Texas high court mulls sect custody matter

AUSTIN, Texas, May 28 (UPI) -- The Texas Supreme Court could decide soon on a lower court ruling regarding whether to send about 450 children home, lawyers said.

Meanwhile, testimony about underage marriages at a polygamist sect's ranch won't be heard after Texas Child Protective Services struck a deal concerning state custody of a newborn.

A Texas appeals court last week ruled a San Angelo, Texas, judge didn't have enough evidence to order into temporary state custody more than 400 children on the Yearning for Zion ranch raided April 3.

The state's high court began reviewing the case during the weekend, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Wednesday.

In its brief, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services said it was concerned that families may leave the state if reunited and the department couldn't match children and parents without genetic test results, the Tribune said.

Attorneys representing parents counter reunions of 12 children with their families "undermines the department's insistence that every single child is in imminent danger of abuse because of the parents beliefs."

In the newborn custody matter, state lawyers said girls would have testified about being "spiritually" married as minors to older men at the ranch near Eldorado, Texas, the San Antonio Express-News reported Wednesday. A department spokesman said the agreement satisfied the state's objective of keeping a newborn in state care.