CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

Enormous Mismanagement of the FLDS Case, Loss of $12 Million to Taxpayers, And an Egregious Affront to Fundamental Principles of Law

By: Houston Criminal Defense Lawyer John T. Floyd and Mr. Billy Sinclair

Since the April 2008 military-styled raid, led by the Texas Rangers and the state’s Child Protective Services, on the Yearning for Zion Ranch owned by Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints (FLDS) in Eldorado, Texas, we have been consistently been critical of the methods used by law enforcement and the CPS efforts to destroy the FLDS church. These official efforts stem from allegations that some male FLDS members used religious practices to engage in “spiritual marriages” with underage teenage girls. CPS reported in August 2008 that it was still investigating 10 cases involving marriages of girls ranging in ages from 12 to 16. As we have previously reported, these investigations have already cost Texas taxpayers at least $12 million.

The Houston Chronicle reported on September 4, 2008 that the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, the parent agency of Child Protective Services, has mismanaged millions of taxpayers’ dollars. Five years ago the Texas Legislature mandated that the Commission hire private contractors to assume duties of state employees in agencies such as CPS. The Chronicle reported this effort “has been a slow-motion disaster.”

The newspaper reported that the Commission terminated its contract last year with one company, Accenture, “after [an] attempt to privatize eligibility screening for social service programs caused chaos and erroneously denied services to thousands of qualified Texans.”
A 2006 state audit was highly critical of a five-year $85 million deal the Commission made in 2004 with another company, Convergys, to provide human resources and payroll services for the more than 46,000 employees in the state agencies supervised by the Commission. The audit warned that the Commission’s supervision of the Convergys contract was lax and that this had resulted in late or incorrect paychecks being issued to employees and produced inadequate spending on technology and training programs.

The Chronicle also reported that “a return visit by the auditors this year found that payroll and management problems at the state agencies continue. Texas State Auditor John Keel reported that more than $738,192 had been mistakenly paid out to more than 1,200 former state employees after they had been terminated. Only half of those taxpayer dollars have been recovered. In addition, 43 employees were allowed to take paid emergency leave because of criminal charges, with an average length of 70 days. Nine out of 10 agency supervisors had not received required training, while nearly three-fourths of employees sampled had no performance evaluations in their files.” (more…)