Texas loses another court battle with FLDS family

ELDORADO, Texas — On the same day that Texas child welfare workers were dealt a humiliating blow by an Austin appeals court over custody of hundreds of children, a San Antonio court took another shot at them.

The 4th Court of Appeals this afternoon denied a request by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to delay a hearing scheduled for Friday over the planned separation of Lori Jessop, 25, and her 1-year-old son, Joseph Steed Jessop Jr.

The court will instead hear the couple's request to allow her to stay with the infant.

The state challenged a judge's decision to issue a temporary restraining order to halt the separation of a mother and her child taken from the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch. The separation was scheduled for May 15, when the boy turned 1. Texas officials have allowed mothers of children under 1 to remain with them in foster facilities.

The judge had also ordered the government agency to disclose the locations of Jessop's other children — Zianna Glo, 4, and Joseph Edson Jessop, 2 — and allow daily visits with them.

"This is a truly shocking development. The writ of habeas corpus is one of the most precious of all legal protections, designed to protect people from illegal restraint by the government," said Rene Haas, a lawyer for the father, Joseph Steed Jessop Sr. "The Texas Constitution says that it can never be suspended. Yet, the department wants to prevent a judge from

deciding the legality of the restraint of these children. Absolutely amazing."

In its filing, attorneys for the Texas DFPS essentially said Judge Michael Peder stepped on another court's authority.

"This is an extraordinary case involving a collateral assault of a child protection court of dominant jurisdiction by a sister court attempting to exercise habeas corpus jurisdiction in a case involving three children, two of whom are not in Bexar County, Texas," Michael Shulman wrote in his response.

He attached a statement of facts, repeating what Texas Child Protective Services has claimed is happening on the ranch — a pervasive pattern of sex abuse with young girls growing up to become child brides, and young boys growing up to become sexual predators.

Journal entries and interviews with children, CPS claims in the court documents, indicated numerous girls who were mothers at age 16 and one who was 13 when she conceived a child.