Texas: Warren Jeffs Cult Roadblocked

[Whatchamacallit]

Conflict Escalates at Polygamist Retreat
2008-04-06 03:49:05
By MICHELLE ROBERTS Associated Press Writer
http://www.charter.net/news/news_reader ... feedid=248



ELDORADO, Texas (AP) ? Law enforcement manned a roadblock miles from a polygamist temple where sect leaders refused to let authorities enter to search for a teenager whose report of abuse initiated a raid on the West Texas compound.

Authorities provided no details early Sunday about the standoff.

Allison Palmer, a prosecutor in Tom Green County, told the San Angelo Standard-Times that medical workers were sent to the compound "in case this were to a go in a way that no one wants." She had said authorities will forcibly remove the sect's followers "as peaceably as possible" if no agreement could be reached.

A stream of ambulances and law-enforcement vehicles left the compound late Saturday.

A bus that appeared to be filled with women was parked early Sunday at a civic center south of town, where a lawyer and law-enforcement officials were talking with them.

Authorities are searching for a 16-year-old mother whose report of alleged abuse led to a search of the secretive religious retreat built by polygamist leader Warren Jeffs.

"Things have been a little tense, a little volatile," Palmer said Saturday.

Palmer could not be reached for comment early Sunday. Other authorities, citing a gag order, continued to decline to comment.

State welfare officials have removed nearly 200 women and children from the compound, operated by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

"They seem to be doing fine," Marleigh Meisner, a spokeswoman for Child Protective Services, told The Associated Press.

Troopers armed with a search warrant raided the compound on Friday to look for evidence of a marriage between the girl and 50-year-old Dale Barlow.

The girl had a baby eight months ago, when she was 15, according to court documents. Under Texas law, girls younger than 16 cannot marry, even with parental approval.

Barlow's probation officer told The Salt Lake Tribune that he was in Arizona.

"He said the authorities had called him (in Colorado City, Ariz.) and some girl had accused him of assaulting her and he didn't even know who she was," said Bill Loader, a probation officer in Arizona.

Barlow was sentenced to jail time last year after pleading no contest to conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for three years while he is on probation.

His lawyer in that case, Bruce Griffen, said he had not spoken to Barlow in a year.

The search warrant instructed officers to look for marriage records or other evidence linking her to the man and the baby. The warrant authorized the seizure of computer drives, CDs, DVDs or photos.

Those inside the retreat did not respond to requests for comment.

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints broke away from the Mormon church after the latter disavowed polygamy more than a century ago.

The compound sits down a narrow paved road and behind a hill that shields it almost entirely from view in town. Only the 80-foot-high, gleaming white temple can be seen on the horizon.

The 1,700-acre property had been an exotic game ranch. It is surrounded by dusty, wind-swept land where sheep are raised and mohair produced.

Eldorado (pronounced el-dor-AY'-do) is a two-stoplight town of fewer than 2,000 people and located nearly 200 miles northwest of San Antonio. It consists of a cluster of government buildings, a couple churches and a few blocks of houses.

State officials said they did not know how many people lived at the retreat. Local officials estimated two years ago that about 150 people were there.

The sect has been led by Warren Jeffs since his father died in 2002. In November, Jeffs was sentenced to two consecutive sentences of five years to life in prison in Utah for being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl who wed her cousin in an arranged marriage in 2001.

In Arizona, Jeffs is charged as an accomplice with four counts each of incest and sexual conduct with a minor stemming from two arranged marriages between teenage girls and their older male relatives. He is jailed in Kingman, Ariz., awaiting trial.