Documents Detail Abuse at YFZ Ranch

The proverbial lid seems to have not just been blown off of incidents surrounding the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado, Texas, but to have undergone violent explosive decompression.

There has been a second arrest since police raided the compound under warrant issued regarding a complaint by a 16 year old girl alleging abuse, and now there are sworn affidavits by girls taken from the compound that back up the initial complaints.

In the initial complain, a 16 year old girl called a family violence shelter, alleging that she had been repeatedly beaten and abused after her family arrived at the ranch three years ago. Documents released today by authorities show the girl stating that the man she was "married" to "beat and hurt her" whenever she was angry, alleging that another woman who was "married" to the man would hold her infant child while she was being beaten by her husband. Her husband is a 50 year old man, to whom she was married "in a spiritual union through the church," and that he was no longer on the compound, having left the ranch for unknown reasons. She is his seventh current wife.

She reported that the last time he beat her was on Easter Sunday 2008. The report also indicated that, on a previous occasion, the man had beaten her so severely that it resulted in her having several broken ribs, for which she was taken to the hospital. She reported that the doctor wrapped her torso in an ace bandage and gold her to "take it easy for a few days." She also indicated that the man would hurt her, explaining that he would force himself on her sexually. She also indicated that she is several weeks pregnant.

She also stated that she was not allowed to leave the YFZ ranch for any reason other than to receive medical attention, at which point she would be driven by her husband and another woman from the ranch.

Makes you want to run right out and join up with this church, doesn't it? Polygamy, pedophilia, rape, abuse, probably some torture there that hasn't come to light yet. Yup, sign me UP, I'm in like Flint.

Up until the middle of the last century, it was not uncommon for rural girls to be married by the time they were 15 or 16. The difference then was that these young women were not entering into a situation where they were joining a harem. There's no other word that can be applied to it, these girls were (are) being kept in harems. We do not live in the same world that we lived in 60 plus years ago, our society has progressed. Obviously, there are some who can not, or will not, accept this.

Religion is another factor that plays in to this situation. There is nothing wrong with religious faith. There are those who need it, want it, and make for themselves better lives following the teachings of certain religious doctrines and philosophies. That being said, there is no excuse for hiding behind a religion to commit despicable acts against other human beings. Any religion.

I see no justification in the Bible for rape, and I don't think I have ever seen any justification for it in the Book of Mormon, either. There is no justification for child abuse.

The fallout from Warren Jeffs and his followers seems to be just starting. I fully expect that there will be more indictments to come from this latest incident involving the Jeffs sect. And if there is a just God watching over us, they won't be long in coming.

Earlier posts on this developing story can be found here.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man


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Standoff at Polygamist Compound-Updated

Updates below

Developing from Eldorado, Texas:

Police and child welfare authorities have removed nearly 200 children from a religious compound in Eldorado as of today, first told in an article written yesterday at WUA found here.

The incident began in response to a complaint by a 16 year old girl that she was being physically abused, prompting officials to begin searching the compound and removing the children while searching for the complainant and her baby. Neither have been found as of yet and the members of the compound, which is owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, has now barred officials from further search in a move that has prompted a standoff between police and those in the compound.

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was headed by Warren Jeffs, who was recently convicted for polygamy and arranging polygamous marriages for his male followers, as well as other sex and incest crimes. Now, the followers of his church have created a situation that conjures forth the memories of Waco, Texas, with the Branch Davidian Church, and Ruby Ridge, Idaho, cases in which religious sect members lost their lives during stand-offs with law enforcement.

If no agreement is reached with sect leaders, authorities will forcibly remove the sect's followers "as peaceably as possible," Allison Palmer, a prosecutor in Tom Green County, told the San Angelo Standard-Times.

Medical workers are being sent "in case this were to a go in a way that no one wants," Palmer said. Law enforcers are "preparing for the worst," she said.

"Within the religion that we have encountered, their place of worship is very special to them," Palmer said. "It appears to be of great concern to them if a person from outside their congregation even attempts to step inside their place of worship."

The search is centered around the 16 year old girl who lodged the abuse complaint and a 50 year old man who is a member of the sect. Officials are under a gag order issued by a state judge regarding the situation, limiting how much information they are coming forth with at this time.

More as it develops.

Hat tip to Miss Beth

[Update-] From Chron.com- "Cops peacefully enter polygamist temple"

Prosecutor Allison Palmer says there were tense moments Saturday night, but the situation remained calm.

The search is continuing Sunday at the ranch in Eldorado (pronounced el-dor-AY'-do). Followers of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs built a compound there on a former exotic game ranch.

[Update #2-]- The girl who made the original complaint is still unaccounted for. Despite the fact that nearly 200 women and children were taken by bus from the compound this weekend, the girl has still not been found.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man


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