DJ Says...

In the big picture, it was a small victory. But for a man that didn’t see his children for 36 days and then only briefly, this ruling probably felt like winning the lottery.

A couple from a polygamist sect can have daily visits with their three children and in 10 days will have a hearing to decide their custody, a San Antonio judge said, breaking them out of the terms of temporary state custody imposed after last month’s raid at a polygamist compound.

The man, Joseph Jessop, has been fighting for his wife and children since the state took them away during the raid on the FLDS’s Yearning for Zion ranch April 3rd. His victory, small as it may be in the battles to be fought with the state, prevented the state, at least temporarily, from taking his young son away from his mother on Thursday, which will be his first birthday.

Lawyers for a Fundamentalist LDS couple went to court Tuesday to get an emergency restraining order blocking Texas authorities from separating a mother from her child.

Joseph Steed Jessop Jr. turns 1 on Thursday and it is expected he will be separated from his mother, Lori.

“A CPS worker has told her that after the infant, Joseph Steed Jessop Jr., turns one year old, which will be on May 15, 2008, he, too, will be taken away from her,” Corpus Christi attorney Rene Haas wrote in a motion filed Tuesday in a San Antonio.

I know, many of you will maintain that it is in the best interest of the child, because the mother and father are polygamists that are under some sort of mind control. Problem is, you would be wrong.

Although they did live at the YFZ ranch and are members of the FLDS church, Mr. Jessop is 27, Mrs. Jessop is 25, their other two children are 4 and 2 1/2, they are in a monogamous marriage and lived by themselves in a single family residence at the ranch.

Further, they presented proof of this to state officials at the time of the raid, as well as documenting the ages of their children. But the state took them away anyway. How do we know this?

Turns out that the Jessops hit the lottery twice. They were fortunate enough to have Rene Haas represent them. Who, you ask? Aren’t all the attorneys there ambulance chasers? Far from it. Rene Haas is a former prosecutor and State District Judge. A graduate of both Wellesley and UT law, she is one the top lawyers in the country. Listen to what former Judge Haas had to say about this case.

“This was a victory not only for this couple, but for all Americans who hold dear the right to protect themselves against unreasonable actions by the government,” said attorney Rene Haas, who represents the couple. “Our children are our most precious possession. Wrenching innocent young children who are happy and healthy from loving parents, which inflicts terrible psychological trauma on the children, makes no sense whatsoever. We should work with families not destroy them.”

That is not some publicist for the FLDS church. That is a former State District Judge saying that. Hopefully, it will give you pause.

Let’s hope that former Judge Haas is successful in her attempts to reunite this beautiful family.