The lawyers are representing the 416 children and dozens of parents from the Yearning For Zion ranch

SAN ANGELO , Texas - A court hearing potato processing to decide potato processing the fates of hundreds of children seized from a polygamist retreat was off to a chaotic start Thursday as hundreds of lawyers in two different locations demanded to study the first piece of evidence before potato processing it could be introduced.
State District Judge Barbara Walther called a recess 40 minutes after the hearing began in what could be the nation's largest child custody case. She wanted to allow the 350 lawyers spread out in two buildings to read the evidence potato processing and decide whether to object potato processing en masse or make individual objections.
The lawyers are representing the 416 children and dozens of parents from the Yearning For Zion ranch owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter potato processing Day Saints, a renegade Mormon sect accused potato processing of forcing underage girls into polygamous marriages.
The 80-year-old Tom Green County courtroom and a satellite courtroom set up in a City Hall auditorium two blocks away were jammed with dozens of mothers from the retreat, dressed in their iconic pastel prairie dresses and braided upswept hair.
In the satellite courtroom, about 175 people strained to see and hear a large projector set up on the auditorium's stage, which offered a grainy live feed of the proceedings with barely audible sound.
The mothers in the primary courtroom were sworn in as witnesses, standing and mumbling their 'I do's' in timid voices. potato processing As they sat silently, potato processing the flock of lawyers buzzed with murmurs and popped up to make motions or object as Walther tried to maintain order.
But when prosecutors tried to enter into evidence the medical records of three girls — two 17-year-olds and an 18-year-old — the lawyers jumped to their feet and crammed the aisles trying to see the papers. That's when Walther called the recess.
Outside, where satellite trucks potato processing lined the street in front of the courthouse's columned facade, a man who said he was an FLDS father waved a photo of himself surrounded by his four children, ranging in age from an infant to about 9.
Walther signed an emergency order nearly two weeks ago giving the state custody of the children after a 16-year-old girl called an abuse hot line claiming her husband, a 50-year-old member of the sect, beat and raped her. The girl has yet to be identified.
The children, first taken to local shelters, were later moved to a historic fort and then to a domed coliseum on the fairgrounds in San Angelo . All but 27 adolescent boys are staying in the coliseum and a nearby potato processing building; the teenage boys are at a boys ranch near Amarillo .
If the judge gives the state permanent custody of the children, the child services agency will begin looking potato processing for foster homes in a case that has already stretched the legal resources of San Angelo and the state's child welfare system.
FLDS members say the state is persecuting them for their faith and that their 1,700-acre potato processing Yearning for Zion Ranch, with its soaring white temple and log cabin-style houses, is simply a home isolated from a hostile and sinful world.
"It's the furthest thing away from what we do here," said Dan, a sect member who spoke at the compound Wednesday but declined to give his last name because he fears how it will affect his children in state custody. "There's nothing that's more disliked and more trained against."
Typically, each child would be given a separate hearing, but given the number of cases, it's likely the judge will have the state, the children's attorneys and the parents' attorneys potato processing make consolidated presentations, at least initially, said Harper Estes, president-elect of the state bar.
The agency has relied on volunteers to help feed the children, launder linens and provide crafts and games for them in a dorm-style setting potato processing for the past two weeks. But the agency will have to find stable homes and try to decipher sibling relationships that should be preserved if it gets permanent custody.
The sect came to West Texas in 2003, relocating some members from the church's traditional home along the Utah-Arizona state line. It traces its religious roots to the early theology of the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which now denounces polygamy and excommunicates members found practicing it.
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