"Spiritual" marriages in sect

ELDORADO, Texas — A polygamist compound with hundreds of children was rife with sexual abuse, child-welfare officials alleged in court documents, with girls spiritually married to much older men as soon as they reached puberty and boys groomed to perpetuate the cycle.

The documents released Tuesday also gave details about the hushed phone calls that triggered the raid, by a 16-year-old girl at the West Texas ranch who said her 50-year-old husband beat and raped her. Days after raiding the compound, officials still aren't sure where the girl is.

Officials have removed all 416 children from the ranch and have won custody of them, Child Protective Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner said.

A number of teen girls at the 1,700-acre compound were pregnant, according to court documents, and all the children were removed on the grounds that they were in danger of "emotional, physical, and-or sexual abuse." Another 139 women left on their own.

"Investigators determined that there is a widespread pattern and practice of the [Yearn for Zion] Ranch in which young, minor female residents are conditioned to expect and accept sexual activity with adult men at the ranch upon being spiritually married to them," read the affidavit signed by Lynn McFadden, a Department of Family and Protective Services supervisor.

McFadden said the girls were spiritually married to the men as soon as they reached puberty and were required to produce children.

Patrick Peranteau, lawyer for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment Tuesday.

The sect broke away from the mainstream Mormon church when it banned polygamy in 1890. Its leader, Warren Jeffs, is serving two consecutive sentences of five years to life for being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old wed to her cousin in Utah. He awaits trial on other charges in Arizona.

The rescue operation provided an unprecedented look at life — at once old-fashioned and modern — on the sprawling, isolated ranch.

Inside, searchers found two worlds: One was of deep social conservatism — young girls in long, pastel prairie dresses, parents stressing discipline and obedience and good manners. Children were locked in closets and deprived of food, investigators alleged.

But the other world was economically and technologically advanced, a nearly self-sufficient community with a doctor's office, cheese factory and cement plant.

Manicured lawns surrounded enormous log-cabin-style multifamily homes, rescuers said. The group's white temple loomed like a medieval fortress. Homes were topped with antennas, linked to running water, a sewage system and electricity.

The compound was raided Thursday after the 16-year-old girl called a local family-violence shelter March 29 and 30, using someone else's cellphone and speaking in hushed tones to avoid being overheard, McFadden's affidavit said.

According to the records, in the March 29 call the girl said she had been moved to the YFZ Ranch by her parents three years ago.

She said she was forced to marry a 49-year-old man a year ago, and she was his seventh wife. She had his baby shortly after, and reported being pregnant again.

The girl described being physically abused repeatedly by her husband — from rape to choking and beatings. The other wives would hold her infant, she said, while Dale Barlow attacked her. She also alleged Barlow forced himself on her sexually.

She said she wanted to leave the ranch, but had been told outsiders would "hurt her, force her to cut her hair, to wear makeup and clothes and to have sex with lots of men." She said her parents were preparing to send her 15-year-old sister to the compound as well.

"At the conclusion of the conversation, she began crying and then stated that she is happy and fine and does not want to get into trouble," the court records read, "and that everything she had previously said should be forgotten."

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

Meisner said the agency still didn't know whether the 16-year-old was among the children removed from the ranch.

Investigators said some of the children were unwilling or unable to provide the names of their biological parents or identified multiple mothers.

Information from The Washington Post and Dallas Morning News is included in this report.