Deal on reuniting polygamist families delayed

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - A deal to return home more than 400 children taken from a polygamist ranch in Texas was delayed on Friday after a judge refused to approve the tentative agreement, saying all parties had not agreed to terms of the pact.

State District Judge Barbara Walther in San Angelo adjourned a hearing without signing an order presented to the court earlier in the day that would have returned the children to their families as early as this weekend. The children were removed from the ranch in remote west Texas by state officials last month after allegations of abuse.

Walther told the court all parties must agree on terms of the deal over the weekend following objections lodged by some parties. She said she would reconsider the matter on Monday.

Her actions left the members of the breakaway Mormon sect distraught.

"There was an opportunity today for relief of this, and it was not granted," Willie Jessop, a spokesman for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, told a news conference after the hearing. "The judge left the court in total disarray of everyone asking what is next."

On Thursday, the Texas Supreme Court ruled the state overstepped its authority when it removed the children from the Yearning For Zion ranch.

The higher court's ruling led to a deal between lawyers representing the mothers and state welfare officials that would have returned the children to their parents.

The pact requires that parents who want to be reunited with their children stay in Texas, allow child welfare authorities access and agree to take parenting classes.

One sticking point was the length of time the agreement would be in effect, church officials said.

Even when the children are returned to their parents, the state's investigation will continue.

Texas officials on Friday obtained a DNA sample from Warren Jeffs, the leader of the breakaway Mormon sect.

Jeffs is in Arizona serving a prison sentence of 10 years to life for being an accomplice to rape by forcing a 14-year-old to marry her cousin.

"In the search warrant you will see that evidence was collected that Jeffs married four young girls," said Jerry Strickland of the Texas Attorney General's Office. "Two 12-year-olds, a 14-year-old and a 15-year-old. All of these marriages took place at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Texas."

The search warrant alleges that Jeffs, 52, was at the YFZ Ranch on several occasions when young girls there are believed to have become pregnant.

Texas child welfare officials have charged that under Jeffs' direction and leadership, leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints trained young girls to become "spiritual brides" of older men.

(Writing by Anna Driver in Houston; Editing by Peter Cooney)