8 children still under court oversight in FLDS custody case

Eight children remain under court oversight as the custody battle over the children from the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch withers away.

Texas Child Protective Services confirmed to the Deseret News on Tuesday that a total of 431 children have now been dropped from court jurisdiction in the ongoing child custody case. The children belong to three mothers, CPS officials said.

"Until we have every single one of them back, it's hard to feel overjoyed about it," FLDS member and spokesman Willie Jessop said Tuesday. "It's a tremendous relief, but this is a situation where there will be no child left behind."

CPS has said that it is "nonsuiting" the children because the agency has found either no evidence of abuse or their parents have taken appropriate steps to protect their children. One child, a 14-year-old girl believed to have been married at age 12 to FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, was returned to foster care after a judge ruled her mother failed to protect her from abuse. A custody trial is set for September.

Jessop has been giving a deposition in connection with another custody case involving 17-year-old Teresa Jeffs. The girl's court-appointed attorney is deposing YFZ Ranch leader Frederick Merril Jessop and Willie Jessop. A judge in San Angelo, Texas, has yet to rule on whether the men can assert a Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination on some questions. Willie Jessop termed it "court-appointed hatred."

"We're dealing with it in Salt Lake and we're dealing with it in Texas," he said. "You have a court appoint someone in power, and you use that authority of the court for hatred towards the church."

Lawyer Natalie Malonis said she is seeking the information in advance of a March custody trial where CPS is seeking conservatorship over her client.

"I'm not asking that she be removed from her home," she said Tuesday, adding that she is seeking to have the girl's mother appointed as conservator.

Teresa Jeffs was allegedly married to Raymond Merril Jessop when she was 15 and he was 34. Teresa Jeffs sought to have Malonis replaced, saying her attorney was not acting in her best interests. Malonis sought a restraining order against Willie Jessop, accusing him of intimidating her and pressuring the girl to be uncooperative. The judge refused to remove Malonis and signed a restraining order telling Jeffs' mother, Annette, to keep her daughter away from Jessop.

Malonis would not say how her client feels about the depositions.