Custody hearing held for sect's children

SAN ANGELO, Texas, April 17 (UPI) -- Multiple locations were needed in Texas Thursday for a custody hearing for 416 children removed from a polygamist sect's ranch amid charges of child abuse.

The children, their mothers and 350 volunteer lawyers were linked to the Tom Green County courthouse in San Angelo by closed-circuit television for a hearing before Judge Barbara L. Walther, CNN reported.

State officials took the children from the Yearning for Zion (YFZ) Ranch into temporary legal custody two weeks ago after charges of sexual abuse from a 16-year-old girl in the compound.

The YFZ ranch is owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a Mormon offshoot that practices polygamy.

In addition to letting authorities remove the children, Walther signed a search warrant allowing police to confiscate boxes of evidence, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

The newspaper said authorities may try to build a criminal case from the evidence collected, if the judge allows them to do so.