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Polygamist Moms Fight for Custody of Kids

by amyjudd | April 14, 2008 at 10:14 am

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UPDATE: 7:38PM EST

Most of the children taken from the Texas polygamist compound were moved to a different location today after complaints emerged about the conditions of the place there were staying in.

ABC News is reporting that "dozens of buses filled with the children were seen late Monday driving under police escort from Fort Concho, where they had been held since being taken from their ranch earlier this month, to the local coliseum, where some children have already been staying."

PREVIOUSLY

The mothers whose children were taken from the polygamist ranch in Texas are starting the campaign to get back their children, who were taken into custody earlier this month.

A group of mothers from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints sent a letter to Texas Gov. Rick Perry asking him to see for himself what they call the "appalling and traumatizing" conditions at the shelter where 416 children are being held.

An investigation into claims of abuse at the polygamous compound is moving to a San Angelo, Texas, courthouse this week.

The state is expected to argue that it should retain custody of the children while officials investigate the abuse claims. Hundreds of attorneys are on their way to San Angelo to represent each child at a custody hearing scheduled for Thursday. Today the presiding judge will determine the order of the cases in court hearings that begin this morning.

The state of Texas is spending about $25,000 a day to take care of the 416 children and their mothers, according to a report, and it appears that most of them want to return to the ranch as quickly as possible.
The ranch in Texas was raided on April 3, after an as-yet-to-be indentified 16-year-old girl called a domestic violence hotline and said her 50-year-old husband physically and sexually abused her.

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