09:10 PM CDT on Tuesday, August 12, 2008

By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News
rtgarrett@dallasnews.com

AUSTIN — Texas Rangers were investigating 20 cases of sexual assault and some 50 bigamy cases against members of a polygamist sect last spring, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Tela Mange said it’s unclear, though, whether that many investigations are still active.

She said an e-mail sent in late April by Rangers chief Ray Coffman to Col. Tommy Davis, then the director of DPS, mentioned numbers of pending investigations against members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

However, Ms. Mange said, “The numbers mentioned in April could change and may not be accurate, although there have already been several indictments.”

Calls to sect spokesmen were not immediately returned.

The Rangers are working with state troopers and investigators and prosecutors from the attorney general’s office in an investigation of possible wrongdoing at the sect’s Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado.

Texas authorities are still sifting through 400 boxes of evidence seized in a raid in early April, Ms. Mange said.

Though she declined to say how many people may eventually be charged, she said of the investigation, “It’s going to take a while.”

Sect prophet Warren Jeffs, who is in jail in Arizona, and five other sect men were indicted by a Schleicher County grand jury last month on charges related to the sexual assault and “spiritual” marriage of underage girls.

Last week, the five others posted bail, more than a week after they turned themselves in to authorities.

Meanwhile, Child Protective Services continues a separate child welfare investigation of the sect.

Last week, CPS asked that a judge put eight sect children back into foster care because their mothers won’t agree to keep them away from men practicing and promoting underage marriage.

Hearings before state District Judge Barbara Walther, originally scheduled for Sept. 25, have been rescheduled and are to start Monday in San Angelo.

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Emphasis added by H4K Editor