The Child Protection eNewsletter

DNA tests ordered to identify parents of sect children… 

State authorities began a second day of court-ordered DNA testing Tuesday on members of a polygamist sect, an effort they hope will begin to untangle the group's complicated family relationships.  Read More

Officials in a massive custody case are trying to identify the parents of 437 children taken from a West Texas compound more than two weeks ago.  The testing of ranch residents was taking place in the courthouse square as a handful of deputies in cowboy hats stood guard.

A judge ordered last week that the DNA be taken to help determine the parentage of the children, many of whom were unable to describe their lineage.  Some of the adults have been ordered by the state to submit to testing; others are being asked to do so voluntarily.

Authorities believe the sect forces underage girls into marriages with older men.  No one has been arrested, but a warrant has been issued for member Dale Barlow, a convicted sex offender who has said he has not been to the Texas site in years.

Rod Parker, an attorney for the FLDS, said he is afraid authorities secretly intend to use the DNA to build criminal cases against members of the group.  But state Child Protective services spokesman Greg Cunningham said:  "We're not involved in the criminal investigation.  That's not our objective."

Family relationships are immensely tangled within the sect, where multiple mothers live in the same household and children refer to all men in the community as "uncles."  Authorities say they need to figure that out before they begin custody hearings to determine which children may have been abused and need to be permanently removed from the sect compound, and which ones can be safely returned to the fold.  For now, they're all in state custody because child welfare officials believe sexual abuse has occurred or could occur imminently because of the teachings of the sect.

State social workers have complained that sect members have offered different names and ages and had difficulty identifying their mothers.

Parker acknowledged that family names within the sect can be confusing, but said: "No one is trying to deceive anyone. ... It's not sinister."  Instead, he said that because many of the sect's marriages are not legal, adults and their children may legally have one name but use another within the community.

The collecting of DNA is likely to take most of the week, and it will be a month or more before the results are available, said Janiece Rolfe, a spokeswoman for the Texas attorney general's office.

The children will be placed in group homes or other quarters until individual custody hearings can be completed by early June.  Officials said they will try to keep siblings together when possible, though some polygamous families may have dozens of siblings.

The testing will involve 437 children and possibly hundreds of adults.  State authorities revised their count of the children from 416 as they developed better lists and discovered that not all the female members who claimed to be adults were over 18.

The judge on Monday ruled that more than 400 children, taken into state custody from a polygamous community in West Texas, must be given access to phones to contact their attorneys, but refused to rule on a motion to allow breastfeeding mothers to remain with their children.  Read More

Judge Barbara Walther called a motion for a temporary restraining order to prevent the mothers from being separated from their children "premature."  Lawyers for several mothers had sought the order to keep the mothers and infant children together while the state goes through the difficult process of finding the biological parents of each child

Three male members of the sect said in an interview aired on CBS's "Early Show" Monday that they would cooperate in DNA testing if it would help them get the children back.  Read More  "Whatever we need to do to get them back in their peaceful homes," a man identified only as Rulan said.

State prosecutors have argued that the FLDS church encourages underage marriages and births, subjecting children to sexual abuse or the imminent risk of abuse.  "Rulan" said sect members are reconsidering whether girls under 18 should have sex with adult men.

"Many of us perhaps were not even aware of such a law," he said.  "And we do reconsider, yes.  We teach our children to abide the law."

A former member of the FLDS, and the nephew of Warren Jeffs, the self-proclaimed prophet of the polygamist compound in El Dorado, Texas, Brent Jeffs says that he knows all too well the misery and heartache of sexual abuse inside the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Read More  Brent Jeffs was a victim of rape and molestation at the hands, he says, of his uncle, Warren, who is currently imprisoned.  In fact, it was Brent Jeffs who first filed charges of sexual assault against Warren Jeffs.

"The entire cult, as I would put it, is run by complete fear. Everything they do is run by fear. They control the women and the children all by fear," Brent told ABC's John Quinones.

Pope appeals for end to child abuse among priests… 

Pope Benedict XVI renewed Saturday an appeal for ending child sex abuse among the ranks of priests in the Catholic Church in the United States, calling on church officials to cooperate with their superiors.  Read More

Benedict chose the venue of St Patrick's Cathedral in the heart of New York City to once again speak about the humiliating stain on the church committed by priests, which he said had deeply hurt the Catholic Church.  He made a similar appeal when he visited Washington earlier this week.

"I have already had occasion to speak of this, and of the resulting damage to the community of the faithful," he said in a sermon during a solemn mass at the cathedral attended by nearly 3,000 church clergy, who have been selected from all dioceses in the US to attend the event in New York.  "I join you in praying that this will be a time of purification for each and every particular Church and religious community, and a time for healing," he said.

"I also encourage you to cooperate with your bishops who continue to work effectively to resolve this issue.  May our Lord Jesus Christ grant the Church in America a renewed sense of unity and purpose, as all--Bishops, clergy, religious and laity--move forward in hope, in love for the truth and for one another."

Pope Benedict XVI’s U.S. visit left behind the impression of a compassionate and candid leader who has made a successful transition from professor to pope.  Read More 

“In the short term, the trip was an enormous success, probably beyond anyone’s expectations, including those of the pope himself,” said Russell Shaw, a Catholic writer and former spokesman for the U.S. bishops’ conference.  “Whether the trip is going to have a significant outcome regarding the large problems facing American Catholicism, that’s anyone guess.”

Benedict’s journey will be best remembered for his repeated comments about the shame of the church’s clergy sexual abuse crisis.  He held a dramatic private meeting with five abuse victims from the scandal-scarred Boston archdiocese.

“For me, the takeaway from this whole week is the fact he met with abuse victims,” said Bill McGarvey, editor of BustedHalo.com, a Web-based magazine owned by a Catholic religious order.  “He did it.  It was a pastoral, private moment.  He mentioned the scandal repeatedly.  Pope Benedict is aware American Catholics need to talk about it--and heal.  That is profound.”

In other news… 

A Chesterfield, South Carolina teenager accused of plotting to bomb his high school is a straight-A student whose parents sought help from mental health experts when he slammed his head into a wall last week, authorities said.  Read More  Ryan Schallenberger's parents took him to a hospital three days before his arrest after he made a 4-inch indentation in the wallboard, prosecutor Jay Hodge said at a court hearing.  Schallenberger was arrested after his parents called police because he had ordered 10 pounds of ammonium nitrate, an explosive commonly used as fertilizer and was employed in the deadly 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.  The quiet teenager with a slight build and a wispy mustache had apparently been planning the potentially deadly attack for months, authorities said.  "This kid had the intellect and the means and the materials to carry it out," Hodge said.  Police said they discovered a hate-filled journal lauding the Columbine killers, an audiotape to be played after he perished during his rampage and a year's worth of plans for the bombing that included a hand-drawn map of the school.  Sheriff Sam Parker said the teenager's "heartbroken" parents deserved praise for calling authorities when they retrieved the ammonium nitrate from a post office after receiving a delivery notice at home.  "Without the parents, Chesterfield County would've suffered.  We thank them," Parker said.

Hundreds of child abuse Web sites around the world could be shut down if countries worked together to tackle the problem, an Internet watchdog said in a report.  Read More  The Internet Watch Foundation said it had made the first attempt to find out how many sites peddle abusive images and videos of children.  Its researchers found about 3,000 sites, with more than three-quarters run as commercial operations, typically by criminal gangs trying to make money out of the images.  "This is the first time any organization has revealed the true scale of this issue and been clear that the problem is something that can be solved," the foundation said in a statement.  Established in 1996, the Internet Watch Foundation is a self-regulating charity funded by the European Union and the Internet industry. Its role is to remove child abuse, criminally obscene material and racist content from the Internet.  Chief Executive Peter Robbins said the new findings would help build the case for a global drive to eradicate the sites.  He said: "A coordinated global attack on these Web sites could get these horrific images removed from the Web.  The number of child abuse sites has remained static over the last few years, despite the growth of the Internet, he added.  The watchdog group's annual report called for a worldwide campaign by governments, police and the Internet industry to investigate and disrupt abusive sites.

A New York disc jockey has been accused of sharing an instructional video showing how to sexually abuse children.  Read More  The case was referred to the Queens district attorney's office by police in Illinois who say they found two child-porn videos in an Internet file-sharing program the DJ was using in February.  Police say one video shows a four-year-old girl having sex with a man and the other gives advice and examples on how to sexually abuse minors.  Prosecutors say the 29-year-old wedding and party DJ is charged with possessing and promoting child pornography. He was arraigned yesterday and is being held on $100,000 bail.  The DJ could get up to seven years in prison if convicted.

South Carolina authorities say a 17-year-old camp counselor has been arrested after teaching the "choking game" to two boys who passed out for several minutes.  Read More  Ronald Edward Riley was a counselor at a camp for children of deployed soldiers or those preparing to go overseas.  Authorities say he put his hands around a boy's neck and choked him unconscious twice.  A second boy also told authorities Riley choked him until he passed out.  Riley, of Saluda, was arrested at his high school this week on assault and unlawful conduct charges.  He was being held Friday at a Clarendon County jail on $30,000 bail.  The choking game has killed 82 children from 1995 through 2007, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.  The game is a fad among youth seeking the euphoric, dreamlike feeling that people get as blood rushes back to the brain.

A group of middle school girls videotaped the beating of a 12-year-old schoolmate and posted it on the Internet in an attack that authorities believe was inspired by a similar one in Florida, police said.  Read More  No charges have been filed and police said they have not yet interviewed all the girls, ages 12-14, who are students at Clarksville Middle School in Indiana.  The victim, who was treated for cuts and bruises at a hospital, was the daughter of a police officer, said Police Chief Dwight Ingle.  Ingle told CBS' The Early Show that the girls were using rocks as weapons.  "You can actually hear the rocks thumping on the skull of the victim," he said.  Police said the girls lured the victim to a parking lot near a warehouse and beat her up.  The violence was videotaped and later posted on the video-sharing Web site PhotoBucket, Ingle said.  It has since been removed.  Detective Darrell Rayborn said police believed the plot was inspired by a similar scheme in which a group of teenage girls in central Florida posted the videotaped beating of a 16-year-old victim online.

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