'I stand on Fifth,' FLDS mom tells court in custody battle

SAN ANGELO, Texas — To nearly every question she was asked, Barbara Jessop gave the same answer: "I stand on the Fifth."

"Can you name the children you have given birth to?" Texas Child Protective Services attorney Jeff Schmidt asked her during a contentious custody hearing here on Monday.

"I stand on the Fifth," she replied stoically.

"What dates did you live at the YFZ Ranch?"

"I stand on the Fifth."

"Is it wrong for a girl under 17 to marry a man more than 21 years older than she is?"

"I stand on the Fifth."

Child Protective Services is seeking to remove seven FLDS children from their homes and place them in foster care.

They are among the hundreds taken in the April raid on the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch who were subsequently ordered returned a couple of months later. Two cases involving three children are being negotiated in hopes of a possible settlement.

"We're hopeful that there will be an agreement and that the judge will hear it," said CPS spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner.

At the hearing Monday, Jessop's attorney said she didn't want to answer the questions because they could incriminate her in a criminal investigation that is under way.

Jessop refused to identify her daughter in photos presented to her that showed her then-12-year-old daughter kissing Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs on their purported wedding day.

"Do you think it's in the best interests to protect a child from harm?" Schmidt asked her.

"Yes," Jessop replied, breaking from her usual reply.

Then Jessop went back to exercising her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, refusing to answer more than 50 questions peppered at her. A wife of YFZ Ranch leader Merril Jessop, she is fighting Child Protective Services' efforts to have two of her children placed in foster care.

Merril Jessop did not appear for the hearing.

The hearing is scheduled to resume again today, with Barbara Jessop's attorney, Gonzalo Rios, presenting his case. On Monday, he repeatedly stood up, objecting to everything from evidence to the hearing itself.

"They are not alleging anything that's happened since these children have been with my client," Rios said, referring to when they moved into a home in Converse, Texas, after the courts ordered all of the children taken in the April raid on the YFZ Ranch returned to their parents.

As a surprise witness, CPS lawyers called Merril Jessop's ex-wife Carolyn Jessop to the witness stand.

In dramatic testimony, the best-selling author described her marriage and accused both Merril and Barbara Jessop of abusing her children.