Alleged polygamist sect bride, 14, distraught in Texas custody

SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- When an FLDS mother called to tell her 14-year-old daughter a judge had ordered her back into state custody, the girl cried steadily for seven hours."Just me? Only me?" she asked her mother before dissolving into tears.Barbara Jessop is breaking her silence to describe the traumatic Tuesday separation from her daughter. The teen -- allegedly married to sect leader Warren S. Jeffs in 2006 -- is the only FLDS child now in state care.Her family has become a focal point of child welfare and criminal investigations stemming from the spring raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Texas, home to members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.Two older brothers were among six FLDS men, including Jeffs, indicted last month on sexual assault and other charges.Court documents detail alleged marriages involving other family daughters who were minors and ceremonies overseen by Merril Jessop, the girl's father and ranch overseer.A state attorney successfully argued Tuesday that Barbara Jessop, 55, had failed to show she would protect the 14-year-old, citing in part allegations of past physical abuse and her refusal to answer basic questions in court -- including giving her children's names.The state's ongoing criminal investigation made her silence necessary, her attorney said.Jessop was in San Angelo for Tuesday's court hearing. She made the three-hour drive to the family's apartment in Converse with less than an hour to spare before her daughter was taken by Child Protective Services workers at 7 p.m.The video, taken by a relative, shows the girl clinging to her mother, sobbing, in a vehicle parked outside a state building. Two protective services workers hovered beyond the open passenger door and a handful of Texas Rangers were nearby."Mother, mother, please don't let me go," she cried. "Mother, mother, don't let them take me. They're not nice."The girl balked when a caseworker said she needed to get out of the vehicle."I'm not getting out until you tell my mother where I'm going," she said. And then: "How can I leave my mother? How long will this be?"Her mother and sisters eventually hugged her goodbye inside the building as two brothers watched."I told her to hang in there, the Lord will help her through it and we'll be praying for her," said brother Samuel, 17, who spent two months in state care at a boys' ranch this spring. "The thought of leaving her there with nobody she knew was about all I could handle."His sister's return to foster care is more difficult to take, he said, because the first time the children "were together. She's not. She's by herself."Tom Green District Judge Barbara Walther declined the state's request to also return the girl's 11-year-old brother to foster care.On Wednesday, the boy said: "I would have went (into state care) for her."CPS has said the girl was placed in an "individual foster home."Since returning 440 children from the polygamous sect to their parents in June, the state has tacked in two directions -- dropping cases involving 100 children while zeroing in on others.In court this week, a CPS investigator and a child advocate described failed attempts to meet with Barbara Jessop over the past several months.The mother on Wednesday blamed confusion about the process, miscommunication and conflicting schedules. She said that after other mothers began receiving information about safety plans and required parenting classes, she unsuccessfully requested the same information."It was very difficult to get an answer on what I could do to get this resolved," she said.When she learned in mid-July the state again wanted custody of the 14-year-old and her brother, she said it was "stunning.""This was just like a shock out of nowhere," said Barbara Jessop, who shared the news with the children to make them aware they might be "taken away."From that point on, her daughter was "more emotional and concerned always," Barbara Jessop said."She needed to know every second where mother was," said Millie Jessop, 26, her sister.Nancy, another sister, added: "She said, 'They are thinking of taking me away from my mother.' She said, 'I cannot live without my mother.' "Barbara Jessop was allowed a monitored telephone call Thursday with her daughter, who "couldn't talk through her crying. I told her we need to be strong and that we were doing all we could to turn it around and come get her," she said.(E-mail Brooke Adams at brooke(at)sltrib.com)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)