Heidi Mattingly Foster knows firsthand the unique situation that members of the Fundamentalist LDS Church are in as they wade their way through a child custody case that blends abuse allegations with the faith of a polygamist society.

Foster, a member of the Davis County Cooperative Society (also known as the Kingston group), went through a custody battle with the state over 11 of her children that lasted three years.

"They're facing the worst possible thing that could ever happen to them," Foster said of the FLDS parents in a recent interview with the Deseret News. "They're facing permanent loss of their children, and it's really scary to stand your ground."

Foster's case began when two of her daughters with John Daniel Kingston got their ears pierced and called police, claiming he had threatened them with violence. A subsequent investigation by the state Division of Child and Family Services revealed a filthy home, and a judge found both Kingston and Foster had been abusive and neglectful parents.

The case took numerous twists and turns, with details about Kingston's family being dug up, Foster's court-ordered separation from her family, and a teen's claims about a bizarre plot to blow up the courthouse.

It also created new ways to reach out to abuse victims within plural families and open more dialogue with polygamist communities.

Abuse

Asked if she was an abusive or neglectful parent, Foster puts it this way: "I believe there's things I should have done different and things I could have done better. I think every parent would say that.

"I think that even still, there's things I need to do better. Do I think that justifies removing the children? No, I don't think it does at all."

The protracted court fight began in 2004 when state officials filed an abuse and neglect petition regarding 10 of Foster's children. Foster was pregnant with her youngest at the time. Judge Andrew Valdez found abuse and neglect, and after Foster's baby was born, the judge also deemed her to be "at risk" and put her under the court's jurisdiction. Foster got to stay with her baby.

Over the course of the highly publicized hearings, Valdez ordered Foster to live in a shelter for battered women, and arranged for individualized therapy and a special group therapy for abused polygamous women.

"I was willing to move out of my home, but I wouldn't renounce my religion. I refused to do that," Foster said.