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'Grateful' Sect Parents Begin To Reunite With Children

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The Associated Press

Published: June 3, 2008

SAN ANGELO, Texas - More than 400 children taken from a polygamist sect's ranch two months ago began returning to the arms of their parents Monday, hours after a judge bowed to a state Supreme Court ruling that the seizure was not justified.

It's just a great day, said Nancy Dockstader, whose chin quivered and eyes filled with tears as she embraced her 9-year-old daughter, Amy, outside a foster-care center in Gonzales, about 65 miles east of San Antonio. "We're so grateful."

Her daughter and her four other children were among the roughly 430 children ordered released after two months in state custody, much of it spent in foster care centers. Because siblings were separated at facilities hundreds of miles apart, it will probably take several days for all the families to be reunited.

Judge Barbara Walther responded to a state Supreme Court ruling last week by signing an order that cleared the children to be released from foster care. Walther allowed parents to begin picking up their children Monday, ending one of the nation's largest child-custody cases.

New Marriage Policy Announced
Dockstader and her husband, James, were headed to Corpus Christi and to Amarillo to pick up their other children. Walther's order requires the parents to stay in Texas, to attend parenting classes and to allow the children to be examined as part of any abuse investigation.

It does not put restrictions on the children's fathers, require that the parents renounce polygamy or force them to leave the Yearning For Zion Ranch run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Late Monday, church elder Willie Jessop said the sect won't allow underage girls to marry. Jessop said the new policy will forbid any girl to marry who is not of legal consent age in the state where she lives.

Jessop said the church has been widely misunderstood, but he said the church will not sanction marriages of underage girls and will counsel members against such unions. He insisted marriages within the church have always been consensual.

Return To Ranch In Flux

Child Protective Services removed all the children from the ranch after an April 3 raid prompted by calls to a domestic abuse hot line that purportedly came from a 16-year-old mother being abused by her middle-age husband. The calls are now being investigated as a hoax, but authorities contended all the children were at risk because church teachings pushed underage girls into marriage and sex.

Half the children sent to foster care were no older than 5.

The church has denied any children were abused, and members have said they are being persecuted for their religion, which believes polygamy brings glorification in heaven.

Marleigh Meisner, a spokeswoman for the child-protection agency, said authorities still have concerns about the children's safety, and the investigation into possible abuse would continue.

Rod Parker, a spokesman for the FLDS church, said some of the attorneys have advised parents to stay away from the ranch for now, but most want to return so the children can continue the education they were getting at the sect's schoolhouse before the raid.

Walther's order does not end a separate criminal investigation. Texas authorities last week collected DNA from jailed FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs as part of investigation into underage sex with girls, ages 12 to 15.

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