Law is changed with sect in mind
 
By JOHN MORITZ
Star-Telegram Austin Bureau
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
 
AUSTIN -- The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that settled in remote Schleicher County four years ago has been on state radar since it arrived in West Texas

Legislative initiative

State Rep. Harvey Hildebran, a Kerrville Republican whose district includes the 1,691-acre YFZ Ranch, filed a bill during the 2005 legislative session to restrict marriages involving young girls. He modeled it after laws in Arizona and Utah, where the polygamist sect also has settlements.

"What I'm hoping to accomplish is to keep Eldorado and Schleicher County from becoming like Colorado City [Ariz.] where this cult came from -- and not only protect them but keep it from happening anywhere else in Texas," Hilderbran said at the time.

Chilling testimony

Author Jon Krakauer, whose book Under the Banner of Heaven offers chilling accounts of teenage girls being forced to marry much older men under the church's tutelage, warned Texas lawmakers that the sect's secretive and controlling nature might someday lead to mass murder or suicide.

"I think there's a possibility of another Waco or Jonestown," Krakhauer told the House Committee on Juvenile Justice and Family Issues just over three years ago. He was referring to the 1993 deaths at the Branch Davidian compound and the 1978 mass suicide in Guyana of followers of the Rev. Jim Jones.

Setback, then victory

Hildebran's legislation stalled in the waning days of the 2005 legislative session and was in danger of dying when the legislative clock expired. But Hildebran managed to tack on most of its provisions, including raising the minimum age for a girl to marry from 14 to 16, to a sweeping measure to overhaul the state's Child Protective Services. That measure passed and was signed into law by Gov. Rick Perry.

"State Rep. Hildebran has been very concerned about what's going out there for some time," Todd Kercheval, Hildebran's top aide in Austin, said Saturday. "Common sense would tell us that a lot of it should have been illegal, black and white. But we found lots of shades of gray, and hopefully addressed the concerns.

"To the extent that that legislation was helpful to law enforcement in their operations out there, the representative is truly thankful."

John Moritz reports from the Star-Telegram's Austin Bureau. 512-476-4294.
 
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Originally published Sunday, April 6, 2008
 
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