Abuse of boys at sect probed

2008-04-30 22:28

Austin - Texas officials told legislators on Wednesday that they are investigating the possible sexual abuse of some young boys taken from a polygamist sect's ranch, as well as broken bones among other children.

The disclosures are the first suggestions that anyone other than teenage girls may have been sexually or physically abused at the ranch run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a renegade Mormon sect.

In written and oral testimony provided to lawmakers, officials with the state Department of Family and Protective Services said interviews and journal entries suggested that boys may have been sexually abused.

Earlier, the department's commissioner, Carey Cockerell, told lawmakers that at least 41 children, some of them "very young", have evidence of broken bones.

The state has custody of 464 children from the Yearning For Zion Ranch in the west Texas prairie town of Eldorado, including a baby born to a teen mother on Tuesday.

Although Cockerell did not elaborate on the broken bones, a report by his department's Child Protective Services division said medical exams and interviews indicated "that at least 41 children have had broken bones in the past".

"We do not have X-rays or complete medical information on many children so it is too early to draw any conclusions based on this information, but it is cause for concern and something we'll continue to examine," the CPS said.

Abuse of girls

The state has been criticised for taking all the children from the ranch, including infants and boys, on the theory that the girls may be abused when they are teens.

State authorities raided the ranch in search of evidence of underage girls being forced into polygamous marriages.

FLDS spokesperson Rod Parker called Cockerell's testimony "a deliberate effort to mislead the public".

Although the ranch has a small medical facility, Parker said any broken bones would have been treated away from the ranch and that doctors are required to report suspected abuse.

Parker said state officials were "trying to politically inoculate themselves from the consequences of this horrible tragedy".

Cockerell told a legislative committee the investigation has been difficult because members of the church have refused to cooperate.

Mothers stymie investigators

Mothers who stayed with their children for two weeks after the raid launched a coordinated effort to stymie investigators, coaching their children to not answer questions, Cockerell said.

He said the women and children would gather together, with the children referring to several women as their mother, then the "women switched children in these family units ... making it difficult".

"When asked, women and children would change their names and ages," he said.

The CPS report also said authorities "tried to use bracelets to identify children, but the women and children removed the bracelets or rubbed the wording off them."

- AP