No arrest after Tx. Rangers meet with FLDS abuse suspect

[struggle4progress]

Source: 3TV / azfamily.com

ST. GEORGE, Utah -- In a new development in the raid on the FLDS compound in Eldorado, Texas, Texas Rangers met with -- but did not arrest -- a man accused of sexually abusing a teenage girl ...

Rangers chose not to place Barlow under arrest, which highlights what 3TV and azfamily.com have been noting all week -- that authorities might be investigating the wrong man.

Barlow, who is from Colorado City, Ariz., has denied the allegations of abuse, and has said he does not know the 16-year-old girl whose March 29 call to a domestic violence hotline sparked the raid on the Eldorado compound built by polygamist leader Warren Jeffs ...

Barlow is a registered sex offender on probation and is prohibited from interstate travel without permission.



Read more: http://www.azfamily.com/news/homepagetopstory/stories/phoenix_local_news_polygamy_041208_barlow-meeting.5a1e0135.html

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Attys: Texas Polygamists May Recant
By CHRIS KAHN – 7 hours ago

PHOENIX (AP) — Polygamous sect members who were moved to a Texas compound from their longtime homes along the Utah-Arizona line were hand-picked for their fierce loyalty to leader Warren Jeffs, and that allegiance may be a stumbling block for law enforcement, authorities say ...

"All these girls are taught from the cradle not to trust anybody from the outside," Shurtleff said. "Especially the government. We're the beast. We're the devil" ...

Prosecutors in Arizona and Utah struggled for years to gain the trust of witnesses in abuse cases, but many young girls still refused to speak out.

"We've had them come out and make statements, and then they disappear, or they recant," Shurtleff said ...

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gl6PfqM0r9MVD91Jkn4wU1FTIPvAD900GSQG0

Texas Polygamy Raid May Pose Risk
By KIRK JOHNSON
Published: April 12, 2008

ELDORADO, Tex. — The raid last week on a polygamist compound here is complicating law enforcement efforts in Utah and Arizona, where there are far more offshoot Mormon polygamists but where the authorities try to avoid such large-scale confrontations.

Officials in those states have dealt for many years with the tangled and delicate problem of opening communications with polygamist groups while also winning the confidence of girls who are taken as under-age wives. The Texas authorities say the raid here was prompted by a 16-year-old who called on a cellphone from the compound in a cry for help.

But the raid’s scale — 416 children were removed, making it the largest raid in more than a half century in the West — and the fact that the 16-year-old has not been identified, has sharply eroded trust in the government among polygamist groups, according to law enforcement officials in several states.

“They were reaching out, opening up,” Mark L. Shurtleff, the attorney general in Utah, said of the polygamist communities. “Now they’ve kind of pulled back. Everybody’s going to wait and see how this thing plays out in Texas” ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/12/us/12raid.html?em&ex=1208145600&en=a49bdc808f6af04e&ei=5087%0A

[texastoast]

1. Those poor girls

They've been prograammed to act like this. They need some other Mormons to talk to.

[SoCalDem]

2. Why not just take DNA from all the men and all the babies of the underage girls

That would certainly prove who was whom..
and if a 17 yr old's 2 yr old has DNA from a 50 yr old guy.. then... it only got there one way..

[JeanGrey]

3. That makes too much sense, doesn't it

[High Plains]

4. Where is the original complainant? Does she even exist?

It's been more than a week since the state of Texas went into that community and forcibily removed all of its children. Where is the alleged 16-year-girl who allegedly made that call of complaint?

If she is among the 416 removed children, why has she not come forward?

Why did she name Dale Barlow as the abusive father? He is Arizona and apparently hasn't been near Texas in years.

Is she is Copper City? Being held against her will? Will there be another raid of another community?

Has she been murdered and buried in the desert?

Here's another possibility: The girl doesn't exist. The cell phone call was a set-up, a provocation by foes of the cult to force the authorities to act.

Anybody?

[LanternWaste]

5. I think she exists.

I think she exists. I think she's damned scared-- of the authorities, of her family, of what's going to happen, etc.

When the younger teen cult members have a week or two to de-tox, I think their tongues may loosen a bit.

[atreides1]

6. 50/50

If she does exist one would think that the authorities at least knew her name and could find her that way.

The man named in her complaint hasn't been to Texas in 30 years, the call came from the Texas compound and not from Arizona, and the sheriff keeps saying that he also had information from a former member of the sect who was his CI.

It's a 50/50 chance that the "girl" does exist.

[LanternWaste]

7. Children in abusive families

Children in abusive families are scared for good reasons and have learned through habit that keeping one's mouth shut is the better part of discretion.

I was a caseworker in TX CPS for five years-- the children's tongues will loosen once they realize that they are safe from their abusers, *and* that the new-found safety will be maintained.

Until I have reason to believe otherwise, I'll maintain that she's simply keeping quiet for the time being for fear of future retaliation.

[Lars39]

8. Retaliation could also come from others that were rescued,

not just the men left behind. :(

[LanternWaste]

9. True that.

True that. And if an abused child learns one thing-- it's to make as few waves as possible. To stay invisible in other words. And they are DAMNED good at it. Better than we as adults may give them credit for.

My guess is that the young lady who made the call is laying low until she's confident that she won't have to see (let along face) any authority figures from the compound. She's in Silent Mode right now and likely to stay that way.

What I think a lot of people don't understand is that CPS can take a child from their home without the same burden of evidence actual law enforcement requires. Indeed, more often than not, law enforcement is not involved in many, many of the cases in which a child is taken in protective custody.

Crap... gotta go. Have a great one!

[rainbow4321]

10. Unusual "removal from abusive home" situation, also

CPS worker said during a press conference last week that everyone needs to remember that this is no normal removal, also.

Normal meaning if it is determined that a child is being harmed/abused/in danger then CPS removes this child and the parents stay behind having NO contact with the child.

In THIS case, many of the mothers of these children went with them during the removal...mothers who knowingly put their kids in a situation of marrying much older men who had multiple "wives". CPS worker said that the mothers went w/ CPS willingly, they can leave at any time but they are choosing to stay (with CPS, with their children)

So technically, these children are still under the watch of an abusive parent and may still be scared to speak out if these mothers are defending their male parent/family style, etc.. Yes, the kids may be in the custody of CPS but what good does it do if one of their parents who knowingly allowed their kids' to grow up in the initial home environment is still WITH the child.

[LisaL]

12. Her name is allegedly Sarah.

The phone calls were made and the person as far as I understand claimed to be in AZ. Then there were phone calls made and the person said she was in TX.

[LisaL]

11. Apparently it could be the same person making these phone

calls about AZ and TX. There were apparently phone calls made by a 16 year old claiming to be in AZ, but authorities couldn't find that girl either.
I just saw that on Anderson Cooper.
So, either the 16 year old doesn't exist, or she is being moved around, or she is confused as to where she is (I kind of think that's doubtful, but who knows). Either way, it seems to me all these children were removed on an allegation from an alleged 16 year old authorities so far have not been able to substantiate.