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	State Alleges 'Pervasive Pattern' of Sexual Abuse at Eldorado-Area Compound; 416 Children Removed By Paul A. Anthony San Angelo Standard-Times April 8, 2008 http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2008/apr/08/pervasive-pattern-of-sexual-abuse-alleged-in-to/ State child welfare officials are alleging a "pervasive pattern and practice" of forced marriage and sexual abuse inside the secretive Schleicher County compound from which hundreds of children have been removed. According to documents filed this afternoon in state District Court in Tom Green County, Child Protective Services asked Judge Barbara Walther to grant the agency custody of all 416 boys and girls removed from the YFZ Ranch as of this afternoon because every child is at risk for abuse. "This pattern and practice places all of the children located at the YFZ Ranch, both male and female, to risks of emotional, physical and/or sexual abuse," according to an affidavit seeking custody of the children, filed by Lynn McFadden, a CPS investigator. CPS believes it has removed all the children from the compound, spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner said this afternoon - as well as 139 women who willingly left, in many cases to join their children. Investigators have interviewed all the children, Meisner said, and in doing so determined they all were endangered by staying in the custody of their FLDS parents. "The information they have given us indicates there are more victims" than just the girl who called in the original complaint, Meisner said. The documents also detailed the circumstances of the phone calls placed by the 16-year-old girl, whose complaints led to the Thursday night raid on the compound, built and run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. According to the documents, the girl told a local family violence shelter that her 50-year-old husband - identified in an arrest warrant as Dale Barlow - beat her, "hitting her in the chest and choking her, and that while such abuse was occurring, one of the other women would hold her infant child." The girl, whose baby is roughly 8 months old, also is several weeks' pregnant, according to the affidavit, which also states that she is Barlow's seventh wife. The affidavit includes hundreds of names of parents with whom to serve notice that the state is assuming custody of their children. Many of them list birthdates, last names or names of children as unknown, indicating that CPS workers have had difficulty identifying many of the children and adults they now have in custody. "A number of the children interviewed were unable or unwilling to provide the names of their biological parents or identified multiple mothers," the affidavit states, "and were unable or unwilling to provide information such as their own birthdates or birthplaces."
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