Identity theft
Durng the custody hearing for 416 FLDS children last week, one attorney joked that a Texas CPS investigator must have ''magical'' powers that allowed her to determine someone's age at a glance.
It was one of the lighter moments in the grueling, two-day hearing and came after the investigator, Angie Voss, said she and her staff were having a hard time figuring out the ages of some young women now in state custody. The investigator said that while some girls claimed to be adults, any one who saw them would agree they looked far younger.
The state has given the young women one of those ''false choices'' that psychiatrist Bruce Perry talked about during his testimony. If they say they are under 18, they will get to stay with their children in foster care. If they say they are older, they are going to be sent back to the ranch after the state gets DNA samples from their children.
Figuring out who's who and how old the state wards are has turned out to be a conundrum for Texas. Perhaps one of the benefits of Keeping Sweet is a youthful appearance. It is true: Many of the FLDS women look far younger than they are. I could not believe it when Merilyn, one young woman who took the stand last week, said she was 29.
My magical age radar would have pegged her at 21, tops.
During the hearing, attorneys for parents and children said they had certified birth certificates, social security numbers, Texas drivers licenses and even tax returns that could be used to validate names and ages.
But Voss said the documents would not be acceptable, suggesting some certificates might be forged.
And Judge Barbara Walther agreed.
''How do you know, in today's world of identity theft, a birth certificate is proof of who they are?'' the judge asked.
Attorney Stephanie Goodman asked Voss whether a certified birth certificate would be acceptable proof for her client.
''I can’t say that it wouldn't be,'' Voss said. But she also could not say it would be.
Instead, Texas will use DNA samples to link mothers and fathers to their children. One unknown: Who is footing that tab?
I am not sure how they will sort out the age issue.
While Texas won't accept birth certificates as proof of parentage or age, they were good enough for prosecutions in Arizona.
Arizona authorities relied on birth certificates to convict a handful of FLDS men for sexual misconduct with underage girls. The birth certificates were used as absolute proof in establishing how old the girls were when they had children.
Birth certificates also surfaced in a Utah child welfare case involving Heidi Mattingly Foster, a plural wife of John Daniel Kingston. They are members of a polygamous group that is not affiliated with the FLDS.
The couple was hauled into court after a dispute with their two oldest daughters over ear piercing.
Mattingly Foster's last name was listed on the birth certificates for the couple's 11 children.
At one point in the case, which dragged on for two years, the juvenile judge ordered Mattingly Foster to get new birth certificates for the children that bestowed their father's name on them.
Then, the guardian ad litem for the older girls said they did not really want to use their father's last name because of the public notority associated with it. The judge relented in their case.
The state eventually terminated the couple's parental rights to the two older girls. The rest of Mattingly Foster's children spent 10 months in state care before the judge sent them home.
It was one of the lighter moments in the grueling, two-day hearing and came after the investigator, Angie Voss, said she and her staff were having a hard time figuring out the ages of some young women now in state custody. The investigator said that while some girls claimed to be adults, any one who saw them would agree they looked far younger.
The state has given the young women one of those ''false choices'' that psychiatrist Bruce Perry talked about during his testimony. If they say they are under 18, they will get to stay with their children in foster care. If they say they are older, they are going to be sent back to the ranch after the state gets DNA samples from their children.
Figuring out who's who and how old the state wards are has turned out to be a conundrum for Texas. Perhaps one of the benefits of Keeping Sweet is a youthful appearance. It is true: Many of the FLDS women look far younger than they are. I could not believe it when Merilyn, one young woman who took the stand last week, said she was 29.
My magical age radar would have pegged her at 21, tops.
During the hearing, attorneys for parents and children said they had certified birth certificates, social security numbers, Texas drivers licenses and even tax returns that could be used to validate names and ages.
But Voss said the documents would not be acceptable, suggesting some certificates might be forged.
And Judge Barbara Walther agreed.
''How do you know, in today's world of identity theft, a birth certificate is proof of who they are?'' the judge asked.
Attorney Stephanie Goodman asked Voss whether a certified birth certificate would be acceptable proof for her client.
''I can’t say that it wouldn't be,'' Voss said. But she also could not say it would be.
Instead, Texas will use DNA samples to link mothers and fathers to their children. One unknown: Who is footing that tab?
I am not sure how they will sort out the age issue.
While Texas won't accept birth certificates as proof of parentage or age, they were good enough for prosecutions in Arizona.
Arizona authorities relied on birth certificates to convict a handful of FLDS men for sexual misconduct with underage girls. The birth certificates were used as absolute proof in establishing how old the girls were when they had children.
Birth certificates also surfaced in a Utah child welfare case involving Heidi Mattingly Foster, a plural wife of John Daniel Kingston. They are members of a polygamous group that is not affiliated with the FLDS.
The couple was hauled into court after a dispute with their two oldest daughters over ear piercing.
Mattingly Foster's last name was listed on the birth certificates for the couple's 11 children.
At one point in the case, which dragged on for two years, the juvenile judge ordered Mattingly Foster to get new birth certificates for the children that bestowed their father's name on them.
Then, the guardian ad litem for the older girls said they did not really want to use their father's last name because of the public notority associated with it. The judge relented in their case.
The state eventually terminated the couple's parental rights to the two older girls. The rest of Mattingly Foster's children spent 10 months in state care before the judge sent them home.
8 Comments:
If someone is over 18, presents proof of such, and is still held in a child case, can they sue for kidnapping?
Thanks Brooke!
The ruling which seemed to centered on potential abuse that might be caused by a religion certainly overlooked the individuals involved.
Keep up the good work. It's always a pleasure to read your comments and reporting.
I find the judge's remark about birth certificates possibly being forged to be bizarre. Yes, birth certificates can be forged; but extending her logic to its natural conclusion, why the hell does the state issue birth certificates in the first place, if they can't be used as identification? Doesn't the state have a database of birth records-- if a birth certificate is presented, can't they cross-reference it with their database to see if it's been altered?
I can't wait to find out the whole story of why the state made the decisions that it did. I find what little has been published to be bizarrely illogical. If being in a household where there's confusion about exactly how you're related in a huge family web is abuse, Texas authorities ought to crack down on underclass families where Mom has a kid by each of three different dads and lives with stepkids from the current dad. But clearly, they don't do that, so it looks like the FLDS just got their evangelical knickers in a twist. I hope that if this perception is incorrect, that the state will do something to correct it soon.
Wacky, it's simple, she has an agenda that has to play out. She and her cohorts have been planning this day for four years now, can't just make the right choice. I feel sorry for her, she will have a lot of answering to do before a just God. I don't know if she is being puppeted or not, but I still feel very sorry for her.
Perhaps someone has already addressed the fact that these women and children are being treated as though they were in violation of the law - whatever law that might be.
I thought it was the men who were suspected of sexual abuse of underage girls. Where are the men? I haven't seen any men herded up into Baptist Sunday School buses, trucked to arenas filled with peace officers, then cued up for their dna swabs. Where are the fathers crying for the return of their sons and daughters?
This whole thing appears to be just another 'exercise' testing how far constitutionally guaranteed rights, privileges, and process of law can be overridden by the state. The general public entertains the naive belief in the righteousness of such police action against 'fringe' citizenry based on their own moral conceit.
Time to wake up! It will be our children soon if we 'step out of line' - whatever whim might define 'stepping out of line' in a society ruled by government edict.
Texas CPS had a 'News' web page last week that allowed interested parties from 'out-of-state' to express interest in and begin the process for foster care of these 416 children - that prior to the court ordered dna testing supposedly in advance of placement. Seemed almost like the kind of ads BLM runs for adoptive homes after rounding up a herd of wild mustangs. "Come on down and choose your favorite."
That Texas CPS 'News' page simply disappeared. Maybe someone expressed outrage. Shouldn't we all?
Buffalo asked "Where are the fathers crying for the return of their sons and daughters?"
They were in court. They were on the steps of the court house and the city hall, some weeping, some praying, some talking to media. They are there. They are just as heart broken as the mothers, I am sure.
But it is not good for the media to show the heart broken fathers, as we are not supposed to be sympathetic to these fathers, most of whom are just normal dads. But they must be portrayed as sexual predators, therefore, no TV time is given to the weeping fathers.
It's just another tactic by the media to make this play out the way the State wants it to.
They may have been on the steps, but a number of FLDS men refused the DNA test.
Gee, why is that? Don't they want their kids back?
Or could it be that they are afraid that the DNA will prove the sexual assault of minors?
Oops.
txbluesman...Where does it say that "a number of FLDS men refused the DNA tests"? From a CPS report? From the media? Were you personally on hand to witness how many men showed up and how many didn't. According to "media hype" and "FLDS-exers" there are only a few men fathering all the children. So how many men needed to show up?
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