Another polygamous cult in Texas investigated

AP/WOAI:

Behind guarded, ornate gates at the end of a rural road, a self-proclaimed prophet warns his followers about the end of time and rails against a dangerous and unclean world outside their West Texas compound.

The women are covered in long skirts and long-sleeve shirts. Many of the children have different mothers and share the same father.

But this isn't the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' ranch, which authorities raided last month in Eldorado after receiving reports that underage girls were being forced to marry much older men.

This is the House of Yahweh: a different, even darker sect that the state has been investigating for years. Authorities in February charged the group's 73-year-old leader with performing polygamous weddings and forcing about 40 children - some as young as 11 - to work jobs at his 44-acre compound.

"If a bunch of adults want to get together and follow some con man and throw their lives away, that's their right in this country," said Callahan County District Attorney Shane Deel. "But to me, when you do that to children and they don't have a chance, that's where the biggest concern is."

If convicted on the most serious charges, Yisrayl Hawkins faces up to 20 years in prison.

Another sect leader, Yedidiyah Hawkins, goes to court this summer on charges of sexually abusing a teenager, bigamy and welfare fraud.

Questions have also been raised about at least two deaths within the sect.

A 7-year-old died in 2003 after her mother and another member performed home surgery on her infected leg. Both women were convicted of injury to a child.

And in 2006, a woman bled to death after giving birth because she was prevented from going to the hospital, according to a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by her husband.

Although members deny they practice polygamy, former members say Yisrayl Hawkins has at least two dozen wives - and state records show he fathered two babies last year with women ages 19 and 22.

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I think this group has been in the news before. It looks like the case is further along than the one near San Angelo. In the latter case a report today indicated that the teenager who gave birth after the state took custody of 463 children was actually over 18 and she has been told she is free to leave state custody. Her child is still in state custody. I think the confusion over the age of some of the girls may have been deliberate.