Deseret News | 253 FLDS children now dropped from YFZ custody battle

Reader comments
253 FLDS children now dropped from YFZ custody battle

Joey | 3:15 p.m. Aug. 28, 2008

Ok, Crimmins, now get ready for 253 suits in reverse, including 26 claims for false imprisonment.

Protection or punishment? | 3:35 p.m. Aug. 28, 2008

The girl's letter sounds so unlike a abused child that you have to wonder if CPS is only putting her in custody to punish her parents. And by CPS's track record, it's hard to believe otherwise. CPS has now non-suited more than half the YFZ children, children who were once in such imminent danger that they were placed in a concentration camp. But oops, they were never in danger, were they? Except from CPS.

tigerlily | 3:36 p.m. Aug. 28, 2008

this is great news

Comments continue below

Justthefactsmaam | 3:46 p.m. Aug. 28, 2008

The "26 non-suited minors" is CPS-speak for women a few days from their 37th birthdays, as highlighted here in an article by Deseret News.

Another radical feminist disaster.

Who even takes them seriously any more?

Gal50 | 6:54 p.m. Aug. 28, 2008

This is positive news. It doesn't guarantee these 253 children will remain safe. It only admits that these children are not currently at risk. There is little likelihood that children under 12 are going to be married or kicked out at the present moment. Two years down the road could be a different story unless Willie Jessop is an honest person when he promises no underage marriages. Warren Jeffs is in jail and that might put a damper on underage marriages, but it seems Merrill Jessop was highly involved in these marriages and he is still free, although no longer showing his face.

We all hope that girls have a better future than the 3rd wife of some aged man and that family members remain available to the boys who exhibit normal teen behavior.

zxcvbnm | 7:29 p.m. Aug. 28, 2008

Well I guess "26 disputed minors" is CPS speak for grown women.
Kind of like protecting a girl from a man in prison and the girls absent father.
How much more CPS double speak will we have to listen to before someone investigates the agency for misuse of power?
Did anyone call the law about the illegal chicken coop at Barbaras house yet? We don't want Barberas remaining kids attacked by "wild fowl".
Come on CPS.....save the kids from the chickens.

Utah is just as bad as Texas | 7:54 p.m. Aug. 28, 2008

The Justice system is broken
The Judges do not measure up to the Utah State Constitution, They do not follow the law by knowing the law
The Courts are corrupt

Joey | 8:05 p.m. Aug. 28, 2008

Gal50's totally OK with the clairvoyant pronouncements of the CPS. If CPS thinks your kid is in danger two years from now, then it's totally cool for CPS to snatch that kid and put her in foster care where there's a 50% chance she'll be sexually abused anyway. I guess to justify the 50% chance of being sexually abused, CPS has some pretty good mathematical formulas for calculating a greater than 50% chance that the girl will be abused if remaining in the FLDS, either that or they have a good crystal ball, or really good eyeballs.

Which incidentally is one of the chief qualifications a CPS worker can have: the ability to tell the age difference between a 38 year old and a 16 year old. Because we know they can't tell a 37 year old from one.

Ohio | 8:55 p.m. Aug. 28, 2008

Has anyone read the letter in its entirety? From my point of view, it is a very strange letter for a 14 year old girl to write to her mother. Not to say that the strangeness means that it was appropriate for her to be removed from her family or not, but it is just a very odd letter in my opinion.

Jay | 9:16 p.m. Aug. 28, 2008

It does not sound like the average letter from a teenage daughter to her mother. My gosh it would be nice if teenagers did show that much love for their parents these days. And that handwriting is not the typical teenagers handwriting either. Too neat. They must be doing something right in that group or else someone else wrote it. Seems like there is a lot of overkill going on concerning this group.

zxcvbnm | 9:20 p.m. Aug. 28, 2008

I read the letter. The letter shows the love of a girl for her family.
I was waiting for the thing to be torn apart sentence by sentence and twisted into some proof of abuse. But hey......there is plenty of time for the state psycologists to find something twisted and perverse with a hidden meaning behind every word.
How about a few of the spelling and gramatics gurus giving it a once over.
Let me give all the letter skeptics a start.
The video was bashed and portrayed as a good acting job......could the letter be a continuance of the same alleged charade?

Blessings in Disguise | 9:51 p.m. Aug. 28, 2008

Though what Texas did was wrong, I am amazed at how often wrong actions can be blessings in desguise.

If the FLDS take this as an opportuinity to change their practice of forcing young girls to marry older men and also to change their other reprehensible practice of kicking their young teen boys out of the house and community, all of this will have been for the good.

I call upon society at large, the states of Texas, Utah and Arizona and others, to help the FLDS put a stop to the practice of kicking their young boys out if they won't stop themselves.

zxcvbnm | 9:51 p.m. Aug. 28, 2008

Darn...I spoke too late. The girl is being criticized for loving her family and having neat handwriting.
OK.....leys try this. If the girl writes that she hates her mother and messes up her cursive a bit can she go home?
Lets' all start figureing out just what the correct degree of hate and unresolved mother daughter "issues" are so we can help the girl "act normal" and go home.

Ing | 9:55 p.m. Aug. 28, 2008

I guess it's possible the letter was faked, but I doubt it. Who's to know, really?

I guess there's two ways to look at the desuiting/unsuiting or whatever it's called. One is that the CPS intervention has done its job--the proper oversight has been established and the children were removed from a risky situation, and can now go back to their families.

The other--which is what I believe--is that this is the inevitable outcome of a vast, miscalculated overreaching on the part of the Texas CPS. Why else would nearly all of the children be returned to the same parents who supposedly were putting them in such grave danger? There wasn't much of any danger in the first place.

zxcvbnm | 10:01 p.m. Aug. 28, 2008

Joey....Here is a bit of statistical trivia for ya.......
The greatest degree of certainty to which statistics can be used to predict human behavior is 51%.
The reality of the situation is that the smartist shrink or psycologist using modern statistical methods to predict human behavior is 1% better than the toss of a coin.
Guess that's why we have such a terrible record of predicting repeat offender rates.

A-Fro | 10:06 p.m. Aug. 28, 2008

The letter sounds completely fake to me. It's probably a ruse.

joy87 | 10:32 p.m. Aug. 28, 2008

It's about time. What took them so long to relize that there is no abuse?

transplant | 10:35 p.m. Aug. 28, 2008

What is not normal about the letter is that there is no anger at her Mother being responsible for getting her in this situation. What was she going to do if Jeffs hadn't been incarcerated and had to live with him? She surely doesn't sound at all like a married woman. How could her Mother have married her off with the coping skills she seems to lack.

Chai | 3:38 a.m. Aug. 29, 2008

Thank God for His mercies.

May Merrianne soon be returned to her loving home.

For those that think this letter is 'fake' or a 'ruse' - how sad that you don't even recognize sincere love or intelligence when it is poured out from the hurting heart of a young lady.

It's hilarious that you think that the letter is a fraud because the handwriting is legible (and beautiful) and there aren't misspellings.

The FLDS must hold to the old school of practicing legible handwriting and spelling bees, and not teachers who accept poor writing, spelling, and grammar as acceptable just to get a disruptive child out of their classroom.

Maybe some of the FLDS should teach children writing and spelling while others teach parenting classes.

I doubt there is a parent alive that wouldn't love to have such love expressed by their child(ren) toward them.

THEIR kids know and express love. OUR children express disdain, disrespect, and dishonor toward their parents - don't believe me? Pick up a newspaper and read about OUR children killing parents, grandparents, siblings, and friends...

Yup. We've done a great job of teaching our children to love.

re Chai | 10:31 a.m. Aug. 29, 2008

you're kidding, right? are you actually comparing FLDS kids versus children that murder their parents? yes - you're right - most regular kids kill someone but FLDS kids don't... (except for that FLDS kid that recently murdered his girlfriend and stood over her chanting some strange FLDS prayer....)

and I'm still laughing about your suggestion that FLDS parents teach writing and spelling, and parenting classes.

First of all, having FLDS teach parenting classes would be like KKK members teaching diversity classes. Unless pimping 12 yr olds is a class agenda.

And second, there is no need to teach FLDS kids proper writing and spelling. All they need to know is the difference between a 5" nail and a 2" nail, and how to tell when their water breaks. Everything else is handled by lawyers or a couple of old men in charge.

And finally - very few parents would want "to have such love expressed by their child(ren) towards them" if it meant breaking all free will out of the child. We try to raise leaders out here, not sheepish followers. That's why it's best if your children of the corn simply stay in their cornfield.

R | 1:10 p.m. Aug. 29, 2008

//except for that FLDS kid that recently murdered his girlfriend and stood over her chanting some strange FLDS prayer//

What the heck are you referring to?

And second, there is no need to teach FLDS kids proper writing and spelling. All they need to know is the difference between a 5" nail and a 2" nail, and how to tell when their water breaks.

What in the world? Virtually all of them are literate. They do instruct their children. I don't know where you got this impression from.

zxcvbnm | 6:40 p.m. Aug. 29, 2008

RE, R:
The refe4ence to the murder by an flds boy was true. Yhe boy, young man, was drugged up and killed his girlfriend.

I guess the lack of education reference has to do with the general smear campaign.......you see everyone thinks that the state should educate children. An educated child is state speak for a socialized child. Any child not socialized is brainwashed.

Kilbarry1 | 1:41 a.m. Aug. 30, 2008

Joel said: "Ok, Crimmins, now get ready for 253 suits in reverse, including 26 claims for false imprisonment."

The 26 adults falsely imprisoned as children may be the only ones who can sue. I think that "Child Protectors" usually have immunity against lawsuits for falsely seizing children - unless they behaved with criminal intent i.e. if they KNEW that the children were NOT being abused but seized them anyway. This is supposed to be to protect the rights of children - so that the "Child Protectors" will not be afraid to take action in future.

Thus stupidity, gross incompetence and even prejudice may not be sufficient grounds for a lawsuit against the CPS.

choice2 | 6:32 a.m. Aug. 30, 2008

Maybe the letter is a fake.
Maybe someone has her locked in a closet
and they beat her and rape her daily.

They made her write the letter as a cover up.
After all these foster homes are very likely to abuse the children as shown by history.

Wait, that's the argument that CPS had to take the children in the first place.
Never mind that they all don't practice abuse of the children.
There is a great chance of the children being abused just because they are in a foster home,
so all the children should be taken from CPS.
Such a pervasive abuse system.

If it saves just one child it will be worth it.

zxcvbnm | 6:37 a.m. Aug. 30, 2008

Kilbarry: CPS has used the immunity for prosecution loophole before. THe US 5th circuit closed the immunity from prosecution protection last month. The personal liability issue hopefully will prevent future blanket removals.
Between the Texas Supreme court and the US 5th Circuit the CPS will be held accountable for future "mistakes".

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