From Deseret News archives:

One phase of FLDS work is complete

Published: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 12:36 a.m. MDT
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Crimmins said as of Monday afternoon, six FLDS children removed from the YFZ Ranch were in hospitals. None has serious health issues. One child has an ear infection, another has respiratory issues. Crimmins said he did not know specifics about the other four.

"In all of these cases but one, the mother is either with the child or is being kept up to date on the child's condition," he said. "I don't know about visitation of the children but that will be arranged if we can do it."

Pregnant teens

The official count of the children removed from the FLDS Church ranch is now 463, one more than previously reported. All 250 girls and 213 boys were ordered to be placed into state custody because of abuse allegations, including "a pattern of grooming girls from a young age to accept becoming married to middle-aged men."

New statistics released Monday indicate that 53 of the girls are between the ages of 14 and 17. "We believe that 31 of them either have children or are pregnant," Crimmins said. "In most cases, that's what the girls have told us."

Of those 53, Crimmins said 26 claim to be 18 or older. "But we don't think they are," he said.

Financial toll

Story continues below
While the tempest may be over for the town of San Angelo, the financial reverberations of what is said to be the nation's largest ever child custody case are just now beginning.

R.J. DeSilva, spokesman for Susan Combs, the Texas State Comptroller of Public Accounts, said the agency is prepared to disperse money to reimburse city and county agencies that shouldered the costs in the weeks after the raid.

The comptroller in Texas acts as the state's tax collector, chief revenue estimator, state treasurer and is the "steward" of the state's finances, according to her Web site.

DeSilva said the state's Health and Human Services Commission is filtering through requests to cover costs from the raid's aftermath. When those costs are determined, if Perry's office and the state's Legislative Budget Board grant approvals, Comb's office can cut the checks.

What remains unknown is the price tag incurred so far.

"We don't have a comprehensive number yet," Piferrer said, although one Texas lawmaker early on said San Angelo's costs a day were running at $60,000.

"This was an unprecedented situation, but we anticipate we will have the resources to meet any of these unanticipated costs," she said.

Indeed a recent report on states' fiscal health put out by the National Council on State Legislatures gave high marks to Texas and Oklahoma, noting that the pair are weathering the national economic slowdown much better than most states.

Recent comments

When I was small my grandfather was a farmer. He raised cattle---one...

JR | May 1, 2008 at 10:02 a.m.

Every day it seems less likely that these people are guilty of...

Jim2485 | April 30, 2008 at 8:18 p.m.

It is not normal for the mother of any child that gets taken by cps...

anon | April 30, 2008 at 12:22 a.m.

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