Polygamist Ranch Women Give Today Show Interview, Deny Sexual Abuse Claims

Three of the mothers of hundreds of children who were removed from a polygamist compound in West Texas appeared on the Today Show this morning to discuss their plight and efforts to regain custody of their children. Earlier, the women had accused state officials of tricking them into giving up their children.

The women, with their lawyer present, gave a wide-ranging interview to the Today Show's Meredith Vieira. They described having their children taken from them by authorities, and being placed in temporary shelters. Vieira also questioned them about allegations of the children being sexually abused, and teenage girls being forced to marry men decades older than them. The women denied any charges of sexual abuse, but had difficulty answering Vieira's question about marrying older men. They said that no one is ever "forced" to marry a 50-year-old man, but could not answer Vieira's follow-up about the age at which a girl is allowed to marry in their church.

Watch the Today Show interview below:

Comments

[Trueheart]

NAOMI's STORY PART II

This came as a shock as he was 57, already married and not looking to get married again. Many scenarios played in his head as to why and how this would happen. But, being a believer and student of early Mormon doctrine, he prayed about it put it 'in God's hands.'

When my dad told me I should get married to this man, I felt anxious but not terrified because I had this sense that I could take care of myself in most situations. I wasn't against letting the whole world know if he ever forced me and I could hold my own in a verbal debate on most topics. I had tons of self-confidence. It didn't hurt his case that he looked like a movie star and I guessed his age to be around 40. We didn't rush the sexual relationship. He was actually more scared of me that first day that I was of him. We fell in love over time and I had a baby at 19 and another at 20. I miss my husband very much.

Oh that 'young man I thought I loved' is one of the FLDS' leading elders right now. God really does know best. (NAME WITHHELD FOR HUFFINGTON POST)

[Trueheart]

Copied from a thread on the Salt Lake Tribune with permission of the woman who wrote it.
This woman signed her comment with her full name, but I have withheld it.
naomihh: 4/18/2008 4:06:00 PM

I am one of those polygamous girls who were 'forced' to marry an 'old man.' I'm now 42. My husband passed away 5 months ago at 83. Just so you know more of the whole story, I wanted to marry someone closer to my own age. My mom told my dad who I was interested in and he talked to the 'young man' (he was over 18 but not much). I really and truly thought I was in love. BTW, he was really cute and had a car. He seemed to like me but who really knows.

To make the story short, he turned me down. So much for the men being forced. It's simply not true. I was upset and I really think my dad wanted to help. I don't know what he was thinking exactly, but he had it in his head that I wanted to get married. Which was not entirely true. I wanted to marry this cute guy and only him. So my dad was talking to a friend of his one day and said to him, out of the blue, "I have a wife for you." ( HAVE TO POST IN 2 PARTS, OVER 250 WORDS)

[Trueheart]

The call made by "Sarah" to the abuse hot line may have been made by a mentally unstable woman from Colorado, who Texas Rangers are calling "a person of interest in the case." Apparently she's made a sick hobby of making distress calls and is known to authorities. I found this today on the Salt Lake Tribune's website:

Texas FLDS case: Was massive raid based on bogus call from Colorado woman?
http://www.sltrib.com/polygamy/ci_8969094

Now isn't this going to turn all of our thinking topsy turvey?
Oh, I also learned today that Texas Child Protection Services is an outsourced private enterprise. That's who is going to place all of these 416 children in foster care.

[Mormondude]

http://www.keyetv.com/content/news/topnews/story.aspx?content_id=247fdf95-4688-41f5-8b97-66be59f555ff

""Texas Rangers accompanied the Colorado Springs officers while they executed an evidentiary search warrant at Swinton"s residence for items related to previous false reports to authorities in Colorado. During the search, officers found several items that indicated a possible connection between Swinton and calls regarding the FLDS compounds in Colorado City, Arizona, and Eldorado, Texas."

So this lady had apparently made phony calls about the FLDS in Colorado City back in February. And now they found evidence that she may have made phony calls about the Eldorado compound as well.

Is this "Sarah"? It sounds like maybe it is, and this entire trampling of these people's rights and the trampling of these families was all based on a lie.

Meanwhile, the state has concluded that based on their observations thus far all the male children seized in this raid, for whom there are no allegations that they ever have been or ever will be abused, are neither emotionally, nor physically, nor psychologically scarred in any way.

And the so-called 'consummation bed' has been discredited by expert testimony as well.

At what point does the state end this debacle and apologize for acting like such idiots?

[Trueheart]

Just when you think this story can't get any more complicated....
I think the State of Texas is going to have to do a bit more than apologize if this Swinton character turns out to be "Sarah."

[phronsie]

A tiny little boy ehorted to "take care of mother;' sheesh. An unnatural expectation for a small child who should be able to have confidence that mother can take care of him, if he hadn't already seen that mother had no power. Also, such a seemingly innocent phrase that is actually just a tiny first step in indoctrinating a boy into the idea that women have to be taken care of by "us boys."

Well, I guess he should enjoy taking care of mother and his sisters while he has the chance; there's strong possiblity he won't be able to apply these principals to any child brides. More than likely, as a "lost boy" tossed out of the community at a young age to leave the girls for the older men, he'll likely practice "being sweet" to those he turns tricks for. Statistics show that many of these young boys, either to fend off hunger or to supply a drug habit developed in response to a sense of worthlessness, turn to hustling once they are kicked out and left abandoned on the side of the road. I'm not making these statements to be vile; a little research will show that what I've above suggested is really happening to a good number of the boys born into these polygamy pedophile farms.

[phronsie]

In viewing the video interviews, I can't help thinking, 'these are the 'sweetest' most persuasive women this cult could select to influence public opinion.' Think about it! The cult *selected* these women as their best representatives; these women represent the *ideal* for womanhood according to the aims of the cult! They assume the rest of the world will see what they see when they view them; gentle, soft-spoken, deferential women pleading their love for their children as the primary basis for why they should be returned. What do I see? Emotionally repressed women who have been trained to speak in a hesitant, self-effacing tone and who are trained to avoid the presumption of direct eye contact, and who are so uneducated they can't even effectively express their own case. Pheh.

[Trueheart]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5708661.html
Houston Chronical, April 17, 2008 2:15pm

The 416 children are being kept at the San Angelo Coliseum. They must think it is the end of the world.

[JohnFromCensornati]

It's not.
They'll get over it.
At least, they won't end up "married" to an old geezer.

[Trueheart]

GET OVER IT?

[PhillyQuaker]

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695270759,00.html

[noneIn2008]

Gore Nirvana would looks like this. What is their carbon foot print? They are almost self sustaining.
Free sex and LSD (they got this last one a little wrong).

[alwaysthere]

had it been a symposium
i supose we might all have been free to seek the light
and then in it; found room to agree
but, we're not dealing with that; are we
no, we're dealing with theology !

[alwaysthere]

the proof is in the pudding !!

[alwaysthere]

76 trombones goes the big parade !!

[alwaysthere]

I saw the same book on all the chairs, in the compound

I wonder which book that might be ?

Most likely it was written by one of those damn liberals

Who ever it was should be arrested !!

huh !!

Every snowflake from the sky different
Then religion, with force, makes them all the same.

ye gads !!

[Trueheart]

I watched these women on Larry King last night--A MUST SEE.
The courage of these women is stunning. They had one point to make and stuck to it. Since they've not been served with official charges, they don't know what they are accused of doing, nor why their children have been under armed guard in a shelter for 2 weeks. There is also concern for special needs children who were taken without medical histories provided to the social workers..

The most important aspect of this story is NOT their appearance or old-fashioned demeanor. If that's where your focus goes, then you've got rocks in your head. It's about why Texas chose to act on one report of under-aged, forced marriage and traumatized the lives of 400+ children. We have, at this time, NO PROOF that abuse was occurring within this community, and we shouldn't let prejudices overwhelm rationality to the point where we are willing to justify suspension of civil rights for these families.

The State of Texas went in armed to the teeth, ready for Waco II, and instead, busted in on a real life set of Little House on the Prairie. Couldn't child protective services have sent a cadre of social workers to interview children inside the compound? Just imagine the questions those kids are being asked right now. Imagine being to physically examined for signs of sexual abuse under these circumstances? Have mercy.

I hope the ACLU helps these women.

[tigerheron]

Again, where are the husbands? They are the alleged perpetrators of these crimes.
The children are innocent.
Yet who suffers the most in the raid? The children and the women.
Plus do these women have legal counsel? And has the social services department of Texas offered them advocate services and a communications liason? They might not take it at first, but they are extremely in the dark now and might consider it.
ACLU stepping in, yes.

[PhillyQuaker]

Little House on the Prairie?
Rape of underage girls? Welfare fraud? I must have missed that episode.

[Trueheart]

Tell me about welfare fraud and this group. I really want to know what you know.

Is there evidence of rape? We will find out. How many little girls who have not been raped, let alone touched on their private parts, had to go through a gynecological exam to find this evidence?

Look who is in charge of the social work end of this operation, and it is no wonder that this has been handled so insensitively.

I"n my opinion, this is the largest endeavor we've ever been involved in in the state of Texas," said Children's Protective Services spokesman Marleigh Meisner, who said the agency was also involved in the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco...."

[PhillyQuaker]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2001180/posts

[JohnFromCensornati]

I must agree that it is very courageous to spew the pre-programmed message you've been given by the crazy, mormon perverts that run your cult.
It would have been more courageous for those creepy, old nutcases to go there and defend themselves.
Why do you suppose they sent the womenfolk instead?
BTW - I'm pretty sure they they have some idea of what they are accused of.

[Trueheart]

Did you watch them?

[JohnFromCensornati]

How is that relevant?

[crabcake]

In the meantime, in our wonderful society we have videos of kids beating the crap out of each other, videos of kids vomiting into toilets, girls sending naked pictures of themselves to their male classmates, and worse. Yeah, we got it right, why can't these religious nuts get it right?

[Trueheart]

Right!
And who are the better mothers: Housewives of Orange County and New York City? Women who care more about their next facial and liposuction and leave the upbringing of their children to paid nannies and housekeepers? Oh yeah, mainstream America is in a real good position to judge these women.

[JohnFromCensornati]

Yeah, because mainstream Americans force their teenaged daughters to "marry" old pedophiles on a regualr basis.

[Trueheart]

They allow them to go to Spring Break in Florida and act like drunken whores. How come so many high-school and college-aged women have venereal diseases nowadays? What's so great about the status quo?

[lhsouthern1988]

all you have to do is look at these women and realize they are products of decades of brainwashing. it is a group of people who have taught generations of girls that their ONLY purpose in life is to have children with older men. they barely have any reading /writing/math skills. I can imagine that it is mandatory to report when their daughters 1st period is, so they can make them available for marriage to men who have to take multiple doses of viagra just to get one erection.
The polygamy they practice is no where near the original practiced in the LDS church prior to the manifesto. sex was for reproduction only, and women did not have it unless trying to get pregnant. sex was taboo during pregnancy and two years after birth and is not practiced after menopause. no where was instruction for marrying young girls. most plural wives were advanced in age or were older than 16.

[GoodwithWood]

I was raised LDS, but all of my cousins were raised in one of these cults. I was lucky in that my father rejected the religion of his parents and siblings. I could tell you a lot of disturbing stories about isolated plig cults, But I"ll just tell you one for now.
When I was 14, I was sent off to be "straitened out" by my grand parents, aunts and uncles. A lecture or talking too that I received from my uncle was about how after adolescents had received 3 chances at obedience "they should simply be put too death".
This uncle, along with another uncle, an aunt and an 8 year old cousin were eventually assassinated by children who had been raised in one of these plig cults.
You see, when children are raised in an isolated environment you can mold them into what you want them to be whether it be a baby machine or an assassin.
I"ve seen this all first hand and I think that Richard Dawkins got it right when he said that religious indoctrination is a form of child abuse. These people are the extreme end of that and they get the point acrossed well.

GWW

[Mormondude]

Extremists are useful to society because they help define the boundaries. As far as I'm concerned, the FLDS have no excuse for practicing statutory rape. They claim to be fundamentalists, but it goes directly against one of the most fundamental LDS doctrines, which is to sustain the law of the land.

If they truly believe that some 13 year old girls that have entered puberty and are sexually mature are capable of marrying, then there should be some mechanism to allow them to petition the government to grant an exception to the standard age of consent. It should be transparent. It should be legal. The potential husband should demonstrate his capability of supporting his wife and potential children. A social worker could even get involved and make sure the girl is not being coerced. But there's no genetic or physiologic or biologic argument against allowing sexually mature females to begin bearing children, and that should occur within a marriage if at all possible.

It's the intolerance and apathy of the government that usually drives people to extremism in the first place. To the government, the age of consent is just a number. But obviously to some people it's much more than that, and I think the government should respect them enough to grant them an opportunity to be heard.

[GoodwithWood]

Hhhm. Thought this would get some responses. Maybe people think I made it up. ?

[Trueheart]

I think your experience is so far out of the mainstream that people can't process it. As more and more information becomes available on the El Dorado YFZ Ranch, perhaps people will become interested in the plight of these 416 children, and will be more open to listening to accounts like yours. Right now it just seems like people want to make fun of the old-fashioned manners and styles of dressing, and make off-color jokes about the sex.

I will say to you that I married into a very traditional family in Pennsylvania, and their brand of Christianity was restrictive and especially harsh on children. Women served meals to the men and children, and ate last. Conversation was pretty much divided between the men in the living room and women in the kitchen. I knew of one cousin who couldn't admit he was homosexual, and tried to commit suicide, and another who became pregnant out of wedlock, by a Jewish man and was disowned. I am telling you this because you should know that this kind of intolerance is not exclusive to members of the Church of Latter Day Saints.
(By the way, my marriage didn't last. I was never going to do what it took to fit in.)

[Mormondude]

Meanwhile across the state in Dallas, the city is refusing to shut down a cabaret that hired a 12 year old girl to dance completely naked. Apparently the state of Texas has no law prohibiting gentlemen's clubs from hiring minors as strippers, and their hands are tied! Shocking, but true!

You can dance naked for a 60 year old reject of a man. You can accept tips for jiggling and exposing your body in front of his slobbering face, or performing a lap dance on his sweaty crotch. But don't you dare marry him or the law may have to get involved.

[GnitenGoodLk]

Thank goodness she wasn't stuck bearing his children too. I doubt they like the sweaty passed-around crotch of the FLDS geezers either...

The guys who did it are facing hard time....the club is in the cross hairs..they're building a case and getting the runaways help...

Nice try though.

[GnitenGoodLk]

Sorry, I missed the distinction...one is HOLY crotch...the other is just a pervert...my bad....

[DRaymond]

What makes eighteen the age of consent? It hasn't always been that way and in many places in the world it still isn't. It is basicly that eighteen is the age at which a woman is knowledgable and experienced enough to make a free will choice in a complex modern world. Is that perhaps why these folks are so interested in throwing back the clock to the 1800's? Because it creates an environment so simple and regimented that a 12 year old knows all that she is expected to need to know in order to become a wife.

[GnitenGoodLk]