Criminal case possible against polygamists

updated 7:07 p.m. ET June 4, 2008

SAN ANGELO, Texas - The members of a polygamist sect raided by authorities two months ago have their children back, but with a criminal investigation looming, the sect's troubles may not be over.

"There have been criminal problems located out there," said Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran, who was with state troopers and child welfare authorities when they raided Yearning For Zion Ranch in west Texas on April 3.

The Texas Department of Public Safety and the attorney general's office have taken over the criminal investigation at the request of authorities in the rural ranching community. While they confirm they are investigating, neither will say how long the investigation may take.

Child-welfare officials have alleged that members of the church that runs the ranch pushed underage girls into marriages with older men, but the evidence needed to support a criminal case could prove elusive.

Finding witnesses could prove difficult
DNA evidence acquired in the custody case is off limits to criminal investigators without a court order, and a prosecution probably would go nowhere without at least one willing witness in the insular ranch community. Members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints had a strong distrust of outsiders even before all the children at the ranch were taken away.

The children were allowed to leave foster care after a judge bowed to a Texas Supreme Court ruling last week that the state overreached by taking all the children even though evidence of sexual abuse was limited to five teenage girls. Half the children taken from the ranch were no older than 5.

All 440 children were returned to parents by Wednesday, Child Protective Services spokesman Patrick Crimmins said.

The high court ruling and state District Judge Barbara Walther's orders returning the children do not affect the criminal investigation, which involves several trailer loads of documents confiscated during a raid lasting nearly a week. Authorities removed all documents and photos they say might show relationships between underage girls and older men.

"It's going to take awhile. With any criminal case we investigate, we do as much as we possibly can before turning the case over to the prosecutors," said public safety spokeswoman Tela Mange.

Last week, investigators from the attorney general's office took DNA from Warren Jeffs, the jailed prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, saying they were looking for evidence of relationships between Jeffs and four girls ages 12 to 15.

Allegations of underage weddings
Under Texas law, girls younger than 17 generally cannot consent to sex with an adult. At a custody hearing, state attorneys introduced a photo they said was a wedding picture showing Jeffs embracing a girl and kissing her on the mouth.

Jeffs has been convicted in Utah as an accomplice to rape in the marriage of an underage sect member. He faces similar charges in Arizona, though no trial date has been set.

Authorities have DNA from all the children and many of the parents at the YFZ Ranch — 603 samples in all — but those results cannot be used by law enforcers without a court order because they were taken from parents and children as part of the custody case, not under a criminal search warrant.

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