Lawyers: Sect has a right to privacy

The judge was asked to throw out some of the search warrants.

SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) — Lawyers for a polygamist sect that is the subject of a massive child-abuse investigation argued in court Wednesday that although its members’ multiple marriages and cloistered ways may be unusual, they have a right to their faith and privacy.

Gerry Goldstein, a San Antonio lawyer representing the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also told a judge that the search of the temple in the sect’s West Texas compound is analogous to a law enforcement search of the Vatican or other holy places.

Goldstein asked the judge to throw out at least some of the search warrants as unconstitutional, but failing that urged authorities to handle any documents seized with respect.

Prosecutor Allison Palmer countered that the purpose in seizing the documents was to uncover evidence of criminal activity, not to malign a religion.

State troopers and child welfare officials began a search of the FLDS compound in Eldorado last Thursday after a 16-year-old girl there called a local family violence shelter to report her 50-year-old husband beat and raped her. The search warrant covered all documents related to marriages among sect members, including photos and entries possibly written in family Bibles.

Authorities have issued an arrest warrant for Dale Barlow, 50, who is believed to be in Arizona.

Barlow was sentenced to jail last year after pleading no contest to conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. He was ordered to register as a sex offender for three years while he is on probation.

Child welfare investigators said their interviews with 416 children and 139 women who have been removed from or left the compound since the raid began revealed that girls were required to enter into a ‘spiritual’ and polygamous marriage — recognized by the church but forbidden by Texas law — with much older men for the purpose of producing children. Boys were raised to perpetuate the cycle.

The affidavits signed by chief investigator Lynn McFadden detail the 16-year-old’s hushed phone calls, but days after raiding the West Texas compound, officials still aren’t sure where the girl is. She is not named among the children in initial custody petitions by the state.

Authorities were trying to determine the identities and parentage of many of the children; some were unwilling or unable to provide the names of their biological parents or identified multiple mothers.