Sect Children To Remain In State Care, Judge Says

DNA Tests Ordered To Reveal Parentage

SAN ANGELO, Texas, April 18 -- The more than 400 children taken from a ranch run by a polygamous sect will stay in state custody and be subject to genetic testing to sort out family relationships that have confounded welfare authorities, a judge ruled Friday.

State District Judge Barbara Walther heard 21 hours of testimony over two days before ruling that the children would be kept in custody while the state continues to investigate allegations of abuse stemming from the teachings of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

"This is but the beginning," Walther said. Individual hearings will be set for the children over the next several weeks.

Walther ordered that all 416 children and parents be tested. Child welfare officials say they've had difficulty determining how the children and adults are related because of evasive or changing answers.

A mobile genetic lab will take samples Monday at the shelter housing children; parents can submit samples Tuesday in Eldorado.

The custody case is one of the largest in U.S. history. The ruling capped two days of marathon testimony that descended into chaos as hundreds of lawyers for the children and parents competed to defend their clients in two large rooms linked by a video feed.

Attorneys popped up with objections in a courtroom and nearby auditorium, then lined up to cross-examine witnesses in a hearing that frustrated attorneys and stretched the small-town court system.

Authorities raided the 1,700-acre Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado on April 3 and began removing children while seeking evidence of underage girls being married to adults. Walther signed an emergency order giving the state custody of the children taken from the ranch.

The raid was prompted by a call from someone identifying herself as a 16-year-old girl with the sect. She claimed that her husband, a 50-year-old member of the sect, beat and raped her. The girl has yet to be identified, though Voss said a girl matching her description was seen by other girls in the ranch garden four days before the raid.

The state of Texas argued it should be allowed to keep the children because the sect's teaching encourages girls younger than 18 to enter spiritual marriages with older men and produce as many children as possible. Its attorneys argued that the culture put all the girls at risk and potentially turned the boys into future predators.

A witness for the parents who was presented by defense lawyers as an expert on the FLDS disputed that the girls have no say in who they marry.

"I believe the girls are given a real choice," said W. John Walsh. "Girls have successfully said, 'No, this is not a good match for me,' and they remained in good standing."

But Bruce Perry, a psychiatrist who has studied children in cults, testified that the girls will not refuse marriages because they are indoctrinated to believe disobedience will lead to their damnation.

The renegade Mormon sect's belief system, Perry said, "is abusive. The culture is very authoritarian."