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Lead attorney in FLDS custody case resigns
Lead attorney in FLDS custody case resigns
HOUSTON — The lead attorney at the center of the largest child-removal case in U.S. history has turned in his resignation and neither he nor Texas Child Protective Services are saying why.
Charles Childress was hired by CPS on July 21 to take over the behemoth case involving 439 children taken and eventually returned to the West Texas ranch belonging to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a breakaway polygamist sect not affiliated with mainstream Mormonism.
“It is with great regret that I hereby tender my resignation as a staff attorney for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services,” Childress wrote in an Oct. 9 letter obtained by the Houston Chronicle on Thursday.
In the letter, Childress said his resignation is effective Nov. 1, 2008, or at “whatever earlier date may be most convenient and least disruptive to the operations of the agency.”
Lawyers representing FLDS children began noticing a week ago that Childress’ name was replaced on legal documents.
“I suspected this might be coming after getting a pleading in one of my cases substituting him out as attorney in charge,” said Natalie Malonis, who represents a child in the case.
Regarding the statement that the FLDS is “not affiliated with mainstream Mormonism” see:
• Fundamentalist Mormons to Mormon Church: We are Mormons, too
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