Texas Supreme Court Rules
Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 10:02 pm
Interesting. It would appear that the crux of the issue is whether the children were under the direct, immediate danger of physical harm.
I guess in the case of children who aren't girls in the age of 12 to 14, that might well be true. For the girls in the range of 12 to 14, I wonder what evidence the CPS can show. For the girls who are younger than this age, the danger is too far into the distant future to warrant immediate removal, as per the statute. None of this, however, prevents the district court from allowing CPS to issue other orders, short of removal from their home, to ensure the protection of the children.
It will be interesting to see how this pans out in the next few months. When the genetic testing comes back, it will be exceedingly interesting to see if the state will have sufficient evidence to bring statutory rape charges against the fathers of those dozens of children from the underage mothers. If there are 20 or 30, or 40 underage pregnant girls or mothers still, what if there are 20, 30, or 40 men looking at going to jail out of this?
The upheaval is not over. CPS will have to return the children to their homes at the ranch, but the FLDS haven't won the whole ballgame yet. They've still got a lot of young teenaged pregnant girls to answer for.
