Officials ask court to keep sect children

AUSTIN, Texas, May 27 (UPI) -- Texas authorities say they lack evidence needed to match mothers with their children who were removed from a polygamous sect, court papers filed Tuesday show.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services filed a brief asking the state Supreme Court to continue to stay a lower court's ruling that children from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints should be returned to their families, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

Child protective officials say the ruling issued Thursday by the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin was overbroad and would "irreparably" affect the outcome of cases involving hundreds of children taken from the sect's ranch last month.

The brief filed Tuesday said that if the children are released from the state's care that their parents may take them out of state.

In an 11-page response filed on behalf of 30 mothers, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid argued that returning the children to their parents would not inhibit the state's investigation.

Concerns that the parents might flee with the children could be overcome by imposing travel limitations, the agency said.