Texas officials said Monday that they had taken more than 400 children into temporary state custody while they continued investigating allegations that girls at a remote polygamist compound were being sexually abused by men.
"This is the biggest single removal in the history of this agency," Child Protective Services spokesman Darrell Azar said Monday evening. "No one can remember anything quite like it."
The decision to take temporary custody of the 401 children represented a significant ratcheting up of state intervention. Child-welfare officials initially placed only 18 children under state control and moved others to a more neutral location.
Azar said he would not discuss the details of the abuses state officials uncovered.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
