Defending the Truth

At least one of those "too young" girls turned out to be 22. And that "missing information" was just the CPS choosing to ignore what was given to them.

KXAN.com - News, Weather, Sports - Austin, TX | Sect mother of newborn not a minor, CPS concedes

Ooops, their bad.

My Goodness

Here's a bit of news. It looks like the government factions are dividing on this one.
Deseret News | Chairman says Texas CPS workers mistreated FLDS

But here are some more allegations that may or might not have a ring of truth and should be looked into.
OPINION Blog | The Dallas Morning News

That's what the DNA tests are for, FX. To prove who fathered who. It's immaterial whether one girl was 13 years old. All the authorities have to show is one girl under 18 who alleges to have had sex to justify a statutory rape charge. If that girl had children, it is concrete proof of the fact. It just helps to know exactly whom to charge.
My own personal feelings on polygamy really don't matter. Polygamy was outlawed in this country many years ago. I wonder why these people did not just move to British Columbia? As I understand it, there is a large community of polygamy there. However, I am not sure of the legality of polygamy there.

It's totally material if the "13 year old" turns out to be 22. How is the state gonna prove its case if they can't even determine true age? How is the state gonna prove where the act happened. The members of the sect allegedly move around quite a bit. Just prove you were in other states or even country. There are kids from Canada that are being held. What if the age difference isn't that great and this is the man's only "wife". What if they are legally married in a state that allows marriage as young as 14. Or they give a sobb story about how they move to the state to get married but the change in the laws prevented them from being married in texas? law It's not all as simple as "try em and fry em" when you have no supporting testimony from the victim or her parents. All you need is one sympathetic juror to get an "not guilty" or a hung jury. Prosecuting these crimes is gonna be as difficult and expensive and the raid was wrong.
Additionally, you have the suspicious changing of the laws with media outlets specifically pointing out that the laws were changed with the FLDS in mind. If the "victim" was 14, that's a tool the defending lawyer might use to sway sympathy for religious persecution. Which is what this boils down to.
I think it's simple minded to think that this whole cult is simply created to have sex with girls what amounts to 2 to 4 years earlier than you would be able to any way. According to the bishops records the dreaded 50 something to 13 year old "marriage" was just as as much a bullshit allegation as the 16 year old abused girl.

There are large communities of polygamists right here in the U.S. Outlawing something that people can just "do" like live with several women is about worthless. All you have done is told people that they can't "get married". Big whoop. If you can find several women that are happy with you having sex with them and supporting them, legal "marriage" isn't necessary for a relationship. And from personal experience, if you can have several women that know you have other sexual partners and are just happy "to be getting theirs" regularly, if you add the stability and safety of that closed community to the mix, I can absolutely see those women being totally happy with that situation.
It actually reminds me a bit of the military in times of peace. No threat of death and everything taken care of. You just do your part for the community and everything will work itself out. Without the polygamy maybe, if any group of humans had a like minded collective system like this, it would be unstoppable. Self supporting, everyone working for a common goal. The leader is the lynch pin in the whole thing, and Warren Jeffs was a sicko bastard.

It seems I was mistaken. The woman deemed an adult was the first woman to give birth. The woman that gave birth Monday has only gotten an injunction. But her husband says she is 22.
Star-Telegram.com: | 05/14/2008 | New FLDS mom is adult, CPS says; others taking hope
What is f'd up is that if instead of thinking that these women are younger than 18, they are including them in the total for this reason..
FLDS attorney Rod Parker says CPS is trying to classify the women as minors to keep custody of the children. Parker also accuses CPS of seeking a sympathetic judge by trying to move Jessop's wife and newborn out of Travis County.
This is in no way "justice". Texas is out of control.

I do agree that this is going to be an expensive and long trial. Who knows to what end? There are numerous questions that must be clarified first to prove legality or illegality.
First; what exactly constitutes a legal marraige? Do records have any part in this?
There are boundless other questions; but I will have to get back to them- I'm on vacation now.

The thing you repeatedly fail to mention fx, is the fact that there are girls being forcibly married to a man and to have sex with him, while only 14 years old. And then having children. That is not acceptable parenting and that is why these kids were removed. If you haven't heard, Warren Jeffs had people testify against him for that very thing. And my point about the records being hidden is that they only choose to show records for the children when they are getting assistance. Not everyone has legally recorded birth certificates. They only do that for as few as necessary, in order to get welfare. You only support FLDS rights because you yourself have absolutely no care for the mistreatment of women or girls, as long as it is being done in the name of beliefs. People are not free in this country to abuse women or children in the name of religion or anything else.

Correct. But I am speaking about FLDS. Who also have been accused of abusing boys.