Texas Keeps Sect Kids for DNA Testing

A judge ruled today that 416 kids seized at a polygamous ranch in Texas will be held for genetic testing, the San Angelo Standard-Times reports. At the end of a 2-day custody hearing, Judge Barbara Walther said the tests were needed to sort out relationships between the sect's parents and children. Earlier, a psychiatrist testified that the kids “have the thinking patterns of a much younger child,” the Houston Chronicle reports.

He also accused the sect of brainwashing kids into obedience, the AP reports: "Compliance is being godly, it's part of their honoring God," he said. Defense attorneys at the crowded hearing accused Texas officials of probing child abuse at the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints ranch too aggressively, and failing to identify how the children and parents are related. (More FLDS stories.)