Dallas compound case: more than meets the eye

First off - IF the person in charge had any obligation and sense of responsibility and knew what was happening at this "compound" - then why didn't she have one of her own relatives file a "referral" as that clearly would have been the RIGHT THING to do!!

With the provisions of the PATRIOT ACT, all suspicious activity is to be reported, so WHY NO REPORTS ??

The people in the "compound" OBVIOUSLY use many products - food is bought, kotex, just a whole host of products. Again, where are the suspicious activity reports that are filed?

This entire thing reeks from start to finish, and like WACO perhaps the entire story will never come out.

Any country that suffers under THEOCRATS is going to see plenty more of these in upcoming years. Score more points for The Patriarchy!! That which looks away from real harm done to anyone without POWER.

And like no one, no one at all, was watching Mr. Jeffs - and NO ONE filed a "referral"?

Oh, all of us who can read - we're just SO gullible.

Veeger

ps - ANYONE remember the Franklin Sex case? STILL covered up.




Update: Tensions Calmed At West Texas Polygamist Compound

Texas child welfare workers said Sunday they have now removed 219 women and children from a West Texas polygamous compound, but still have no positive identification of the 16-year-old girl whose abuse complaint led to the sweep.

“We didn’t know there would be this many [children], and we don’t know how many more there are,” said Marleigh Meisner, a spokeswoman for Child Protective Services.

On Saturday, officials had removed 183 women and children. So far, 18 juveniles are in state custody, meaning there was sufficient evidence of abuse or an immanent danger. The rest are being questioned to determine whether they will be placed in state care.

Tensions at a West Texas polygamous compound where investigators remain were calmed Sunday morning after law enforcement officials searched the retreat’s massive temple.

Authorities first entered the retreat, built by followers of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, on Thursday night after a 16-year-old girl called to report that she had a child with a 50-year-old husband.

That girl, however, had not been found by Sunday afternoon. Ms. Meisner said the girls often go by different names and can be difficult to identify.

“We’re always concerned anytime we have a victim and we can’t find that victim,” said Ms. Meisner.

“I am confident this girl does indeed exist.”

In Eldorado, a ranching town with fewer than 2,000 residents, some struggled Sunday morning to help protect and care for the new faces in their midst, many of whom may have never left the retreat before. Of the 219 taken in, 159 are children.

“They seem very stoic, very strong,” pastor Andy Anderson of First Baptist Church said of the women. “Clearly this has been emotional, but they are great mothers.”

About 70 of the women and children, wearing old-fashioned dresses and uniform hair braids, were housed in the church’s fellowship hall until mid-day Sunday when they were whisked away in school buses flanked by state troopers. All of the women and children taken from the compound were being relocated to a San Angelo facility where they can receive therapy and medical attention, Ms. Meisner said. She said a state district judge recommended that all the children from the compound be relocated to better facilitate interviews and care.

“This has been a tense situation for all involved,” Ms. Meisner said.

“I think they’re doing remarkably well considering the circumstances.”

Mr. Anderson said cots were brought in from a nearby Air Force base and grocery store donations helped with other supplies. Buses had been taking the women and children from the church to the local high school for showers.

“That compound has put Eldorado on the map,” Mr. Anderson said. “We’re used to the scrutiny. Whenever we go out of town, that’s all that everybody seems to know about us.”

State troopers armed with a search warrant swept through the compound on Friday to look for evidence of a marriage between the 16-year-old girl, who allegedly had a baby at 15, and 50-year-old Dale Barlow. Under Texas law, girls younger than 16 cannot marry, even with parental approval.

Mr. Barlow’s probation officer told The Salt Lake Tribune that he was in Arizona.

“He said the authorities had called him [in Colorado City, Ariz.] and some girl had accused him of assaulting her and he didn’t even know who she was,” said Bill Loader, a probation officer in Arizona.

The retreat, part of the The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was taken over by Mr. Jeffs after his father’s death in 2002. It splintered from the Mormon church more than a century ago.

Mr. Jeffs is now jailed in Kingman, Ariz., awaiting trial for four counts each of incest and sexual conduct with a minor stemming from two arranged marriages between teenage girls and their older male relatives.

In November, he was sentenced to two consecutive sentences of five years to life in prison in Utah for being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl who wed her cousin in an arranged marriage in 2001.

The West Texas compound, on a 1,700-acre ranch, sits down a narrow paved road and behind a hill that shields it almost entirely from view in town. Only the 80-foot-high, white temple can be seen from a distance. State troopers continued to block roads into and out of the compound on Sunday.

“CPS can only go in and do an investigation if we receive a referral,” Ms. Meisner said when asked why authorities had not acted sooner.

“This is the first referral that we’ve had.