Court Begins Custody Hearings For Texas Ranch Children

San Angelo, TX (AHN) - District Judge Barbara Walther struggled to contain chaos in her courtroom Thursday as hundreds of lawyers pleaded their case on behalf of 416 children removed from a polygamous sect's ranch more than a week ago.

The judge's 80-year-old courtroom could not accommodate the approximately 350 lawyers and conservatively-dressed mothers, so the City Hall auditorium, located two blocks away, had to be set up for the proceedings.

According to reports, Judge Walther addressed objections from the different camps by video feed, while about 175 people strained to see and listen from a projector set up on the auditorium's stage.

The Associated Press described the hearing as "something of a circus -- and a painfully slow one" at that.

Walther refused to allow medical records and other evidence to be transmitted in electronic form since it contained personal information. A courier running from the courthouse to the auditorium delivered evidence to the judge, one document at a time.

By midafternoon, the proceedings had moved but a few paces. Little evidence had been admitted, and a petition from state officials to conduct genetic testing on members of the sect had yet to be ruled on.

The move stemmed from the fact that the religious sect, apart from being polygamous, also is alleged to have allowed incestuous unions. State officials were hoping to properly identify which child belonged to whom by DNA test.

Child welfare services is pushing for the 416 children evacuated from the Eldorado ranch of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints be turned over to foster homes on grounds that the children were physically and sexually abused.

The sect is said to believe that a man must have three spiritual wives in order to ascend to heaven - and so they "marry" any woman from within the sect, even girls as young as 15 who may happen to be a close relative.

State troopers raided the ranch two weeks ago after a 16-year-old girl called an abuse hot line claiming her husband, a 50-year-old man, beat and raped her. At 16, the girl already had a child.

Walther issued an emergency order placing all children below 17 under state custody. Except for 27 adolescent boys, the children are currently housed in a domed coliseum on land used for the San Angelo state fair.

Under Texas law, if sexual abuse is happening in a home and a parent does not put a stop to it, the parent could lose custody of the child.

The religious sect is led by polygamist Warren Jeffs, who is currently imprisoned in Arizona while awaiting trial for being an accomplice to four counts of incest and sexual conduct with a minor.