http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/...polygamists/index.html
Not really sure what kind of comment I can put here besides the fact I hope the people responsible for this raid are not allowed to be in a position to make decisions like this again.
SAN ANGELO, Texas (CNN) -- A Texas judge on Monday signed an order allowing more than 440 children seized from a polygamist sect to be returned to the custody of their parents.
Judge Barbara Walther told the Department of Family and Protective Services to allow parents to pick up their children starting at 10 a.m. CT (11 a.m. ET) Monday.
The Texas Supreme Court on Thursday let stand a lower court's ruling that the state had no right to remove them during an April raid on the Yearning for Zion ranch near Eldorado.
Some parents have children at different facilities across the state, and it could take some time to pick up their kids.
Under the judge's order, the Department of Family and Protective Services will still have the right to visit and interview the children.
Those visits, which will be unannounced, could entail medical, psychological and psychiatric examinations, and the parents must not intervene.
Also under the order, the parents must attend and complete parenting classes. The families must remain in the state of Texas and notify the department within 48 hours of any trips more than 100 miles from their homes.
The YFZ ranch is run by the the Fundamental Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Mormon offshoot that practices polygamy.
The FLDS is not affiliated with the mainstream Mormon church, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago.
The state of Texas maintained it removed the children in April because interviews at the ranch uncovered a "pervasive pattern" of sexual abuse through forced marriages between underage girls and older men. The state alleged that young boys on the ranch were groomed to be perpetrators because of those beliefs.
FLDS members deny any sexual abuse and say they are being persecuted because of their religion.
In May, the 3rd District Court of Appeals ruled that officials erred in removing the children from the ranch, effectively overturning Walther's ruling that the children remain in state custody. See a timeline of the FLDS case »
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"The kids have been terrorized and put in the custody of the state for weeks and weeks," FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop said Friday after a hearing to determine how to return the children.
"Every effort has been made to bring relief," Jessop said outside the courthouse. "It doesn't need to be a problem to go pick up the kids. It doesn't need to be any more difficult than picking them up after school.
Not really sure what kind of comment I can put here besides the fact I hope the people responsible for this raid are not allowed to be in a position to make decisions like this again.