "jaws of life" and other tools to break down the doors of the temple Saturday night, he said. "We knew the temple would be the most sensitive issue on the property. We opted to do that last."

Anticipating they would meet some kind of resistance to entering the temple, Caver said they met with leader Merril Jessop several times and with his lawyers to discuss the best way of doing it.

"I wanted to do it in the most peaceful and respectful way that we could," Caver said.

But FLDS leaders declined the option of leaving the doors to the temple unlocked or providing a key.

"They felt if they did that that they'd be aiding or assisting us in the desecration of their worship place. So we had to use other means to gain entry and breach the doors," Caver said.

He said there was a basement and three stories in the temple. He said there were beds in the top floor of the building, but declined to describe any more details.

The raid was prompted by a 16-year-old girl's phone calls to a Texas child protective services hotline, reporting that she was being sexually and physically abused. She claimed to be married to a man named Dale Barlow, 49, and she had an 8-month-old baby and was already several weeks pregnant.

Authorities have taken hundreds of children into protective custody, but no one has yet been able to identify if the girl is among them.