From Deseret News archives:
FLDS raid costs surpass $14M
Texas expected to see more bills from roundup at ranch
A Fort Worth Star-Telegram review of more than 400 pages of invoices, travel receipts and state agency e-mails and spreadsheets obtained this week under state open records laws show that officials expect to pay more than $7 million for litigation stemming from the early April raid on the Yearning For Zion Ranch near Eldorado owned by the Fundamentalist LDS Church.
The Texas Attorney General's Office is also being billed $110,000 for expenses related to the conducting of DNA testing on adults and children from the sect in an effort to positively identify the parents of every child who had been taken into custody.
The raid on the YFZ Ranch sparked a legal skirmish that first resulted in a state district judge in San Angelo awarding Child Protective Services temporary custody of the children followed by the ruling by the Texas Supreme Court that resulted in the children being returned to their parents.
Even though the state's highest court ruled that officials had overstepped their authority in the mass roundup, Texas officials have maintained that they had uncovered clear evidence that the youngsters in the compound where teenage girls marry much older men were in imminent danger of abuse. And a spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry, who has defended the state's action, insisted that the cost to taxpayers is justified.
"Any action taken to protect children is never misguided," said Krista Piferrer, Perry's deputy press secretary.
The documents released through the Texas Attorney General's Office and the governor's office show that state employees who were sent to Eldorado and San Angelo stayed mostly in moderately priced hotels such as La Quinta and Rodeway Inn. In many cases, employees sent e-mails to supervisors seeking permission before extending their stays or traveling between San Angelo and Eldorado.
Recent comments
Any action taken to protect children is never misguided," said Krista...
awarthurhu | July 30, 2008 at 1:06 p.m.
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