Truth Will Prevail

On April 15, 2008, attorneys representing ten FLDS men filed a motion in the 51st District Court in Schleicher County, Texas, to suppress any and all evidence seized during the searches conducted at the YFZ Ranch during the raid last year. Relying on information obtained through interviews with law-enforcement officers and other evidence, the motion shows that there was a reckless disregard for proper investigative procedures, if not a deliberate attempt to deceive the court in obtaining the search warrants used in the raid.

On the anniversary of the 2008 YFZ raid, Department of Family and Protective Services Commissioner Anne Heiligenstein gave statements that clearly indicate that CPS is on the defensive regarding its actions during the past year.

This is the first in a series of articles giving a history of the raid on the YFZ Ranch. Much of the material has been obtained from the diaries and journals of the FLDS men, women, and children who were directly involved in the events narrated.

Fort Concho in San Angelo, Texas, was established along the banks of the Concho River in 1867 as a military post to protect the frontier settlements and was last used by troops in 1889. It is today a National Historic Landmark and museum, spreading over about forty acres and including seventeen restored buildings. To visit the fort on a school outing would be a holiday for any group of children, but to be crowded into the old barracks buildings and stables and guarded like prisoners of war made the FLDS families who were removed from their homes fol

The separation of the mothers from their young children on April 24, 2008, was the most traumatic experience of the entire YFZ raid. Many of the mothers kept detailed daily journals, and it is from their own accounts of these events that this story is told.

No one can take away the legacy that God has given to Merrianne Jessop, her sacred heritage. No one else can fill the special place of her Mother, Barbara Jessop.

During the 14-day hearings on April 17 and 18 for the children removed from the YFZ Ranch, the main witness for the FLDS people was Dr. John Walsh, a religious-studies expert who volunteered his testimony at this time.

CPS workers really did huddle outside at night; and with this new information, in all fairness to this much-maligned agency, I hasten to set the record straight.

The Eldorado Investigation report released by CPS on December 22, 2008, brings into focus again all of the issues related to the raid on the YFZ Ranch. Among the most important of these is the validity of the search warrant that provided law-enforcement officials access to the Ranch in the first place.

The Eldorado Investigation Report released by CPS on December 22, is as false and fraudulent as the original hoax telephone call that triggered the raid.

On December 22, 2008, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services issued its final report on the YFZ Ranch raid and its aftermath, continuing the same practice we have seen them use from the first of justifying their illegal and inhumane actions in this raid by resorting to half-truths and distortions.

Access all of the past articles.