DALLAS (ABP) — After court rulings declaring that the state of Texas had insufficient cause to keep them from their parents, more than 400 children taken from a compound owned by the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints began returning to their parents June 1.
The sect is led by imprisoned polygamist Warren Jeffs. In April, authorities seized the children from the FLDS Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado, Texas, on suspicion of sexual abuse. But the Texas Supreme Court found that the authorities had not produced enough evidence to justify keeping all of the compound's children in state custody.
State officials asked Baptist Child and Family Services (BCFS), an agency affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, to coordinate care for all of the children. In addition, several of the children were housed at BCFS facilities.
“There are no longer any FLDS children at the BCFS Youth Ranch,” according to a June 2 e-mail message from BCFS administrator Kevin Dinnin. He also said members of the agency's incident-management team were in Austin, assisting Texas state authorities with the logistics of returning the children.
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UPDATE: Texas court rules against seizure of polygamist sect's children (5/22)