Prayers: Request baffles LDS official

Webb said he plans to contact LDS Church headquarters in Salt Lake City for guidance before responding to the court's request. The judge did say in court that if that fails, she would consider other options.

The temporary restraining order was requested by attorneys for Charlotte Johnson, Suzanne Johnson, Sarah Johnson, Angela Harker and other mothers of children taken from the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado.

"Some of Respondent Mothers are currently parenting children under ... 2 years of age and are still breast-feeding," the motion said.

Attorneys are pushing to keep a group of nursing mothers from being separated from their children, pending the results of DNA sampling under way in San Angelo. The judge declined to rule on it, saying it was something that the attorneys should be working out with Texas child protective services workers.

The women face a deadline of when the DNA samples are collected and the children are placed in foster care. They will likely be separated.

On the issue of the FLDS women and children being allowed contact with attorneys, the judge ordered eight phone lines to be set up in the shelter — six for the children and two for the mothers — with 24-hour access to their attorneys. Lawyers for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services said the phone lines were already set up.

The women's attorneys said that when cell phones were taken from the women, they lost the ability to communicate effectively with their clients.

The cell phones were taken after members of the FLDS Church inside Fort Concho spoke to the Deseret News, complaining of cramped conditions. The women provided the Deseret News with photographs taken by a cell phone to show the conditions. Shortly afterward, they were moved to the San Angelo Coliseum, where some of the children have remained. Many of the women have been sent back to the YFZ Ranch.

In another sign that the legal fight for custody of the FLDS children is just beginning, the judge indicated that she had 35 writs of habeas corpus, challenging the state's decision to remove the children. She also said she had a large stack of legal motions to go over.

As the hearing concluded, Julia Balovich, an attorney representing another group of FLDS women, tried to bring up a motion for a restraining order that she had filed. Walther said she hadn't seen it, but Balovich pressed her to consider the issue. It was then the judge stood up and announced: "Ladies and gentlemen, this hearing is concluded," and abruptly left the bench.

Balovich told reporters outside the courthouse that she wants to stop the separation of the mothers from the children expected later this week. She complained that child protective services workers aren't telling them when — or how — the children will be removed.

"I don't think it's in the children's best interests to be separated from their mothers, especially when they're under 5 years old," she said.

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com