Last of kids separated: All FLDS children in Texas now off to foster care

Parker also challenged child protective services' headcount of children, noting that 25 claim to be adults, but the state has declared them children.

"One turned 18 while in there a week ago," he said while speaking to reporters outside the San Angelo Coliseum.

Civil rights

Parker said lawyers for the FLDS Church will be sending letters within the next week to the numerous government agencies involved, "demanding that they preserve all evidence relating to what they've done here for future use in lawsuits and other claims."

"This is not the end of the story, even though they've taken the children out of this arena. This is only the beginning," he said.

Asked what type of lawsuit was being considered, Parker replied: "civil rights litigation."

Some FLDS mothers claim their children were pried from their arms. Only seven women went back to the YFZ Ranch on Thursday. Forty others went to a shelter.

"It's cruel. It's cruel to the children, and there's no reason for it," Parker said. "It's unnecessary and it's out of control."

The raid on the YFZ Ranch was prompted by phone calls from someone claiming to be a 16-year-old girl named "Sarah," who was pregnant and in an abusive polygamous marriage. When child welfare workers went to the compound to investigate, they allege they discovered other signs of abuse — prompting a judge to order the removal of all the children.

"Sarah" has never been found, but authorities insist that is irrelevant because of the other abuse they uncovered, including a pattern of young girls being married off to older men. Some girls in protective custody, CPS alleges, had babies while they were teenagers.

At a hearing, the judge ordered all 462 children to be placed into foster care. There is a dispute over 25 people that state authorities believe are girls, while the FLDS Church claims they are women.

"I believe CPS has two minors who are actually pregnant at this time," Parker said. "One of them is almost 18, and one of them is almost 17."

A third, Parker said, refused to take a pregnancy test, and they classified her as pregnant.

Of the children who left on Friday, Van Deusen said, "There were some infants, but they were infants of children."

DNA samples

The Texas Attorney General's Office said 80 parents from the YFZ Ranch came forward to the Schleicher County Memorial Building in Texas to provide DNA samples to establish kinship and paternity. Another 70 gave samples at the coliseum. The children also gave DNA samples.

Texas authorities did not know if they had collected all of the DNA samples from the parents and would not know until the analysis was complete in about 50 days. Among those expected to give a DNA sample is FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, who remains in an Arizona jail facing charges accusing him of performing marriages between underage girls and older men.

"If Mr. Jeffs requests it, we will certainly make arrangements," said Janece Rolfe, a spokeswoman for the Texas attorney general.

Meanwhile, parents who have been cast out of the FLDS Church have been coming forward to help establish paternity. Some had no idea their children were in Texas.

"We are hearing from parents who tell us they were forced out of the FLDS, and they believe that their children may now be in DFPS custody," said Rolfe. "We are making arrangements for those parents to submit samples to labs that are close to where they live."

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com