Texas investigating whether boys in sect were abused
Broken bones were reportedly found in 41 children. A doctor in the group blamed falls.
SAN ANTONIO - Texas child-welfare authorities are looking at the possibility that young boys were sexually abused at a polygamist sect's ranch, a newly revealed facet of a massive investigation triggered by allegations that girls were forced into underage marriages and sex.
Carey Cockerell, the head of the state's Department of Family and Protective Services, told state lawmakers yesterday that his agency was investigating whether young boys were abused, based on "discussions with the boys."
In a written report, the agency said interviews and journal entries suggested young boys might have been sexually abused, but it didn't elaborate.
Cockerell also said 41 children had evidence of broken bones, some of whom are "very young."
He offered no details in his presentation to the state Senate Health and Human Services Committee. He went to the lieutenant governor's office immediately after his presentation and said he would not comment further.
Members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the renegade Mormon sect that runs the ranch, reacted sharply to Cockerell's comments, saying the state was deliberately misleading the public to cover up its own errors in the case.
Lloyd Barlow, a physician at the ranch who is also an FLDS member, said that most of the broken bones were from minor falls and that there was no pattern of abuse there.
Patrick Crimmins, a spokesman for the Child Protective Services division, said that the state was still investigating and that Cockerell's comments were not meant to be an allegation of abuse.
"This is pretty early in this investigation. . . . We are just looking into it," he said.
The state took custody of all 463 children living at the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado after an April 3 raid that was prompted by calls to a domestic-abuse hotline. One of those minors gave birth Tuesday to a boy who will remain with his mother in a group foster-care facility.
Before yesterday's disclosure, the state had argued it should be allowed to keep the boys, not because they were abuse victims, but because they were being groomed to become adult perpetrators in the FLDS sect. Men in the sect take multiple wives, some of whom are allegedly minors.
The sweeping action in the custody case has raised concerns with civil-liberties groups. Individual custody hearings are scheduled to be completed by June 5, but in the meantime, all of the children are in foster facilities scattered around the state.
FLDS spokesman Rod Parker called Cockerell's testimony "a deliberate effort to mislead the public."
A similar case of alleged abuse has occurred in Albuquerque, N.M. State police there have removed three children from an apocalyptic church whose leader claims to be the Messiah and acknowledges having sex with some of his followers.
The two girls and one boy, all under age 18, were taken from the northeastern New Mexico compound after an April 22 investigation, said Romaine Serna, spokeswoman for the state Children, Youth and Families Department.
The children were taken into state custody because of allegations of inappropriate contact between minors and the adult leader of the Lord Our Righteousness Church, which has about 70 members, Serna said.
Wayne Bent, 66, who is known in the church as Michael Travesser, established the church at a rural site in northeastern New Mexico. He said God anointed him Messiah in July 2000.
"There was never any child molestation," he wrote yesterday on the church's Web site.