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	State Cancel Interviews on Sect Raid Officials Circumspect Amid Prospect of a Lawsuit By Corrie MacLaggan Marshall News Messenger July 26, 2008 http://www.marshallnewsmessenger.com/news/content/region/legislature/stories/07/26/0726flds.html State child welfare officials, in anticipation of a possible lawsuit from a polygamous sect, are carefully watching what they say about an April raid on the sect's West Texas ranch. Through spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman, Department of Family and Protective Services Commissioner Carey Cockerell and his boss, Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Albert Hawkins, this week canceled an interview scheduled for July 30 with the American-Statesman and the Houston Chronicle. Both newspapers have repeatedly asked for the chance to query Hawkins and Cockerell about the decision to seize more than 400 children from the Eldorado ranch owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on suspicions of child abuse. After a legal battle, the state returned the children and is continuing its Child Protective Services investigation and a separate criminal investigation. This week, state District Judge Barbara Walther ordered that the child welfare case be broken up by mother, meaning that there are 234 separate cases. "There's kind of a number of moving pieces," Goodman said in explaining the interview cancelation of the interview. "We're still in the middle of our actual CPS cases. We have the potential of FLDS to basically sue the state. Given all that, the time is probably not appropriate." Rod Parker, a lawyer for residents of the Yearning for Zion Ranch, told Cockerell in an April 28 letter to preserve evidence "related to any potential claims" against the agency. "We are concerned that the United States constitutional rights of our clients have been violated by your agency's activities," wrote. On Tuesday, a grand jury indicted sect leader Warren Jeffs and four followers on charges of sexual abuse of children. A sixth member was charged with failure to report child abuse. Goodman said that because the West Texas grand jury has not finished its proceedings, Hawkins and Cockerell "don't want to influence that process." Cockerell and Hawkins have released information through representatives — the protective services department has responded to 8,000 Eldorado-related media calls — but neither has given interviews on the subject. "I think we've put out as much information as we possibly can, given that we're in the middle of an ongoing investigation," Goodman said. The only time that Cockerell has spoken publicly about the raid was during a Senate hearing April 30. Time is running out to interview Cockerell in his professional capacity. He is retiring Aug. 31, a move department spokesman Patrick Crimmins said is not related to the Eldorado case. In a June 3 column in USA Today, Hawkins defended the state's actions. The case "is not about religion or polygamy," he wrote. "It's about sexual abuse of girls and grooming boys to become perpetrators." Hawkins' only other public comments on the case came during a May 20 Senate Finance Committee hearing about the costs of the case, Goodman said. The state spent $12.5 million to remove the children from their homes, place them in foster care around the state and provide them with health care, according to an estimate that Goodman provided this week. With so much public money at stake, Hawkins and Cockerell should consider talking to the media, said Katherine Garner, executive director of the nonprofit Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas. "You're talking about millions of tax dollars here that was spent on this, and the public has a right to know why," Garner said. Contact: cmaclaggan@statesman.com; 445-3548.
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