Texas had secret plan to separate polygamist mothers, children
12:00 AM CDT on Wednesday, June 4, 2008
By CHRISTY HOPPE / The Dallas Morning News
choppe@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
– State officials, fearing a violent reaction from members of a
West Texas polygamist sect, considered a secret plan to haul hundreds of
children and their mothers to Midlothian to be separated, internal
e-mails show. But a judge vetoed the plan.
They also worried that mothers would try to make a "run" from the
shelter with their children, feared a rampage of infections among the
families and fretted about the fear of violence and state resources
being overwhelmed by events.
More than 1,500 pages of e-mails between the governor's office and Child
Protective Services, obtained by The Dallas Morning News under state
freedom of information laws, show top executives working day and night
in early April to deal with a raid on the Yearning for Zion ranch that
quickly mushroomed into a massive operation. In the first week, more
than 1,000 personnel were deployed and costs reached $2.3 million.
Conspicuously absent in the e-mail strings was Gov. Rick Perry. While
his executive staff was exchanging information and tracking events, Mr.
Perry did not receive a full briefing from officials until five days
after the raid – when more than 500 people were being held in state-run
shelters.
Spokeswoman Krista Piferrer said that because the situation was highly
charged and fluid, Mr. Perry used the phone and personal updates from
his staff to stay informed. During his administration, he has avoided
using e-mail because the content is subject to open-records requests.
The governor's office and CPS withheld hundreds of pages of messages,
citing state laws exempting confidential information.
Ms. Piferrer said the governor was engaged but deferred to the experts
at Child Protective Services and the Department of Public Safety to
conduct the investigation and do their work.
The governor's office was first informed there was a problem on April 1,
when CPS and Texas Rangers said they were planning to raid the
polygamist ranch in two days – on a Thursday. The impetus was a call
from a 16-year-old pregnant girl – later determined to be a hoax – who
re****ted physical and ***ual abuse by her 49-year-old "spiritual husband."
"They went in there not expecting to find 400 children," Ms. Piferrer
said. "You can easily see where it went larger than just those two
entities – CPS and law enforcement."
Within a day of the raid, more than 100 girls and women had left the
compound, but more children kept turning up as log cabins on the ranch
were searched. Supplies were called in from the Red Cross, Goodfellow
Air Force Base and local shelters. CPS workers' state-issued credit
cards were quickly maxed out.
Hundreds in custody
As the weekend passed, more than 400 children were in custody. The
Governor's Division of Emergency Management had set up a command post,
state agencies had pitched in – including even the Forest Service –
and
hundreds of state workers had been deployed.
Among other details the e-mails reveal:
• Days after the raid, the governor's office apparently did not have a
copy of the "search warrant that the media seems to be reading from,"
which contained basic information sup****ting the raid. Plus, an outbreak
of chicken pox at the shelter prompts emergency operations chief Jack
Colley to write: "Many concerns. ... This is getting out of hand."
• The governor's staff prepared for him two pages of "key message
points, mostly in preparation for an interview with religious
broadcaster Pat Robertson to promote the governor's new book on the Boy
Scouts.
• On April 10, the governor's human service policy director Kristi
Jordan re****ted that "we have reason to believe as a result of
interviews that some of the mothers are planning to conduct a 'run.'
Their objective would be to hide from law enforcement authorities."
Security is beefed up.
Many of the e-mails involve how to separate the mothers, more than 130
of them, who were staying with the children. CPS spokesman Patrick
Crimmins said that it is standard procedure in an abuse case to remove
the parents to mitigate their influence.
Picking Midlothian
Initially, the plan was to carry out the separation on Friday, April 11,
by putting all the mothers and children on buses headed to a Salvation
Army facility in Midlothian because of "security concerns with the
separation taking place in San Angelo," Ms. Jordan summarized in an
April 8 e-mail.
Ms. Piferrer explained that experts feared that emotional outbursts
could turn violent, children could be hurt or alerted fathers could
become involved. "There were concerns," Ms. Piferrer said. "We were
prepared for that if indeed it came to a difficult situation."
She said that Midlothian offered a better-equipped and more secure
location. "The model of emergency management is to hope for the best and
plan for the worst," she said.
The women and children were not to be told until they were on the buses
that all but nursing mothers would be separated into different living
quarters from the children.
"Salvation Army indicated it would not allow the conflict associated
with separation to occur in its facility, which is why the separation
would occur at a secure location prior to entering the Salvation Army
grounds," Ms. Jordan wrote.
The judge in charge of custody of the children eventually rejected the
transfer. Instead, the separation occurred on April 14, without
incident. But the e-mails show that field officers re****ted back to the
governor's office virtually minute by minute on how it proceeded.
Willie Jessop, a leader of the Eldorado sect, said it was preposterous
that women in the shelters were plotting an escape or that some mothers
were trying to thwart the investigation.
"We never, never did anything other than to comply and to endure what
they put us through," Mr. Jessop said. "There was never any type of
inside escape plan. That would just never happen."
He expressed outrage that the governor's office was trying to move the
mothers and children and separate them en route, outside of public view.
"When is the public going to hold this administration accountable for
treating us worse than you would a dog?" he asked.
Staff writer Emily Ramshaw contributed to this re****t.
An Inconvenient Truth about Child Protective Services, Foster care, and
the Child Protection "INDUSTRY"
Child Protective Services Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of CPS.
every parent should read the free handbook from
connecticut dcf watch...
http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com
Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Wa****ngton. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS
Perpetrators of Maltreatment
Physical Abuse CPS/Foster care 160, biological Parents 59
***ual Abuse CPS/Foster care 112, biological Parents 13
Neglect CPS/Foster care 410, biological Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS/Foster care 14 biological Parents 12
Fatalities CPS/Foster care 6.4, biological Parents 1.5
Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and ***ual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.
THIS IS AMERICA'S HIDDEN HOLOCAUST
Currently Child Protective Services violates more constitutionally
guaranteed liberties & civil rights on a daily basis then all other
agencies combined, Including the National Security agency/Central
intelligence agency wiretaping programs…
THE CORRUPT BUSINESS OF CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES
BY: Nancy Schaefer Senator, 50th District of Georgia
http://www.senatornancyschaefer.com/articles.php?filter=6
This is Child Protection?
By Gregory A. Hession, J.D.
http://www.jbs.org/node/4632
Mercenary Motherhood: "Memoirs of a Babystealer."
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-callahan16oct16,0,5019944.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail
FOSTER CARE IS A 80 PERCENT FAILURE:. A Brief Analysis of the Casey
Family Programs. Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study. By Richard Wexler
http://www.nccpr.org/re****ts/cfpanalysis.doc
HOW THE WAR AGAINST CHILD ABUSE BECAME A WAR AGAINST CHILDREN
http://www.nccpr.org/issues/1.html
Adoption Bonuses: The Money Behind the Madness
DSS and affiliates rewarded for breaking up families
By Nev Moore Massachusetts News
http://www.massnews.com/past_issues/2000/5_May/mayds4.htm
A recent study has found that 12-18 months after leaving foster care:
30% of the nation’s homeless are former foster children.
27% of the males and 10% of the females had been incarcerated
33% were receiving public assistance
37% had not finished high school
2% receive a college degree
50% were unemployed
Children in foster care are three to six times more likely than children
not in care to have emotional, behavioral and developmental problems,
including conduct disorders, depression, difficulties in school and
impaired social relation****ps. Some experts estimate that about 30% of
the children in care have marked or severe emotional problems. Various
studies have indicated that children and young people in foster care
tend to have limited education and job skills, perform poorly in school
compared to children who are not in foster care, lag behind in their
education by at least one year, and have lower educational attainment
than the general population.
*Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Sup****t
80 percent of prison inmates have been through the foster care system.
The highest ranking federal official in charge of foster care, Wade Horn
of the Department of Health and Human Services, is a former child
psychologist who says the foster care system is a giant mess and should
just be blown up.
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=2017991
Four rigorous studies have found that at least 30 percent of America’s
foster children could be home right now if their parents had decent
housing.
This study found thousands of children already in foster care who would
have done better had child protection agencies not taken them away in
the first place.
Front-page story in USA Today.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-02-foster-study_N.htm?csp=34#Close
Read the studies online.
Casey "alumni" study: "Improving Family Foster Care: Findings from the
Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study,"
www.casey.org/Resources/Publications/NorthwestAlumniStudy.htm
MIT study: "Child Protection and Child Outcomes: Measuring the Effects
of Foster Care,"
www.mit.edu/~jjdoyle/doyle_fosterlt_march07_aer.pdf
Texas comptroller's "Forgotten Children" re****ts:
www.window.state.tx.us/forgottenchildren
The bottom line? - Child Protective Services and the Foster Care system
for the most part turns out young adults that are nothing more than
walking wreckage...
CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CONSTITUTIONALLY
GUARANTEED LIBERTIES & CIVIL RIGHTS ON A DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER
AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL
INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAMS....
CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...
BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLI****NG CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...
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