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Aftermath of FLDS raid
Texas judge breaks YFZ child custody case into 119 pieces
Attorneys hope some court actions will be dismissed now that cases are grouped by mother
By Brooke Adams
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 07/26/2008 01:00:12 AM MDT

A Texas judge has ordered that a massive child custody case involving a polygamous sect be split up, a move that may be the first step in dismissing some cases while investigation continues in others.
Fifty-first District Judge Barbara Walther on Thursday ordered that the children’s cases be grouped by mother, resulting in 119 separate cases. Previously, the 440 children taken from the sect’s Yearning for Zion Ranch in April were lumped in two court cases.
State officials requested the change “to make a very large and very complex case easier to manage for the court, for our agency, and for all of the other parties,” said Patrick Crimmins, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.
Walther also ordered that attorneys’ requests for information gathered by the state be suspended until she adopts a discovery management plan.
Many attorneys for children and parents had protested the state’s group approach and filed motions to separate their clients’ cases. Some attorneys also sought information from the state about allegations or findings involving their individual clients.
Texas authorities removed the children after receiving allegations of sexual, physical and emotional abuse at the ranch, home to members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Negotiating when and what information
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to provide to attorneys has “been unsuccessful,” the department’s motion said, “and resources that would otherwise be available to resolve legal issues relating to the children have been devoted to dealing with discovery requests and resulting disputes.”
The motion asked the judge to suspend discovery until the cases were severed, investigation completed and “cases that do not require further court intervention” are dismissed.
The department also proposed that the court adopt a “discovery control plan order” like one used by Child Protective Services in Travis County.
The order signed by Walther groups children with their mothers and assigns new case numbers under the mothers’ names.
“With all of the DNA results in, we now have been able to accurately establish family relationships of most children and mothers who were involved in the removal of children from the YFZ Ranch, and who are the subjects of our ongoing abuse/neglect investigation,” Crimmins said in an e-mail.
Several attorneys contacted by The Salt Lake Tribune had not yet been informed about the judge’s action.
“I hope this is the first step in dismissing some of these cases that don’t need further investigation,” said Dallas attorney Laura Shockley, who represents a child and a mother.
brooke@sltrib.com

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