FLDS Girl to Remain in Foster Care
By: RNS
Updated: January 8, 2009
A hearing in September will determine custody of a young teenage girl removed from the FLDS ranch in Texas last year.
The judge ruled at a hearing Thursday afternoon that the girl will remain in temporary foster care for now.
The state's permanency plan was also approved. The state had initially pushed for family reunification, but now officials want permanent conservatorship of the girl. She is believed to have been married to the polygamist sect's leader Warren Jeffs.
The girl has been in temporary foster care since last August after officials say her mother refused to sign safety plans to protect her from sexual abuse and limit contact with men involved in underage marriages.
The next hearing date is set for September 28th.
State officials removed nearly 440 children from the west Texas Yearning for Zion Ranch in April 2008. The children were returned to their families in June following a Texas Supreme Court ruling.
Twelve men have been charged in connection with the Texas Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints compound, including Jeffs. He was indicted in Texas for sexually assaulting a child and is currently serving time behind bars on other charges.
