SAN ANGELO, Texas -- A polygamist sect teen, who refused in court to disclose her baby's whereabouts, reached an agreement late Tuesday with Texas child welfare authorities who are seeking a DNA sample from the child.
A compromise between the 17-year-old and the state was reached, but Texas District Judge Barbara Walther, who encouraged the sides to reach agreement, ordered the terms not be disclosed, said Patrick Crimmins, a Child Protective Services spokesman.
The girl had previously been ordered to allow CPS to examine the baby born after the April raid of the Yearning For Zion Ranch. The agency wanted to take a DNA sample to determine who the baby's father is and whether he is an adult.
Earlier in the day, the girl was called to the stand by an attorney for CPS and refused repeatedly to say where the baby is.
"She is living out of state. ... I just don't want anyone to know where she is," said the girl, who was wearing a dark blue prairie dress and her hair braided back, the typical style of female members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
As she sat in the hall outside the courtroom with her attorney, she buried her head in her hands and rubbed her eyes at one point. Late in the day, she was served with a search warrant by a Texas Ranger, though it was unclear what the warrant was for.
Her attorney Kelly Ellis and John Dolezal, the attorney for CPS, both declined comment as they left the courthouse.
State officials believe the girl was married to a man in FLDS when she was 14. In Texas, someone under age 17 generally cannot consent to sex with an adult.
FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop said the girl is afraid that Texas officials will take the newborn if she allows them to examine her.
"There has been a total breakdown of trust between the mothers and the department," he said, adding that the mothers cooperated with authorities during the initial raid only to have their children taken from them.
He disputed the notion that CPS doesn't know who the baby's father is, citing the thousands of church marriage documents seized from the ranch during the weeklong raid.
A motion filed by the state says the girl gave birth June 14, less than two weeks after she and the other 438 children taken from the ranch in Eldorado were returned from foster care to their parents. The child welfare agency collected DNA from all the children swept from the ranch in April, but the baby was born after the teen mother was returned to her parents.
The Texas Supreme Court ruled in May that the state had overreached in placing all the children in foster care when it could show that no more than a handful of teenage girls had been abused. The children were returned in early June, and only one, a teenage girl whose mother wouldn't cooperate with welfare authorities, has been returned to foster care.
All but 36 of the children's cases have been dropped from court oversight.
Twelve FLDS men have now been indicted on charges related to underage marriages and bigamy.
The FLDS is a breakaway sect of the Mormon church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago.
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