Arrest Made in Texas
Polygamy Case
By MICHELLE ROBERTS.
From the Web, April 7, 2008
SAN ANGELO, Texas -- State
police made an arrest as they searched a sprawling rural compound built by
polygamist leader Warren Jeffs in their investigation into a possible underage
marriage, an official said Monday.
Department of Public Safety spokesman Tom Vinger said the person arrested was
not Dale Barlow, the man listed in warrants related to the marriage of an
underage girl. But Vinger said he had no other details.
The girl's report to authorities last week led to a raid at the 1,700-acre West
Texas compound run by the sect led by Jeffs, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
The girl said she had a baby at 15 and authorities were investigating whether
she had been abused. They have removed more than 220 women and children
from the compound in Eldorado but had yet to locate the girl who made the
report.
Authorities moved the women and children Sunday from Eldorado to a historic
fort-turned-museum in San Angelo, about 40 miles north. Child Protective
Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner said that location was chosen because
investigators wanted all the children and women to stay in one place as
caseworkers continue interviews.
Officials were struggling Monday to persuade anyone in the large extended
families to give them any information about the goings-on inside the compound.
"When children live in a pretty secluded environment and they're as sheltered as
these children, it's very difficult to get them to talk to you and to open up.
If you can get them to a neutral place, they're a lot more prone to answer you
truthfully," said Debra Brown, who is with a local child advocacy group that is
representing the children in legal proceedings.
So far, only 18 children have been legally put in state custody, but Meisner
said more court action was likely Monday. Brown said with a backlog of
cases in the Texas foster care system, placing all the children will be
difficult.
State troopers armed with a search warrant raided the ranch on Friday to look
for evidence of a marriage between Barlow, 50, and the teen who called
authorities a week ago. Under Texas law, girls younger than 16 cannot
marry, even with parental approval.
Authorities were still not sure Monday whether the girl was among those taken
from the compound.
Midday Sunday, dozens of women and children, mostly girls, were seen boarding
buses on their way to San Angelo. The women wore long pastel dresses and
many carried bedding; several had infants.
Prosecutor Allison Palmer said other law enforcement agencies "know where
(Barlow) is and have talked to him, but our investigators have not."
Barlow's probation officer, Bill Loader, told The Salt Lake Tribune that he was
in Arizona. Phone messages seeking comment from Loader and Barlow were not
immediately returned Monday.
Barlow was sentenced to jail last year after pleading no contest to conspiracy
to commit sexual conduct with a minor. He was ordered to register as a sex
offender for three years while he is on probation.
The search warrant instructed officers to look for marriage records or other
evidence linking the teen to the man and the baby. The warrant authorized
the seizure of computer drives, CDs, DVDs or photos.
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, headed by Jeffs
after his father's death in 2002, broke away from the Mormon church after the
latter disavowed polygamy more than a century ago.
The compound sits down a narrow paved road and behind a hill that shields it
almost entirely from view in Eldorado, a town of fewer than 2,000 surrounded by
sheep ranches nearly 200 miles northwest of San Antonio. Only the
80-foot-high white temple can be seen on the horizon.
FLDS church members began building the compound several years ago as authorities
in Arizona and Utah began increasingly scrutinizing the group.
Jeffs is jailed in Kingman, Ariz., where he awaits 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 investigation prompted by the girl's call last week was the first in Texas
involving the sect.
Associated Press video journalist Rich Matthews contributed to
this report.
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