REACT: El Dorado Raid

By: Stephanie Granados

Posted: 4/21/08

Late last month, the NewBridge Family Shelter received calls from a 16-year-old girl named "Sarah." In these calls, she claimed to be in an abusive marriage with "Dale," 50, who fathered her child last year and has multiple wives.

In response to these calls, authorities entered the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' Yearning for Zion Ranch (YFZ) in El Dorado, Texas on April 3. Within days all 416 children aged six months to 17 had been removed from the compound and placed in state custody. Women were also taken from the compound. In total, 500+ women and children were bused away from the YFZ compound.

On April 18, Judge Walther ordered a DNA test on all children and adults in an attempt to establish family relationships. The children are also to remain in protective custody, and will be given individual hearings to ascertain whether they will be able to return to their parents and the YFZ Ranch.

The children, while in perfect health as far as officials have been able to determine thus far, had never seen toys. Nor had they ever been allowed to laugh louder than a chuckle. Their schooling is significantly deficient. Not to mention that girls are married off at young ages into conjugal marriages with much older men.

Now, authorities believe that there was never a "Sarah" or "Dale." Instead they believe that Rozita Swinton, 33, of Colorado made the calls. A search of her home turned up evidence of a connection to a similar FLDS raid in Colorado City, AZ, as well as the one in El Dorado. This new twist will not have an affect on the child custody case.

Do you believe that these children were being abused? Was the raid justified? Lastly, in a country that prides itself on freedom of religion, did the government go too far?