Warning Teresa Steed. Patrick Crimmins is an effortless liar, don't believe him.

Texas is saying that it's no longer interested in DNA from Teresa Steed's child, and that it's "dropped the matter." This is one of those times I am tempted to employ an epithet, having had Patrick Crimmins lie persuasively and effortlessly to my face.

"Texas authorities confirmed to the Deseret News that (Teresa Steed) did not appear at a hearing scheduled Tuesday in San Antonio. Texas Child Protective Services spokesman Patrick Crimmins said that the girl was unable to be served, so they dropped the matter.

'We did inform the judge about our continued concern for the safety of (Teresa's) baby and that if she or the baby were located, we would come back to court if needed,' Crimmins said in an e-mail to the Deseret News on Wednesday.

(Teresa), whom CPS alleges was married to a 40-year-old man at age 14, has been defiant throughout the child custody proceedings. She gave birth to a child just after CPS returned all 439 children last year. She consistently refused to tell the judge over the custody case where her baby was, putting her at risk for contempt of court. At one point, CPS accused her of switching babies to avoid a DNA test and the agency demanded that she undergo a psychological evaluation.

That apparently never happened. At the same time the agency dropped the girl from court oversight, it also filed a court motion in San Antonio seeking a DNA test for her baby and some oversight over her to monitor her parenting skills."

I don't think that Teresa or those surrounding her believe Patrick in actuality. I'm just letting the rest of you know that the only way we can ever find out if they are trustworthy in this specific matter, would be for Teresa to believe Patrick Crimmins and CPS. If she did, and put her trust in their words, they would snatch her child for a bare minimum of the DNA test so quickly you would hear the sonic booms on the other side of the planet.

Hat tip to Biblical or Christian Polygamy.

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Patrick Crimmins Looks forward to another chance to "Provide" (testimony...)

I find this wording rich.

Patrick is so used to substituting the word "provide" for something objectionable, he uses even when he is about to get the snapping rubber glove treatment. Bend over Pat, we're coming in for a look. I think the services might be provided to you. Maybe.

"We look forward to working with the committee to provide any information we can about the Eldorado case, and about our efforts on behalf of the children who were affected," Texas CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins said in an e-mail (to the Deseret News).

I'll bet. It was probably more fun to "provide services" to the FLDS. Ever the Liar. I know from personal experience you can't trust anything coming out of that pie hole. Oh, is my bias showing? (Hey Pat, I got your services for ya, RIGHT HERE....)

But I digress.

So far I cannot see anything but a desire to apply whitewash on the horizon with political "Nothing Speak" like this;

"At the start of a hearing of the Texas House Human Services Committee on Tuesday, Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, announced the formation of the subcommittee.

'The situation in Eldorado over the interim presented real challenges for the department and real challenges for the state," Rose said. "A lot of us have been talking about those issues during the interim.'

Rose said the subcommittee will schedule hearings in the coming weeks and would present a final report to the legislative committee, but he did not say what its specific focus would be.

'Those of us who are on the committee … care deeply about what we can learn, what lessons learned from that experience are,' he said."

My only hope is that the unavoidable truth that comes out of this will be the big bump in the budget rug no one wants to talk about. Perhaps it will be too big to avoid. With shrinking overall revenue and a growing eyesore of an expenditure lump no one wants to acknowledge, it will be increasingly hard not to talk about it.

"FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop welcomed the news of the subcommittee.

'There is no downside for this to be thoroughly investigated,' he told the Deseret News on Tuesday. 'I know what we've spent. It's cost millions of millions of dollars and disrupted thousands of lives. I think we've been dying for our day in court and I'm hoping they'll invite participation from the FLDS.' "

He may get his chance, but I wouldn't build my life around it or my hopes if I were him. However, this is like a game of Russian Roulette for the State of Texas. Every public statement, every hearing, every attempt at a whitewash runs the real chance of the truth getting out of control, and getting out.

More here, at the Dallas Morning News, the Austin American Statesman, KXAN and the San Angelo Standard Times.

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CPS Violates Texas law by refusing to release information?

Your Modern Pharisee has asked precisely this information from Patrick Crimmins, personally on November the 3rd.

The Houston Chronicle - "On Wednesday, agency spokesman Patrick Crimmins confirmed that the abuse investigation is finished but said the findings would not be released because CPS officials want to release them later in an upcoming report. The agency hasn't set a date for that release, Crimmins said.

'The findings are going to be included in an overall report on the Eldorado operation,' said Crimmins. 'And that's the point when the findings will be released.'

The Texas Public Information Act does not provide for an agency to withhold readily available public information unless it meets certain exemptions.

But CPS officials are not claiming the abuse investigation findings meet any exemption.

The Chronicle's request does not seek the names of the children, only the sex and the age of each child and whether the agency found a 'reason to believe' abuse occurred or that investigators were 'unable to determine' any abuse or neglect happened."

I began asking this precise question over a month ago and began to contact Patrick by phone, myself. Patrick referred me to the state's Attorney General and Larry Strickland. The Attorney General's office at best, did nothing more than take messages. I wanted nothing more than the demographic information on the remaing 37 children. Now there are only 19. My contention at that point was the case was no longer 436 or more children, but down to an "inbox" sized stack of files or a page size summary. It should be therefore "fingertip" type information. A sheet probably exists, and could have been accessed by Mr. Crimmins, and it is public record.

I would say that I am shocked to find now that it is against the law to withhold that information but that would not be the case. Unexpected might be a better term since I asked for something clearly within the scope of public knowledge and something that was clearly a manageable number. Now we're down to 19 and the Houston Chronicle is being refused the information. This is a lawless agency.

I remark from time to time that the Former Soviet Union had a wonderful bill of rights in their constitution. Bullying autocratic refusal on the part of the despots in power made that bill of rights nothing more than window dressing trotted out to prove that the USSR had a concern for human rights. In this country we are now sliding quickly to the point where our own rights are mere window dressing, and we aer doing nothing about it. Texas arrogantly ignores it's own law. We can't even get Barack Obama to produce his "President's License" to show he can be President of this country. When these things do not outrage us, and we don't used our voices to demand what is ours, very soon we won't even be able to raise our voices to do that.

Legally, CPS owes an immediate accounting to the Chronicle, and to all of us. I suggest you call Governor Perry's office and demand that CPS be forthcoming or show good reason why not. The Citizen's opinion hotline in Texas is Toll Free: (800) 252-9600. Out of state the number is (512) 463-2000, the Office of the Governor Main Switchboard, I called the non toll free number, and was put on hold for 15 minutes because I wanted to talk to a person. There is an option to leave a message. I never got through.

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The "Third Girl" issue comes alive again.

Was I "sandbagged" by Patrick Crimmins? The "third girl" issue surfaces again. We know two girls who gave birth later turned out to be adult women, now this;

The San Angelo Standard-Times - "A girl alleged to have been married to an adult at age 14 has become the new focus of the state's investigation into allegations of sexual abuse at a Schleicher County polygamist compound.

In a brief hearing Thursday, the girl's attorney told 51st District Judge Barbara Walther her client was not present, torpedoing a planned hearing on a motion by the state's Child Protective Services agency that would have compelled the girl to produce her newborn child for DNA testing.

'My client is not willing to appear voluntarily,' said Kelly J. Ellis, the San Angelo attorney appointed to represent the girl.

Walther rescheduled the hearing for Tuesday, ordering the girl, her mother and the newborn all to be present.

According to the CPS motion, the girl gave birth June 14, just after Walther returned 439 children to their parents at the order of the Texas Supreme Court. The higher court ruled Walther should not have allowed the state to take emergency custody of all the children after its April raid on the YFZ Ranch northeast of Eldorado.

Court documents do not list the exact age of the girl, nor do documents released in the course of the seven-month case provide any immediate indication of how old she is or reference to her parents, Sarah Barlow and Joseph Steed."

NOW we have potential cause for the second warrant. Was this girl "Seen" at YFZ that day?

"According to the motion filed Nov. 14 by CPS' new lead attorney for the case, John R. Dolezal, the girl is still younger than 18 and was married at 14.The girl 'has a child,' Dolezal said in court Thursday. 'In order for us to do our duties investigating sexual abuse, we need the child produced to do genetic testing. We're here in the best interests of (the girl), to protect her from sexual abuse.' "

Ok, but this is still fuzzy. Is she 17? Where is she from? We do know that some people at YFZ that day were not from the ranch. Doing the math if John Dolezal is correct, the child was born either a bit premature, or, mom was under 17 when she became pregnant. If the child was conceived anywhere after today's date, a crime may in fact have occurred. A full term child would put the date of conception at about September 14th of last year.

Nevertheless we heard of a girl who refused a pregnancy test which indicates whatever condition she was in, it wasn't clearly showing. At the time of the raid she was 6 and a half months along. Again, assuming all of this is true.

Still, there are issues. Unless CPS has reason to believe that the father of this girls child was "overage" and saw her as "pregnant" that day, there is no reason to have the record that would give them the suspicion that a man fathered her child illegally.

The chain of events has to be;

• See the Girl as pregnant. Second warrant. We know the only girl that was not a minor at the time of the raid, that was later thought to be pregnant was asked to take a pregnancy test. They weren't sure.
• Find the marriage record by use of that warrant indicating that girl's "husband" was too old for her by law.
• Use that record to demand DNA testing.

Nevertheless, there is still the issue that a pregnant teen is not prima facie evidence of a crime. Seeing a pregnant teen does not tell you that she was;

• Not married legally.
• Has a child fathered by someone who would thus be a criminal.
• Had that child fathered in a location that made the act illegal. (They could have been in Mexico, or Utah, we don't know the age of the father.)
• Even a teen. They don't have "born on dates" like BEER.
  

This will be a big problem though if proved, the rope gets really thin and close to snapping. Judges and juries are people. Among themselves they will all be certain that the assumption of wrong was justified.

Or this could just be the death rattle of the CPS case. More →

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37 FLDS kids to wait a little longer for an answer

I talked to Patrick Crimmins again today. It now appears that the "Final Report" on the FLDS children and the 37 still under suit won't be until the end of the month. I suppose this could change, since the "Two Weeks" scenario has changed and it doesn't appear now that we'll have a report in that time frame.

Patrick was curious about the interest which now seems to be coming from several quarters on the 37 children and why everyone seemed to care about any of them being pregnant now. CPS of course is not prosecuting any criminal cases but I explained to Mr. Crimmins that while we out here in the rest of the world couldn't be absolutely sure, it would make sense that if there were any "children with children (of their own)" or "pregnant underage girls" at the time of the raid that were seen at YFZ, then it made a lot of sense to us that CPS wouldn't nonsuit those children. This was something he did not contest. If view of that I said, information about the composition of those remaining 37 children was of interest.

I also allowed that since the number was now "manageably low," it was something everyone could get their minds around. Some examples of telling evidence would be that there were no girls left in the 37 children. Combining that with the belief that CPS would keep underage pregnant girls or girls that were mothers under suit, we would know that there were no "children with children (of their own)" or "pregnant underage girls" at YFZ that day. Following a little further with this line of thought, no one could see what wasn't there, unless of course they were psychotic. Since we'll assume that no officers of Texas law or CPS workers are or were psychotic that day, we can just settle on the reality that they saw nothing.

Another curious offering by Mr. Crimmins was his insistance that two girls gave birth while in custody prior to be released by CPS. That means several things. One, there were only TWO pregnant underage teen "candidates." There has been much talk of a third girl who may have been pregnant but was so underdeveloped, so few months along, that only a test could determine her pregnancy. This now seems to be a complete myth, there was no such girl at all, at any stage of pregnancy. So Crimmins either offered me the information cynically, thinking I didn't know the two were later declared to be "of age," or he simply didn't know, himself. That, if true, would represent an amazing sort of bunker mentality where CPS is not even communicating enough internally to know the facts relevant to the decisions they were making.

I think it's safe to say Patrick knows it's a question now as it has been offered to him by others, and by myself. It won't be responsible of him going forward to offer that there were any pregnant underage girls to any member of the press, because we now know he knows there weren't any. Another safe conclusion is that of the remaining children, only the "children with children (of their own)" remains on the table, and that, only technically.

I would speculate now, based on past behavior that when they got down to 37, someone somewhere in Texas called a halt to the nonsuits. I speculate also that this is the reason for the sudden tight-lipped exodus of Charles Childress. If I hadn't asked the question, someone else would have. With only Merrianne Jessop in custody, having been placed their again by CPS and clearly NOT pregnant and clearly NOT having children of her own, someone would have asked about the second warrant. Some of the dimmest members of the press would have had a light go on and say "what exactly DID you see at YFZ then?" Childress leaves under this scenario because he is a bit like Pilate, declaring he could find no fault, Texas simply couldn't have that. I strongly suspect that few if any suits will be terminated prior to the last meeting of the Grand Jury. The decision to keep the children under suit is being made outside CPS and has nothing whatsoever to do with the welfare of the children, or the facts of their cases.

I would like to observe that in our two conversations, Mr. Crimmins has been as forthcoming as his position allows him to be with the possible exception of the "two girls" remarks he made. He's been very generous with his time as well. I'm not a member of the Main Stream Media so his courtesy and devotion of time to my questions represents a laudable transparency. I just wish Jerry Strickland would behave the same way.

I was able to leave a specific message for Mr. Strickland with one of his associates regarding the questions I have outlined above, concerning "pregnant underage teens," "children with children (of their own)," and the connection with the second warrant. We'll see if I get an answer. More →

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"As Time Goes By," Further Evidence of Internal Conflict at CPS

The fact that Charles Childress quit and the nonsuits stopped should instruct. Childress hinted at internal friction by stating he "couldn't say anything" about his resignation. It's now been more than ten days and I've been informed some sort of definitive report is due in the approximate time frame of Next Friday, or soon thereafter. Figure Next Friday.

Patrick Crimmins demured, sometimes showing a bit of irritation when I called him earlier this week, and referred me to Jerry Strickland at the Attorney General's office when I asked about the demographic crossection of the remaining children. Jerry Strickland of course, has not returned my phone calls and emails.

More and more the recent developements look like a circle the wagons event. They're down to their last few bullets, and those may be duds. I'll be on the phone and on Jerry's cell phone, which I have, beginning Monday. I urge the media to ask who among the 37 remaining children is pregnant (almost certainly a zero). Who among them HAS been pregnant (also, almost certainly, a zero). Who among the remaining 37 are girls 12 and over?

Again, not to be a broken record, but the thrust of these questions is to sharply focus the media and public on the FACT that Texas lied when fabricating cause for their second warrant. More →

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The Silence of Jerry Strickland

I have emailed and called the Texas Attorney General's office. Three times. I've emailed Mr. Jerry Strickland. He has not seen fit to return my calls.

Ok, it's not like I'm the Salt Lake Tribune or the Austin American-Statesman.

Jerry will not answer these questions;

• Are any of the remaining 37 children pregnant?
  
  
• Do any of the remaining 37 children have children?
  
  
• How many of the remaining 37 are girls 12 or over?

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The Modern Pharisee interviews Patrick Crimmins - CPS Report due in two weeks.

I talked to Patrick Crimmins this morning. I asked the following questions:

• Are any of the remaining 37 children pregnant?
  
  
• Do any of the remaining 37 children have children?
  
  
• How many of the remaining 37 are girls 12 or over?

Patrick said that he could not respond. He said it wasn't their concern about what Law Enforcement "saw" at YFZ. I explained KNOWING that there were no pregnant teens or "children with children" among the kids "still under suit" would form the basis of questions I would ask the Attorney General's office, to which he repeatedly referred me. I went over this point more than once with Mr. Crimmins in an effort to gain some information. All I learned was that there report would be out in "a couple of weeks."

I asked if that meant November 17th, he said no, but then repeated twice that the report would be out "mid month." Look for it on Friday, November 14th, 2008. That's a good time to dump it and run.

I left a message for Jerry Strickland, at Mr. Crimmins suggestion. More →

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