Religion News Blog » Polygamy

Facts don’t fit claims of FLDS welfare fraud

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:12:02 +0000

Allegations that members of a southern Utah polygamous sect are guilty of widespread welfare fraud were raised repeatedly this summer during a U.S. Senate judiciary committee hearing.

But welfare data from Utah, Arizona and Texas do not support the claims.

Yet six speakers at a July 24 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing said fraud and misuse of welfare funds is a primary reason the federal government should be more involved in investigating the sect.

West Texas polygamist sect members search for normalcy at ranch

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 02:38:19 +0000

Nearly nine months since state authorities raided the Yearning for Zion polygamist ranch and took hundreds of children into temporary custody, the families upended by the largest-ever U.S. child welfare case cling to their culture.

Some members of the Utah-based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints hunker down in suburban subdivisions across Texas, struggling to maintain piety and an austere lifestyle in the face of influences they consider immoral. Others have moved back to the ranch, trying to restore sanctity and self-sufficiency to their once-thriving community.

Model’s death fall exposes case of polygamy in Britain

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 01:12:22 +0000

The death of a model who learnt that her husband was already married has shone a light into the murky world of Muslim polygamy in Britain.

Sahar Daftary, 23, fell 150ft from the twelfth storey of a block of flats where she had gone to collect her belongings at the home of a businessman whom she had married in a religious ceremony last year.

Her husband, Rashid Jamil, 33, was arrested on suspicion of murder but bailed by police after they found no evidence that the death was anything other than an accident or suicide.

Polygamist sect calls CPS report ‘fraudulent’

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 02:38:21 +0000

A polygamist group accused of widespread abuse and neglect of children at a Texas ranch called the allegations "manufactured" Saturday in a lengthy rebuke of a state report released this week.

The Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado called the findings "as false and fraudulent as the original hoax telephone call" that initiated an April raid of the ranch, and said the saga has left their community poverty-stricken.

Child welfare officials say child abuse, neglect common at Texas polygamists’ ranch

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 15:17:14 +0000

A dozen girls in a polygamist sect have been sexually abused in underage “spiritual marriages” performed with their parents’ consent, Texas Child Protective Services said Tuesday.

More than one of every four pubescent girls at the Yearning for Zion ranch near Eldorado was married at an inappropriate age, Texas Child Protective Services found.

“The 12 girls were ‘spiritually’ married at ages ranging from 12 to 15, and seven of these girls have had one or more children,” CPS said in a report wrapping up a nine-month investigation in the largest-ever U.S. child welfare case. [video]

Utah attorney general touring embattled polygamous sect’s community

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:05:22 +0000

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff accepted his first-ever invitation from a polygamous sect to tour its embattled community Thursday, the clearest signal yet of high-level interest in resolving disputes over the group's property trust.

Shurtleff's staff has taken a leading role in negotiating a resolution to lawsuits over the sect's United Effort Plan Trust, which for the past three years has been under court oversight.

CPS refusing to release findings in polygamist case

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:47:33 +0000

Texas Child Protective Services, the agency that last spring removed 439 children from a polygamist ranch in West Texas because caseworkers suspected child abuse, is refusing to release the findings of their completed abuse investigation to the Houston Chronicle.

On Wednesday, agency spokesman Patrick Crimmins confirmed that the abuse investigation is finished but said the findings would not be released because CPS officials want to release them later in an upcoming report.

No new indictments of FLDS members but probe continues

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:02:39 +0000

Since June the grand jury has charged 12 sect members, including sect leader Warren S. Jeffs, with crimes related to underage or plural marriages. A new grand jury was seated in October but won't take over until January, a Schleicher county clerk said.

"Our investigation is ongoing and, if needed, we will request another grand jury be empaneled to hear evidence," Strickland said.

Judge: Former FLDS member must submit to interview

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 10:48:21 +0000

An Arizona judge has ordered a former member of a polygamous sect to submit to an interview with attorneys for polygamist leader Warren Jeffs with only her attorney present.

Attorneys for sect leader Warren Jeffs want to question Jessop about a raid of a polygamous sect ranch in Eldorado, Texas, earlier this year.

They say she was in constant contact with the woman believed to have made a call to Texas authorities that led to the raid.

Investigators take DNA from FLDS baby during raid

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:27:36 +0000

Investigators from the Texas attorney general’s office on Monday took DNA samples from a baby born to a member of a polygamist sect months after a high-profile raid, thwarting efforts by the baby’s mother to prevent the sample from being collected.

Child Protective Services said in court filings that investigators believe the girl was married to a man in the sect when she was 14.