House Human Services Committee hearing on last year’s FLDS raid is just starting, opening with a hearing on Kerrville GOP Rep. Harvey Hilderbran‘s House Bill 4255 (Hilderbran has offered a committee substitute, but you can find the original version of the bill here), which would increase punishment for bigamy and extend the statute of limitations for bigamy to seven years, or to 10 years starting on the 18th birthday of a juvenile victim. The reason, Hildebrand said, is that a girl “may not realize she’s been a victim of bigamy until she’s an adult.”
“This isn’t about the YFZ, but it is about taking the lessons we’ve learned from that experience,” Hilderbran said, but is meant to “improve [Child Protective Services’] ability to more effectively and efficiently enforce child protection policies wherever … that physical or neglectful abuse occurs.”
You can check out the action now, on House LiveStream channel 7.
More on the raid at the FLDS Yearning for Zion compound here.
This article appears in April 10 • 2009.