2008 Woodie Awards
Informant helps bust polygamist sect
By: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Issue date: 4/11/08 Section: Nation
ELDORADO, Texas - When authorities moved to search the large white temple on the polygamist compound in West Texas, about five dozen of the sect's men prayed and cried around the structure, state investigators said yesterday.
Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran also said he had been working with a confidential informant for four years who was feeding him information about life inside the polygamist sect.
Doran declined to say whether the informant was in Texas or other sect compounds in Utah or Arizona. It wasn't until after the search had begun that Doran learned about marriage beds in the temple and the forced marriages of underage girls to older men.
"It was instrumental in teaching me the group's ways," Doran said.
But state authorities defended their decision to leave the sect alone for the four years it had encamped in West Texas.
"We are aware that this group is capable of [sexually abusing young girls]," Doran said. "But there again, this is the United States. We are going to respect them. We're not going to violate their civil rights until we get an outcry. I've said that from day one."
Texas Ranger Capt. Barry Caver said some of the 57 men near the wall were on their knees praying. Others sobbed. One resisted officers' attempt to enter the area and was arrested.
When authorities finally gained entrance to the three-story building, no one was inside.
But on the top they found beds allegedly used by husbands after they married underage girls on the top floor of the temple.
He said authorities made the temple the last stop on the weeklong search because "if there was going to be any resistance at all it would be then."
Caver also described the difficulties faced by child welfare officials in finding and removing all 416 children from the compound.
The children "were shuffled around houses as we were searching," he said, noting that as soon as they saw children in one house, they would be quickly ushered to other houses.
Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran also said he had been working with a confidential informant for four years who was feeding him information about life inside the polygamist sect.
Doran declined to say whether the informant was in Texas or other sect compounds in Utah or Arizona. It wasn't until after the search had begun that Doran learned about marriage beds in the temple and the forced marriages of underage girls to older men.
"It was instrumental in teaching me the group's ways," Doran said.
But state authorities defended their decision to leave the sect alone for the four years it had encamped in West Texas.
"We are aware that this group is capable of [sexually abusing young girls]," Doran said. "But there again, this is the United States. We are going to respect them. We're not going to violate their civil rights until we get an outcry. I've said that from day one."
Texas Ranger Capt. Barry Caver said some of the 57 men near the wall were on their knees praying. Others sobbed. One resisted officers' attempt to enter the area and was arrested.
When authorities finally gained entrance to the three-story building, no one was inside.
But on the top they found beds allegedly used by husbands after they married underage girls on the top floor of the temple.
He said authorities made the temple the last stop on the weeklong search because "if there was going to be any resistance at all it would be then."
Caver also described the difficulties faced by child welfare officials in finding and removing all 416 children from the compound.
The children "were shuffled around houses as we were searching," he said, noting that as soon as they saw children in one house, they would be quickly ushered to other houses.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Danny Haszard
posted 4/11/08 @ 4:51 AM EST
The Jehovah's Witnesses have settled lawsuits alleging church policies protected pedophile men who sexually abused children for many years.
Frederick McLean is one of the most-wanted fugitives in the United States
Jerry Jones
posted 4/11/08 @ 10:02 AM EST
The FLDS and other Fundamentalist Mormon offshoots are not the only religious cults which have a poor track record with regard to how they treat their children. (Continued…)
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