Polygamist sect`s children to be returned

More than 400 children taken from a Texas polygamous sect will be returned to their families immediately, a court official said Monday, two months after they were seized over abuse allegations.

A Texas judge ordered that the state's Child Protective Services (CPS) begin the process Monday of surrendering custody of the children to their legal guardians.

The order requires that the children remain in the state of Texas, that the parents take parenting classes and cooperate with the investigation into charges of systemic sexual abuse among members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, The Dallas Morning News reported.

The judge also said CPS workers may remove the children for interviews if needed from the 1,700-acre (690-hectare) ranch near El Dorado, in central Texas, and put no time limit on the ongoing investigation.

"We wished it was a better order but, hey, get the mothers and children back -- so we'll take it," sect spokesman Willie Jessop said about the court order, issued after three days of negotiations between the judge and hundreds of lawyers from both sides.

CPS spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner said it could take until Friday to complete the transfer, but that "every single child will be returned to their parents."

The order followed a Texas Supreme Court ruling Thursday that said the children must be returned to their parents, and that state child welfare officials had overstepped their authority when they took the 468 children.

The children range in age from three months ...