CPS rejected expert's help - PROOF THE CPS AND TX HAVE AN AGENDA

If ever there were proof of a hidden anti-polygamy agenda, this would be it!!! Not one witness was objective. Objective educated resources were rejected.

http://blogs.sltrib.com/plurallife/2008/04/cps-rejected-experts-help.htm
CPS rejected expert's help
John Walsh read my story about the tip sheet given to Texas Child Protective Services workers to educate them about FLDS ways.

Walsh is a religious studies expert whose areas of specialty include the LDS Church and fundamentalist Mormons, in particular the FLDS. He testified during a two-day hearing in which a Texas judge decided 437 FLDS children shoud stay in state custody. He lives in Texas.

But none of that mattered awhit, apparently, to the Texas agency responsible for looking out for the children's best interests.

After reading the tip sheet story, Walsh contacted me by email and said he had offered his services, free of charge, to CPS and the State Bar of Texas before the 14-day hearing took place.

''I told them I was willing to help any of the 500 lawyers involved who felt they didn't have enough understanding about fundamentalist Mormonism and the FLDS,'' he said.

A representative of CPS, he said, sent him an email reply that said thanks, but no thanks: ''Thank you very much for your interest in helping the children in Eldorado, TX. Our number one priority at this time is the safety of these children. As I'm sure you noticed on our website, we are currently still assessing the needs of the children and are not seeking out any additional services at this time. However, because of your area of expertise, I have added your contact information to our list of offers. If additional support is needed as the investigation progresses, we will contact you for assistance.''

Walsh said that is the only response he has received and he finds it odd that ''CPS wasn't interested in even talking to a Texas resident with a PhD with special expertise on fundamentalist Mormonism. If they had said, 'We have so and so of BYU on our team,' then I would have said something like, 'Oh, I think she is pretty good and you guys are set and don't need me in any fashion.' ''

I spoke with Greg Cunningham, a CPS spokesman, a couple days ago and asked who the state had enlisted to help educate them about the FLDS. He said he could not provide a list but that there were numerous people called on.

Well, we know who some of them were because they were identified in court, court documents, interviews and press conferences:

Becky Musser, a former plural wife who was married (voluntarily, at age 19) to Rulon Jeffs, former FLDS prophet and Warren's father. Musser's younger sister is Elissa Wall, whose marriage at age 14 led to the criminal conviction of Warren Jeffs on rape-as-an-acomplice charges. Musser testified as a state witness during Jeffs' trial last fall. Elissa is seeking a multimillion dollar settlement from the church and its property trust in a lawsuit currently pending in court.

Shannon Price, executive director of the Diversity Foundation in Utah, which helps teens and women leave the FLDS sect. A half dozen of those teens filed a civil lawsuit against Warren S. Jeffs, the FLDS church and the sect's communal property trust, which they alleged caused them to be driven out of their homes by their parents. When the FLDS did not respond to the lawsuit, the state of Utah moved to have the property trust placed under court oversight. Now, a court-appointed fiduciary is dismantling it.

Carolyn Jessop, ex-plural wife of Merrill Jessop, who runs the YFZ Ranch. Jessop's scathing memoir about growing up in the group and her 18 years as Merrill's wife is a best-seller and she has shared those views repeatedly as a guest on numerous talk shows and news programs over the past three weeks.

(By the way, a film crew from the Oprah show chronicled Price and Jessop's trip to Texas for a future segment focused on Elissa Wall, who has just written a book about her experiences in the FLDS sect.)

Bruce Perry, a cult expert who assisted the state with children who were brought out of the Branch Davidian complex before it was incinerated.

Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran said he relied heavily on an unnamed confidential informant who is an ex-member of the sect, but has refused to divulge that person's name. It could be Carolyn. It could be Flora Jessop, who first came to Texas in 2004 to educate Doran and others about his county's new residents. Flora also took calls -- and brought them to Texas Rangers' attention -- from a mentally unstable woman in Colorado Springs who has been tied to the calls that appear to have triggered the Texas raid.

Walsh said he looks at the situation this way: ''If I was investigating a Roman Catholic family for child abuse, I think I personally would be more interested in a PhD for background information than I would in someone who had been molested by a priest,'' he said. ''So the whole thing seemed strange and made me question their objectives and tactics. As a citizen, I expect political offices to spin everything to their advantage, but I expect law enforcement and child protective services to be as impartial and unbiased as possible. I am saying I expect the President's press secretary to lack objectivity, but I want the pentagon and attorney general's press secretaries to be free from bias.