Legal News Headlines

 
Copyright 2008 San Angelo Standard-Times
All Rights Reserved

 May 9, 2008 Friday

SECTION: NEWS/LOCAL

LENGTH: 717 words

BYLINE: PAUL A. ANTHONY, panthony@sastandardtimes.comor 659-8237

BODY: 

The next round of hearings in the massive YFZ Ranch custody case is expected to all but shut down other activities in the Tom Green County district courts, with as many as five judges presiding over 200 or more cases beginning May 19.

With few exceptions, the other three district judges will join 51st District Judge Barbara Walther at center stage of the immense case, born from a raid last month on the Schleicher County compound of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

"We will each hear 10 or 12 a day," said 119th District Judge Ben Woodward. "Everybody's kind of pitched in. She's going to need a little courtroom help now."

Instead of doing legal research or handling Walther's previously scheduled caseload, Woodward, 340th District Judge Jay Weatherby and 391st District Judge Tom Gossett will for the first time actively participate in the case that has pushed San Angelo and its courts into the swirl of a national controversy.

Marilyn Aboussie, a retired Tom Green County district judge who also served as chief justice of the state's 3rd Court of Appeals, also will preside over a portion of the hearings, which court officials and attorneys alike have said are likely to provide an anticlimactic crescendo to weeks of anticipation.

"There won't be any" significant decisions, said local family law attorney Tom Goff, who is serving as a lawyer for two of the 464 children in the case. "That doesn't happen."

Instead, caseworkers for the state's Child Protective Services agency will present service plans for parents of each of the removed children, spelling out what they must do to regain their children. CPS has begun working with attorneys and parents to develop those plans, said spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner.

"We try to develop what we all believe are the best results to have in each particular situation," Meisner said. "This will assure that we have a contract with us and the parents."

Questions remain, however, about the feasibility of creating 464 service plans in preparation for 200 or more hearings - many of which involve unknown parents and children with uncertain names and ages.

Goff described the situation as "still fairly disorganized."

"The problem now is, we have no contact person at CPS" if paperwork is incorrect or profiles the wrong child, Goff said. "When these orders are wrong, have varying information, we have no contact to go to. … They're not putting the birthdates on the service plans. You're sent an order, and you're not sure if it's your child."

Likewise, some attorneys continue to protest the mass hearing Walther held in mid-April in which she allowed the state to retain temporary custody of the children, arguing the children should have gotten individual hearings.

The hearings later this month, although split among sibling groups, will not be satisfactory, said Cynthia Martinez, spokeswoman for Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, whose attorneys are representing many of the children.

"We've been pushing for individual hearings that address the issue of custody," and these hearings will not do that, Martinez said. "In no way are we happy about the situation."

The group has asked the 3rd Court of Appeals to review the process to date and order Walther to schedule individual custody hearings for the children. CPS' response was due by the end of the day Thursday, Martinez said.

"The 3rd Court hasn't really dealt with this issue," she said. "We're really unsure what they're going to do at this point."

Locally, the monumental size of the task is clear in a preliminary settings list provided to the Standard-Times. Although at least 170 mothers are listed, dozens more are listed as "unknown" or with question marks. Sixty women are listed with no children or fathers. Still others appear to be the same woman but with slight variations, or maiden names.

Some feature first names only, with a notation that the last name is unknown. Others list a mother and father with an unknown child's name.

Paperwork in the largest case, comprising 330 children, fills a filing cabinet, said Tom Green County District Clerk Sheri Woodfin, and must be sorted into individual "mother files" for the judges.

"It's probably just the beginning for us," Woodfin said. "That's what we're working on - filling in the blanks."

LOAD-DATE: May 9, 2008