Four more FLDS 'disputed minors' declared adults

SAN ANGELO, Texas — Four FLDS women whom Texas officials believed were minors have now been declared adults.

While holding hearings to determine plans that could eventually reunite many of the more than 450 children with their parents, judges here have also been wading into the cases of 26 young women called "disputed minors." The state believes they are underage, but Fundamentalist LDS Church members have insisted they are adults.

Judge Jay Weatherby has been overseeing a full docket involving the young women. On Tuesday morning, Natalia Jessop, 18, was declared an adult.

"Ms. Jessop, is that your belief as well? That you are an adult?" the judge asked her.

"Yes," she replied over the phone from a shelter where she has been staying.

The judge postponed a decision on Mildred "Millie" Jessop until Thursday, when a hearing will be held for her children.

After reviewing testimony, Weatherby declared three other "disputed minors" adults Tuesday afternoon: Evelyn Allred, Rebecca Allred and Monica Jessop.

"Do I have the right to act like an adult?" Evelyn Allred asked the judge by telephone during her hearing.

Weatherby assured her that new accommodations would be made for her "adult status," including increased access to a telephone. She will remain in a foster facility because she has an infant son and he remains in state custody.

Texas Child Protective Services has allowed mothers of children 12 months and younger to remain with them, largely because the mothers have wanted to breastfeed their children.

In another courtroom, Dan and Louisa Jessop's lawyers tried to get Judge Barbara Walther to recuse herself from the massive child custody case. It was Walther who gave the order placing all of the children in state custody. In this case, she was asked to step away from the Jessop's case because of an order she issued putting Louisa Jessop's baby in state custody. The motion was denied.

"That was a very uphill battle, but it did expose some issues with the way the hearings have been handled," said Rod Parker, a Salt Lake attorney acting as a spokesman for the FLDS people.

Jessop, 22, was recently declared an adult just after she gave birth to a baby. She did not appear in court on Tuesday for a hearing involving her children.

"She's with her baby in San Antonio," her husband said.

Five judges are simultaneously hearing case after case in a schedule that's set to last three weeks. Parents are being pushed to sign family service plans that include allegations about child abuse within the polygamous sect and what mothers and fathers must do to ensure their children are safe and can be reunited with them.