Contact made with children in Idaho standoff

Aerial photos around the McGuckin family home

GARFIELD BAY, Idaho (CNN) -- Sheriff's deputies said Saturday they hope to talk further with five children who have been holed up since Tuesday in a rural Idaho home with guns and vicious dogs.

They expressed that hope after two people the children know visited the house Friday.

"They got within the threshold of the house and were able to communicate with the children orally," said Bryce Powell, the attorney for children's mother, JoAnn McGuckin, 45.

The children shut themselves inside the family house after their mother was taken into custody Tuesday by local authorities.

"They did not make face-to-face contact. The children were in another room," Powell said. He said the dogs were inside the house when the two individuals, whom he would not identify, entered.

"They brought in food and water and were able to deliver a message from my client to the children which stated, 'I love you. I hope you are okay and please cooperate with this man, Mr. Powell.'"

Powell, who said the two people spent several hours inside the house, would not say what the children, ages 8 to 16, said during the visit.

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"But at least we have communication established with the children, again. That is progress," he said after visiting the home. "Things are looking better but we've got a lot to do."

Sheriff: Mother 'not cooperative'

Powell would not say whether one of the people who went into the house was Benjamin McGuckin, 15, brother of the five children who had left the home and was taken into protective custody Thursday.

Bonner County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Robert Rahn said Benjamin told authorities about the conditions inside the home, including what weapons are there.

Rahn said deputies are "trying several things" to end the five-day stalemate, but he would not comment further on their strategy.

He repeatedly said the children's welfare was the primary concern and the sheriff's department was "prepared to do whatever it takes and for how ever long it takes to ensure these children's safety."

When asked if there was a time limit, the sergeant noted the sheriff had said he was recently elected for a four-year term.

In Washington, the FBI said bureau hostage negotiators and behavioral science specialists have offered to help Bonner County authorities, but Rahn said no federal help had been accepted.

The children's mother, who remains in jail on $100,000 bond on a charge of felonious injury to children, was "not cooperative" and would not be taken to the home to talk to the children, Rahn said.

A bail reduction hearing for the mother was postponed Friday after a storm knocked out power to the court.

The standoff began when the children released as many as 27 dogs on sheriff's deputies when they tried to take them into protective custody Tuesday after the mother's arrest. Neighbors said the children were afraid their family would be split up if they gave themselves up to police.

Mrs. McGuckin's husband and the father of the children, Michael McGuckin, died about two weeks ago after being bed-ridden for several years with multiple sclerosis, Rahn said.

Family 'extremely poor'

Powell said the mother and children have gone through an excruciating ordeal since then. He said the family is "extremely poor," and that the mother had trouble getting Social Security payments in recent weeks. On top of that, he said, their water well broke and they couldn't afford to fix it.

"They had no money and were doing what they could to survive," he said.

Authorities said the children still believed to be in the home are: Kathryn, 16, Mary, 13, James, 11, Frederick, 9, and Jane, 8. It was not clear when Benjamin left the house. He approached a neighbor's house Thursday and they then contacted authorities.

Local attorney Edgar Steele said he had been asked by Mrs. McGuckin to represent the family. He said Benjamin had "been walking around in the woods for two days before approaching the neighbor.

Steele announced Saturday he was voluntarily withdrawing from the case because he had been cut off from all access to Mrs. McGuckin by the Bonner county sheriff.

The lawyer called that action "outrageous" and said he "had not abandoned the McGuckins" and would provide free legal services to the family if any member personally asked him for help.

Steele said he had been representing Mrs. McGuckin on civil issues, pending the criminal charge against her. He claimed the county seized her property for $8,000 in back taxes and then sold it for approximately $50,000.

He also said the standoff has attracted the attention of anti-government groups, and Internet reports say members of such groups are moving into northern Idaho in response to the standoff.

"Now some of these people, I've seen some of the Internet reports, seem to think somehow that this is another Ruby Ridge in the making," Steele said.

Ruby Ridge was the 1992 shootout in Idaho in which the wife and son of white separatist Randy Weaver were killed during a standoff with federal agents.

Powell said intervention by militia groups would not help.