From Deseret News archives:

Long litany of legal disputes begins in FLDS raid

Published: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 11:47 p.m. MDT
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"A CPS worker has told her that after the infant, Joseph Steed Jessop Jr., turns one year old, which will be on May 15, 2008, he, too, will be taken away from her," Corpus Christi attorney Rene Haas wrote in a motion filed Tuesday in a San Antonio.

CPS officials declined to offer an immediate response. The judge granted their request for a temporary restraining order, and ordered that the baby's father, Joseph Steed Jessop Sr., be told where his other children, Ziana Glo Jessop, 4, and Joseph Edson Jessop, 2, are being kept. Haas wrote in court papers that the couple last saw all their children on May 9.

The judge granted them daily supervised visits until another hearing can be held on May 23.

In another legal motion filed in San Antonio on Tuesday, three fathers filed a petition claiming their children are being illegally restrained in the custody of Texas CPS.

The motion said that Texas law enforcement knew the phone call that prompted the raid was likely a hoax.

"Nevertheless, Amy Marie Dockstader, Natalie Joanne Keate, Britton Bauer Keate, Jameson Rand Keate and Marreta Keate were removed from the community and the relators' custody," the fathers' attorney, Gerald Goldstein, wrote.

Story continues below
In separate sections, fathers James Dockstader, Rulon Keate and LeLand Keate describe the raid and how their children and wives were taken from them. Dockstader's attorneys described him praying outside the FLDS temple as law enforcement went inside, Keate's wife accompanied their children onto buses as they were removed en masse from the ranch.

The fathers say there is no evidence their children were abused and they have been denied their rights to hearings and due process.

"This court should order the return of their children and individualized hearings if, and only if, an adequate showing can be made that such hearings are necessary with respect to their families and child," Goldstein wrote.

The raid on the YFZ Ranch began April 3 when authorities responded to a call from someone claiming to be a 16-year-old girl, pregnant and in an abusive polygamous marriage to a 49-year-old man. When law enforcement and child welfare workers responded, they said they saw signs of other abuse — including other pregnant minors.

That prompted a judge to order the removal of all of the children from the FLDS compound. They are now in foster care facilities across Texas. Authorities have said the FLDS culture poses a danger to children, with girls being groomed to become child brides and boys being groomed to be predators.

"To prove that it has a compelling interest in holding these children, CPS must prove that they will suffer actual harm," Goldstein responded. "Speculation does not suffice."


E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com

Recent comments

Well it seems all cps works the same way. At fightcps you will see...

mypc46 | May 21, 2008 at 5:18 p.m.

"You would also know that the case seems to be moving from...

To: again to wonder | May 18, 2008 at 3:00 p.m.

you say: "to checking out FLDS finances. You really don't find that...

To: again to wonder | May 18, 2008 at 1:56 p.m.

Image
Rene Haas

Clockwise from top, a family portrait of Joseph Steed Jessop Sr., Lori Jessop and their children; Ziana Glo Jessop, 4; Joseph Edson Jessop, 2; and Joseph Steed Jessop Jr., who turns 1 on Thursday. The FLDS family went to court to block the separation of the mother and infant child.

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