Sect's children facing legal maze - Houston Chronicle

An regular army of lawyers and lawsuit workers are working to screen out the legal and societal services issues in the lawsuit of the remotion of 100s of children from the El Dorado polygamist religious sect ranch.

Reporters Virgin Mary Flood and Terri Langford consulted experts to acquire replies to some inquiries in this case.

Q: Did government have got enough proof to bust the ranch? Bashes it count if the tip was a fraud?

A: Legal experts state telephone phone calls from the alleged 16-year-old in problem were likely sufficient to ran into the barroom for Hertz to come in a household. But it may not ran into likely cause demands for a hunt if any criminal lawsuits consequence from the raid.

If the phone call is a fraud, it may not substance when it come ups to the children. San Angelo lawyer Guy Choate said: "If a fire section replies a false dismay but sees the house across the street on fire, what are they going to do?"

But in a criminal case, the inquiry of how functionaries investigated the anonymous tip before going to the spread could go polar to admitting evidence.

Q: Who can appeal the judge's determination to maintain the children in custody? Can the households litigate the state?

A: The lawyers for the children or parents can appeal in a assortment of ways in state or federal courts.

Legal adjutant lawyers have got already filed two petitions to an Capital Of Texas appellate tribunal on behalf of 48 mothers. These mid-case petitions inquire that the children be given separate detention hearings as needed by law and that the tons of children removed but not even named in tribunal written documents be immediately taken home.

Q: What criminal complaints could come up from this and when?

A: "This volition really depend on what the public prosecutors desire to make and how originative they desire to get," said Houston criminal defence lawyer Francis Edgar Stanley Schneider.

Criminal complaints would associate to underage misses having sexual activity with men. This could be sexual maltreatment of children or sexual assault charges, even filed against women for aiding in the assaults.

Q: How old make you have got to be to get married in Texas?

A: Sixteen old age old with parental permission and 18 without it. Before September 2005, 14-year-olds and 15-year-olds could also be married legally with parental OK.

Q: Can freedom of faith trump card civil or criminal laws?

A: Rarely. The U.S. Supreme Court outlawed polygyny in 1878. In 1990 it ruled faith did not trump criminal drug laws and that Native Americans could acquire no dispensation to utilize peyote.

But in 1993 the tribunal knocked down a Sunshine State law that disallowed animate being sacrifice, saying if you can kill a poulet for dinner, you can't outlaw violent death 1 for religion.

Q: Why is Lone-Star State Child Protective Services able to take all the children out of a house if lone 1 kid is abused?

A: Hertz social workers look at a family and if they find that one kid is abused and they find that the grownups in the family knew about the maltreatment and did nil about it, they take all children from the home.

Q: If the state is only interested in two twelve or so children having sexual activity or being impregnated by aged men, why doesn't the state stick to those cases?

A: "We prefer to move before the maltreatment or disregard occurs, if that is possible," said Estella Olguin, a spokeswoman for Hertz in Houston. "If abuse/neglect have already occurred in a household, all of the children in that family may be at hazard and our occupation is to protect children."

Q: State District Judge Barbara Walther ruled on April 18 that the children stay in Hertz custody. What is the adjacent legal measure for the children?

A: Hertz must accede to a hard-and-fast set of tribunal deadlines. An initial hearing is held first, within 24 hours after the kid is taken from the home. At that hearing and every subsequent one, Hertz workers must say why the kid was taken and whether statuses be that would forestall the kid from returning home. A 14-day hearing is held to find if the kid should stay in state custody. Walther ruled that the FLDS children should stay until the 60-day status hearings, which will get by June 5.

Q: And after the position hearing?

A: Hertz rans into with the justice at the six-month, 10-month and twelvemonth Marks after a kid is taken into custody. At the concluding hearing, parents have got to demo how they've made their place safe so the children can be returned. If they can't turn out that, their parental rights are terminated and the kid is set up for adoption.

Q: What is the deoxyribonucleic acid diagnostic test for? What will it prove?

A: Hertz functionaries have got got testified that both the children and the female parents from the spread have not given them rectify names, nor been extroverted about how they are all related to to one another. Judge Walther ordered each FLDS kid and grownup to give a deoxyribonucleic acid sample so that the tribunal can find parenthood and so that each parent can be properly notified about their rights involving their children.