Conflict Escalates at Polygamist Retreat

AP
Sunday, April 6, 2008

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.

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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.

Full article here.

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