Judge urged to drop son of Jeffs from custody case

Texas child welfare authorities are asking a judge to drop a 9-year-old son of Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs from the ongoing custody case involving children from the polygamous sect's YFZ Ranch.

Child Protective Services confirmed to the Deseret News the agency filed to have the child "nonsuited" on Friday, leaving only two children left in the case. However, a judge may have to decide custody issues before dropping the case.

The boy's court-appointed attorney filed papers in a San Angelo, Texas, court seeking to determine who has authority over the child and to order Jeffs to pay child support. The child's mother died in 2004 and in the years since, he has been cared for by his aunt, Annette Jeffs — one of Warren Jeffs' other wives.

San Angelo attorney Jonathan R. Davis also raised questions about Warren Jeffs, noting his criminal convictions, pending criminal cases and documents that revealed he performed underage marriages. Davis asked that either CPS or Annette Jeffs be appointed conservator over the child, with conditions, and Warren Jeffs' access to the boy limited until he reaches maturity.

"I am not at liberty to discuss the case," Davis replied to an e-mailed request for comment.

In her own court filings, Annette Jeffs' attorney accused Davis of not acting in his client's best interests and argued that the boy should remain with his aunt.

Davis wrote that the boy appears "physically healthy and is both courteous and well-behaved." He currently lives with Annette Jeffs and is home-schooled, according to court papers. Montford asked for that arrangement to continue, adding that if the case were to go to court she would mount a religious freedom defense.

"(Annette Jeffs) is free to exercise and hold her religious beliefs and raise her children according to these beliefs without government infringement," Montford wrote. "Respondent may also educate her children in a manner that she sees appropriate."

Court clerks were unsure late Friday if 51st District Judge Barbara Walther had nonsuited the boy. A court hearing is tentatively scheduled for March 5. The boy's siblings were dropped a couple of weeks ago.

Of the 439 children taken in last year's raid on the YFZ Ranch, only two girls would remain under court oversight. One is a 14-year-old girl CPS alleges was married at age 12 to Warren Jeffs. The other is a 17-year-old girl who has a child and authorities allege was married to an FLDS man at age 14.

A CPS spokesman would not comment on the remaining cases Friday. The agency has steadily nonsuited children since June, saying that its investigations have either found no evidence of abuse or their parents took appropriate steps to protect their children from abuse.

CPS and law enforcement raided the YFZ Ranch after a report of abuse. The call is believed to be a hoax, but authorities claimed to have found other evidence of abuse that prompted a judge to order the removal of all of the children.

But two months later a pair of Texas courts ruled the state acted improperly and the children were not at immediate risk of abuse, ordering them all returned to their families.

E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com