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	Utah Officials Give Texas Caseworkers Input on Kids from YFZ Ranch By Bill Hanna and John Moritz Fort Worth Star-Telegram May 3, 2008 http://www.star-telegram.com/national_news/story/620542.html Texas appears to be in it for the long haul with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. As state officials await DNA results to help identify the parents of many of the 464 children in state custody, a Utah official said Friday that it will take time to sort out the complex web of relationships within the polygamist sect in Eldorado. Patricia Sheffield, director of Washington County Children's Justice Center in St. George, Utah, who has dealt with abuse cases involving polygamist families, was one of several out-of-state advisers brought to Texas this week to give guidance to caseworkers overseeing the children removed from the YFZ Ranch after allegations of child abuse prompted a raid on the compound. "I believe it will probably go into months," Sheffield said. "I don't see how it could not." And the strain on state agencies will likely last even longer. "We will be talking about Eldorado for years to come," state Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, said Friday. Need for more staffing Nelson has been told by Carey Cockerell, the commissioner of the Department of Family Protective Services, that "the unique nature of the FLDS population and the challenge of providing for appropriate placements will require additional caseworkers." In a letter to Nelson, chairwoman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, Cockerell said the needs of children from the sect "will require specialized placement and staffing resources." The state agency is working "to compile all costs incurred and ongoing budget needs to present to legislative oversight bodies," Cockerell wrote. Nelson, whose committee heard testimony from Cockerell on Wednesday, said the follow-up letter gives lawmakers a clearer picture of what the state is facing as a result of the operation in West Texas. "We have a better sense of the impact Eldorado is having on the system as a whole now than we did before," she said. "I still have concerns about the children, the mothers who have been separated from their children, and getting to the bottom of these abuse allegations." Arrest warrant revoked Officials with the Texas Department of Public Safety announced Friday that the arrest warrant for FLDS member Dale Barlow that triggered the April 3 raid has been revoked. "The warrant is no longer active," DPS spokesman Tom Vinger said. "That's all I can tell you on that." DPS troopers interviewed Barlow in Arizona last month but did not take him into custody. There were questions at the time about whether the man they spoke with was the man identified in the arrest warrant. DPS has said that 33-year-old Rozita Swinton of Colorado, suspected of making false calls about life in the compound to shelters for abused women, is "a person of interest" in the investigation. An arrest warrant affidavit released last month showed that authorities received calls even after the raid took place. The caller told investigators details about rainy weather and about children receiving toys in the San Angelo shelters. Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran told the Eldorado Success that the caller was very persuasive. "She was giving us details like rain storm and the toys, things that we were seeing and knew to be true," Doran said. "Investigators were convinced for a time that she was in the shelter but was fearful of contacting us." Bishop's Record released Authorities also released the Bishop's Record, a list of families at the ranch, that was seized from the 1,691-acre YFZ (Yearning for Zion) compound. The San Angelo Standard-Times posted the document on its Web site Friday. Among the most interesting details were that 67-year-old Wendell Loy Nielsen, one of the top leaders in the sect who has been mentioned as a possible successor to Warren Jeffs, had 21 wives. He was also listed as having 21 daughters and 15 sons. All of the wives were adults. Long road ahead Sheffield said her staff has dealt with abuse cases involving children in polygamist families but said it has been difficult to make inroads into the twin cities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., where the FLDS has long been based. That experience, combined with the number of cases in Eldorado, makes her believe that Texas officials will face a lengthy process. "There are ways to work through it, but they take time," Sheffield said. "You're going to have to wait on those DNA tests and this isn't like CSI where the tests come back in an hour." Sheffield said she primarily talked to caseworkers about terminology, about how FLDS members always say "Father" and never "Dad." And that the term "mother" can often apply to any of the plural wives. "There are things we have to define differently," Sheffield said. "Using the word abuse doesn't mean anything to them. We have to define it a little more carefully." Sheffield said she applauded Texas officials for inviting out-of-state officials to provide insight into the sect. Mary Walker, a CPS spokeswoman, said the seminar was well-received by caseworkers. The FLDS members came to West Texas in 2003, when the church bought the stark, rolling ranchland four miles north of Eldorado. The sect split from the Mormon church when the latter rejected polygamy in 1890. Most of the estimated 10,000 members of the FLDS live in Colorado City and Hildale. Jeffs, the group's leader, has been sentenced to two terms of five years to life in prison in Utah for forcing an underage girl to marry an older cousin. Contact: billhanna@star-telegram.com, or by phone: BILL HANNA, 817-390-7698 JOHN MORITZ, 512-476-4294.
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