Nine children taken into protective custody after a raid on an alleged polygamist group have been interviewed by authorities about allegations of child sex abuse by an Ogden polygamist group.
The children were taken from their homes Friday by the Weber County attorney's office. A hearing will be held next week to determine whether they should remain in the custody of the Utah Division of Family Services.Meantime, the investigation that triggered the 7 a.m. Friday raid on seven homes by some 40 Weber County and Ogden City police officers is continuing without further comment from the county attorney's office. No arrests had been made or charges filed as of Saturday.
Second Circuit Court Judge W. Brent West said he signed search warrants for county attorney administrative assistant Mike King on Wednesday.
The warrants were specifically for "pornographic material used for instructional purposes," West said.
Ogden Police Chief Michael D. Empey said no such materials were taken in the Friday morning raid. Other items were taken, but Empey declined to say what they were.
Second District Juvenile Court Judge L. Kent Bachman signed the warrants for taking the children into custody.
Authorities said the investigation is ongoing and other children could be taken into custody.
The actions followed a monthlong investigation by the county attorney's office into the group, reportedly led by retired landscaper Arvin Shreeve.
Group members have purchased 10 homes in an Ogden neighborhood, officials said. The group, called "Sisters," was first profiled in the Ogden Standard-Examiner in 1984.
Shreeve was not available for comment.
The father of five of the children taken into custody Friday said Shreeve no longer lives in the neighborhood. A Clearfield mother who said three of her children are in the group said Friday her children have indicated that Shreeve, his wife and a daughter left the Ogden area one to two weeks ago, possibly for California.
The woman said other group members reportedly moved out at about the same time Shreeve departed, with at least two leaving the state.
Scrutiny of the group intensified last winter after Ron Van Drimmelen of Pleasant Grove, the ex-husband of a group member, hired a private investigator to infiltrate the group and gather information that underage children were being used in "lingerie shows."
A videotape and still photographs taken by the investigator were intended as evidence in two child custody and adoption court cases filed by Van Drimmelen, but the cases were settled out of court last month.
Depositions in those cases by Kori Christofferson, a 23-year-old Ogden woman who dropped out of the group in June, were subsequently obtained by the county attorney's office, which was already looking into complaints of child abuse involving the group.
County investigators began interviewing children who had been involved with the group, sending two youths to the child sex abuse unit at the Primary Children's Medical Center in late July for evaluation.
Search warrants for seven of the 10 homes reportedly owned by group members were issued about five days later.