Source: News Radio 1200 WOAI San Antonio Texas
A judge in San Angelo ruled this afternoon that a 14 year old girl who was ’spiritually married’ to Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ‘prophet’ Warren Jeffs when she was 12 must be taken away from her mother and placed into foster care, 1200 WOAI news reports.
Merrianne Jessop, the daughter of sect leaders Merril and Barbara Jessop, is believed to be one of the two girls what Jeffs was shown kissing in a photograph seized from the Yearning for Zion Ranch in west Texas during a raid by police in April.
State District Judge Barbara Walther ruled that by allowing her daughter to participate in underage marriage, Jessop was not a suitable parent for the girl.
She allowed another of the Jessop’s children, an 11 year old boy named Benjamin to remain in her care. Texas Child Protective Services dropped custody motions against a third Jessop child, Samson, 17, because he is of legal age.
“We were able to present our evidence to Judge Walther, and she agreed that there were serious concerns,” CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins told reporters after the hearing.
In the case of Merrianne Jessop, she ordered the child back to foster care. Benjamin can stay with his mother, but with some very specific conditions which will allow Child protective Services to monitor his safety.”
Crimmins said Judge Walther also ordered that both of the children not have any contact with Merril Jessop.
Crimmins said Walther ordered that Merrianne Jessop be turned over to state care immediately. He didn’t know if the girl has actually been turned over.
He says the state is prepared to present its evidence in the other children involved in motions to remove, although he said it two of the cases, an out of court settlement is possible.
The two children are among eight which Texas Child Protective Services officials have asked be taken away from their parents because the parents declined to adhere to a court approved conditions forbidding the children from having any contact with men involved in ‘underage marriage.’
The two children involved in today’s court proceeding are among the 460 children who were removed from the YFZ Ranch by state officials during a raid in April, and then returned to their parents by order of the Texas Supreme Court in June. Crimmins says motions to reclaim custody of dozens more FLDS children are likely to be field as the investigation continues.
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