Thursday, April 24, 2008

Polygamists Consent to DNA Testing To Get Kids Back

I wonder what will happen with this:

A man who identified himself as Rulon said he has six children who have been taken by the state.

"I think it's an embarrassment for the state to require this. We have broken no laws. It makes me feel like a criminal," Rulon said as he left the Schleicher County Memorial Building in Eldorado.

About a dozen women also submitted themselves for fingerprinting, photographing and DNA testing to be compared with the children seized from the Yearning for Zion Ranch, owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

State District Judge Barbara Walther on Friday ordered all 437 children in state custody, and their parents, to submit to DNA testing so authorities could establish identities and family ties.

Well, establishing paternity and maternal age and the ages of the kids should get his kids back pronto, right? Where is the state going with this?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What they will do is use this information to prove that some of the mothers of the children were underage at the time of their conception, and also to prove who the father was. Thus opening the door to prosecution for statutory rape of those men.

Anonymous said...

err, I should have said, "prosecution of those men for statutory rape." Too early...

Anonymous said...

I worry about these children...because I think many of them were probably loved and cared for. My husband thinks that now that the state has gone to this length, they will NEED to make a case and find stuff on these people.

Siggy also made an interesting comment in response to my post on this matter. I know there are stories of abuse and those children do need to be taken away from their parents and/or caregivers. I don't know though, how much abuse there really was. I am not getting a clear picture of this yet. Are you?