Texas Judge Orders Forfeiture Of Polygamist Ranch

The ranch belonged to a fundamentalist Mormon community led by jailed cult leader Warren Jeffs:

A judge has ordered the forfeiture of a polygamist group’s West Texas ranch to the state of Texas.

State District Jude Barbara Walther’s order came Monday in Eldorado after the ranch owners failed to appear for the hearing. The San Angelo Standard-Times reports Walther authorized the Schleicher County Sheriff’s Office to enter the Yearning for Zion Ranch and inventory the property.

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints formerly owned the ranch. The Texas Attorney General’s Office filed to seize the ranch in 2012, citing numerous sexual assaults of children committed there. The state has prosecuted 12 male members of the polygamist sect, including leader Warren Jeffs. He is serving a life sentence plus 20 years for sexually assaulting two girls, ages 12 and 15.

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.