I've been saying for 30 years that Ronald Reagan shoved the country over the edge of a slippery slope to destruction.
In 1985 the FBI looked into the FLDS, and among the "harmless" leaders of the sect they let go was Rulon Jeffs, father of jailed "prophet" Warren Jeffs.
Among the things let fester as a result:

But after stepping in at the request of Brent D. Ward, then the U.S. Attorney for Utah, the U.S. Department of Justice closed the case without filing charges.
A lawyer who represented evicted FLDS members in a related lawsuit considers the federal investigation a missed opportunity to curb the power of the sect's leaders.
"Some of the systematic policies that adversely affected young men and young women might have been diminished or possibly stopped," said St. George attorney Clay Huntsman. "Now it's gotten out of hand."
In the years since then, ex-members have alleged that boys and young men are banished for minor offenses and that Warren Jeffs has overseen a purge of fathers whose wives and children are reassigned.

Current Fibbie honcho Robert Mueller, asked about a four-state task force independently gathered recently in Las Vegas to coordinate efforts to detect, prosecute and punish crimes among the members of the international cult, said his agency would assist local law enforcement, but had "other priorities." Kinda like Cheney, with his five deferments....

Meanwhile Salt Lake City TV reports FLDS enforcers are rumored to be stalking San Angelo's State District Judge Barbara Walther. Texas authorities received detailed warnings about FLDS "enforcers" headed for retribution from Utah and Arizona.

Judge Walther, pictured above in an AP photo by Eric Gay, ordered the removal of more than 440 children, including some young mothers apparently under 17, from the cult's Yearning For Zion Ranch outside Eldorado in Schleicher County on April 24. The removals came while investigators sought to find and assist the caller who phoned a San Angelo family crisis hotline claiming she and her child were undergoing mistreatment at the hands of her much-older "husband" and other "spiritual wives" in his household on the ranch.

A Texas appeals court and the Texas State Supreme Court subsequently ruled that the children should be returned to the ranch. Walther and attorneys worked out orders in one exceptional instance -- the case of Jeffs' sexually-abused 16-year-old daughter, who won't be going back to YFZ.

Gov. Rick Perry, who indicated last month that he was proud of the actions taken by CPS, warned through a spokeswoman that Friday's decision by the Texas Supreme Court ordering the sect children's release could place youngsters in danger.

"The governor is concerned that the legal process by which the children were removed from their home is overshadowing the sexual abuse allegations at hand," said Perry's deputy press secretary, Allison Castle.

"He is very troubled that the children, especially those most at risk for abuse in this case – young girls – are being sent back to the very compound that is riddled with uncertainty, potential for harm and remains at the center of a very serious criminal investigation," Ms. Castle said.

The sect has denied there is any greater prevalence of child abuse in its ranks than in mainstream society. It says Texas swept its more than 450 children into custody two months ago in an act of religious persecution.

Texas attorney general Greg Abbott has opened an investigation into charging Jeffs, currently jailed in Kingman, AZ, with rape for his conduct during a 2002-2005 sojourn at the ranch; Jeffs "spiritually married" four girls, ranging in age from 12 to 15, and is claimed to have fathered a child with one of the girls.

According to an AP story, Judge Walther continues to receive initial results of DNA tests administered to sect children and many parents.
[Texas Children's Protective Services] CPS spokeswoman Shari Pulliam said the test results are crucial.
"Our investigation is going to continue," she said, "And the DNA testing is a very important part of that investigation."
While the Texas Rangers and state attorney general's office pursue possible criminal charges against certain men in the sect, CPS says it needs the test results to establish family relationships.
"That's a piece of the puzzle we don't have, to figure out who we're going to be working with," Ms. Pulliam said.
Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran expects indictments to be returned against some sect members in the next several months.
As Anderson Cooper notes, Doran may face a backlash of newly-registered FLDS voters for his part in the CPS action at the Ranch.

Meanwhile, in related news, a lawyer for the woman whose marriage Jeffs engineered -- when she was 14, and against her will to her first cousin, 19 -- has said potential jurors in the case against Jeffs should not read his client's book, which details her life in the cult and escape from it. Roger Hoole said his client maintains that Allen Steed "was both a victim of Warren Jeffs and a perpetrator of child abuse."
"Although Elissa has a First Amendment right to tell her story, Allen Steed is presumed innocent and no one familiar with 'Stolen Innocence' should be allowed on any jury in which the alleged crimes are tried," Hoole said in his statement.

And lawyers for Jeffs, convicted of conspiracy to rape in the Steed/Wall "wedding" case, want him set free on the grounds that his work to arrange another "spiritual marriage," this one between a 51-year-old man and his 14-year-old first cousin, is not a matter of lawbreaking on Jeffs' part but of religious discrimination on the prosecution's part.

Predictably, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is also angry about what it calls allegations that its' prophet's brothers and a church spokesman also serve the church as "enforcers."