 |
| Texas Hold'em YFZ Style |
|
This is a highly competitive poker game of finesse where the brethren (the players) bet two underage daughters (chits) into the pot. The prophet (the dealer) then shuffles the little girls among the brethren based on divine revelation. He can "place" either both, one or no daughter with another player. The rules are simple ... but the players must hold the priesthood to "score".
The two players to the left of the prophet each post "blind" bets. They're called blind bets because the players make them before they get to see the little girls. If during a betting round you make a bet and all players fold to you, you've bought the pot (the daughter(s)). No more daughters are "placed" until each player has contributed to the pot equally. Betting continues until all little girls have been "placed". Usually the bets are capped at four per round, so there may be a bet, a raise, a re-raise, and a final re-raise. The players betting the two prettiest daughters have the best chance at winning the most child brides (chits) in the game. This game is typically played with upwards of eight or nine brethren. In general, more players make for a better game as the odds of winning one of your own daughters decreases with more brethren playing in the game. In casinos, the house usually makes money off of what is called "the rake." In this game, the house (the prophet) takes a small amount of chits (child brides) from each pot. This rake varies, but is usually 10% of the pot. Have fun and good luck! |
On Tuesday, July 22, 2008 a Schleicher County, Texas grand jury indicted 6 men from the YFZ ranch. Four of those men were indicted on charges of sexual abuse of a child under the age of 17 and one man received an additional charge of bigamy. Those charges are all first-degree felonies that carry a potential of 99 years in prison or even a life sentence. The last man was indicted on three misdemeanor counts of failing to report child abuse, which could cost him six months in jail.
The sixth man was Warren Jeffs, who was charged with sexually assaulting a young girl under age 17 some time around January 2005. The indictment said he "was prohibited from marrying or purporting to marry" or "living under the appearance of being married," with this child bride. He was charged the next day in his jail cell in Kingman, Arizona where he was incarcerated awaiting trial there for performing underage marriages. The identities of the other 5 men were sealed until they could be taken into custody. On Monday, July 28, 2008 the other 5 men surrendered to the Schleicher County Sheriff's Office. Raymond Merrill Jessop, age 36, Allan Eugene Keate, age 56, Michael George Emack, age 57, and Merrill Leroy Jessop, age 33 were each charged with one count of sexually assaulting a girl under the age of 17 ("marrying a child bride"). A conviction of these charges could mean 5 to 99 years in prison. Merrill Leroy Jessop also was charged with bigamy. Lloyd Hammon Barlow, age 38, was charged with three misdemeanors for failure to report child abuse. Lloyd Barlow was the sect's physician who lived on the YFZ ranch. The penalty for these charges could bring a sentence of up to 6 months in prison and a fine of $2,000 for each of the three counts. These charges were just a start! Below are articles about how old FLDS guys "marry" little girls and how the State of Texas did something about it. These articles are listed in chronological order. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Teen at hub of FLDS fight is subpoenaed | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 16-year-old girl is demanding that her lawyer step aside | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Monday, June 23, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| A 16-year-old girl at the center of a legal fight has finally been subpoenaed to testify before a Texas grand jury investigating members of the Fundamentalist LDS Church. The girl's mother was given a subpoena on Saturday, the girl's court-appointed attorney told the Deseret News. It orders the girl to show up this week to testify in Eldorado before a grand jury considering criminal charges stemming from the raid on the FLDS Church's YFZ Ranch. In an e-mail forwarded to the Deseret News and posted on pro-FLDS Web sites, the girl demands that her court-appointed attorney step aside. "It feels like you are trying to restrict me from every person in my life that I want to talk to or have anything to do with and you want to be the decider of what I do and who I have to do with," she wrote to Natalie Malonis. Malonis went to court on Friday and obtained a temporary restraining order against FLDS Church member and spokesman Willie Jessop, accusing him of interfering in her relationship with her client and pressuring the girl to avoid service of a subpoena. "What's been the response? More intimidation and more pressure," Malonis said Sunday, confirming that she had received similar e-mails to the ones published online. In court papers, Malonis wrote that Texas child welfare authorities and law enforcement believe the girl may have been "spiritually" married to a man at age 15. When the Texas Supreme Court ruled that state authorities acted improperly in removing the hundreds of children from the YFZ Ranch, Malonis sought a special order to place conditions on the girl before she was reunited with her mother. They included no contact with the girl's father, FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, and a man named Raymond Jessop, whose relationship to her has not been disclosed. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Jury hears FLDS witnesses | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Pat Reavy and Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Thursday, June 26, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — A grand jury looking into alleged crimes involving members of the Fundamentalist LDS Church convened here Wednesday, taking testimony from polygamous sect members but not handing up any indictments. The Schleicher County grand jury is expected to meet again next month. Eight women and girls from the ranch, including 16-year-old Teresa Jeffs and her mother, Annette, were seen at the courthouse, although not all were subpoenaed to testify. Most, however, were called one-by-one inside the building throughout the afternoon. In addition, an unknown number of law enforcers were reportedly subpoenaed to testify. "I don't want to do it," Teresa Jeffs said outside of court prior to her testimony. "It's weird." Jeffs, the daughter of FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, entered the courthouse at 3:50 p.m. local time and left about 4:35 p.m. When asked by reporters whether she testified before the grand jury, she turned and smiled and then was escorted into a waiting vehicle. San Antonio attorney Alan Futrell was with Jeffs outside the courthouse Wednesday and said he now represents her on criminal matters. Futrell said it was his understanding that the grand jury would reconvene on July 22. He also said law enforcers were very fair with his client and the other FLDS women Wednesday and treated them compassion. "Nobody was held in contempt. Everybody seemed to be doing their job with minimal pretentiousness," he said. "Everyone is trying to be sensitive. We have every issue in the world here: faith, family, Constitution." Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Court guardian: Sect girl wed to man | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Paul A. Anthony San Antonio Standard-Times Originally published July 18, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| It is not in the best interests of Warren Jeffs' 16-year-old daughter to remove the girl's attorney or replace her with one hired by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the girl's court-appointed guardian determined Friday. In documents filed in state district court in Tom Green County, the guardian presented evidence that the girl was married to a 34-year-old sect official just after her 15th birthday and that the ceremony was officiated by her father, the now-jailed leader of the polygamous sect. "If (the girl)'s preferences were allowed, it would place her in a dangerous environment and subject her to sexual abuse," according to the report, filed by Court-Appointed Special Advocate Connie Gauwain and obtained by the Standard-Times. The report, filed in advance of a scheduled hearing next week to determine whether 51st District Judge Barbara Walther should remove Natalie Malonis as the girl's court-appointed attorney at the girl's request, recommends the judge not do so. It also concludes that Malonis, a Flower Mound family law attorney who has obtained special restrictions on her client and a restraining order against a sect elder, was correct in taking those actions. "The circumstances of this case certainly necessitate the attorney ad litem's substituted judgment for her child client," Gauwain wrote. Sect spokesman Rod Parker, heavily critical of Malonis during previous court actions, did not return phone messages left for comment Friday night. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Documents could play role in criminal probe of FLDS sect | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By TERRI LANGFORD Houston Chronicle Originally published July 19, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Warren Jeffs, the jailed leader of the nation's largest polygamist sect now under investigation for sex with underage girls, married off his own 15-year-old daughter to the 34-year-old son of his chief deputy, according to pictures, diaries and a marriage record obtained Friday by the Houston Chronicle. In May, a series of similar scrapbook photos of young girls surfaced in court, showing very young girls in romantic kissing embraces with Jeffs, including a girl he married, who documents now indicate was 11 years old at the time. But the documents involving Jeffs' underage daughter show that marriages of teen girls were not customs practiced only by some, but included the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' leader, who sect members believe takes his orders directly from God. Last year, Jeffs was convicted in Utah on two counts of accomplice to rape for his role in forcing a 14-year-old to marry her 19-year-old cousin. The documents were attached to a report filed Friday by Court-Appointed Special Advocates, also known as CASA, in San Angelo. "It is CASA's determination that if (Jeffs' daughter's) preferences were followed, it would place her in a dangerous environment and subject her to sexual abuse," the report stated. The report contradicts interviews the girl and FLDS members have given denying that she was ever placed in a "spiritual marriage" with an adult member of the church. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Texas grand jury to reconvene in FLDS case | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Pat Reavy and Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Tuesday, July 22, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — A grand jury is expected to reconvene here today to continue investigating possible crimes by members of the Fundamentalist LDS Church. Some familiar with the grand-jury proceedings have said it is possible that indictments could be issued by the end of the day. However, those indictments may remain sealed until warrants and summons are issued. "There are a lot of issues to work through here. To the extent that they're relying on member witnesses, they've got to deal with an immunity issue," said Rod Parker, a Salt Lake attorney acting as a spokesman for the FLDS Church. He suggested that prosecutors may be prepared to offer deals to some FLDS members in exchange for testimony against others. The Schleicher County grand jury is expected to meet today for the second time regarding its investigation into FLDS members, many of whom live on the YFZ Ranch just outside of Eldorado. In June, several women and girls from the ranch — including 16-year-old Teresa Jeffs, the daughter of FLDS leader Warren Jeffs — were subpoenaed to testify. While grand-jury proceedings are supposed to be secret, a public feud between Teresa Jeffs and her attorney ad litem, Natalie Malonis, made June's hearing anything but confidential. Malonis obtained a restraining order against FLDS member and spokesman Willie Jessop, accusing him of trying to coerce her client into avoiding a subpoena to testify. Teresa Jeffs responded by making public e-mails she sent to Malonis, telling her to "Shut your mouth and quit calling me a victim of sexual abuse" and demanding a new attorney. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| BREAKING NEWS: Sect members gather for grand jury proceedings in Eldorado | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Matt Phinney San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published July 22, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO - Women from the FLDS continued to testify in front of a grand jury this afternoon. After an hourlong break from lunch, the grand jury reconvened about 1 p.m. By 2 p.m., life at the Schleicher County Courthouse seemed to come to a standstill as people looked for shade for relief from the heat. Half a dozen FLDS women sat at a picnic table with their lawyers near the courthouse. The Schleicher County grand jury broke for lunch just before noon today, and so far no indictments have been handed down. A man who identified himself only as Ben, a Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints member, said outside the courthouse that most of the sect women subpoenaed to testify were planning to invoke their Fifth Amendment rights by refusing to testify because the information could incriminate them. With the exception of spokesman Willie Jessop, most sect members divulge only their first names. A group of sect men waited in parked vehicles outside the courthouse, sometimes taking pictures of the day's events. Willie Jessop, an FLDS spokesman, was tight-lipped this morning about the proceedings, saying only he might talk later today. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Sect leaders could face indictment in West Texas | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS spokesman Jessop appears before Schleicher County grand jury | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By TERRI LANGFORD Houston Chronicle Originally published July 22, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO — Grand jury proceedings in West Texas appeared to restart after a four-hour delay caused by questions about whether members of a polygamist sect's testimony could be used against them. Two members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints — Sarah Barlow Draper and Leann Jeffs — were escorted by their attorneys to the grand jury room on the Schleicher County courthouse square shortly before 5 p.m. Draper, 37, could be seen daubing her tearful eyes before she re-entered the room. Attorney Andrea Sloan patted Jeffs, her client, on the back before she too headed into the grand jury room. Sources close to the investigation said the state of Texas offered female members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints immunity from prosecution in exchange for their testimony. But questions over whether that immunity would be accepted by federal prosecutions was in doubt, bringing the grand proceeding to a temporary halt this afternoon. It wasn't immediately clear how those questions were resolved. Sources familiar with the discussions spoke to the Chronicle on condition their names not be used. One said state District Judge Barbara Walther was called to the secret proceedings and kept in a room separate from the deliberations to go over the immunity issue. A steady stream of about nine women in long dresses with braided hair were called to the grand jury hearing earlier today. About half made it into the meeting room on the courthouse square, but all left quickly after telling the grand jury nothing, said a 25-year-old member of the sect who would only identify himself as "Ben." Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Statement From Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
News Release oag.state.tx.us Originally published Tuesday, July 22, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| "Earlier today the Schleicher County Grand Jury issued seven indictments containing nine counts of sexual assault, bigamy, and related charges against six individuals who are associated with the YFZ compound near Eldorado." "The six suspects facing indictments include Warren Jeffs, who was charged with sexually assaulting a child, a first-degree felony. Four additional suspects were indicted for sexually assaulting young girls under the age of 17. Each of those suspects faces one felony count of sexual assault and one of the suspects faces an additional charge of bigamy. Another defendant has been charged with three counts of failure to report child abuse." "The indictments issued today are part of an ongoing and continuing criminal investigation." "I want to thank the Texas Rangers who are the lead investigators in this case for their outstanding work. I want to thank the criminal investigators from my office who are actively involved in this criminal investigation. For months, dedicated men and women from our Cyber Crimes, Fugitive and Special Investigations Units have literally been living in San Angelo, commuting home to their families on weekends, in order to advance this case. I also want to thank Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran for his assistance with this matter." "Today's charges reflect a cooperative effort between the Texas Attorney Generals Office, Texas Department of Public Safety, the Texas Rangers, 51st Judicial District Attorney Steve Lupton, and the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Richard B. Roper." "Because law enforcement authorities are still reviewing the arrest warrants issued today, further information about the indictments cannot be released at this time." | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Six indicted in FLDS | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Nine charges in all; defendants include Warren Jeffs | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Matt Phinney San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published July 22, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO - A Schleicher County grand jury Tuesday handed down seven indictments, including one against Warren Jeffs, imprisoned leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The indictments alleged a total of nine counts of sexual assault, bigamy and related issues against Jeffs and five other FLDS members whose names were not disclosed. It was the second full day of testimony in grand jury proceedings stemming from an April raid on the polygamist sect's YFZ Ranch near Eldorado. At the end of the day, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott spoke to reporters near the courthouse and took a few questions. Jeffs was charged with first-degree felony sexual assault of a child. He was notified of the indictment in an Arizona jail while he awaits trial on a different charge. Four other suspects were indicted on charges of sexually assaulting girls younger than 17. Each of those suspects faces one count of sexual assault, and one of those suspects faces an additional charge of bigamy. Another defendant has been charged with three counts of failure to report child abuse. In its first meeting last month, the grand jury met for a full day without issuing indictments stemming from the April raid in which state authorities took more than 400 children into custody and confiscated hundreds of boxes of documents from the YFZ Ranch. Authorities suspect the polygamist sect, which split decades ago from the Mormon Church, of engaging in sexual abuse and forced "marriages" involving underage girls. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 FLDS men sought in child sex-abuse case | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Sect’s spokesman criticizes indictment as face-saving move | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By MICHELLE ROBERTS The Associated Press MSNBC Originally published Wednesday, July 23, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas -- Texas authorities on Wednesday began looking for five indicted members of a polygamist sect, in a child sex-abuse case that the group's spokesman alleged was a face-saving move by officials who lost a court battle over their seizure of hundreds of children from a sect-owned ranch. The five men were indicted Tuesday with sect leader Warren Jeffs, who already was convicted in Utah and jailed in Arizona on charges related to underage marriages. Jeffs and four of the followers were charged in Texas with felony sexual assault of a child, and the fifth follower was charged with failing to report child abuse. One of the followers also was charged with bigamy. "Our office does have warrants in hand and indictments in hand," said Sheriff David Doran of Schleicher County, where the ranch is located. His tiny west Texas department was working with Texas Rangers and prosecutors to arrest the men. The identities of the men and details of the accusations were to remain under seal until the men are arrested. Doran, who cultivated a relationship with the ranch's residents before state authorities raided the property April 3, said it's hard to tell whether they are even still in Texas. "I haven't personally seen them since the raid took place," he said. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Catching 5 from West Texas polygamist ranch may require wide net | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By EMILY RAMSHAW The Dallas Morning News Originally published Wednesday, July 23, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| AUSTIN – Authorities began their pursuit Wednesday of five members of a West Texas polygamist sect accused of committing crimes against children but acknowledged the men – some of whom are believed to be influential elders who married underage girls – could be difficult to find. By Wednesday evening, no arrests had been made, and state and county law enforcement officials said they had no timetable for completing them. Officials close to the investigation said the names weren't being released because the suspects are considered a flight risk – and some of the men haven't been seen in Texas since this spring's raid on the compound. "They could literally be anywhere," said Sam Brower, a Utah private investigator who has worked on polygamy cases. "They have unlimited resources and thousands of people willing to help them hide." State law enforcement officials acknowledged that the search could lead them to the polygamist group's headquarters on the Utah-Arizona border, or even outside of the country. Polygamist prophet Warren Jeffs – the only one of the men identified by authorities when the indictments were released Tuesday – was on the run for more than a year before he was apprehended in 2006. "What we're doing right now is networking," said Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran. "We've got the indictments, the warrants in hand. We've got the Texas Rangers and the attorney general's office. It's really hard to say" how long the arrests will take. The day after a grand jury brought sexual assault indictments against Mr. Jeffs and five followers, the Eldorado sect's de facto leader said the men would turn themselves in – if only the state would identify them. "If they tell us who they are looking for, they will step up to the allegations," Willie Jessop said. "What we're afraid is that they won't tell us the names, and then they'll try to justify their actions by staging some hocus-pocus raid." Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Search continues for FLDS men; Texas agency feels vindicated | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Pat Reavy Deseret News Originally published Wednesday, July 23, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO — The search continued Wednesday for five men indicted by a Schleicher County Grand Jury in Eldorado, Texas. Late Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced that Warren Jeffs, the imprisoned leader of the Fundamentalist LDS Church, and four of his followers were charged with sexual assault of a child. One of those men was also charged with bigamy, also a first-degree felony. A sixth man was indicted on three counts of failure to report child abuse, all misdemeanors. The names of the five others cannot be released until they are in custody. Jeffs, who was convicted in Utah last year of rape as an accomplice for performing a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin, and sentenced to a pair of 5-to-life prison terms, is currently in a Kingman, Ariz. jail cell where he is facing trial on sexual misconduct charges accusing him of performing underage marriages. Reaction from Texas on the indictments continued to flow in Wednesday. The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, the agency that received criticism after taking more than 400 children off the YFZ Ranch in April during the initial investigation of reports of abuse, issued a statement today saying they feel some vindication by the indictments. "The indictment seems to indicate CPS was correct in its belief that some children at the ranch had been sexually abused, and all children are at risk in a community in which adults do not take a stand against the abuse taking place in their homes," said CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| More FLDS indictments likely | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Paul A. Anthony San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published Thursday, July 24, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| More indictments against members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are likely as investigators pore over mountains of evidence seized from the polygamist sect's Schleicher County ranch, said one of the case's lead investigators Wednesday. A day after a Schleicher County grand jury returned seven indictments against six members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Texas Ranger Capt. L.C. Wilson said the investigation is by no means over. "I think I could safely say that," Wilson said when asked if more indictments could be expected. "There's certainly other persons of interest and other suspects in this case." Wilson, based in Midland, oversees all Texas Rangers in the West Texas region, which includes San Angelo and Eldorado. He recently replaced Barry Caver, the Ranger captain who oversaw the April raid on the sect's YFZ Ranch and retired in June to take an oil-industry job. With the grand jury scheduled to meet again Aug. 21, authorities began making plans Wednesday for finding and arresting the five suspects not already in custody. The Schleicher County Sheriff's Office received the indictments and arrest warrants Tuesday night, Sheriff David Doran said, and will work with the Rangers and the Texas Attorney General's Office to arrest the men named in Tuesday's indictments. A sixth man, sect leader Warren Jeffs, is already imprisoned on similar charges in Utah. The grand jury on Tuesday indicted Jeffs on a charge of sexual assault of a child, a first-degree felony, in connection with an incident that occurred about Jan. 14, 2005. His bond was set at $100,000, according to the indictment. The other five men were indicted on a mix of sexual assault, bigamy and failure to report sexual abuse charges — a total of eight counts. "They all have attorneys," Wilson said, "so I think that method will certainly be used first." Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
"Today the five defendants who were indicted last week in Eldorado, Texas, are under arrest and in custody after surrendering to authorities Monday afternoon at the Schleicher County Sheriff’s Office:
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 more indicted in aftermath of FLDS raid | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Pat Reavy Deseret News Originally published Monday, July 28, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The five outstanding FLDS men indicted last week by a grand jury in Schleicher County, Texas surrendered to authorities Monday afternoon at the Schleicher County Sheriff's Office. A total of six men were indicted, including FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, on July 22 by the 12-member jury. At least nine jury members must vote in favor on an indictment for one to be issued. Five of the men, including Jeffs, were indicted on first-degree felony charges of sexual assault of a child. But the names of the other men were withheld until they were in custody. Monday afternoon, the Texas Attorney General's Office announced the other men charged with sexual assault are Raymond Merrill Jessop, 36; Allan Eugene Keate, 56; Michael George Emack, 57; and Merrill Leroy Jessop, 33. Merrill Jessop was also charged with bigamy, also a first-degree felony. The sixth man, Lloyd Hammon Barlow, 38, was indicted on three counts of failure to report child abuse, all class B misdemeanors. The sentenced for a sex assault conviction if five to 99 years in prison, or five years to life in prison. Bond for the four men other than Jeffs was set at $100,000 per charge for the felonies and $5,000 for the misdemeanor. The arrests, "reflect nearly a week-long effort by the Texas Rangers and Texas Attorney General's Office to arrange for the defendants' arrests," Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said in a statement. Merrill Jessop was the leader of the Fundamentalist LDS Church's Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado, Texas. His fourth wife is ex-FLDS member Carolyn Jessop who has been an outspoken opponent of the sect. She chronicled her life in the FLDS Church in her bestselling book "Escape."
E-mail: preavy@desnews.com | |||||||||||||||||||||
| BREAKING NEWS: Five sect members jailed in Schleicher County | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Paul A. Anthony San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published July 28, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Five indicted FLDS members have turned themselves in. The men, sought since they were indicted Tuesday on a series of charges relating to alleged sexual abuse at the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints' Schleicher County ranch, turned themselves in to the Schleicher County Sheriff's Office about noon today, said Texas Ranger Capt. L.C. Wilson. According to the Texas Attorney General's Office, the five men are:
See photos | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 arrested in West Texas polygamist sect case | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By EMILY RAMSHAW The Dallas Morning News Originally published Monday, July 28, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| AUSTIN — Five men from a West Texas polygamist sect wanted on charges ranging from sexual assault of a child to bigamy turned themselves in today, Attorney General Greg Abbott announced. The men are being held at the Schleicher County jail. Those charged with felonies are being held in lieu of $100,000 bail each. Those men face sentences ranging from five years to life in prison. Three of the men — Merril "Leroy" Jessop, 33; Raymond Jessop, 36; and Allan Keate, 56 — face charges of sexual assault of a child and are purported to be "spiritual husbands" of young women who testified before the Schleicher County grand jury last week. A fourth man, Michael Emack, 57, also faces charges of sexual assault of a child. The fifth man, Dr. Lloyd Barlow, 38, faces three misdemeanor counts of failing to report child abuse. He’s purported to be the chief physician at the sect's compound outside Eldorado and is thought to have had information about young mothers there. Leroy Jessop is also charged with bigamy. The West Texas grand jury that indicted the men also charged sect leader Warren Jeffs with sexual assault. Mr. Jeffs is currently in jail in Arizona awaiting trial for similar charges. The men were apprehended by authorities in Schleicher County, home of the sect’s Yearning For Zion ranch. Mr. Abbott confirmed that an attorney for the sect facilitated the surrender of the men, and said he didn’t know if the men had to be summoned from another state to turn themselves in. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 indicted members of sect are in custody, officials say | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Some face charges of sexually assaulting teens | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Chuck Lindell Austin American-Statesman Originally published Tuesday, July 29, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Five members of a West Texas polygamist sect, indicted last week on charges that included sexually assaulting teenage church members, turned themselves in to Schleicher County authorities Monday. The arrests, which were negotiated during the past several days with a lawyer representing the sect, included members of the Jessop and Barlow families, who are prominent within the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a Mormon splinter group. Four men from the sect's Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado were charged with sexually assaulting girls younger than 17, a felony carrying a maximum penalty of life in prison. Raymond Merrill Jessop, 36, Merrill Leroy Jessop, 33, Allan Keate, 56, and Michael Emack, 57, were being held in the Schleicher County Jail on $100,000 bail. Merrill Leroy Jessop also was charged with bigamy, a felony. The fifth sect member, Lloyd Hammon Barlow, 38, was charged with three counts of failing to report child abuse, a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in prison. Barlow, the sect's doctor at the Yearning for Zion Ranch, was being held on $5,000 bail. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who announced the arrests, declined to discuss details of the charges. A phone call to Willie Jessop, a sect leader, was not returned Monday. Abbott said law enforcement agencies are discussing ways to protect alleged victims should any of the men post bail. "I would be concerned about any children they would be exposed to," said Abbott, who called the bail amounts appropriate. "I think the bail is a high bail instituted by the judge to ensure that people accused of these crimes will show up for trial." Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 indicted FLDS men surrender to Texas authorities | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Pat Reavy Deseret News Originally published Tuesday, July 29, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| The five FLDS men indicted last week by a grand jury in Schleicher County, Texas, surrendered to authorities Monday afternoon at the Schleicher County Sheriff's Office. The 12-member jury indicted a total of six men, including FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, on July 22. At least nine jury members must vote in favor of an indictment for one to be issued. Five of the men, including Jeffs, were indicted on first-degree felony charges of sexual assault of a child. But the names of the other men were withheld until they were in custody. Monday afternoon, the Texas Attorney General's Office announced the other men charged with sexual assault are Raymond Merrill Jessop, 36; Allan Eugene Keate, 56; Michael George Emack, 57; and Merrill Leroy Jessop, 33. Merrill Jessop was also charged with bigamy, a first-degree felony. The sixth man, Lloyd Hammon Barlow, 38, was indicted on three counts of failure to report child abuse, all class B misdemeanors. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Indicted FLDS men to appear before Texas judge today | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Tuesday, July 29, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Five members of the Fundamentalist LDS Church indicted by a Texas grand jury are expected to make their first court appearances today. The men will all appear before Schleicher County Justice of the Peace James Doyle sometime today, where they will be handed papers spelling out their rights. "All I do is an admonishment," Doyle told the Deseret News. "I read the warrant so they know what's been charged by the grand jury. I go through their rights." The court appearances will take place at the jail. Normally, such proceedings are done quickly and without much fanfare. Doyle said today's proceedings have been delayed while authorities wait for a representative from the Texas Attorney General's Office to arrive in Eldorado. The next court appearance will then be set by the district court judge, who is based in nearby San Angelo. Raymond Merrill Jessop, 36; Allan Eugene Keate, 56; Michael George Emack, 57; and Merrill Leroy Jessop, 33, are all charged with first-degree felony sexual assault. Merrill Jessop is also charged with bigamy, a first-degree felony. Lloyd Hammon Barlow, 38, was indicted on misdemeanor counts of failure to report child abuse. Also indicted is FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, who remains in an Arizona jail where he is awaiting trial there on sexual conduct with a minor as an accomplice charges. Jeffs, 52, is accused of performing child-bride marriages. Texas authorities have said they will seek to have the FLDS leader extradited as soon as possible to the Lone Star state to face a sexual assault charge. Jeffs was convicted in Utah of rape as an accomplice for performing a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin and was sentenced to a pair of 5-to-life sentences. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Sect doctor bonds out of jail | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Jayna Boyle San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published July 29, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Dr. Lloyd H. Barlow, the physician at the FLDS ranch near Eldorado, posted bond after being arrested Monday, a sect spokesman said today. Barlow, charged with three counts of failure to report child abuse, was released on bond set at $5,000 at an arraignment Tuesday afternoon in the Schleicher County Jail in Eldorado. Willie Jessop, a Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints spokesman, said late Tuesday afternoon that while Barlow has posted bond, the four other FLDS men arrested at the same time - each facing charges related to sexual assault of a child - have not posted bond. Their bonds were set at $100,000 each, according to a statement issued Monday by the Texas Attorney General. Law enforcement officials in Schleicher County and with the Texas Department of Public Safety declined to provide information regarding the bonds. The five men were indicted by a Schleicher County grand jury and subsequently arranged through their attorneys to surrender to authorities. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 from West Texas polygamy sect arraigned Tuesday in sex assault case | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By EMILY RAMSHAW The Dallas Morning News Originally published Tuesday, July 29, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| AUSTIN — Five men from a West Texas polygamist sect were arraigned on Tuesday, the day after they surrendered to charges related to the sexual assault and "spiritual" marriage of underage girls. As of Tuesday evening, four of the men — members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints — remained in custody in Schleicher County. A fifth had posted bail and been released, a sect official said. A sixth suspect, sect prophet Warren Jeffs, is in jail in Arizona, but could be extradited to Texas to face his sexual assault charge. Sect leader Willie Jessop, who is speaking for the group in Mr. Jeffs’ absence, said he couldn’t confirm whether the other men who surrendered would post bail, and said he wasn’t at liberty to answer any more questions. "I can’t go on the record with anything right now — I’ll explain later," said Mr. Jessop, who has called the charges outrageous. "When all of this comes out, you will be very amused and shocked." Mr. Jeffs and four other men — Merril Leroy Jessop, 33; Raymond Jessop, 36; Michael Emack, 57; and Allan Keate, 56, — were charged with first-degree felony sexual assault of a child, a crime punishable by five years to life in prison. The younger Mr. Jessop, who uses his middle name, is also charged with first-degree felony bigamy, which means one of his alleged wives is younger than 16. At least three of the other men, including Mr. Jeffs, are believed to have taken underage wives. Dr. Lloyd Barlow, a 38-year-old doctor whose indictment indicates he delivered the babies of underage mothers on the Yearning For Zion ranch, was charged with three misdemeanor counts of failing to report child abuse. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 indicted FLDS men appear before judge | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Wednesday, July 30, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Five members of the Fundamentalist LDS Church indicted by a Texas grand jury made their first appearances before a judge. The men were arraigned before Schleicher County Justice of the Peace James Doyle late Tuesday afternoon, where they were handed papers spelling out their rights and told not to contact their alleged victims. "All I do is an admonishment," Doyle told the Deseret News. "I read the warrant so they know what's been charged by the grand jury. I go through their rights." One man, Dr. Lloyd Hammon Barlow, 38, posted a $15,000 bond late Tuesday and was released from jail pending his next court appearance. The rest remained in jail pending the posting of $100,000 bail, Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Tela Mange said. The men's next court appearance will then be set by the district court judge, who is based in nearby San Angelo. Raymond Merril Jessop, 36; Allan Eugene Keate, 56; Michael George Emack, 57; and Merril Leroy Jessop, 33, are all charged with first-degree felony sexual assault. Merril Jessop is also charged with bigamy, a first-degree felony. Barlow was indicted on misdemeanor counts of failure to report child abuse. Also indicted is FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, who remains in an Arizona jail. Jeffs, 52, is accused of performing child-bride marriages there. Texas authorities have said they will seek to have the FLDS leader extradited as soon as possible to the Lone Star state to face a sexual assault charge. Jeffs was convicted in Utah of rape as an accomplice for performing a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin and was sentenced to a pair of 5-to-life sentences. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Medical board may eye doctor | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Jayna Boyle San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published Wednesday, July 30, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| If convicted, a polygamist sect's doctor charged with failure to report child abuse may face restrictions on his ability to practice medicine in Texas, according to the state medical board. Dr. Lloyd H. Barlow, 38, was arrested Monday in Schleicher County and charged with three counts of failure to report child abuse. Each count is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $2,000 and up to 180 days in jail. Barlow could not be reached Tuesday for comment. Four other members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints were arrested Monday, and each charged with one count of sexual assault of a child. One man, Merril Leroy Jessop, 33, whose listed age is younger than that of the ranch leader and sect bishop of the same name, also has been charged with one count of felony bigamy. The men were named in indictments issued by a Schleicher County grand jury July 22. They surrendered to authorities Monday under arrangements made through their attorneys. All the charges except failure to report child abuse are first-degree felonies, punishable by up to life in prison. All five were arraigned Tuesday in Schleicher County. Justice of the Peace James Doyle said Barlow's bond was set at $5,000, while the others are being held in lieu of $100,000 bonds. Willie Jessop, a sect spokesman, said Tuesday that Barlow posted bond and was released, but the other four men remained in jail. The Schleicher County Jail confirmed that one of the men had been released Tuesday but refused to specify which one. The state attorney general's office says professionals such as teachers, doctors, nurses or child day-care workers are required to make an oral report within 48 hours of suspected abuse. The abuse should be reported to law enforcement officials or the Texas Department of Family Protective Services. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Polygamist group tries to raise bail for 4 charged with sexual assault | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By EMILY RAMSHAW The Dallas Morning News Originally published Thursday, July 31, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| AUSTIN – The spokesman for a West Texas polygamist sect said the group is trying to pull together half a million dollars in bail money for four men charged with sexual assaulting young girls. For now, Willie Jessop said, the members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints remain in jail. "We’re working on it," he said. A fifth suspect charged with misdemeanors for allegedly failing to report child abuse was released on Tuesday for $15,000 bond. Sect prophet Warren Jeffs, who is incarcerated in Arizona, was also charged with sexual assault; he could be extradited to stand trial in Texas. David Doran, the sheriff in Schleicher County, where the men were arraigned on Monday, said the men charged with felonies have "not come up with their bond yet," but that they remain "calm and in good spirits." They surrendered on Monday to charges related to the sexual assault and "spiritual" marriage of underage girls. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Texas Wants 8 Kids From Sect Back in State Care | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By MICHELLE ROBERTS The Associated Press WOAI San Antonio Originally published August 6, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANTONIO (AP) - Texas child welfare authorities asked a judge on Tuesday to place eight children from a Texas polygamist sect's ranch back into foster care, saying their mothers refuse to limit their contact with men accused of being involved in underage marriages. Child Protective Services filed petitions asking Texas District Judge Barbara Walther to place the six girls and two boys belonging to four different mothers back in foster care. The children, ranging in age from 5 to 17, will be allowed to remain with their mothers until a hearing scheduled for Sept. 25, said CPS spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner. None currently lives at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado. CPS filed petitions detailing alleged involvement in underage marriages by the children's fathers or stepfathers, submitting sect marriage documents, notes from suspected underage brides, photos and journal entries from Warren Jeffs, the jailed leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Two of the girls are daughters of Lloyd Hammon Barlow, a doctor indicted last month on three misdemeanor counts of failing to report child abuse, according to court filings. Five other sect members, including Jeffs, were charged with sexual assault last month, but their children are not among those in the CPS petitions. The other six children are related, by blood or marriage, to men who are not under indictment but are accused by child welfare authorities of participating in or blessing underage marriages. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 4 FLDS members leave jail after posting bond | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Michelle Roberts The Associated Press Deseret News Originally published Thursday, Aug. 7, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANTONIO — Four polygamist sect members indicted on charges of sexual assault of a child were released from jail late Wednesday after posting bond. Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran said the men — Raymond Merril Jessop, 36; Allan Eugene Keate, 56; Michael George Emack, 57; and Merril Leroy Jessop, 33 — posted bonds of $100,000 per charge and were likely headed home to the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado. They had been jailed since turning themselves in more than a week ago. Each of the men from the Fundamentalist LDS Church, which runs the YFZ Ranch, was indicted last month on one count of sexual assault of a child. Merril Leroy Jessop faces an additional charge of bigamy. Under the conditions of their bonds, the men must stay in Schleicher County unless they notify authorities and must stay away from their alleged victims. They were indicted July 22 along with imprisoned FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, who was also charged with sexual assault of a child, and Lloyd Hammon Barlow, a 38-year-old physician who was charged with three misdemeanor counts of failure to report child abuse. Barlow posted bond last week. Prosecutors have declined to provide details on what the men are accused of doing, but documents from a separate custody case included a journal entry from Jeffs indicating Raymond Merril Jessop was married to Jeffs' daughter the day after she turned 15. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 4 polygamist sect members post bond | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Terri Langford Houston Chronicle San Antonio Express-News Originally published August 7, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Four indicted members of a polygamist sect have posted bond and been released from a West Texas jail, according to Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran. The men, Raymond Jessop, 36, his younger brother Leroy Jessop, 33, Michael Emack, 57, and Allan Keate, 56, were all charged with one count of sexually assaulting a child. If convicted of the first-degree felony, they would face a sentence of five to 99 years or life in prison. In addition, Leroy Jessop also is charged with one count of bigamy, also a first-degree felony. The four members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, together with jailed FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, were indicted July 22 on charges stemming from marriages with underage girls. They were each released on $100,000 bond at 10 p.m. Wednesday. A sixth man, 38-year-old Dr. Lloyd Barlow, was indicted on three counts of failing to report child abuse. He bonded out of jail last week. If convicted, Barlow could face up to six months in prison and a fine of $2,000 per count. The FLDS is not affiliated with mainstream Mormonism, which denounced polygamy more than a century ago. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Jailed FLDS members each post $100,000 bond | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Paul A. Anthony San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published Thursday, August 7, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Schleicher County officials released four men accused of sexual abuse of a child after the polygamist sect members posted $100,000 bond each Wednesday night. The men - Raymond Merril Jessop, 36; Allan Eugene Keate, 56; Michael George Emack, 57; and Merril LeRoy Jessop, 33 - posted bond about 10 p.m. and left to avoid media publicity, said bondsman Louis Perez, of San Angelo-based Concho Bail Bonds. "They specifically wanted to do it that way so there wouldn't be coverage," Perez said. The only restriction placed on the men is that they cannot leave the state, he said. The men, members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, were indicted by a Schleicher County grand jury July 22 and turned themselves in shortly after. Also indicted were Dr. Lloyd Hammond Barlow, 38, who was released on a $5,000 bond shortly after being indicted on three counts of misdemeanor failure to report abuse, and sect leader Warren Jeffs, who is imprisoned in Arizona in an unrelated conviction. LeRoy Jessop also faces a charge of bigamy. The men contacted Concho Bail Bonds through the San Angelo law firm of Hennington, Butler and Jones, Perez said. Attorneys for the firm did not return calls for comment Thursday. Raymond and LeRoy Jessop and Barlow are all accused in affidavits filed Tuesday by the state's Child Protective Services agency of having married teenage girls in sect-sanctioned weddings. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Bail hearing canceled for FLDS men | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Thursday, Aug. 14, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — A court hearing for four men from the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch indicted by a grand jury here was canceled after they hired lawyers and bailed out of jail. A bail-reduction request for Raymond Merril Jessop, 36; Merril Leroy Jessop, 33; Allan Eugene Keate, 56; and Michael Emack, 57, was scheduled to be heard Thursday. However, court clerks said the hearing was canceled at the last moment when attorneys entered notices of appearance, and by the fact that the men had posted $500,000 in bail nearly a week ago. In court papers, attorneys for the FLDS men argued that the $100,000-per-charge bail was excessive and they surrendered themselves once they became aware they had been indicted. The April 3 raid on the YFZ Ranch, where hundreds of children were placed in state custody, made it difficult for the men to earn enough money to post bail. They had to travel great distances to visit their children, disrupting their ability to earn a living. "As a consequence and in order to provide for his family, defendant has had to depend on donations from friends, family and fellow church members," Abilene attorney Randy Wilson wrote in court papers filed with the cases. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Hearings make halting progress | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Paul A. Anthony San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published Tuesday, August 19, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Three times, the state's attorney asked Barbara Steed Jessop the question, stated slightly differently: Have you ever left your residence overnight while your two children remained? The answers varied. "We are there by ourselves," the 55-year-old woman said once during Monday's hearing. "I stay with my children," she said when asked again. The third time, she replied, "My daughters live there also." On Jeff Schmidt's fourth try, he received a starkly different response. "I don't want to answer your questions," said Jessop, arguably the matriarch of the YFZ Ranch, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' compound in Schleicher County. "I stand on the Fifth" Amendment. The questions came at a hearing Monday that is the first attempt to retake custody of FLDS children since state appellate courts in June ordered CPS to return the 440 it had removed from the compound in an early April raid. The agency on Aug. 5 filed motions to remove eight children from four families. One of the children, a 17-year-old boy, was determined to be able to protect himself and was dropped from the motions, CPS investigator Ruby Gutierrez told attorneys. That leaves seven children sprinkled among the four cases. Attorneys worked toward agreements Monday in two of the cases, and deals are likely this week, said CPS spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner. However, the two other cases - involving the Jessops' two children and the two children of the ranch's on-site physician, Dr. Lloyd Hammon Barlow - did not appear resolvable. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Warrant orders DNA sample from FLDS man | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — A member of the Fundamentalist LDS Church indicted on a sexual assault charge was forced to give a DNA sample, a newly unsealed search warrant states. The search warrant was filed with the Schleicher County Court in Eldorado, Texas, on July 29 but was made public Wednesday. The search warrant sought a cheek swab from Allan Eugene Keate, citing records seized in the April raid on the YFZ Ranch. The search warrant accused Keate of having sex with a girl he married when she was 15 in a ceremony at the ranch on May 5, 2005. "The marriage of Keate and Jane Doe was one of two marriages for Allan Eugene Keate on May 5, 2005," wrote Texas Ranger Nick Hanna in an affidavit filed with the search warrant. The girl was the fifth of six wives for Keate, the affidavit states. She gave birth to a son on Dec. 30, 2006. "As Jane Doe was only 15 years of age and Allan Eugene Keate was approximately 52 years of age at the time of the marriage, and Jane Doe was approximately 16 years of age at the time of conception, affiant believes Allan Eugene Keate has committed the offense of sexual assault of a child," Hanna wrote. The DNA sample was sought to confirm if Keate was the baby's father. Attached to the search warrant were a drivers license photo of Keate and a return showing a cheek sample was obtained July 28. Six men, including Keate and FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, were indicted by a grand jury in nearby Eldorado on charges ranging from sexual assault to bigamy to failure to report child abuse. The grand jury is scheduled to meet again Thursday. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| More FLDS indictments today? | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Thursday, August 21, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — A grand jury investigating alleged crimes within the Fundamentalist LDS Church will meet here again today, with the possibility of more indictments being handed up. Six men, including FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, have already been indicted on charges ranging from sexual assault to bigamy and failure to report child abuse. If evidence entered into court in nearby San Angelo is any indication, more members of the Utah-based polygamous sect can expect to face criminal charges. Marriage records, bishop's records, dictations, love letters, diaries and photographs were among the hundreds of thousands of pieces of evidence seized during the April raid on the church's YFZ Ranch. Some of that evidence has been used in child-custody cases that played out this week in nearby San Angelo. A list of underage girls allegedly married to older men, compiled by Texas Child Protective Services, gives indications as to who is under investigation. Some of the cases involve men who have already been indicted. The CPS list shows 10 cases involving marriages of girls ranging in age from 12 to 16 at the time of their alleged marriages. Law enforcement e-mails, written in April and obtained earlier this month by the Deseret News through a government public records request, indicated Texas Rangers were investigating as many as 20 cases of sexual assault and 50 cases of bigamy. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS grand jury indicts three people on felonies | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — The grand jury investigating crimes within the Fundamentalist LDS Church returned three felony indictments against three separate people, a court clerk confirmed. The indictments come following daylong hearings today in which testimony was taken from several young women and the church's spokesman, among others. Earlier, about a half-dozen women were brought to the Schleicher County Memorial Building, which acted as a one-room courthouse for the proceedings. They huddled with their attorneys until they were called, one by one, to go in before the panel made up of ordinary residents of this small west Texas county. "We're not going to answer any questions," one lawyer for an FLDS woman told reporters gathered earlier outside yellow sheriff's tape that surrounds the building. FLDS member and spokesman Willie Jessop was unsure if any indictments would be issued. "We're always hoping for a miracle," Jessop said Thursday. Late Wednesday afternoon, Jessop was called before the jury. A few times, he stepped out of the building to meet with his attorneys before going back in to continue testifying. "If I was just observing, I'd be in Utah," he joked with reporters when asked if he was subpoenaed. After more than an hour, Jessop finally emerged. He told reporters the experience has been painful for everyone involved. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 more indicted in Texas FLDS probe | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Friday, Aug. 22, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — One by one, the women of the Fundamentalist LDS Church were called before the grand jury to testify in secret about allegations of crimes within the Utah-based polygamous sect. By the end of the day, three felony indictments were handed down. "There's three different indictments, three different names," Schleicher County court clerk Peggy Williams confirmed late Thursday. She would not say who was indicted or what the charges were. The Texas Attorney General's Office, which is prosecuting the cases, also declined comment on the indictments. Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran told the Deseret News he had not yet received any arrest warrants. "Whatever they hand to us, we will actively pursue if it is an arrest warrant," he said. The indictments came at the end of a nerve-wracking day for members of the FLDS Church. The young women arrived at the Schleicher County Memorial Building in the morning. There, they waited for most of the day as the weather in this tiny west Texas town turned hot and humid and thunderstorms moved in. To pass the time, a few of the women whipped out digital cameras and took pictures of everything around them. One smiled as she posed for a picture with a Texas Ranger. They joked with a Deseret News photographer about who would have the better pictures. When it came time to testify, an officer would walk out to where they were waiting. Their attorneys would escort them to the doors, but the women went in alone. The grand jury was meeting in a building that often serves as a one-room courthouse, complete with folding chairs and a card table acting as a judge's bench. Throughout the proceedings, the young women would often walk out of the building and huddle with their attorneys, a nervous look on their faces. They would then go back in to resume their testimony. This happened numerous times, leading to speculation that some young women were refusing to answer questions under their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Sect members face more indictments | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Lisa Sandberg San Antonio Express-News Originally published August 22, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO — More felony charges were handed up Thursday against members of a West Texas polygamist group. Neither the Texas Attorney General's Office nor Schleicher County officials would identify the three indicted suspects or say what they were charged with until they are in custody. They also refused to say whether the individuals were different from the five men charged last month with sexual assault of a minor in connection with underage marriages. Amy Hennington, an attorney hired by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, said she expected any men or women who were charged would surrender right away. A Schleicher County grand jury returned the indictments Thursday afternoon after meeting for more than seven hours and hearing from at least eight witnesses, including seven young women from the group and Willie Jessop, a spokesman for the group. Standing outside the courthouse Thursday after testifying, Jessop called the whole ordeal "a very painful process." He said the group would mount a vigorous defense for all those charged. A source close to the group said prosecutors were getting absolutely no help from any of the members called as witnesses. To every question asked, he said, "everybody is taking the Fifth." That legal strategy — a right protected by the Constitution to protect people from self incrimination — was also used by girls the state believes are victims, both Thursday and at the previous two proceedings, the source said. The tactic was infuriating prosecutors, stated the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because grand jury proceedings are supposed to be secret. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Jeffs, 2 other FLDS leaders charged with bigamy | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Lisa Sandberg San Antonio Express-News Originally published August 23, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Bigamy charges have been filed in Texas against jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs and two other members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. All three men were charged last month with sexual assault of a child in connection with underage marriages. Charged along with Jeffs on Thursday were Raymond Merril Jessop, 36, and Michael George Emack, 57. The pair surrendered to Schleicher County authorities Friday afternoon, said the sheriff there, David Doran. Both were released after each posted $10,000 bond, Doran said. The bigamy charges were filed — but not disclosed — Thursday by a Schleicher County grand jury hearing evidence regarding underage marriages alleged to have taken place at the breakaway Mormon sect's sprawling ranch just outside Eldorado. "Their attorneys brought them in. They arrived one at a time. They were booked, photographed, fingerprinted and processed. The whole thing took half an hour (for each)," Doran said. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Bigamy Indictments in FLDS Probe | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Texas religious leaders had demanded bigamy charges | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Jim Forsyth News Radio 1200 WOAI - San Antonio, TX Originally published Saturday, August 23, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Three leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who have previously been indicted for sexual assault of a child have now ben indicted on the felony of bigamy, 1200 WOAI news reports. Two of the three, who were free on bond on the sexual assault indictments, have been released on additional bonds on the bigamy count. The third bigamy indictment was filed against Warren Jeffs, the FLDS 'prophet' who is already imprisoned in Utah and is facing trial on additional felony charges in Arizona. The Schleicher County grand jury is set to met again in late September. Several conservative and religious groups had called for bigamy charges to be filed in the FLDS probe, saying not to file charges against men who admitted being married to multiple women made a mockery of traditional marriage in Texas. The three are facing 99 year terms on the sexual assault charges, and are now facing an additional ten years on the bigamy count. Papers seized in the April Texas Rangers raid on the FLDS temple reveal evidence that several FLDS men were married to as many as eight women. The FLDS considers plural marriage, which is legally practiced in some Middle Eastern and south Asian countries but is outlawed in the U.S, as the 'gateway to heaven.' | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Jeffs, 2 others indicted on felony bigamy counts | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Saturday, Aug. 23, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs and two of his followers are the latest to be indicted by a grand jury here on third-degree felony bigamy charges. The indictments were unsealed after Raymond Merril Jessop, 36, and Michael George Emack, 57, surrendered to authorities at the Schleicher County Sheriff's Office Friday afternoon. They were booked and released after each posted $10,000 bond. "Of course, Warren's in jail," Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran told the Deseret News after the arrests were made. "But they were able to post bond immediately. Everything was cooperative." Jeffs, 52, is in an Arizona jail where he is awaiting trial on sexual misconduct charges accusing him of performing underage marriages. The FLDS leader was convicted in Utah of rape as an accomplice and sentenced to a pair of 5-to-life sentences for performing a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin. "We received a detainer, which notifies us of his warrant status," said Trish Carter, a spokeswoman for the Mohave County Sheriff's Office in Kingman, Ariz., where Jeffs is jailed. Texas authorities have said they will seek to extradite Jeffs to face charges. Details of the latest indictments, which were handed up on Thursday, were not released, but it is apparent they stem from polygamous marriages within the Utah-based sect. All three men were indicted last month on sexual assault charges by the same grand jury investigating crimes within the FLDS Church, accusing them of sex with underage girls. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Identities disclosed on two of three new FLDS indictments | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Associated Press San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published August 25, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO - Two of the new indictments issued by a grand jury against members of a polygamist sect added bigamy charges against men already accused of sexual assault of a child. The indictments, issued by a Schleicher County grand jury Thursday, accuse Michael George Emack, 57, and Raymond Merril Jessop, 36, of bigamy. Both were served on Friday. The clerk's office has not released the name or charge on a third indictment issued Thursday because it has not yet been served. The indictments against Emack and Jessop include few details of the accusations, but sect records released as part of a separate custody case show Jessop, who was already married, was married to the daughter of jailed sect leader Warren Jeffs the day after she turned 15. Male members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints engage in multiple spiritual unions - that are meant to be acceptable to society - with female members. The sect split decades ago from the Mormon Church, which renounced all polygamy in the late 19th century. Under Texas law, someone younger than 17 cannot generally consent to sex with an adult. The crime of bigamy includes legal marriages and the lower standard of purporting to marry. Bigamy involving a person 16 or older is a second degree felony, punishable by 2 to 20 years in jail and a fine up to $10,000; bigamy involving a person younger than 16 is a first degree felony, punishable by five years to life in prison and a fine up to $10,000. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Warrants could lead to more FLDS charges | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Grand jury will weigh evidence as church seeks their dismissal | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Sunday, Sept. 7, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — When a grand jury meets here later this month, criminal indictments could be handed down against more members of the Fundamentalist LDS Church. Search warrants reveal new names under investigation by law enforcement for alleged underage marriages, the Deseret News has learned. The April 9 search warrants obtained blood, cheek and hair samples from five men, three of whom have already been indicted on sexual assault charges. The warrants accuse Raymond Jessop, Leroy Jessop, Michael George Emack, Nathan Jessop and Jackson Jessop of fathering children with girls who were all about 16 years old. Some of that information is based on initial interviews with the girls themselves. "(The girl) referred to herself as the 10th wife of Nathan Jessop; that the father of her child is Nathan Jessop; and that (the girl) lived with Nathan Jessop at the suspected place and premises," Texas 51st District Attorney's investigator Diane Wilson wrote in a probable-cause affidavit filed with one of the warrants. Law enforcement returned with DNA samples on April 14 to help establish paternity. Some of the men have been previously named in search warrants served during the raid on the YFZ Ranch. Hundreds of thousands of pieces of evidence were removed from the temple grounds, including photographs, diaries, marriage and census records, and dictations by FLDS leader Warren Jeffs. Some of that evidence has been used in child-custody cases over the hundreds of FLDS children taken into state protective custody during the raid. Texas Child Protective Services has said it has evidence of at least 10 underage marriages. A CPS caseworker testified during a court hearing last week that an investigation revealed "48 percent of the men at the ranch were involved in underage marriage practices." Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Bond limits eased for 4 FLDS members | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Jayna Boyle San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published September 8, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Four men facing criminal charges as an outcome of the April raid on a polygamist sect's YFZ Ranch in Schleicher County on Monday saw their bond conditions relaxed and were assigned a date for a pretrial status hearing. Judge Barbara Walther presided over hearings Monday morning at the Schleicher County courthouse in Eldorado for Raymond Merril Jessop, 36; Allan Eugene Keate, 56; Michael George Emack, 57; and Merril LeRoy Jessop, 33. The men, members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, were indicted by a Schleicher County grand jury July 22 on charges of sexual abuse of a child and turned themselves in shortly after. They have been free on $100,000 bond since Aug. 6. Walther, after consulting with a team of three defense attorneys and several representatives from the Attorney General's Office, settled on Oct. 27 as a date for a pretrial status hearing for all four defendants. Walther approved amendments to each man's bond conditions that will allow them to travel outside Schleicher County but within Texas. On a motion of defense attorney Randy Wilson, Emack, a resident of Utah, received permission to go to his home state to bring a truck and tools back to Texas so he can work while awaiting trial. "That's reasonable," Walther said during the hearing. "We want him to be able to work." | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS members arraigned in Texas court | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Monday, Sept. 8, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — Four members of the Fundamentalist LDS Church indicted by a grand jury here made their first formal court appearances today. Raymond Merril Jessop, 36, Allan Eugene Keate, 56, Michael George Emack, 57, and Merril Leroy Jessop, 33, appeared for pre-trial hearings on sexual assault charges. Merril Leroy Jessop also had a hearing on a bigamy charge. The men filed into the Schleicher County Memorial Building, which once a month acts as a courthouse for this tiny rural Texas county. Folding tables served as the judge's bench and the prosecution and defense tables. Lawyers, clerks, inmates and spectators sat on folding chairs set up in the one-room building. "Any preliminary discussions about the resolution of this case?" Texas 51st District Judge Barbara Walther asked as she called Raymond Merril Jessop's case. "No, your honor," said Jessop's attorney, Mark Stevens. "We have provided them with some initial discovery," assistant Texas Attorney General Angela Goodwin said of the evidence in the case. "There's going to be a lot more discovery." "And what we have is already extensive," Stevens replied. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Statement From Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
News Release oag.state.tx.us Originally published Tuesday, September 23, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| "Earlier today, the Schleicher County Grand Jury indicted three additional individuals on sexual assault charges. All three suspects are associated with the polygamist compound near Eldorado." "The three suspects were indicted for sexually assaulting children. Each of those suspects faces one felony count of sexual assault of a child and two of the suspects each face an additional first-degree felony charge of bigamy." "The indictments issued today are part of an ongoing and continuing criminal investigation." "I want to thank the Texas Rangers, who are the leading this investigation, and the criminal investigators with the Office of the Attorney General, for their outstanding work on this case. For months, dedicated men and women from our Cyber Crimes, Fugitive and Special Investigations Units have literally been living in San Angelo, commuting home to their families on weekends. I also want to thank Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran for his assistance with this matter." "Today's charges reflect a cooperative effort between the Texas Attorney General's Office, Texas Department of Public Safety, the Texas Rangers, 51st Judicial District Attorney Steve Lupton, and the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Richard B. Roper." "Because law enforcement authorities are still reviewing the arrest warrants issued today, further information about the indictments cannot be released at this time." | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Texas grand jury hands down 5 more indictments in FLDS case | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — Five indictments were handed down against three members of the Fundamentalist LDS Church here this afternoon on felony charges. Three were indicted on sexual assault charges. "The three suspects were indicted for sexually assaulting children," Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said in a statement. "Each of those suspects faces one felony count of sexual assault of a child and two of the suspects each face an additional first-degree felony charge of bigamy." The grand jury left about 2:30 p.m. local time, and shortly after, the indictments were announced. Schleicher County Clerk Peggy Williams said she would not reveal who was indicted until the wanted individuals either surrendered or were taken into custody. The grand jury probing crimes within the FLDS Church started meeting in the Schleicher County Memorial Building at about 8:30 a.m. local time today, with law enforcement surrounding the building. However, by midday, it did not appear that any witnesses had showed up to testify. Attorneys representing some young women from the FLDS Church have said their clients were not subpoenaed to testify this time. Prosecutors from the Texas Attorney General's Office went into the building early this morning, taking briefcases and boxes with them. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| More FLDS members indicted on sexual assault charges | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
CNN Originally published Tue September 23, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| (CNN) -- Three more members of a polygamous sect led by Warren Jeffs are facing sexual assault charges, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said Tuesday. On Tuesday, a Texas grand jury indicted the three male members of Jeffs' Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints compound outside Eldorado, Abbott said. Each faces one felony count of sexual assault of a child. Two of them also face felony bigamy charges. The identities of the men were not released because they had not been arrested as of Tuesday afternoon. In July, the Schleicher County grand jury indicted Jeffs and four of his Texas FLDS followers on child sexual assault charges. Jeffs was charged with sexually assaulting a child under 17. A fifth follower was charged with failure to report child abuse. The charges stem from a state and federal investigation into the sect's Yearning for Zion Ranch. In April, child welfare workers removed more than 400 children from the compound, citing allegations of physical and sexual abuse. After a court battle, the Texas Supreme Court ordered the children returned in June, saying that the state had no right to remove them and that there was no evidence to show the children faced imminent danger of abuse on the ranch. Jeffs, 52, is the leader and "prophet" of the estimated 10,000-member FLDS, an offshoot of the mainstream Mormon church. The FLDS openly practices polygamy at the YFZ Ranch and in two towns straddling the Utah-Arizona state line: Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 more sect indictments issued | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Jayna Boyle San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published Wednesday, September 24, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO - A grand jury in Schleicher County issued five indictments on Tuesday against three people in criminal cases involving members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. All the charges are felonies, said Schleicher County District Clerk Peggy Williams, but she declined to elaborate further. The suspects' identities were not disclosed. The indictments came after a quiet day at the courthouse. No sect members were seen in their trademark prairie dresses or long-sleeved button-down shirts walking in or out to testify, as had been the case in previous grand jury hearings. Williams said she could not comment on whether the indictments involved people who had not previously been charged. Willie Jessop, a sect elder and spokesman for the FLDS, said the grand jury proceedings were the state's way of justifying the weeklong raid on the sect's YFZ Ranch near Eldorado in April, when more than 400 children were taken into state custody. "The state has embarked on a vendetta," Jessop said. He said he didn't know the names of the people listed in Tuesday's indictments but said he was sure any sect members would "face head on" the charges. The group, he said, still maintains its innocence. Jessop, who arrived in Schleicher County on Tuesday from Utah, said he and other sect members were disappointed that they were not invited to testify at the grand jury proceedings. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 more polygamist-sect members indicted in Texas | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Associated Press The Kansas City Star Originally published Wednesday, Sep 24, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| A west Texas grand jury investigating allegations that members of a polygamist sect sexually abused girls indicted three more people Tuesday, raising the number of defendants in the case to nine. Each of the sect members indicted Tuesday by the Schleicher County grand jury was charged with sexual assault of a child, and two face an additional charge of bigamy, state Attorney General Greg Abbott said in a statement. Abbott's office has taken over prosecution of the case from local authorities in the tiny county. The names of those charged were not immediately released, but none had been charged previously. The grand jury earlier had indicted six other members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, including jailed sect leader Warren Jeffs. The grand jury has now met three times to consider evidence against residents of the Yearning For Zion Ranch, which is run by the FLDS, a breakaway Mormon sect. All but one of those indicted has been charged with sexual abuse of a child, and some also have been charged with bigamy. The sect's doctor has been charged only with three misdemeanor counts of failure to report child abuse. Authorities raided the YFZ Ranch in April looking for evidence of underage marriages and abuse involving sect girls. Texas child welfare authorities initially put all 440 children at the ranch in foster care but were forced to return them by a Texas Supreme Court ruling that found evidence showed abuse in only a handful of cases. Grand jury proceedings are secret, but numerous documents and photos disclosed as part of a separate child custody case show girls, some as young as 12, purportedly married to middle-aged men. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Texas issues another 5 indictments against FLDS | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — Five more indictments have been handed down against three people in the ongoing criminal probe into the Utah-based Fundamentalist LDS Church. "All five are felony charges," Schleicher County Clerk Peggy Williams said Tuesday, announcing the grand jury indictments here. Each person will face a sexual assault charge. "The three ... were indicted for sexually assaulting children," Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said in a statement. "Each of those suspects faces one felony count of sexual assault of a child and two of the suspects each face an additional first-degree felony charge of bigamy." Williams would not reveal who was indicted until they are served with court papers. The Schleicher County Sheriff's Office will either arrange for the indicted individuals to surrender or apprehend them. "Whatever they say we need to do," chief deputy George Arispe told the Deseret News after the grand jury had left for the day. A lawyer representing FLDS members showed up to the courthouse late Tuesday afternoon to inquire about the indictments, but also could not get any names. After meeting for only six hours on Tuesday, a prosecutor in the Texas Attorney General's Office stepped out of the Schleicher County Memorial Building and into the sunshine to fetch a court clerk. A few minutes later, she emerged with the sealed indictments. Members of the secret panel filed out of the building in a line, past a fence of yellow plastic sheriff's tape that stretched around the entire building. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Conflicts abound in FLDS custody cases | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Friday, Sept. 26, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — There were so many perceived conflicts of interest in a hearing here Thursday, Child Protective Services lawyers created a flow chart to try to explain it all. Annette Jeffs, the mother of 17-year-old Teresa Jeffs, wanted to jettison her attorney for Laura Shockley. So did Barbara Jessop, the mother of a 14-year-old girl allegedly married at age 12 to Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs. Jessop is also a stepmother of Raymond Merril Jessop, indicted in a criminal case and also believed to have married Teresa Jeffs at 15. Shockley, who represented some of the "disputed minors" that turned out to be adults, also represented some children early on in the FLDS custody battle — including a 5-year-old boy whose mother is one of Annette Jeffs' sister-wives, and CPS alleged, a sister-wife to Barbara Jessop's 14-year-old daughter. "Every individual, as Americans, are free to choose who they want to represent them," countered Kirby Roberts, a lawyer hired to represent Shockley, a Dallas-area attorney. Appearing in court together, Annette Jeffs and Barbara Jessop both said they were willing to waive any conflicts to have Shockley represent them. But under questioning, both women refused to answer questions that underscored the perceived problem. "As a mother of a child, do you see a problem with an attorney representing you, the mother of an alleged victim, and a parent of an alleged perpetrator?" CPS attorney Jeff Schmidt asked Annette Jeffs. "I'm going to stand on the Fifth," she replied. She invoked her right against self-incrimination to nearly every question about her daughter's alleged marriage at age 15 to Raymond Jessop. In civil court those non-answers can be used against her. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 men from West Texas polygamist sect turn themselves in on assault, bigamy charges | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By EMILY RAMSHAW The Dallas Morning News Originally published Monday, September 29, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
AUSTIN — Three men from a West Texas polygamist sect turned themselves into authorities on Monday, six days after they were indicted on charges related to the "spiritual" marriage of underage girls. Lehi Barlow Jeffs, Abram Harker Jeffs and Keith William Dutson Jr. were all charged with felony sexual assault of a child; both Lehi Jeffs and Abram Jeffs were also charged with felony bigamy. The men were released from the Schleicher County Jail – just a few miles from their Yearning For Zion ranch – after posting a combined $320,000 bond. Six other men, including jailed sect prophet Warren Jeffs, were indicted on similar charges this summer. Sect leaders could not immediately be reached for comment. The surrender came nearly six months after state authorities seized 440 children from the religious ranch over allegations that young girls were being forced into marriages with older men. Two months later, when Texas courts ruled that the state overstepped its authority, most of the children returned to their families – though under strict oversight. Since then, about half of the state’s child custody cases regarding the sect have been dropped, meaning the state has determined that the children can live safely with a parent or relative.
eramshaw@dallasnews.com | |||||||||||||||||||||
| LATEST NEWS | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Eldorado Success Originally published Monday, September 29, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Three men indicted last week by Schleicher County grand jurors surrendered themselves this morning at the county jail then promptly posted bail and were released. Abram Harker Jeffs, 27, and Lehi Barlow Jeffs, aka Lehi Barlow Allred, 29, were booked into jail on charges of Sexual Assault of a Child and Bigamy. Meanwhile, Keith William Dutson Jr., 23, was jailed on a charge of Sexual Assault of a Child. All the charges are 1st Degree felonies.
Representatives of the Texas Attorney General's office and Texas Rangers were at the jail. So were bail bond agents who posted surety bonds for the men's release. Abram Harker Jefs and Lehi Barlow Jeffs, aka Lehi Barlow Allred, were each released on $110,000.00 bond. Dutson was freed on a $100,000.00 bond. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 FLDS men indicted by grand jury surrender in Texas | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Three men recently indicted by a Texas grand jury investigating crimes within the Fundamentalist LDS Church have surrendered to authorities. Abram Harker Jeffs, 37, and Lehi Barlow Jeffs, 29, surrendered Monday morning at the Schleicher County Sheriff's Office in Eldorado, Texas, where they were booked on charges of sexual assault and bigamy. Keith William Dutson Jr., 23, was also booked on a sexual assault charge. "They came in, they booked in and were released on bail bonds," Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran told the Deseret News. Abram Harker Jeffs and Lehi Jeffs each posted $110,000 in bond. Dutson posted $100,000. They were accompanied by their attorney, who met Texas Rangers and representatives from the Texas Attorney General's Office at the sheriff's office, Doran said. A call to the men's attorney, Amy Hennington, was not immediately returned. Unsealed indictments obtained by the Deseret News on Monday accuse the men of having sex with girls under 17. FLDS bishop's records seized by law enforcement in the April raid on the YFZ Ranch indicate Dutson, then 22, had a 16-year-old wife in March 2007. The indictment accuses him of sexually assaulting her in August 2006. Abram Harker Jeffs also had a 16-year-old wife, according to a bishop's record dated April 2007. The indictments accuse him of sexually assaulting her in May 2006. Lehi Barlow Jeffs (also known as Lehi Barlow Allred) is accused of sexually assaulting a girl under 17 in October 2005. The men are expected to make their first court appearance next month, Schleicher County Clerk Peggy Williams said. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Three more sect men surrender | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Paul A. Anthony San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published Wednesday, October 1, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Incremental developments continue to unfold this week in the dual cases against a polygamous sect whose Schleicher County compound was raided in April. Three members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints were arrested and released on bail Monday after turning themselves in - bringing to eight the number of sect men arrested in a criminal case that alleges underage marriages and sexual abuse. A ninth FLDS man remains at large despite being indicted on two undisclosed charges months ago, said Schleicher County District Clerk Peggy Williams. The three men arrested Monday were released on bonds totaling more than $300,000. They are:
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| Judge delays hearings for FLDS until December | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Monday, Oct. 27, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Court hearings for members of the Fundamentalist LDS Church indicted by a rural Texas grand jury have been delayed. Attorneys for the men asked a judge in Eldorado, Texas, Monday to put off pretrial hearings until Dec. 1 so they could go over evidence and discovery issues with prosecutors, Schleicher County court clerks told the Deseret News. Lehi Barlow Jeffs, 29, and Abram Harker Jeffs, 37, made their first appearances in court on Monday on sexual assault of a child and bigamy. The other cases called in court were:
Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS hearings set back to December | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Matt Phinney San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published October 27, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO - Pretrial hearings for six men facing criminal charges as an outcome of the state's April raid on the YFZ Ranch have been postponed to Dec. 1 at the request of their attorneys. The hearings for the men, all members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, were scheduled Monday in 51st District Court at the Schleicher County courthouse, but a continuance was granted to allow the attorneys to keep reviewing the large volume of evidence in the cases. "There is thousands of pages of evidence," said Mark Stevens, who represents Raymond Merril Jessop. Stevens, a San Antonio attorney, said a motion for change of venue is likely. "Where are you going to go?" Judge Barbara Walther said to Stevens about a possible change of venue. "There is a bit of publicity associated with this case." After the brief hearing, he declined to talk about possible motions. Eric Nichols, deputy attorney general for criminal justice, told Walther he thinks the cases are ready to go to trial. After the hearing, he said he could not comment on speculative motions that have not been filed. Abilene attorney Randy Wilson, who represented Allan Keate and Michael Emack, told the judge he doesn't want to prolong the process, but he is limited in his resources at his office. He said he will "do what I can do." "That's all I am asking," Walther said. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Statement By Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
News Release oag.state.tx.us Originally published Wednesday, November 12, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| "A Schleicher County grand jury today issued felony indictments against four defendants associated with the YFZ compound near Eldorado, Texas." "One of the defendants was indicted for conducting an unlawful marriage ceremony involving a minor, which is a third-degree felony. A second defendant was indicted on three counts of third-degree bigamy. The third defendant was indicted on four charges: first-degree felony bigamy, second-degree felony bigamy, third-degree felony bigamy, and tampering with physical evidence, a third-degree felony." "The fourth defendant, Warren Jeffs, was indicted on a first-degree felony count of aggravated sexual assault. Today’s sexual assault charge is in addition to Jeffs’ July 2008 indictment for sexually assaulting a child." "To date, 12 people associated with the polygamist compound in Eldorado have been indicted as part of the ongoing and continuing criminal investigation." "I want to thank the Texas Rangers, who are the leading this investigation, and the criminal investigators with the Office of the Attorney General, for their outstanding work on this case. For months, dedicated men and women from our Cyber Crimes, Fugitive and Special Investigations Units have literally been living in San Angelo, commuting home to their families on weekends. I also want to thank Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran for his assistance with this matter." "Today’s charges reflect a cooperative effort between the Texas Attorney General's Office, Texas Department of Public Safety, the Texas Rangers, 51st Judicial District Attorney Steve Lupton, and the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Richard B. Roper." "Because law enforcement authorities are still reviewing the arrest warrants issued today, further information about the indictments cannot be released at this time." | |||||||||||||||||||||
| BREAKING NEWS: Eight more indictments issued against sect members | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Paul Anthony San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published Wednesday, November 12, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO - A Schleicher County grand jury this afternoon issued eight more indictments in the criminal case brought against members of a polygamous sect that ran a compound near here. The grand jury indicted four members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in a short day that apparently featured no witnesses but rather a review of evidence recovered from the YFZ Ranch since a raid April 3 by law enforcement and the state's Child Protective Services agency. The raid was the largest child removal action in Texas history, taking more than 400 children into state custody on allegations that they were in danger of sexual abuse. Nearly all the children were returned to their families, but the state is now using records seized during the raid to seek indictments against some members of the sect. Schleicher County District Clerk Peggy Williams declined to say whether Wednesday's indictments were issued against any of the 10 members who already have been charged in connection with the case, or what the charges alleged. The indictments bring to 26 the number of charges filed against at least 10 members of the sect, ranging from felony sexual assault of a child to misdemeanor failure to report abuse. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| More felony indictments issued in FLDS case | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| A Texas grand jury investigating crimes within the Fundamentalist LDS Church issued more felony indictments this afternoon against four men. One FLDS man was indicted for conducting an unlawful marriage ceremony involving a minor, which is a third-degree felony, according to a statement from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. A second man was indicted on three counts of bigamy, a third-degree felony. A third man was indicted on four charges: first-degree felony bigamy, second-degree felony bigamy, third-degree felony bigamy, and tampering with physical evidence, a third-degree felony, according to the attorney general. The fourth person indicted Wednesday was FLDS leader Warren Jeffs. He was indicted for aggravated sexual assault, a first-degree felony. "Today's sexual assault charge is in addition to Jeffs' July 2008 indictment for sexually assaulting a child," Abbott said. "To date, 12 people associated with the polygamist compound in Eldorado have been indicted as part of the ongoing and continuing criminal investigation," he said. The names will likely not be released until arrangements are made for the indicted individuals to surrender to the Schleicher County sheriff. Schleicher County Clerk Peggy Williams told the Deseret News that some some of the charges were handed down against people who have already been indicted, but it's unclear if she meant anyone other than Jeffs. "The attorney general's office will arrange for their surrender through their attorneys," Sheriff David Doran said Wednesday. "We'll handle it from there." Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Nine more indictments issued against FLDS members | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Paul Anthony San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published November 12, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
ELDORADO - Nine more charges were brought Wednesday against four members of a secretive polygamous sect whose sprawling Schleicher County compound was raided in April. The indictments were issued by the Schleicher County grand jury after a meeting in which it appeared no witnesses were called. They bring to 26 the number of charges filed against 12 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - all regarding alleged underage marriages conducted during the years since the sect bought property northeast of Eldorado and built the YFZ Ranch. Sect leader Warren Jeffs was among the four men charged Wednesday, according to the state Attorney General's Office. Already indicted in July on a charge of sexual assault of a child, Jeffs was charged Wednesday with aggravated sexual assault. Charges against the other three men are as follows, according to the Attorney General's Office:
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| 8 new indictments issued in Texas polygamist case | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Associated Press Originally published Wednesday, November 12, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas (AP) — A grand jury on Wednesday indicted another three members of a polygamist sect that was the focus of a massive raid in west Texas during the spring. The state attorney general's office said four people were named in eight new indictments, but one of them — sect leader Warren Jeffs — had been previously charged. The grand jury in Schleicher County has now charged 12 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. A sexual assault charge was added against Jeffs, who previously was charged in Texas with bigamy and aggravated sexual assault of a child. Two people were indicted on bigamy charges Wednesday, and another was charged with conducting an unlawful marriage ceremony involving a minor, the attorney general's office said in a statement. All but one of the nine men previously indicted are charged with sexual assault of a child. Several of those men also face bigamy charges. The sect's doctor is charged only with misdemeanor counts of failure to report child abuse. The church's attorney, Rod Parker, said late Wednesday the grand jury's investigation seems to be winding down. Charges of bigamy will be difficult to prove, he said, because plural FLDS marriages were sanctioned in the church but not legal marriages. Texas law makes it illegal to even purport to marry more than one person, but Parker said enforcement against consenting adults will face a constitutional challenge. "When you talk about making bigamy a crime in a setting where there is not a civil marriage ... it is not constitutional," he said, comparing the relationships to other cohabitating couples. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Teen sect girl, her baby sought for gene testing | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Paul A. Anthony San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published Friday, November 21, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| A girl alleged to have been married to an adult at age 14 has become the new focus of the state's investigation into allegations of sexual abuse at a Schleicher County polygamist compound. In a brief hearing Thursday, the girl's attorney told 51st District Judge Barbara Walther her client was not present, torpedoing a planned hearing on a motion by the state's Child Protective Services agency that would have compelled the girl to produce her newborn child for DNA testing. "My client is not willing to appear voluntarily," said Kelly J. Ellis, the San Angelo attorney appointed to represent the girl. Walther rescheduled the hearing for Tuesday, ordering the girl, her mother and the newborn all to be present. According to the CPS motion, the girl gave birth June 14, just after Walther returned 439 children to their parents at the order of the Texas Supreme Court. The higher court ruled Walther should not have allowed the state to take emergency custody of all the children after its April raid on the YFZ Ranch northeast of Eldorado. Court documents do not list the exact age of the girl, nor do documents released in the course of the seven-month case provide any immediate indication of how old she is or reference to her parents, Sarah Barlow and Joseph Steed. According to the motion filed Nov. 14 by CPS' new lead attorney for the case, John R. Dolezal, the girl is still younger than 18 and was married at 14. The girl "has a child," Dolezal said in court Thursday. "In order for us to do our duties investigating sexual abuse, we need the child produced to do genetic testing. We're here in the best interests of (the girl), to protect her from sexual abuse." Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS girl ordered to appear in court on baby's DNA testing | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Friday, Nov. 21, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — A judge has ordered a girl alleged to have been married at age 14 to appear in court Tuesday for a hearing to compel her to produce her newborn baby for DNA testing. The San Angelo Standard-Times reported Friday that 51st District Judge Barbara Walther ordered the girl, her mother and the newborn child to be present after the girl's court-appointed attorney said she would not appear voluntarily. The newspaper said court papers indicated the girl gave birth to the baby on June 14, shortly after 439 children taken in the raid on the YFZ Ranch were returned to their families under orders from the Texas Supreme Court. The girl is still under 18, the Standard-Times reported, and CPS is seeking a DNA sample as part of its ongoing investigation into allegations of sexual abuse involving children from the YFZ Ranch. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 FLDS members surrender in Texas | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Men were wanted by authorities on felony charges | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Monday, Nov. 24, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| The leader of the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch has surrendered to authorities in rural Texas after being indicted by a grand jury. Fredrick Merril Jessop, 72, and other indicted FLDS members surrendered on Monday at the Schleicher County Sheriff's Office in the company of Texas Rangers and their attorneys. Jessop was indicted earlier this month on a charge of conducting an unlawful marriage ceremony involving a minor, a third-degree felony. Documents seized from the YFZ Ranch by law enforcement and entered into court evidence indicated that Jessop performed a marriage ceremony between his 12-year-old daughter and FLDS leader Warren Jeffs. The girl, now 14, is back in foster care after a judge ruled her mother failed to protect her from abuse. Wendell Loy Nielsen, 68, another leader in the FLDS Church, surrendered to face three charges of bigamy, a third-degree felony. Nielsen owns NewEra Manufacturing. Leroy Johnson Steed, 42, surrendered on a charge of sexual assault of a child, a first-degree felony; bigamy and tampering with physical evidence, both third-degree felonies. Steed was arrested on the evidence tampering charge in the early days of the raid but was only recently indicted. All three men were released after posting bond, the sheriff's office said. Nielsen and Jessop each posted $30,000; Steed posted $120,000. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS leader Jessop arrested | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Paul A. Anthony San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published Tuesday, November 25, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Fredrick Merril Jessop - the patriarch of a Schleicher County polygamous compound accused of orchestrating or condoning at least 10 marriages alleged to have occurred between underage girls and adult men - turned himself in Monday to Schleicher County officials and was released on bond. Jessop and two others, indicted Nov. 12 by a Schleicher County grand jury, arrived at the Schleicher County Sheriff's Office shortly before noon Monday and were released on bond soon after, sheriff's personnel said. Jessop, 72, believed to be the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints since the arrest of its self-styled prophet, Warren Jeffs, was indicted on a charge of conducting an unlawful marriage ceremony involving a minor, a third-degree felony. He was released after posting $30,000 bond. Wendell Loy Nielsen, 68, was released on $30,000 bond - $10,000 each for three counts of bigamy, a third-degree felony. Leroy Johnson Steed, 42, was released on $120,000 bond after being arrested on four charges - first-degree felony sexual assault of a child, which carries a $100,000 bond, and three others: second-degree felony bigamy, third-degree felony bigamy and third-degree felony tampering with physical evidence. Jeffs also was indicted on a charge of first-degree felony sexual assault of a child, his third indictment since the grand jury began meeting this summer. In Texas, a first-degree felony is punishable by 5 to 99 years in prison; a second-degree felony is punishable by 2 to 20 years in prison; and a third-degree felony is punishable by 2 to 10 years in prison. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Sealed agreement reached on dispute over FLDS infant | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By PAUL ANTHONY San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published Tuesday, November 25, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Attorneys reached an agreement Tuesday over a teen girl's refusal to divulge the whereabouts of her 5-month-old baby to the state's Child Protective Services agency. The agreement, which is under seal, headed off what could have been a messy conflict between the girl, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and 51st District Judge Barbara Walther, who had ordered her to answer questions about the location of her child. "There was an agreement reached," CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins said, "but on the direction of the judge we can't talk about it." The girl's refusal to divulge the whereabouts of her infant set in motion a chain of events in which Walther essentially forced the attorneys to reach an agreement to avoid a scenario in which the girl could have been jailed for contempt of court. Walther unexpectedly left the Tom Green County Courthouse while the sides were negotiating, surprising observers and attorneys alike, telling an attorney on her way out of the building, "I trust you'll get it resolved." Just after 5 p.m., CPS attorneys left the courthouse, followed soon after by attorneys for the girl and her mother. All attorneys declined to comment. "I really can't say anything," said Kelly J. Ellis, the girl's attorney. The hearing had been delayed from last week after the girl did not appear in court. Walther ordered the girl to bring her child to court Tuesday for the hearing, which was to decide whether the state should be allowed to observe the girl's interaction with the baby and do a DNA test. The girl showed up; her infant did not. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Texas officials seek DNA from sect infant | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ashley Broughton CNN Originally published Wed November 26, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| (CNN) -- Texas child welfare officials have asked a judge to order a teenage member of a polygamous sect to let them take DNA from her infant so they can determine the father's identity, according to court documents filed in the case. The teenager, who is younger than 18, is a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She is believed to have had the baby in June, Texas Department of Family and Protective Services attorneys said in the documents, filed earlier this month. Child welfare authorities also believe the teenager was married at 14 to an adult male, department attorney John Dolezal writes in the motion. "In order to determine the identity of the sexual perpetrator who engaged in sexual intercourse with [the girl] while she was a minor, which act consequently led to this pregnancy, the department is required to perform genetic testing on the child so as to determine who that individual is," the motion said. CNN is not naming the teenager, as authorities allege she is a victim of sexual abuse. A hearing on the matter was conducted Tuesday. Patrick Crimmins, spokesman for DFPS, said the teenager showed up without the baby. An agreement was reached by both sides during the hearing, Crimmins said, but the judge ordered that the agreement not be made public. The department has attempted to resolve the issue with the teenager but had not been successful, the motion said. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS leader arraigned in Texas court | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Monday, Dec. 1, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| The leader of the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch appeared in a rural Texas court on a charge accusing him of performing an underage marriage. Fredrick Merril Jessop, 72, was arraigned in Schleicher County court Monday on a charge of conducting a ceremony prohibited by law. An indictment unsealed by the courts when Jessop surrendered accuses the ranch leader of performing a marriage involving an underage girl to FLDS leader Warren Jeffs in 2006. The girl's name is redacted from the indictment but court documents filed with an ongoing child custody case claim that Jessop married his 12-year-old daughter to Jeffs. That girl is currently back in foster care after a judge ruled her mother failed to protect her from abuse. Leroy Johnson Steed, 42, appeared on a charge of sexual assault, bigamy and tampering with evidence. Steed was arrested in the early days of the April raid on the YFZ Ranch, and an indictment accuses him of trying to conceal "an electronic data storage device and its contents, and assorted papers contained in a trash bag, with intent to impair their availability as evidence in the investigation." The men did not enter pleas, court clerks in Eldorado said Monday. Wendell Loy Nielsen, 68, did not appear for a scheduled arraignment on three counts of bigamy. Court hearings were also scheduled for Raymond Merril Jessop, Allan Eugene Keate, Michael Emack, Merril Leroy Jessop, Lehi Barlow Jeffs, Abram Harker Jeffs and Keith William Dutson Jr. Prosecutors made a minor change in the wording of some of the indictments and sought a list of defense expert witnesses, the attorney general's office said. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Texas polygamist sect: 'We're not going anywhere' | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Michelle Roberts The Associated Press Deseret News Originally published Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANTONIO — The polygamist sect men facing criminal charges in West Texas have indicated they do not plan to seek a change of venue for their trials, meaning a tiny courthouse that hasn't seen a jury trial in at least a decade could face a stampede in the coming year. "What would be a better place? At this point, we don't intend to ask for a change in venue," said Kent Schaffer, a Houston attorney who represents a Fundamentalist LDS Church member facing bigamy charges. Other defense lawyers and a church spokesman have also indicated they don't plan to ask Texas District Judge Barbara Walther to move the trials out of Schleicher County. In all, 11 sect men have been charged with felonies including sexual assault of a child, bigamy, conducting an unlawful marriage ceremony involving a minor and tampering with evidence. A 12th man, the sect's doctor, has been charged with three misdemeanor counts of failure to report child abuse. Because the men were charged separately, each face separate trials. No dates have been set yet. The tiny two-story courthouse in Eldorado has not held a jury trial in "a long, long time," said Schleicher County Clerk Peggy Williams, estimating it's been at least a decade. Asked whether the county that has only about 2,000 registered voters could handle a dozen trials, she said: "I couldn't tell you. It depends on what the attorneys come up with." Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Investigators obtain DNA from sect infant | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Paul A. Anthony San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published December 9, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| State investigators obtained a DNA sample Monday from a 5-month-old baby whose teenage mother had refused to answer questions in court about the child's whereabouts. Investigators with the Texas Attorney General's Office obtained a search warrant Monday and took the sample, spokesman Jerry Strickland said. "It will be used as part of a criminal investigation," he said. The sample likely will be used to determine the infant's paternity because her mother is alleged to be 17 years old. The mother gave birth June 14, just 10 days after the Texas Supreme Court ordered the state's Child Protective Services agency to return the 439 children it had seized from the YFZ Ranch in Schleicher County, home to members of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. When called to the stand in a hearing Nov. 25, the teen refused to answer questions from a CPS attorney about where her daughter was, even after being instructed to by 51st District Judge Barbara Walther. Walther then recessed the court and ordered attorneys for CPS and the teen to reach an agreement that she placed under seal. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| No new indictments from Schleicher County grand jury | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Paul A. Anthony San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published December 16, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| The Schleicher County grand jury ended its six-month term this morning with no new indictments - ending, at least for now, the prospect of additional criminal charges in the investigation into a polygamous sect. During its term, the grand jury indicted 12 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on 26 charges ranging from first-degree felony sexual assault of a child to misdemeanor failure to report abuse. Sect leader Warren Jeffs, ranch leader Merril Jessop, several of his sons and YFZ Ranch doctor Lloyd Barlow are among those indicted since the grand jury's term began in May. All the men have been served with the indictment and - with the exception of Jeffs, who is awaiting trial in Arizona on other charges - are free on bond. The grand jury's six-month term expired at the end of October, but 51st District Judge Barbara Walther granted a two-month extension, said district court clerk Maryann Gonzalez. With the panel's term ended, prosecutors seeking any new indictments would be required to present anew their evidence to the new grand jury, which was empaneled in November. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Grand jury on FLDS members finishes term | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Associated Press Deseret News Originally published Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — A grand jury that had been hearing evidence since June in the cases against members of a Utah-based polygamist sect met for the final time Tuesday without issuing any new indictments. The panel's term expired with the final meeting. Prosecutors will have to impanel a new grand jury next year in this tiny West Texas ranching town to pursue any additional charges against members of the Fundamentalist LDS Church. Since July, the grand jury has indicted 12 men on charges ranging from failure to report child abuse to sexual assault of a child and bigamy. None of the cases have been scheduled for trial yet. The cases stem from a massive raid of the FLDS' Yearning for Zion Ranch in April. Authorities confiscated hundreds of thousands of church documents, photos and letters, looking for evidence of underage girls forced into marriages and sex. Under Texas law, those under 17 generally cannot consent to sex with an adult. Bigamy, which includes even purporting to marry more than one person, is also illegal. The FLDS Church is a breakaway sect of the Mormon church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| CPS says 'Here's what we found' | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Agency: Neglect or abuse happened in 91 families | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Paul A. Anthony San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published Wednesday, December 24, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| A high percentage of families at a Schleicher County polygamous compound abused or neglected their children - and more than a quarter of girls age 12 and older were forced into underage marriage, according to a final report from child welfare officials released Tuesday. The report marks what amounts to a final salvo from the state's Child Protective Services agency, which has borne the brunt of criticism stemming from its raid of the YFZ Ranch northeast of Eldorado that began April 3. "People may have lost sight of the fact that the reason we went to the ranch was to do this investigation," said CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins. "CPS did what it was required to do under state law." The 21-page report, sent by the Department of Family and Protective Services to the state's Health and Human Services Commission late Monday, provides a detailed retelling of CPS' probe into whether members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints fostered a "pervasive pattern and practice" of underage marriage and sexual abuse at the ranch cited in allegations to the court following the raid. According to data detailed in the report, 274 girls were "subjected to neglect" - including 12 girls married to adult men while age 15 or younger. The alleged victims comprise 91 families, or 62 percent of the total identified at the compound, and the cases involve 124 alleged perpetrators. Of the 12 girls the report identifies as victims of sexual abuse, two were 12 when they were married, the report states, while three were 13, two were 14 and five were 15. Seven of the girls had one or more children as a result of the marriage, according to the report. "The report is saying, 'Here's what we found,'" Crimmins said. "We did find that pattern." Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS trial dates scheduled; Swinton hearing delayed | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Monday, Jan. 12, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Trial dates have been scheduled for a group of men from the Fundamentalist LDS Church charged in connection with underage marriages. The men all appeared before a judge in an Eldorado, Texas, court on Monday where a schedule was laid out for the dozen men facing grand jury indictments. Raymond Merril Jessop, 37, will be the first to go on trial Oct. 26 on a charge of sexual assault of a child. The rest will take place in a monthly succession based on the number of indictments, the Texas Attorney General's Office said Monday. The exception will be FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, 53, who is incarcerated in Arizona pending trial there on sexual misconduct charges. Jeffs is facing charges of sexual assault of a child and bigamy in Texas. In the immediate future, lawyers for the men will be filing motions to challenge the hundreds of thousands of pieces of evidence seized when law enforcement raided the YFZ Ranch in April. A hearing on any motions will be held May 13. "Our belief all along is that law enforcement was never here looking for someone, it was an agenda," FLDS member and spokesman Willie Jessop told the Deseret News after court was over. "We were concerned about their motives before they ever even got in the gate." Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| First trial in FLDS polygamist case set for Oct. 26. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Church member accused of marrying underage girl was indicted on a child sex abuse charge | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Associated Press Houston Chronicle Originally published January 12, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — The first criminal trial resulting from the raid on a polygamist group's West Texas ranch has been set for Oct. 26. State District Judge Barbara Walther on Monday set the trial date for Raymond Merrill Jessop, who has been indicted on one count of sexual assault of a child and one count of bigamy. The bigamy charge stems from the 37-year-old's alleged marriage to a daughter of the sect's jailed leader Warren Jeffs. Church records indicate the girl was 15 at the time of the marriage. Jessop and Jeffs are among 12 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints indicted in Texas after authorities raided the sect's Yearning For Zion Ranch in April. Defense attorneys have challenged the validity of the raid and the documents seized in the case. A hearing on a motion to suppress those documents is scheduled for May. The FLDS is a breakaway sect of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormon church, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago. Jeffs, revered by FLDS members as a prophet, is serving a prison term after being convicted in Utah as an accomplice to rape. He faces other charges in Arizona and Texas related to the alleged underage marriages of sect girls. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| First YFZ trial slated for October | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Eldorado Success Originally published January 15, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Hearing on legality of YFZ raid search warrant slated for May 13 Raymond Merril Jessop will stand trial for sexual assault of a child and bigamy, beginning on October 26, 2009. The trial will be held in Tom Green County, but with a Schleicher County jury, according to a ruling issued by 51st District Judge Barbara Walther during pretrial hearings Monday, January 12, 2009, at the Schleicher County Courthouse. Trials for the remaining YFZ Ranch defendants will follow at a rate of one per month with Allan Eugene Keate being the second slated to stand trial. Keate is also charged with sexual assault of a child. But, before the trials can take place, Walther must first rule on the legality of the search of the YFZ Ranch. Lawyers representing the various YFZ defendants have challenged the warrant served at the YFZ last April after authorities responded to a call from an alleged abuse victim. That call is now widely believed to have been a hoax. The judge will hear challenges to the search at a hearing on May 13th. In a related matter, attorney's representing FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs have agreed to withhold their challenge to the use of YFZ evidence in Jeffs' Arizona trial until after the May hearing. In all, a dozen men connected with the YFZ Ranch have been charged with crimes ranging from sexual assault of a child, and aggravated sexual assault, to bigamy, tampering with physical evidence, failure to report abuse, and conducting a ceremony prohibited by law. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS leader to give deposition in custody case | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Thursday, Jan. 22, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| The head of the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch is scheduled give a deposition in an ongoing custody dispute over the 17-year-old daughter of polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs. Frederick Merril Jessop is expected to be questioned by the court-appointed attorney for Teresa Jeffs on Friday. FLDS member and spokesman Willie Jessop is scheduled to give a deposition in San Angelo, Texas, on Monday. Jeffs' attorney ad litem, Natalie Malonis, subpoenaed the men earlier this month in connection with the ongoing custody case. Their attorney filed several challenges to the subpoenas. "Frederick Merril Jessop is not a party to this lawsuit and believes this subpoena is solely for harassment," Amy Hennington wrote. In a court filing, Malonis argued that both men will be called by Jeffs' mother, Annette, at trial and she's entitled to know what they're going to say. "Frederick Merril Jessop is also the father of Raymond Jessop, the adult male who was allegedly married to the child the subject of this suit," she responded. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Depositions scheduled for FLDS officials | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Paul A. Anthony San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published Friday, January 23, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
A top leader of the YFZ Ranch and the most public defender of the polygamous sect housed there will testify under oath in Schleicher County beginning today. Lawyer Natalie Malonis, the lightning-rod attorney for imprisoned sect leader Warren Jeffs' now 17-year-old daughter, will take sworn depositions from:
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| Sect leader's Fifth pleadings to be reviewed | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Paul A. Anthony San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published Saturday, January 24, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Even after eight hours in a Schleicher County courtroom, the deposition of YFZ Ranch leader Merril Jessop may not be over. Attorneys for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints elder and his alleged teenage daughter-in-law will argue in court Monday over whether Jessop should be able to plead Fifth Amendment protection to a series of questions regarding the polygamous sect's financial structure. "There are quite a few (answers) that are in controversy," said Natalie Malonis, the Denton attorney representing a 17-year-old daughter of FLDS leader Warren Jeffs. "He answered some of it. I hope that on Monday when we have our hearing, (the judge) will compel answers." 51st District Judge Barbara Walther set the hearing, Malonis said, after compelling testimony in a 30-minute telephone proceeding on some efforts by Jessop to plead the Fifth, which protects witnesses from being forced to give answers under oath that could incriminate them. The sect's own documents describe the girl as having been married to Jessop's 36-year-old son. Jessop, 72, has been indicted by a Schleicher County grand jury on charges of orchestrating an illegal marriage ceremony involving a different underage girl. Malonis said she has not contested all of Jessop's Fifth Amendment pleadings, but that she asked Walther to compel testimony on questions of the sect's finances. "He may be the only person who can answer that information," she said. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Ranch head pleads 5th 267 times | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Paul A. Anthony San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published Thursday, January 29, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Citing federal conspiracy and Mann Act investigations, YFZ Ranch leader Merril Jessop invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination more than 250 times last week, according to a deposition transcript obtained Wednesday by the Standard-Times. Jessop is a top leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that runs the polygamous sect's Schleicher County ranch. The Mann Act prohibits the transportation of people across state lines for the purpose of illegal sexual activity. Jessop invoked the Fifth Amendment 267 times Friday on questions as minor as whether he drives a car and as significant as whether his now-14-year-old daughter was involved in a sexual relationship with sect leader Warren Jeffs. "Upon the advice of counsel, he's exerting his Fifth Amendment" rights, Jessop's attorney, Amy Hennington, said early in the all-day Friday deposition, taken in the course of a custody case involving a girl alleged to be his daughter-in-law. "The basis is that there is potential state investigation still ongoing, as well as criminal investigations under the Mann Act out of the U.S. Attorney's office." In a phone hearing with 51st District Judge Barbara Walther over Jessop's refusal to answer questions early in the proceeding, Hennington told the judge she had concerns about an ongoing federal investigation into alleged FLDS violations of the Mann Act and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, better-known as RICO. RICO can be used to prosecute organized crime, as well as wire and mail fraud. The plethora of Fifth pleadings was the focus of a lengthy hearing Monday that stretched into the night. Jessop and sect spokesman Willie Jessop, who was deposed Monday morning, took the stand to explain why they had refused to answer the vast majority of the questions asked of them by Denton family law attorney Natalie Malonis. Malonis has said she seeks information about the sect's finances in the hopes of providing financial means for her 17-year-old client. That girl is a daughter of Jeffs who sect documents say was married at age 15 to Raymond Jessop, Merril Jessop's then-36-year-old son. Jessop pleaded the Fifth to questions involving the girl - including whether she has a baby with his son. He also refused to answer questions about his daughter who sect documents describe as being married to Jeffs at age 12, and who photos released in previous hearings show kissing the sect leader deeply shortly after their alleged marriage. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| BREAKING NEWS: Willie Jessop invokes 5th more than 100 times in deposition | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Paul A. Anthony San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published January 29, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Three days after YFZ Ranch leader Merril Jessop pleaded the Fifth Amendment a jaw-dropping 267 times, another member of the polygamous group that owns the property racked up 110 Fifth pleadings during his own deposition, according to a rough draft of the transcript obtained by the Standard-Times. William R. "Willie" Jessop - whose fiery denunciations of the state during its investigation of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints have made him one of the sect's most recognizable figures - refused to answer numerous questions from Denton attorney Natalie Malonis in a proceeding that the transcript shows to be tense, if not volatile. Jessop has not been indicted or charged in connection with this case, and he told Malonis that he has no children involved in the case. Like the transcript of Friday's deposition of Merril Jessop, the Standard-Times received the Willie Jessop transcript anonymously through e-mail. Because the transcript of Monday's proceeding is a rough draft, containing essentially the raw translation of input from the court reporter, it was provided with the caveat that it not be quoted directly. According to the transcript, at one point Malonis asked Jessop whether he had trouble understanding conversational English and entered into a series of questions about whether he was mentally disabled or taking medication after Jessop repeatedly said he did not understand a question about how he recognized Annette Jeffs, who was in the room. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Spokesman pleads the Fifth | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Nonresponsiveness pervades deposition | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Paul A. Anthony San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published Friday, January 30, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| In a tense half-day of sworn testimony, the spokesman for the polygamous sect that has a base in Schleicher County tussled with attorneys, trading barbs and invoking his constitutional right against self-incrimination more than 100 times. Three days after YFZ Ranch leader Merril Jessop pleaded the Fifth Amendment a jaw-dropping 267 times, William R. "Willie" Jessop did the same Monday to 110 questions, according to a rough draft of the transcript obtained Wednesday by the Standard-Times. Jessop, whose fiery denunciations of the state during its ongoing investigations of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have made him one of the sect's most recognizable figures, refused to answer numerous questions from Denton attorney Natalie Malonis in what the transcript portrays as a volatile proceeding. Jessop has not been indicted or charged in any of the numerous investigations into FLDS activities at the state and federal levels, and he told Malonis that he has no children involved in the case. Jessop could not be reached for comment Thursday. As with the transcript of Jan. 23 deposition of Merril Jessop, the Standard-Times received the Willie Jessop transcript anonymously through e-mail. According to the transcript, Malonis continued her efforts to gather information about the reclusive sect's finances in what she has described as an attempt to provide her 17-year-old client with the opportunity for autonomy once she turns 18 in July. The girl is described in sect documents - including her own diary notations - as having been married just after her 15th birthday to the 36-year-old son of Merril Jessop, who is not closely related to Willie Jessop. The transcript of Monday's proceeding at one point describes a particularly tense exchange between Willie Jessop and Malonis, who have been among the most public and polarizing figures in the case since the sect was raided by investigators in early April. The pair also have a contentious history. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS leader's daughter among 5 dropped in Texas case | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Monday, Feb. 2, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| The custody battle over the children from the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch is winding down rapidly, with only three children left under court oversight. One of the most hotly fought custody cases is closer to ending. In a filing in a San Angelo, Texas, court on Monday, Texas Child Protective Services asked a judge to "nonsuit" 17-year-old Teresa Jeffs, the daughter of FLDS leader Warren Jeffs. "The Court orders the suit affecting the parent-child relationship as it relates to Teresa Jeffs, a child, as to the action filed by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, dismissed," Judge Barbara Walther wrote in an order obtained by the Deseret News. A CPS spokesman declined to speak about the dismissal, saying the agency does not talk about specific cases. Jeffs' court-appointed attorney, Natalie Malonis, said the case was not over, however. Malonis filed a counter-petition in January, seeking to place restrictions upon Jeffs — including appointing her mother and CPS as joint-managing conservators of the child, restricting her to live in Texas, and seeking financial support from the United Effort Plan Trust, the real-estate arm of the FLDS Church. "I'm hoping to settle all this," Malonis told the Deseret News on Monday. She is in the midst of a courtroom spat with FLDS members and their lawyers after deposing YFZ Ranch leader Frederick Merril Jessop and FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop, who both invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in depositions involving her child client. A judge has yet to rule on whether they can be compelled to answer her questions. A hearing is scheduled Friday to deal with their request to seal the depositions. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Texas drops custody case involving daughter of jailed polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Associated Press Minneapolis Star Tribune - Minneapolis, MN Originally published February 3, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas - Texas child welfare authorities have dropped the custody case involving a 17-year-old daughter of jailed polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs, saying court oversight is no longer needed. Child Protective Services on Monday dropped its custody case on the girl, who was allegedly married to Raymond Merrill Jessop in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints the day after she turned 15. Jessop, 37, has been indicted on charges of bigamy and sexual assault of a child. The Associated Press does not generally name alleged abuse victims. CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins said child custody cases are dropped when the agency finds that family members will protect a child, even if abuse or neglect previously occurred. CPS has now dropped from court oversight all but three of the 440 children taken from the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado last April. The child custody cases do not directly affect the criminal cases that are pending. A dozen FLDS men, including Jeffs and Jessop, have been charged with crimes ranging from sexual assault of a child to failure to report child abuse. Jeffs was convicted in Utah in 2007 as an accomplice to rape in the underage marriage of a sect girl. He is to be tried in Arizona on similar charges before he can be brought to Texas for trial. The FLDS, which believes polygamy brings glorification in heaven, is a breakaway sect of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormon church, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Judge drops case of FLDS leader's daughter | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Paul A. Anthony San Angelo Standard-Times Deseret News Originally published February 6, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs' daughter is done. So is Natalie Malonis. Texas Judge Barbara Walther dismissed all petitions and attorneys involved with the case of the now-17-year-old girl alleged to have been married to a 34-year-old man just after her 15th birthday — closing for good one of the highest profile and most contentious aspects of the long-running litigation surrounding the FLDS Church. "I just couldn't believe what she was saying," said Teresa Jeffs' beaming mother, Annette Jeffs, after the hearing. "It's too good to be true." Walther rejected Teresa Jeffs' court-appointed attorney Natalie Malonis' contention that she should remain on the case to ensure Annette Jeffs was given full custody of the girl, instead citing a decision by the state's Child Protective Services agency last week to dismiss the teen from the case as the overriding factor in whether any further proceedings should take place. "Being perfectly frank and perfectly honest, it was the correct ruling," Malonis told the Deseret News afterward. "As soon as the department nonsuited, I thought my authority was in question." Malonis had argued that a series of prospective witness statements from CPS in December stating that the girl had been in a "harmful, abusive environment" should be considered before Walther dismissed the case. "The court can take notice of many things," Walther replied, "but the court must follow the law. The court cannot make the law. ... This is an unusual case, but I don't see any authority for you to continue." With that, Walther dismissed a raft of motions filed in the moments leading up to the hearing — including a motion filed by the San Angelo Standard-Times to quash a subpoena filed against one of its reporters, as well as an ongoing fight over whether to seal the deposition transcript from YFZ Ranch leader Frederick Merril Jessop. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Dismissals end case of sect chief's daughter | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By TERRI LANGFORD Houston Chronicle San Antonio Express-News Originally published February 6, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| The contentious Texas child welfare case involving polygamist leader Warren Jeffs' 17-year-old daughter ended Friday when a West Texas judge dismissed the girl's attorney and the custody case itself. The teen, married at age 15 to a 34-year-old man, was one of 439 children taken from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' ranch last year by Child Protective Services after the agency found evidence that underage girls were being married to adult men. While CPS officials have returned all of the children to their parents after the Texas Supreme Court ruled against the action, the teen's case had been one of the most high-profile ones still working its way through state District Judge Barbara Walther's court in San Angelo. The teen's father, the leader of the FLDS, the nation's largest polygamist sect, is serving two prison terms of five years to life for his role in the 2001 marriage of a 14-year-old girl to her 19-year-old cousin. The 17-year-old's story was one of several central to the state of Texas' criminal case. She divulged in her own diary, recovered from the raid of the sect's Yearning For Zion Ranch, that she was married by her father to Raymond Jessop, son of Jeffs' chief deputy, Merril Jessop. Jessop was indicted last year by an Eldorado grand jury on one count of sexual assault on a minor. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Texas accuses FLDS mother of switching babies | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Monday, March 2, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Texas child welfare authorities are accusing a 17-year-old girl from the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch of switching babies to avoid having to undergo a DNA test. In a court filing in San Angelo, Texas, made public on Monday, Child Protective Services urges a judge to cancel a Friday hearing over the girl and order her to undergo a psychological evaluation. The girl, who was 16 at the time she was taken into state custody during the raid on the YFZ Ranch, gave birth to a baby in June. State officials believe the girl was married at age 14. The girl refused to bring her baby to a November court hearing. At a subsequent meeting between CPS and the girl, lawyers for the agency said she brought a child she claimed to be her baby. "However, genetic testing proved that the child produced was not (the girl's) biological child," CPS attorney John R. Dolezal wrote. "Upon learning of this deception, (CPS) immediately confronted the problem by attempting to set up another meeting at which the Department ... could observe (the girl) with her child and genetic testing of the child could be performed." On the eve of the Jan. 9 meeting, CPS claims the girl's attorneys said she would not be producing the child. "Specifically, it appears (the girl) has been separated from her child," Dolezal wrote. "Additionally, petitioner is concerned that (the girl) is being improperly influenced, against her best interest, into making choices not to produce her child and to produce another individual's child. These circumstances cause petitioner to have great concern for the emotional well being of (the girl)." Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| BREAKING NEWS: State seeks psych evaluation for FLDS teen mom | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Paul A. Anthony San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published March 2, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| The state's Child Protective Services agency has asked a Tom Green County judge to order one of the two children from the YFZ Ranch whose cases remain open to undergo psychological evaluation, according to a motion filed last week and released by the court this afternoon. The motion, filed in the case of a 17-year-old girl who repeatedly refused to answer questions in court about the location of her infant child, describes multiple attempts by CPS to arrange meetings between caseworkers, the girl and the girl's 8-month-old child. "The department is concerned for the emotional welfare of (the girl)," the motion states. "Specifically, it appears that (the girl) has been separated from her child." The motion also asks 51st District Judge Barbara Walther to cancel a planned March 17 hearing because the agency is not seeking permanent custody of the teen. The girl's child was born in June, shortly after state appellate courts ordered the return of all 439 children taken in April from the YFZ Ranch, the Texas home of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. CPS has argued it found a "pervasive pattern and practice" of forced underage marriage and sexual abuse there. CPS alleges the girl was married at age 14. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| State wants girl from polygamist compound evaluated | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Paul A. Anthony San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published Tuesday, March 3, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Describing a series of alleged deceptions and roadblocks thrown up by a 17-year-old mother, the state's child-welfare agency is asking a Tom Green County judge to order her to undergo psychological evaluation. The girl, alleged by the state's Child Protective Services agency to have been married to an adult man at age 14, has so obstructed investigators' efforts to assess her parenting skills that the agency worries she may be unable to care for the 8-month-old baby, according to a motion filed last week and released Monday by Tom Green County state district court. "The department is concerned for the emotional welfare of" the girl, the motion, filed by CPS lead attorney John Dolezal, states. "Specifically, it appears that (the girl) has been separated from her child." The girl's attorney, Kelly J. Ellis, was unavailable for comment, her office said. Sect spokesman Willie Jessop said CPS' own actions have made the girl afraid the agency will take the infant from her. "This girl is mortified at the state," he said. "She's terrified they'll take her baby. There's been a breakdown of trust." The motion also states that CPS does not intend to seek permanent custody of the girl, one of two whose cases remain open since the April 3 raid of the YFZ Ranch, where the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has made its Texas home. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| State drops teen mom | |||||||||||||||||||||
| She's no longer part of probe of possible abuse | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Paul A. Anthony San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published Saturday, March 14, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| And then there was one. The state's Child Protective Services agency has dropped a 17-year-old mother from its investigation of alleged abuse at the YFZ Ranch, leaving just one child of the 439 initially removed from the polygamous Schleicher County compound. The nonsuit, filed Thursday, removes from the case a girl who has vexed state and court officials with her refusals to produce her 8-month-old baby, which CPS had sought for genetic testing. The Salt Lake Tribune reported CPS opened a new case in San Antonio, where the girl lives, seeking access to the baby to monitor the girl's parenting skills. The girl gave birth in June, just days after the return of hundreds of children from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. CPS has alleged she was married to an adult man at age 14. The only child remaining in the case is a 14-year-old girl whom sect documents and pictures show as having been married to sect leader Warren Jeffs at age 12. The girl has struggled to adapt to outside life with two foster families since 51st District Judge Barbara Walther gave the agency custody of the girl last summer. CPS filed a request that the girl be placed with a distant relative, Bandera resident Naomi Carlisle. Carlisle, 52, is an FLDS member but has never been a resident of the YFZ Ranch, and five of her 11 surviving children have left the sect upon adulthood, according to investigation documents. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Attorneys ask judge to seal case involving Jeffs daughter | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Paul A. Anthony San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published Thursday, March 26, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Attorneys for leaders of the polygamous sect with a home in Schleicher County have asked a Tom Green County judge to seal entirely the recently dismissed case of the 17-year-old daughter of sect leader Warren Jeffs. In a joint motion filed Monday, attorneys for YFZ Ranch head Merril Jessop, sect spokesman Willie Jessop and the girl's mother, Annette Jeffs, asked 51st District Judge Barbara Walther to seal the case and forbid other attorneys from disclosing any evidence concerning the case in their possession. "The harm from publicly releasing these depositions, their exhibits and other fruits of discovery is obvious," the motion states. "What seems to have been lost is that this was a case involving a determination of what was in the best interest of the children." Efforts to seal transcripts of depositions given in the case by both Jessops were dismissed with the rest of the case on Feb. 6 after the state's Child Protective Services agency nonsuited the girl, who the agency had alleged was married at age 15 to one of Merril Jessop's adult sons. Since then, the court released copies of the depositions, as well as the numerous pages of exhibits attached to them. Nevertheless, the motion argues, the case should be sealed to prevent further dissemination that could harm Merril Jessop's criminal case, harm the girl further or embarrass Willie Jessop. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS men seek to consolidate motion to suppress evidence | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Tuesday, March 31, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — Lawyers for members of the Fundamentalist LDS Church facing criminal charges are gearing up for an all-in-one attack on the evidence seized from the Utah-based polygamous sect's YFZ Ranch. In court documents filed here earlier this month, attorneys for the 12 men ask the judge to consolidate their motion to suppress evidence into one challenge. They argue that all of the men will be raising similar issues (with some exceptions) and each agrees to be bound by the judge's decision. "That such consolidated motion and hearing will result in substantial savings of judicial resources and will serve the interests of both justice and these defendants," Kent Schaffer, an attorney for Wendell Loy Nielsen, wrote. A judge has set a May hearing on motions to suppress evidence. Lehi Barlow Jeffs' attorney has filed to have any statements filed by his client tossed. Leroy Johnson Steed's attorney filed papers demanding any tapes made by law enforcement during last year's raid and other evidence that hasn't been handed over. A dozen men, including FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, face a variety of criminal charges connected to underage marriages ranging from sexual assault and bigamy to performing a marriage ceremony prohibited by law. An examination of the individual case files shows a number of motions typical to a criminal case have already been filed, the defendants have all pleaded not guilty, and the Texas Attorney General's Office has offered no plea deals to any of the men. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Texas drops fight over FLDS baby | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Wednesday, April 8, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Texas child welfare authorities are apparently backing off their demand for DNA testing of a baby born to a 17-year-old girl from the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch. Texas authorities confirmed to the Deseret News that the girl did not appear at a hearing scheduled Tuesday in San Antonio. Texas Child Protective Services spokesman Patrick Crimmins said that the girl was unable to be served, so they dropped the matter. "We did inform the judge about our continued concern for the safety of (the girl's) baby and that if she or the baby were located, we would come back to court if needed," Crimmins said in an e-mail to the Deseret News on Wednesday. The girl, whom CPS alleges was married to a 40-year-old man at age 14, has been defiant throughout the child custody proceedings. She gave birth to a child just after CPS returned all 439 children last year. She consistently refused to tell the judge over the custody case where her baby was, putting her at risk for contempt of court. At one point, CPS accused her of switching babies to avoid a DNA test and the agency demanded that she undergo a psychological evaluation. That apparently never happened. At the same time the agency dropped the girl from court oversight, it also filed a court motion in San Antonio seeking a DNA test for her baby and some oversight over her to monitor her parenting skills. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS Key Filing Deadline | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
KLST News KSAN - KLST - San Angelo, Texas Originally broadcast Tuesday, April 14, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
WEDNESDAY IS A KEY FILING DEADLINE FOR DEFENSE ATTORNIES IN THE CRIMINAL CASES INVOLVING MEN FROM THE POLYGYMOUS F-L-D-S GROUP WITH A RANCH NEAR ELDORADO.
ATTORNIES HAVE FILED MOTIONS TO SUPPRESS EVIDENCE OBTAINED BY OFFICERS LAST YEAR DURING A SEARCH OF THE Y-F-Z RANCH. IN THE MEANTIME -- TODAY IN AUSTIN -- MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE HELD A SOMETIMES CONTENTIOUS HEARING ON THE Y-F-Z RANCH CHILD CUSTODY CASE IN ELDORADO. SOME OF THE PEOPLE WHO SPOKE TODAY INCLUDED FUNDAMENTALIST LATTER DAY SAINTS ELDER WILLIE JESSOP. HE WAS QUESTIONED BY COMMITTE MEMBERS ABOUT THE REPORTED PRACTICE OF UNDERAGE GIRLS MARRYING OLDER MEN. HOUSE MEMBERS ON THE COMMITTEE -- INCLUDING STATE REPRESENTATIVE DREW DARBY -- ARE TAKING PART IN THE HEARING -- WHICH WAS STILL IN SESSION LATE THIS AFTERNOON. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Attorneys: Walther misled into issuing FLDS warrant | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Paul A. Anthony San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published April 15, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Texas Rangers misled Judge Barbara Walther into issuing a pair of search warrants authorizing entry onto the YFZ Ranch, attorneys claim this week in a motion asking Walther to throw out the evidence found at the polygamous compound. The 61-page motion, filed for each of 19 charges against 10 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints over the past two days in Schleicher County District Court, accuses Texas Rangers Lt. Brooks Long of failing to provide Walther key details that would have undermined the credibility of the initial phone call that sparked last year's raid. "In short," the attorneys write, "it is clear that the authorities used a hoax phone as an excuse for staging a massively intrusive raid upon a disfavored religious group. Under the guise of looking for a man they knew was not there and a child that did not exist, the Texas authorities conducted a general search to see what they could find." According to the motion - citing affidavits filed by the calltakers at NewBridge Family Shelter in San Angelo, the affidavit Long filed in seeking the warrant, and the interview with Long conducted in an Arizona case involving sect leader Warren Jeffs - Long did not reveal to Walther the following key facts in seeking the search warrant: Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Search warrants challenged | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Wednesday, April 15, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| A pair of search warrants served on the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch should be tossed because they were based on lies to a judge, lawyers for 10 FLDS men facing criminal charges claim. In a phone book-sized motion to suppress filed in an Eldorado, Texas, court and made public Wednesday, the attorneys launch a full-scale attack on two law enforcement search warrants executed during last year's raid on the Utah-based polygamous sect's sprawling Texas compound. "In short, it is clear that the authorities used a hoax phone call as an excuse for staging a massively intrusive raid upon a disfavored religious group," wrote Gerald Goldstein, an attorney for YFZ Ranch leader Frederick Merril Jessop. "Under the guise of looking for a man they knew was not there and a child that did not exist, the Texas authorities conducted a general search to see what they could find." What law enforcement and child welfare workers found on the ranch led to the removal of 439 children over allegations of child sex abuse and criminal indictments against a dozen FLDS men — including sect leader Warren Jeffs — connected to underage marriages. The case fell apart and the children were ultimately returned, however, when a pair of Texas courts ruled the state acted improperly and the children were not at immediate risk of abuse. The highly anticipated court filing attacks the warrants on a series of fronts, including misapplications of Texas law and misstatements by law enforcement. The filings accuse Texas Rangers of deceiving Judge Barbara Walther about the origins of the raid when she approved the search warrants. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Legal Fights Strain Polygamist Sect | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By STEPHANIE SIMON The Wall Street Journal - New York, NY Originally published May 11, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Ten men from a polygamist ranch in west Texas will be in court this week for a crucial hearing ahead of their trials on criminal charges including bigamy and felony sexual abuse of girls allegedly pressed into marriage. Their organization -- the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or FLDS -- is facing far broader legal challenges, and mounting financial pressures, too. A year after Texas authorities, alleging widespread abuse, removed more than 400 children from the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado, most of those children are back on the ranch after a court ruled last year that Texas didn't have solid grounds for keeping them. But during the raid, law enforcement seized what authorities believe to be conclusive evidence of bigamy and underage marriages -- including family photos, diaries, church records and computer files. The state also conducted DNA tests to determine familial relationships. The 10 men from the Eldorado ranch who will be in court on Wednesday argue that Texas rangers illegally seized the photos and records during the raid. At the hearing in nearby San Angelo, they will press for the evidence to be thrown out of court, which could devastate the case. The Texas attorney general says the seizure was legitimate. The sect is waging legal battles in other states and in Canada, weighing it down with legal bills just as the recession is constricting income. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Big Hearing on Tap This Week in Yearning for Zion Case | |||||||||||||||||||||
| WSJ on the cases, trends and personalities of interest to the business community. | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ashby Jones Law Blog The Wall Street Journal - New York, NY Originally published May 11, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Remember the Yearning for Zion Ranch, the insular polygamist part of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? It was about this time last year when a Texas state court of appeals ruled that the state of Texas had no right to seize more than 400 children from its compound. While the media spotlight has dimmed a bit, the legal wrangling has continued. The latest: ten men from the west Texas ranch will be in court this week for a crucial hearing ahead of their trials on criminal charges including bigamy and felony sexual abuse of girls allegedly pressed into marriage. During the April 2008 raid, law enforcement seized what authorities believe to be conclusive evidence of bigamy and underage marriages — including family photos, diaries, church records and computer files. The state also conducted DNA tests to determine familial relationships. The 10 men from the Eldorado ranch who will be in court on Wednesday argue that Texas rangers illegally seized the photos and records during the raid. At the hearing in nearby San Angelo, they will press for the evidence to be thrown out of court, which could devastate the case. Click here for the WSJ story. The Texas attorney general says the seizure was legitimate. The sect is waging legal battles in other states and in Canada, weighing it down with legal bills just as the recession is constricting income. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SCHLEICHER COUNTY FLDS CRIMINAL HEARINGS | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
COURTROOM A; JUDGE WALTHER 119TH DISTRICT COURT - Tom Green County, Texas Wednesday, May 13, 2009 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM Originally published Wednesday, May 13, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
991 State VS Raymond Jessop Motion to Suppress E.Nichols/A.Goodwin/M.Stevens
999 State VS Raymons Jessop Motion to Suppress E.Nichols/A.Goodwin/M.Stevens 992 State VS Alan Keate Motion to Suppress E.Nichols/A.Goodwin/R.Wilson 993 State VS Michael Emack Motion to Suppress E.Nichols/A.Goodwin/R.Wilson 998 State VS Michael Emack Motion to Suppress E.Nichols/A.Goodwin/R.Wilson 994 State VS Leroy Jessop Motion to Suppress E.Nichols/A.Goodwin/N.Calfas 995 State VS Leroy Jessop Motion to Suppress E.Nichols/A.Goodwin/N.Calfas 1000 State VS Lehi Barlow Jeffs aka Lehi Barlow Allred Motion to Suppress E.Nichols/A.Goodwin/B.Hudson Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS seeks ruling on seized documents | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Associated Press San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published May 13, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| A court hearing is under way on whether to throw out evidence from last year’s raid on a polygamist group’s ranch. Attorneys for 10 sect men facing criminal charges have asked a judge to throw out hundreds of boxes of documents and other evidence seized from the Yearning For Zion Ranch, saying authorities misled a judge about the veracity of calls prompting the raid and the true intent of the search. A hearing on their motion to suppress the evidence, including documents that list plural and underage marriages and pregnancies among sect girls, began before Texas District Judge Barbara Walther in San Angelo today. The first witness was to be a Texas Ranger whose affidavit helped obtain the search warrant. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Sect men seek ruling on seized documents | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By MICHELLE ROBERTS The Associated Press Houston Chronicle Originally published May 13, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — Attorneys for 10 polygamist sect men facing criminal charges have asked a judge to throw out hundreds of boxes of documents and other evidence seized from the Yearning For Zion Ranch, saying law enforcement misled a judge about the veracity of the calls prompting the raid and the true intent of last year's search. But the Texas Attorney General's office said Wednesday in a court hearing that the evidence, including documents that list plural and underage marriages and pregnancies among sect girls, should not be suppressed because there are no records the men lived there or had a reasonable expectation of privacy. The ranch in Eldorado is owned by a trust controlled by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which believes in maintaining all property in common, meaning community members share everything. Defense attorney Gerald Goldstein said it was unfair of the state to treat the ranch as one residence for the purposes of the search. Any decision to suppress some of the evidence could hurt the state's case because sect women and girls have been reluctant to testify, even in secret grand jury proceedings. Twelve members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have been indicted on charges including sexual assault of a child and bigamy since the April 2008 raid. The suppression motion covers all but jailed sect leader Warren Jeffs, who awaits trial in Arizona on charges of being accomplice to rape, and a sect member who faces only misdemeanor charges. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| BREAKING NEWS: FLDS attorneys call on judge to throw out evidence gathered in raid | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By MATT PHINNEY San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published May 13, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Law enforcement agents left out key pieces of information when seeking a search warrant to the 1,700-acre YFZ Ranch that ultimately led to the removal of more than 400 children from the property, said Gerry Goldstein, an attorney for a FLDS member. Last month, attorneys for 10 indicted Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints members filed motions to suppress evidence involving 19 charges related to underage marriage and child abuse. The motions allege that Texas Rangers misled 51st District Court Judge Barbara Walther into issuing a pair of search warrants that authorized last year's raid on the polygamous sect's Schleicher County compound. In identical 61-page motions to suppress evidence - with 300-plus more pages of evidence and attachments - the attorneys accuse Texas Ranger Lt. Brooks Long of failing to provide Walther key details that would have undermined the credibility of the initial phone calls that led to the raid. Texas authorities raided the ranch in April 2008. The raid led to the largest child custody case in the nation's history. Goldstein outlined many of those claims during a hearing this morning, which continues this afternoon. "I will show the court you were misled," he told Walther. Among his arguments, Goldstein said Walther was not told there had been a history of false claims made against some ranch residents by disenfranchised sect members such as Flora Jessop, who wrote a book about her experiences as a wife in a polygamous marriage. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| UPDATE: FLDS hearing recessed until Thursday | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By MATT PHINNEY San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published May 13, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| A hearing on whether to suppress information taken from the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado was abruptly recessed until 9 a.m. Thursday morning. 51st District Court Judge Barbara had asked Attorney Gerry Goldstein how long it would take to pare down two large notebooks full of information to what she called the specifics. She then called a 10-minute break so Goldstein could talk with the rest of the defendants' attorneys. At one point during the break, all the attorneys for the defendants, as well as the state's attorneys, left the courtroom. A few minutes later the court bailiff made the announcement calling for the recess. During the day's hearing, Goldstein said law enforcement agents left out key pieces of information when seeking a search warrant to the 1,700-acre ranch that ultimately let to the removal of more than 400 children from the property. Assistant Attorney General Eric Nichols said any omission did not meet the burden of proof to suppress evidence taken from the ranch. Last month, attorneys for 10 indicted Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints members filed motions to suppress evidence involving 19 charges related to underage marriage and child abuse. The motions allege that Texas Rangers misled 51st District Court Judge Barbara Walther into issuing a pair of search warrants that authorized last year's raid on the polygamous sect's Schleicher County compound. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Dale Barlow expected to take stand at FLDS-related trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Dave Hawkins, Special to the Standard-Times San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published Wednesday, May 13, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Dale Barlow, who was the target of the bogus allegations upon which the Texas YFZ search was based, was the only Arizona witness expected to testify in the suppression hearing that started Wednesday morning in San Angelo. Barlow, 51, is a resident of Colorado City, the northern Arizona community that, along with neighboring Hildale, in southern Utah, is where the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is based. Late Tuesday, Barlow appeared before Mohave County Superior Court Judge Steve Conn in Kingman, Ariz. Barlow told the court he had no objection and would cooperate with the subpoena to appear as a witness in the Texas suppression hearing at the Tom Green County courthouse. Barlow remains on probation for an Arizona sex offense conviction, but Conn waived an out-of-state travel prohibition to let Barlow attend the proceedings in San Angelo. Barlow pleaded guilty in August 2007 to conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith said Barlow was legally married to another woman when he engaged in sexual relations with an underage girl who was assigned to him as a "spiritual wife" as part of the FLDS polygamous practice and custom. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS lawyers continue argument that judge was deceived | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Matt Phinney San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published May 14, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| A hearing today in the Tom Green County courthouse involving a motion to suppress evidence taken from the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado during a state raid in April 2008 recessed for lunch with little new information being presented. The hearing is in its second day. Gerald Goldstein, lead attorney on behalf of 10 indicted Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints members, presented 25 points he said were omitted by law enforcement when they sought a search warrant to enter the ranch. The points were taken from two large notebooks Goldstein presented to 51st District Judge Barbara Walther on Wednesday afternoon. Before calling for a recess Wednesday, Walther asked Goldstein to pare the notebooks' content down to the most important information. Goldstein said this morning that he believes the true agenda for law enforcement was to "bring people off the ranch" and not just look for one girl. He said that if allowed he would call Rev. Andy Anderson from the First Baptist Church of Eldorado to testify that Anderson was asked for use of the church's buses before law enforcement entered the ranch. Girls eventually were taken off the ranch in those buses. "They were looking for an excuse to go to the ranch," Goldstein said. Other defense attorneys were about to speak before Walther called a recess for lunch. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Walther expected to rule Friday on hearing to suppress evidence | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Matt Phinney San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published May 14, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Attorneys for 10 indicted Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints members said Thursday they have met the burden of proof and deserve a hearing to suppress evidence taken in a raid of the YFZ Ranch. Late Thursday afternoon, 51st District Judge Barbara Walther recessed a preliminary hearing and is expected to rule Friday morning whether there will be a hearing to suppress the evidence. Defense attorneys have said key information was left out of affidavits seeking a search warrant to the ranch. The information could have led Walther not to sign the search warrant, they said. Mark Stevens, who represents Raymond Jessop, said omissions deserve the same treatment as falsehoods when looking at suppressing evidence. A hearing would allow attorneys to call witnesses, who then could be cross-examined. "We won't have to talk about what witnesses might say," he told Walther. "We can get to the truth." Attorneys for the defendants filed motions to suppress evidence involving 19 charges related to underage marriage and child abuse. The motions allege that Texas Rangers misled Walther into issuing a pair of search warrants that authorized last year's raid on the polygamous sect's Schleicher County compound, which resulted in the removal of more than 400 children. In identical motions to suppress, the attorneys accuse Texas Ranger Lt. Brooks Long of failing to provide Walther key details that would have undermined the credibility of the initial phone calls that led to the raid. The caller claimed to be Sarah Jessop Barlow, a pregnant 16-year-old mother of an 8-month-old child. The caller alleged she was being sexually and physically abused by her 50-year-old husband, whom she identified as Dale Barlow. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Texas Ranger questioned by FLDS attorney | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Jennifer Rios San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published Friday, May 15, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Attorneys continued interviewing the first witness of the day at noon Friday in a pretrial hearing in the Tom Green County courthouse to determine whether to suppress evidence in the criminal proceedings against 10 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. After two days of presentations from attorneys, 51st District Judge Barbara Walther this morning decided to hear testimony from witnesses. Attorneys for the 10 sect members who stand accused of 19 counts involving allegations of underage marriage and child abuse have argued that the search warrant issued by Walther for the April 2008 raid on their Schleicher County compound, the YFZ Ranch, was based on incomplete information presented to the judge by state authorities. Material seized from that raid is the evidence under question. Defense attorneys have said key information was left out of affidavits from law enforcement when they sought a search warrant to enter the ranch, and they are calling for all evidence collected under the warrant to be suppressed. A short recess was called this morning while three witnesses were summoned to court - Sheriff Doran and Texas Rangers Phillip Kemp and Lt. Long. Texas Ranger Lt. Brooks Long was called to the stand, where lead defense attorney Gerald Goldstein questioned him on whether information was withheld from 51st District Judge Barbara Walther when authorities were seeking a search warrant for the YFZ Ranch last year. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Battle of FLDS, state attorneys continues | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Jennifer Rios San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published Friday, May 15, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints case is back to a grueling pace in a Tom Green County courthouse. Lots of testimony. Lots of speeches. But little progress on what will happen next in 10 criminal cases stemming from the raid of the Yearning for Zion Ranch in April 2008. "I thought I made myself clear at 9 a.m.," 51st District Judge Barbara Walther said Friday morning, as she asked attorneys to bring forth "actual evidence — not arguments — to support your case." Even so, as day three of a preliminary hearing dragged forward Walther was still deep in a legal battle between the state Attorney General Office and FLDS attorneys. Walther called a recess to Friday’s marathon hearing about 10:15 p.m. It started at 9 a.m. with anticipation of an early morning ruling. The hearing will resume at 8:30 a.m. today. Attorneys for 10 men in the polygamist sect who face charges want Walther to throw out evidence gathered on the basis of a pair of search warrants issued for the raid that led to the removal of more than 400 children from the ranch near Eldorado. That raid included removal of masses of documents and digital records. The FLDS attorneys argue that law enforcement intentionally omitted information while seeking the warrants from Walther. Texas Ranger Lt. Brook Long testified Friday that authorities had to act on a call they received about abuse at the YFZ Ranch, discovering only later that the call was a hoax. "We did not know that (the call was a hoax). We thought it was happening," Long said. "We had a duty to act." Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Judge imposes time limit as FLDS bid to get evidence hearing moves into fourth day | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Michael Kelly San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published Saturday, May 16, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| In Courtroom A on the second floor of the Tom Green County courthouse, attorneys for 10 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints continued this morning to press their case to get a hearing to suppress evidence that might be used against their clients, who are accused of crimes involving underage marriage and child abuse. It is the fourth day of the session, and 51st District Judge Barbara Walther opened proceedings by imposing a time limit. "One hour per side per witness," she said. Defense attorney Kent Schaffer called Texas Ranger Sgt. Phillp Kemp, who confirmed information in reports regarding Rosita Swinton, the woman now known to have made the hoax call to a San Angelo shelter for battered women that ultimately led to the April 3, 2008, raid on the polygamous sect's Yearning for Zion Ranch. In addition to removing more than 400 children from the ranch on fears that they were in danger of sexual abuse, authorities also took out masses of documents and digital records, some of which could become evidence in the criminal cases against the 10 members facing charges. Their attorneys are seeking a hearing to argue that the evidence was obtained on a search warrant based on a hoax and therefore can't be admitted at trial. Kemp acknowledged in brief answers to Schaffer's lengthy questions that cell phone records obtained after the raid showed an array of calls from four cell phone numbers traced to Swinton, who lives in Colorado Springs, Colo., including calls to NewBridge Family Shelter in San Angelo, a shelter in Everett, Wash., and former sect member Flora Jessop in the days before the raid. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Written briefs OK in FLDS case | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Michael Kelly San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published Saturday, May 16, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| It’s over, but it goes on. At the end of a four-day session, concluding with an 11-hour sitting on Saturday, 51st District Judge Barbara Walther allowed attorneys from all sides in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints bid to get an evidence suppression hearing to submit written briefs in lieu of closing arguments. Walther gave the defense team 30 days and the state three weeks, giving both what they requested at the end of the proceedings. Attorneys for 10 members of the polygamous sect pressed their case to get a hearing to suppress evidence that might be used against their clients, who are accused of crimes involving underage marriage and child abuse. Walther opened the Saturday proceedings by imposing a time limit. "One hour per side per witness," she said. Defense attorney Kent Schaffer called Texas Ranger Sgt. Phillp Kemp, who confirmed information in reports regarding Rosita Swinton, the woman now known to have made the hoax call to a San Angelo shelter for battered women that ultimately led to the April 3, 2008, raid on the polygamous sect’s Yearning for Zion Ranch. In addition to removing more than 400 children from the ranch on fears they were in danger of sexual abuse, authorities also took out masses of documents and digital records, some of which could become evidence in the criminal cases against the 10 members facing charges. Their attorneys are seeking a hearing to argue that the evidence was obtained on a search warrant based on a hoax and therefore can’t be admitted at trial. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Attorney Montford charged with public intoxication | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Tony Plohetski The Blotter Austin American-Statesman Originally published Tuesday, June 9, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Prominent Austin lawyer Mindy Montford, who made an unsuccessful bid last year for Travis County district attorney, was arrested and charged with public intoxication in downtown Austin early Saturday. Austin police arrested Montford, 38, at 2:15 a.m. Saturday in the 600 block of San Jacinto Street, said Roger Wade, spokesman for the Travis County sheriff’s office. She was released at 7:40 a.m. Attorney Pat McNelis, who is law partners with Montford, at right, and is representing her, said Montford had been with friends from high school to hear a band at a downtown club. As they were leaving, McNelis said, the driver of a car in which Montford was a passenger struck a pipe in an alley and was pulled over moments later. McNelis said Montford got out of the car at that time to "advise her friend of his rights." He said an officer ordered Montford back into the car, where she sat for about 20 minutes. He said the officer then came back to the car and arrested her, as well as another passenger, on public intoxication charges. He said no further investigation was done before the arrests. "Mindy complied with the officers when they instructed her back to the car," McNelis said. He said his client "absolutely denies" the charge. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Ex-sect member wants long sentences for FLDS men | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Gary Scharrer San Antonio Express-News Originally published June 22, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| AUSTIN — A woman who fled the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints after years of sexual abuse is hopeful — but not that optimistic — that men from the Eldorado compound will get convicted and receive long sentences after they go on trial later this year. Flora Jessop will be in San Antonio today talking about child abuse inside the secretive society that she doesn't think gets enough attention from the outside world. She also is promoting her new book, "Church of Lies," co-written by Paul T. Brown. The book chronicles Jessop's life inside the FLDS, the sexual abuse against her that began when she was 8 and the impact of such abuse on children. She also discusses her rescue efforts of children still inside the group and difficulties trying to protect those children. "I am hoping against hope that Texas will, upon prosecuting these guys, give them longer sentences that we have seen in Arizona and Utah — 13 days, 45 days and nine months, which is the longest sentence we have seen for one of these guys that has molested children," she said. "Will Texas have the guts to give them more?" A raid at the Eldorado-based community near San Angelo in April 2008 resulted in 439 children being temporarily removed from the compound. An investigation by Child Protective Services resulted in charges against 12 men for their roles in performing underage marriages. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Briefs filed in FLDS motion for evidence suppression hearing | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Matt Phinney San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published July 13, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Attorneys for 10 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints filed written briefs today in support of their motions to be granted a hearing for suppression of evidence. Lead defense attorney Gerald Goldstein signed the 103 pages of briefs, but it was filed as a "joint consolidated argument" for all of the defendants. On May 16, after a four-day session, Walther gave the defense team 30 days and the state three weeks to submit written briefs in lieu of closing arguments. It was unclear Monday why the documents came in well after the original deadline set by the judge. The FLDS lawyers have asked Walther to grant them a hearing at which they would argue in favor of suppressing evidence gathered during a 2008 raid on the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado, preventing its use in the criminal trials of their clients. It was not clear when Walther will rule on the motion to suppress. Goldstein could not be reached for comment. The briefs contained many of the same arguments presented in the four-day hearing in May. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Members of polygamist sect ask judge to bar use of seized documents | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By MICHELLE ROBERTS The Associated Press Fort Worth Star Telegram - Fort Worth, Texas Originally published Mon, Jul. 13, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Ten men from a polygamist sect asked a West Texas judge Monday to bar prosecutors from using at their trials thousands of documents seized from their ranch near Eldorado, saying law enforcement did little to verify the domestic-abuse hoax on which the raid was based. The men’s attorneys argue in documents filed in a San Angelo court that Texas Rangers used fake calls to a domestic violence hot line as an excuse to rummage through the Yearning For Zion Ranch in April 2008. The men say it was an unreasonable search and seizure. Among the charges against the men, who belong to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, are bigamy and, in some cases, sexual assault of a child. The first trial could begin in October. Texas Rangers and other law enforcement officers conducted the weeklong raid after a hot line received phone calls from a woman who said she was a pregnant 16-year-old mother whose husband beat her. The calls were found to be a hoax, but not before thousands of pages of church documents, family photos and writings by Warren Jeffs, the sect’s jailed leader, were seized from the ranch. Lead defense attorney Gerald Goldstein argued in Monday’s filings that authorities failed to do even a basic investigation because they had been looking for an excuse to search the compound where roughly 700 people lived. "Under the guise of looking for a man they should have known was not there and a child that did not exist, the Texas authorities conducted a general search to see what they could find," Goldstein wrote, summing up four days of testimony in May. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 51st DISTRICT COURT - SCHLEICHER COUNTY SCHEDULING PRE-TRIALS | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
District Courts Calendar TOM GREEN COUNTY DISTRICT COURT - San Angelo, Texas Last Updated on: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Location: COURTROOM C; JUDGE WALTHER When: Thursday, July 23, 2009 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM 995 The State of Texas VS Merril Leroy Jessop Status Conf. E.Nichols/N.Calfas 1000 The State of Texas VS Lehi Barlow Jeffs aka Lehi Barlow Allred Status Conf. E.Nichols/B.Hudson 1002 The State of Texas VS Abram Harker Jeffs Status Conf. E.Nichols/S.Goodman 1004 The State of Texas VS Keith William Dutson, Jr. Status Conf. E.Nichols/D.Rogers 994 The State of Texas VS Merril Leroy Jessop PT Conf. E.Nichols/N.Calfas 999 The State of Texas VS Raymond Merril Jessop PT Conf. E.Nichols/M.Stevens 1001 The State of Texas VS Lehi Barlow Jeffs aka Lehi Barlow Allred PT Conf. E.Nichols/B.Hudson 1003 The State of Texas VS Abram Harker Jeffs PT Conf. E.Nichols/S.Goodman 1013 The State of Texas VS Wendell Loy Nielsen PT Conf. E.Nichols/K.Schaffer 1014 The State of Texas VS Wendell Loy Nielsen PT Conf. E.Nichols/K.Schaffer 1015 The State of Texas VS Wendell Loy Nielsen PT Conf. E.Nichols/K.Schaffer 1016 The State of Texas VS Frederick Merril Jessop PT Conf. E.Nichols/A.Hennington | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 51ST Judicial District - Schleicher County FLDS Criminal Pre-Trials | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
District Courts Calendar TOM GREEN COUNTY DISTRICT COURT - San Angelo, Texas Last Updated on: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Location: COURTROOM C; JUDGE WALTHER When: Monday, August 10, 2009 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM 991 The State of Texas VS Raymond Merril Jessop PTH E.Nichols/A.Goodwin/M.Stevens 992 The State of Texas VS Allan Eugene Keate PTH E.Nichols/A.Goodwin/R.Wilson 993 The State of Texas VS Michael Emack PTH E.Nichols/A.Goodwin/R.Wilson 998 The State of Texas VS Michael George Emack PTH E.Nichols/A.Goodwin/R.Wilson 1018 The State of Texas VS Leroy Johnson Steed PTH E.Nichols/A.Goodwin/R.Wilson 1019 The State of Texas VS Leroy Johnson Steed PTH E.Nichols/A.Goodwin/R.Wilson 1020 The State of Texas VS Leroy Johnson Steed PTH E.Nichols/A.Goodwin/R.Wilson | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Trial dates set for sect members facing criminal charges | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Matt Phinney San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published July 23, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Trial dates on charges related to sexual abuse of children, bigamy and other charges have been set for 10 men from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Attorneys for the defendants, indicted earlier this year by a Schleicher County grand jury, and the state ironed out the dates Thursday afternoon during a status conference in the Tom Green County Courthouse. The schedule of trials runs to the end of next year. Dates for Raymond Merril Jessop, charged with sexual abuse of a child, had already been set — a pretrial hearing Aug. 10 and a trial Oct. 26. At the beginning of the conference, 51st District Judge Barbara Walther left the room for about 20 minutes, leaving the lawyers huddled over a schedule sheet to set proposed hearing schedules among themselves. The final schedule approved by the judge is as follows with the defendants, pretrial date, trial date and charges:
-- Allan Eugene Keate, Nov. 19, Dec. 7, sexual abuse of a child. -- Michael Emack, Jan. 7, 2010, Jan. 25, 2010, sexual abuse of a child. -- Merrill Leroy Jessop, Feb. 25, 2010, March 8, 2010, sexual abuse of a child and bigamy. -- Lehi Barlow Jeffs, April 15, 2010, April 26, 2010, sexual abuse of a child and bigamy. -- Abram Harker Jeffs, May 13, 2010, June 7, 2010, sexual abuse of a child and bigamy. -- Keith William Dutson, July 15, 2010, July 26, 2010, sexual abuse of a child. -- Wendell Loy Nielson, Sept. 2, 2010, Sept. 7, 2010, three counts of bigamy. -- Frederick Merril Jessop, Oct. 4, 2010, Oct. 11, 2010, conducting an unlawful marriage ceremony involving a minor. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Judge resolves final Texas polygamist custody case | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By MICHELLE ROBERTS The Associated Press Google News Originally published July 24, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANTONIO — The only child left in state custody after being swept from a polygamist sect's West Texas ranch was placed permanently with a relative on Thursday, ending one of the largest custody cases in U.S. history. Texas District Judge Barbara Walther signed an order giving permanent custody of the 15-year-old girl to a relative who is a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The girl is not allowed to communicate with jailed sect leader Warren Jeffs, whom she allegedly married when she was 12, but is otherwise allowed to stay with church members. The girl was among 439 children taken from the Yearning For Zion Ranch in April 2008 after authorities responded to bogus calls to a domestic abuse hotline. Texas child welfare authorities removed all the children from the Eldorado ranch, and they were placed in foster care until the state Supreme Court ruled authorities had overreached. The 15-year-old initially was returned to her mother, but she went back to foster care last August after her mother refused during a court hearing to guarantee the girl's safety. The girl has been allowed to live with the relative for several months, but Thursday's order made the arrangement permanent and resolved the last of the Child Protective Services' cases involving FLDS members. "It's clearly a huge relief. We're extremely happy to get all the children back," said FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop. "It's been a long road for her, but we made it." He said the girl has been much happier living with relatives, who understands the insular sect's culture, pioneer-style dress and religious beliefs. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Texas Polygamists Prep for Criminal Trials | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Hilary Hylton TIME Originally published Sunday, Jul. 26, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
As courtroom drama goes, the upcoming trials in the quiet West Texas oasis of San Angelo should be humdingers: a dozen male members of a Mormom polygamist sect have been indicted on a bevy of charges, ranging from bigamy to sex with a child, stemming from a raid last year in which protective service officials removed more than 400 children from the Yearning For Zion compound. The trials are set to begin in October. But as every lawyer knows, this summer's crop of pre-trial motions, however boring they may sound, will greatly shape the jury verdicts — or any possible plea bargains — by largely determining what is allowed to be used in the trials and what isn't.
At the heart of the legal battle are the 66 computers and 928 boxes of other evidence, including of a photo of former FLDS leader Warren Jeffs kissing his allegedly 12-year-old bride, that were seized during the April 2008 raid. Defense attorneys are trying to keep this evidence from being used in the trials because of the bizarre back story now surrounding the search warrant. The warrant was based on tips from a Colorado woman who was posing as a former member of the compound and who is now facing criminal charges for filing a false report. But Charles Bubany, a professor who teaches criminal procedure at Texas Tech University School of Law, says the admissibility of the evidence likely will boil down to whether the judge had a reasonable belief that there was criminal activity taking place at the ranch regardless of the after-the-fact discovery of the false report. The same judge who signed the search warrant and greenlighted the raid, Texas District Judge Barbara Walther, is presiding over the criminal cases. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Judge: Schleicher County for FLDS trials | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Matt Phinney San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published August 10, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ury selection and the trials for members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints members on charges related to sexual abuse of children, bigamy and others will all be held in Schleicher County if possible. "That's the plan," said 51st District Judge Barbara Walther on Monday. "If we get there and it's not working, we can change if we have to." A pretrial hearing was held Monday in San Angelo for Raymond Merril Jessop in preparation for an Oct. 26 trial. He is charged with sexual abuse of a child. During a status hearing in July, Walther had asked attorneys to look at ways to get a jury pool from Schleicher County while having the trials in San Angelo. On Monday, both Eric Nichols, deputy attorney general for criminal justice, and Mark Stevens, defense attorney, said they would be open to the idea. However, Walther said she talked to Schleicher County officials who said the cases could be heard in the Memorial Building near the Schleicher County Courthouse. Walther then asked how many people should be called for a jury pool. "Whatever number we think of, double it," Stevens said. "The maximum number possible would be the only answer possible, judge." Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SCHLEICHER COUNTY JURY | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
District Courts Calendar co.tom-green.tx.us Last Updated on: Friday, September 25, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Location: Schleicher County Courthouse - Judge Walther
991 The State of Texas VS Raymond Merril Jessop Jury Trial E.Nichols/A.Goodwin/M.Stevens | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 51st Judicial District - Schleicher County Pre-Trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
District Courts Calendar co.tom-green.tx.us Last Updated on: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Location: Courtroom C - Judge Walther When: Friday, October 02, 2009 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM 991 State VS Raymond Merril Jessop Pre-Trial E.Nichols/A.Goodwin/M.Stevens | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Texas FLDS man accused of skirting banking laws | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Michelle Roberts The Associated Press Deseret News Originally published Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- A polygamist sect member set to go on trial for bigamy and sexual abuse of a child next month deliberately skirted anti-money laundering laws and used a wife he once abandoned to help front a company in Arizona, prosecutors allege in a court filing. The Texas Attorney General's Office isn't seeking additional charges against Raymond Jessop, 38, but wants to use the allegations to bolster Jessop's punishment if he is convicted. The court filing lists numerous marriages, the abandonment of wives and children, efforts to avoid banking laws and other so-called "extraneous offenses" that prosecutors believe Jessop engaged in. Jessop will be the first of a dozen men from a polygamist sect to face criminal trial following a raid of their West Texas ranch in April 2008. His trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 26. A grand jury indicted Jessop last year on the sexual abuse and bigamy charges. Since grand jury proceedings are secret, it's unclear whether the new allegations were presented to grand jurors or if they could result in later charges. Jessop's attorney, Mark Stevens, declined Tuesday to comment on the individual allegations but said all are untrue. He said he would contest their admissibility in court. Jessop, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was indicted last year on charges of sexual assault of a child, stemming from his marriage to a 16-year-old. Prosecutors say he and others refused to take the pregnant teen to a hospital even though she had difficulty delivering the child, putting both her and the infant in danger. The bigamy charge stems from his alleged marriage to a different girl, a daughter of jailed sect leader Warren Jeffs, on the day after her 15th birthday. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Prosecutors to bring new allegations in FLDS trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Trial for sect member to be 1st of 10 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Michael Kelly San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published September 29, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — State prosecutors intend to bring a host of additional allegations to the trial of Raymond Merril Jessop scheduled for Oct. 26 in the 51st Judicial District, the Texas Attorney General’s Office said. Jessop, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is set for a jury trial on charges of child sexual abuse in connection with allegations that arose after the April 2008 raid of the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado. Authorities swept onto the ranch seeking a woman who had called in complaints about being abused at the polygamist compound. Ultimately, the state removed more than 400 children from the ranch because they were deemed to be in danger of abuse. The children were eventually restored to their families, but evidence seized during the raid resulted in criminal charges against 10 of the men living on the ranch. Jessop is the first of the 10 to go to trial. In a Friday filing in Austin, styled "Notice of State’s Intention to Introduce Extraneous Offenses or Acts" the Attorney General’s Office entered four pages of allegations against Jessop, claiming he engaged in a number of illegal marriages in Utah and Schleicher County, violated banking regulations in connection with an account related to the YFZ Ranch and aided sect leader Warren Jeffs while he was a fugitive in 2005 and 2006. The state said in an e-mail it intends the allegations to be "introduced to the court as a list of other bad acts that the State is aware of and may wish to bring up in the punishment phase of the trial." Mark Stevens, the San Antonio attorney representing Jessop, said Tuesday night he intends to file a response Wednesday. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS man says claims are unfair | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Associated Press Deseret News Originally published Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas (AP) — A polygamist sect member set to go on trial on a sexual assault charge asked a judge Wednesday to exclude allegations about multiple marriages and illegal bank activity, saying the accusations are unsubstantiated and unfairly prejudicial. Raymond Jessop, a member of the Fundamentalist LDS Church, was indicted last year on a charge of sexual assault of a child stemming from his alleged marriage to a 16-year-old girl. His trial, scheduled to start Oct. 26, will be the first stemming from the April 2008 raid of the Yearning For Zion Ranch in West Texas. The Texas attorney general's office filed a notice in court last week accusing Jessop, 38, of marrying several women, of trying to skirt anti-money laundering laws and of using his wife's name to front a company in Arizona. Prosecutors want to use the allegations to increase the punishment Jessop could face if convicted. Jessop's attorney, Mark Stevens, said in a court filing in Schleicher County on Wednesday that prosecutors cannot offer sufficient proof of the allegations and should not be allowed to make them or enter evidence that would be "unfairly prejudicial, confusing and misleading" to jurors. He also objected to prosecutors accusing Jessop of being closely aligned with Warren Jeffs, the jailed FLDS leader who was on the FBI's most wanted list before being arrested and convicted in Utah as an accomplice to rape. "It is apparent that the state wants to taint Raymond Jessop with Warren Jeffs' notoriety. The indictment in this case, however, does not allege a conspiracy, and, in fact, says nothing at all about Warren Jeffs. It is fundamentally unfair," Stevens said in his filing. A pretrial hearing is set for Friday. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Lawyer in FLDS trial says state's notice misleading | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Michael Kelly San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published October 1, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — Barbs already are flying with the start of Raymond Merril Jessop’s criminal trial coming up in just more than three weeks. On Tuesday, state prosecutors in the case against the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints member filed four pages of allegations they intend to use in the punishment phase of the trial, should Jessop be found guilty of the child sexual abuse charges he will face in the trial, which begins Oct. 26 in Eldorado. Jessop, 37, is one of 10 sect members to face criminal charges as an outcome of the state’s raid on the YFZ Ranch in April 2008 and the first of them scheduled to go to trial. A pre-trial hearing is scheduled at 10 a.m. today in San Angelo. Jessop’s attorney, Mark Stevens of San Antonio, on Thursday filed a 23-page response to the state’s notice of intent, which included allegations that Jessop was involved in a number of illegal marriages in Utah and Schleicher County, violated banking regulations in connection with an account related to the YFZ Ranch and aided sect leader Warren Jeffs while he was a fugitive in 2005 and 2006. Stevens’ response to the state’s notice, styled Defendant’s Objections to Evidence, states, "The state cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt with competent and admissible evidence that Mr. Jessop perpetrated any of these transactions." Stevens argues that the state’s allegations are "unfairly prejudicial, confusing and misleading, and therefore inadmissible." Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Hearing planned for first Texas polygamist trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Associated Press Houston Chronicle Originally published October 2, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — A judge planned a pretrial hearing in San Angelo to iron out some of the final details before the first criminal trial of a polygamist sect member in West Texas. Texas District Judge Barbara Walther still has not ruled on whether thousands of documents, photos and church records seized from the Yearning For Zion Ranch can be used as evidence in the trial of 38-year-old Raymond Jessop or other sect members facing criminal charges. A pretrial hearing is set for Friday, though it's unclear whether she'll rule on evidence question. Jessop is scheduled to go on trial Oct. 26 on a charge of sexual assault of a child. He faces a separate indictment on a bigamy charge that could be tried later. In all, a dozen men from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days were indicted following the April 2008 raid of their ranch. Their trials are scheduled separately over much of the next year. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Trial from FLDS raid begins | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Michelle Roberts The Associated Press Deseret News Originally published Friday, Oct. 2, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — A member of a polygamist sect whose West Texas ranch was raided last year pleaded not guilty Friday to sexual assault of a child. The trial of Raymond Jessop, 38, will be the first stemming from the massive raid at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in April 2008, which resulted in all children being removed from the ranch. The custody case that followed ended with all 439 children allowed to return to their mothers or other relatives, but a dozen men from the Fundamentalist LDS Church have been indicted on charges including sexual assault, bigamy and presiding over an unlawful ceremony. Jessop entered his plea after the sexual assault charge was formally read before Texas District Judge Barbara Walther in San Angelo. He is scheduled to go on trial on Oct. 26 in the tiny town of Eldorado, about 40 miles to the south, where the ranch is located. Jessop also has been indicted on a bigamy charge, but prosecutors decided to pursue that charge separately. During the pre-trial hearing Friday, defense attorney Mark Stevens sought to prevent prosecutors from introducing evidence during trial that Jessop was married to nine women, including the teenager he's accused of sexually assaulting in 2004. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Judge allows FLDS raid evidence | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Sect man pleads not guilty to charge of sexual assault | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Michael Kelly San Angelo Standard-Times - San Angelo, Texas Originally published October 2, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — The rules of engagement are set for the first criminal trial to come out of the historic raid on the Yearning For Zion Ranch 18 months ago — and those rules will include the entire volume of evidence gathered at the ranch during the raid. At the end of a pre-trial hearing Friday for Raymond Merril Jessop, 51st District Judge Barbara Walther issued her long-expected ruling on whether lawyers for the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints would be allowed a hearing to challenge the admissibility of evidence gathered in the raid. In April 2008, the state descended in force on the polygamist sect’s Schleicher County ranch seeking a girl who had complained in a phone call to a San Angelo women’s shelter that she was being abused by her husband. The girl was never found, and the phone call later was proven to be a hoax, but while searching for her authorities saw several pregnant teenage girls. In the end, state officials removed 437 children from the ranch on the concern that they were at risk of abuse. Walther denied the evidence motion, which had been presented in the course of a four-day hearing in May. Defense attorneys argued, in part, that the all evidence gathered at the ranch should be suppressed because authorities had acted on a false report in seeking the search warrant. "The court finds that Defendants’ offer of proof of deliberate falsehoods contained within the probable cause affidavits to support the two warrants is unsupported by credible evidence,” Walther wrote. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Evidence from FLDS raid can be used in trials | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Michelle Roberts The Associated Press Deseret News Originally published Friday, Oct. 2, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — A Texas judge ruled Friday that prosecutors could use thousands of documents seized during a weeklong raid of a polygamist sect's West Texas ranch in upcoming criminal trials even though search warrants were prompted by faked reports of abuse. Attorneys for sect men charged after the April 2008 raid had sought to have the documents — including family photos, records of multiple marriages and journal entries by jailed sect leader Warren Jeffs — kept out of their trials because they were obtained using search warrants that relied on false reports to a domestic abuse hotline. The defendants argued law enforcement officials were looking for an excuse to raid the Yearning for Zion Ranch and did little to check the reports before rummaging through the ranch's homes and other buildings. Prosecutors disputed that claim, saying law enforcement officials believed the reports were real at the time of the search. Texas District Judge Barbara Walther heard four days of testimony on the issue in May but didn't issue a ruling until Friday. A dozen men from the Fundamentalist LDS Church have been indicted on charges including sexual assault of a child, bigamy and presiding over an unlawful ceremony. The first trial starts Oct. 26 in Eldorado, the tiny community where the ranch sits about 40 miles south of here. FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop said he was disappointed but not surprised by the ruling. The defendants will use the argument for the basis of an appeal if convicted, he said. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Judge rules YFZ evidence admissible at trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Evidence of prior bad acts to be considered on case-by-case basis during penalty phase | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Eldorado Success Originally published Thursday, October 8, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| District Judge Barbara Walther ended months of speculation Friday when she ruled that evidence seized during the April 2008 raid on the YFZ Ranch may be used in a series of criminal trials pending against a dozen defendants. First among those will be Raymond Merril Jessop, 38, who is slated to stand trial for sexual assault of a minor, beginning October 26 here in Eldorado. He is also charged with a single count of bigamy and will face trial on that charge at a later date. The judge's long-awaited ruling came at the end of a pre-trial hearing in her Tom Green County courtroom. During the hearing, prosecution and defense attorneys had argued over precisely which evidence and testimony should be allowed before the jury in Jessop's upcoming trial. During the same hearing, Raymond Merril Jessop formally answered the sexual assault charge with a not guilty plea. Judge Walther's ruling concerning the legality of the YFZ search was held until the end of the hearing when she called both legal teams into her chambers to give them the news. Defense attorneys had argued last May that the raid on the YFZ Ranch was prompted by a hoax telephone call from a Colorado woman and that the subsequent search was illegal. A woman named Rozita Swinton is now widely believed to have placed several hoax calls during which she claimed to be an abused minor girl at the YFZ Ranch who had been forced into a polygamous marriage with a man named Dale Evans Barlow. Ms. Swinton reportedly has a history of placing hoax calls and is currently under investigation in connection with her role in the YFZ raid. YFZ lawyers argued in May that Texas Ranger Brooks Long and Sheriff David Doran knew, or should have known, that the calls leading to the raid were faked and that the alleged perpetrator was not even on the property. But, the judge on Friday disagreed, saying that the defense had produced no evidence that Ranger Long intentionally withheld information or recklessly misrepresented information in a probable cause affidavit he filed with the court in support of the initial warrant. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS Men Want Charges Tossed | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Reported by: Brian Mullahy KUTV Channel 2 Originally broadcast Thursday, Oct 15, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| They're all white men, charged with crimes including bigamy and sexual assault, in the long wake of the FLDS raid on the sect's dusty Texas polygamous compound. Now, a defense lawyer has asked a Texas judge to throw out the charges, because he says Hispanics were underrepresented on a grand jury that returned indictments. "Of the twelve individuals selected to serve on this particular grand jury, only one was Hispanic," wrote Attorney Mark Stevens, in a new legal motion. Further, Stevens cited "systemic discrimination against Hispanics in the selection of grand jurors in Schleicher County (Texas)," where the prosecution is being pursued. A spokesman for the Texas Attorney General's Office had no comment on Thursday. The move comes just a week and a half before the first trial for nearly a dozen defendants is scheduled to begin. Among those charged is jailed polygamous leader Warren Jeffs, who was convicted of being an accomplice to rape, in connection with the marriage of an underage girl in Utah. Jeffs faces state charges in Arizona, a federal indictment in Salt Lake City, and aggravated sexual assault and bigamy charges in Texas. Jeffs was not listed in the new motion to toss the charges. It was filed on behalf of ten other FLDS men, indicted following the raid the by the grand jury. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS trial to start | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Beth Karas Case Updates In Session: Sidebar CNN Originally published October 23, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| NEW YORK – The first criminal trial following the April 2008 raid on the FLDS ranch in Texas begins Monday in Eldorado, Texas. Raymond Merril Jessop, 38, is charged with one count of Sexual Assault of a Child under the age of 17. Jessop is also charged with Bigamy, but that trial will be held at some later date. The raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Schleicher County, Texas took place between April 3 and April 9 last year. Hundred of documents and photographs were seized including certificates of "spiritual unions" which are expected to be used to corroborate the allegations that underage marriages were taking place, birth records, dictations of prophet Warren Jeffs, and photographs of FLDS men and their numerous wives. Following the raid, more than 400 children were removed from the ranch by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. An appellate court eventually ruled that the State did not have grounds to remove the children. Most of the children were reunited with their families in June 2008. A child named Merianne, who had purportedly married Warren Jeffs when she was twelve years old, was later sent to live with a relative. She’s now fifteen. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Polygamist sect trial a rare event in Texas town | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Michelle Roberts The Associated Press Deseret News Originally published Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — The first jury trial in more than a decade in the sleepy West Texas town of Eldorado involves an alleged polygamist and an accusation of sexual assault of an underage bride, a far cry from the occasional drunken driving cases that normally occupy the Schleicher County court system. Attorneys on Monday will begin culling the largest jury pool ever called in Eldorado to try to find 14 people in a county of 2,800 who can set aside what they've heard about a polygamist sect whose alleged marriages involving underage girls triggered a police raid that swept more than 400 children into state custody last year. Raymond Jessop, 38, will become the first man from the Yearning For Zion Ranch to go on trial here. Jessop is charged with sexual assault of a child — an underage girl he allegedly married first — and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. He is also charged with bigamy for allegedly marrying a second underage girl, but will be tried on that charge separately. In all, 12 sect men have been charged with crimes ranging from failure to report child abuse to bigamy and sexual assault at the ranch, where women and girls wear braids and pastel prairie dresses. They have all denied wrongdoing. The cases began after a woman in Colorado allegedly called a Texas domestic-abuse hot line in March 2008 and pretended to be a teenage girl with a much-older husband who raped and beat her. State authorities swooped in, taking 439 children away from their sheltered lives and hundreds of boxes of documents and family photos to build their case. The Texas Rangers have acknowledged the hot line information was false, but the caller has never been charged. Seating a 12-person jury and two alternates for Jessop's case may be a difficult because most residents of the tiny ranching community know each other, and national and international media coverage made the April 2008 raid impossible to ignore. "Perhaps I should ask if anyone has not heard," state District Judge Barbara Walther said at a pretrial hearing. "It's extremely unlikely that we'll have anyone who will say they have not heard about this trial." Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| First FLDS sex assault trial starts on Monday | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Polygamist sect leader's son is accused of having sex with minors | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By TERRI LANGFORD HOUSTON CHRONICLE Originally published October 24, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| The son of one of the most powerful families within a polygamist Mormon sect goes to trial for sexual assault Monday, a case in which Texas prosecutors will provide their first public evidence that Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints men engaged in sex with underage girls. Raymond Merril Jessop, 38, is the first to face trial among 12 defendants who live at the sect's Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado and are accused of arranging or participating in underage marriages. His father, Frederick Merril Jessop is the senior leader of the FLDS because the group's prophet, Warren Jeffs, is jailed in Utah for forcing girls into underage marriages in that state. Both also are among the defendants in the Texas case, and each will be tried separately. "I kept hoping this trial would go away," said Willie Jessop, a spokesman for FLDS, who is not related to the defendant. "We're disappointed that they're moving forward with their program. We keep thinking they're going to recognize this thing as a hoax." The indictments are the result of documents and evidence pulled out of the YFZ ranch by the Texas Department of Public Safety after a caller, now believed to be a hoaxer, called a women's shelter in San Angelo in late March 2008. The caller claimed to be a physically and sexually abused teen-wife named Sarah. Officials with the women's shelter notified Texas Child Protective Services and caseworkers were sent to the ranch a few days later. After seeing several young girls who were pregnant or mothers, a decision was made to remove all 439 children from the ranch, a move that was later reversed by the Texas Supreme Court. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Former Member Calls Women Of YFZ Ranch "Pimps" | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Flora Jessop Assails Women Ahead of First Trial of Fundamentalist Group's Men on Child Sex Abuse Counts | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
CBS 11 Dallas - Fort Worth Originally published October 24, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO (CBS) -- Jury selection is slated to begin Monday in the trial of the first of 12 male members of a Texas polygamist sect whose ranch state officials raided last year. Raymond Jessop, of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was indicted after the April 2008 raid and pleaded not guilty to allegations including sexual assault, bigamy, and being married to underage girls. The other eleven defendants are scheduled to be tried separately later this year. The raid on the sprawling, 1,700-acre Yearning For Zion ranch made public the private practices of the polygamous religious order near Eldorado, observes CBS News Correspondent Don Teague. Members of the fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints share a belief in multiple wives, being self-sufficient and dressing modestly. But an anonymous phone call alleged the church also sanctioned underage marriage and child abuse. Four-hundred-thirty-seven children were removed as a result of the raid, as authorities investigated the allegations. Eventually, the initial phone call was determined to be a hoax and all but five of the children were returned to their families. Former polygamist Flora Jessop, who escaped the compound 15 years ago, worked with some of the children after they were taken from the ranch. She now lives in Phoenix with her husband and two kids. Raymond Jessop's father is her cousin, so Raymond is her second cousin. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS trial begins Monday | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Michael Kelly San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published October 24, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — They went in looking for a teenage girl in distress, but found out she didn’t exist. They came out of the polygamist sect’s sprawling compound near Eldorado with truckloads of documents, family albums, religious records, photographs, computers, digital files — and more than 400 children. A year and a half later, the first criminal trial to emerge from the state’s historic raid on the Yearning For Zion Ranch begins Monday. Texas prosecutors allege that Raymond Merril Jessop broke the law by having sex with an underage girl he married in a ceremony blessed by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the sect that owns, occupies and operates the secretive Schleicher County ranch. Monday’s trial will be the first of 10 criminal trials for men in the sect. The state claims FLDS members prey on their children by marrying girls to older men, often their blood relatives; FLDS leaders and members claim the state is persecuting it for practicing its religion. Jessop, 37, has pleaded not guilty to the charge of sexual assault of a minor, a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison. Defense attorneys have launched a variety of actions since the April 2008 raid, among them motions earlier this year to have the evidence seized at the ranch suppressed, arguing that the original search warrant was flawed, and in the past week a 25-page consolidated motion to have the original indictments against all the men quashed because of the 12 grand jury members only one was Hispanic, although the population of Schleicher County includes more than 37 percent Hispanic people. The motion argues that the men’s rights to a "fair cross-section" or "representative" grand jury under the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth and Sixth amendments, equal rights and due process guaranteed by the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments, and similar rights guaranteed under state laws, were violated by the jury composition. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Fundamental Arguments | |||||||||||||||||||||
| On October 26, the first FLDS criminal trial in Texas begins. What legal strategies remain for the defense? | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Katy Vine Texas Monthly - Austin, Texas November 2009 issue | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Let’s get one thing straight: The twelve indicted men from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have impressive legal representation for the upcoming criminal trials in Texas. Executive editor Mimi Swartz wrote about attorney Gerald Goldstein, who is handling the Yearning for Zion Ranch head Frederick Merril Jessop’s case, in the April 1996 issue of Texas Monthly ("The High Times of Gerry Goldstein").
"It was his 1978 appeal that reversed the convictions in what has come to be known as the Piedras Negras Jailbreak Case, in which two Texans stormed the border city’s jail and, Rambo style, freed fourteen American inmates charged with drug offenses," Swartz wrote. "He is a counselor and loyal friend to superhead Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, wrote an amicus brief on behalf of Noriega, and has defended on drug charges the sons of such prominent men as BeBe Rebozo and assorted San Antonio swells." Goldstein is no pushover. That said, I’m curious to know how the various defense attorneys are going to argue the cases of sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, and bigamy as the first trial of many gets underway this month. A lot of effort was put forth in the motion to suppress the evidence earlier this year. But now that the judge has ruled that the evidence gathered at the ranch can be used at the trial, the attorneys’ options are more limited. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Polygamist goes on trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
WORLD SAN ANGELO, TEXAS The Age - Melbourne, Australia Originally published October 26, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
A MEMBER of a polygamist sect whose alleged marriages to under-age girls triggered a police raid that swept more than 400 children into state custody last year is about to go on trial in the sleepy West Texas town of Eldorado. Lawyers today will begin culling the largest jury pool called in Eldorado to try to find 14 people in a county of 2800 who can set aside what they have heard about the sect. Raymond Jessop, 38, will become the first man from the Yearning For Zion Ranch to go on trial here. He is charged with sexual assault of a child - an underage girl he allegedly married first - and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. He is also charged with bigamy for allegedly marrying a second underage girl, but will be tried on that charge separately. In all, 12 sect men have been charged with crimes ranging from failure to report child abuse to bigamy and sexual assault. They have all denied wrongdoing. The cases began after a woman in Colorado allegedly called a Texas domestic abuse hotline in March 2008 and pretended to be a teenage girl with a much older husband who raped and beat her. State authorities swooped in, taking 439 children away from their sheltered lives and hundreds of boxes of documents and family photos to build their case. The Texas Rangers have acknowledged the hotline information was false, but the caller has never been charged. Seating a 12-person jury and two alternates for Jessop's case may be difficult because most residents of the tiny ranching community know each other, and national media coverage made the April 2008 raid impossible to ignore.
AP See photo | |||||||||||||||||||||
| From CBS News - A member of a polygamous religious compound in Texas is on trial on charges of child sex abuse and bigamy. Don Teague reports. Watch CBS News Videos Online | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Polygamist trial with Arizona connections. Jury selection will be tough. | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By John Faherty The Arizona Republic Originally published October 26, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Raymond Jessop is on trial today in the small town of El Dorado, Texas. He is the first of a series of polygamist sect members who will stand trial on charges of having sex with underage girls. If the name rings a bell, it's because Jessop is a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Christ of Latter-day Saints. Sect members have historically lived on the Arizona-Utah state line north and west of the Grand Canyon. The sect, which is not recognized by the mainstream Mormon church, believes polygamy will mean good things in heaven. Sect members bought a ranch near El Dorado six years ago. Jessop is accused of the sexual assault of a child, based on his alleged "marriage" to an underage girl who later became pregnant. What's interesting about the case is that after agents raided the FLDS compound -- named Yearining for Zion -- 18 months ago, members of the sect vowed to register to vote. Jury pools are created from voter registration lists. The Associated Press is reporting that of the 300 people making up the jury pool, at least 10 clearly belonged to the FLDS church. Sect members are pretty easy to spot. The women wear ankle-length prarie dresses and particular hair styles. The men wear button-up shirts. It is not clear yet if lawyers for the state will try to exclude jurors who are members of the sect. Jessop faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of sexual assault of a child. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Jury selection begins in FLDS member trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Matthew Waller San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published October 26, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — Several residents of the Yearning for Zion Ranch, easily identifiable by their trademark clothing and appearance, were among the 153 Schleicher County residents who showed up for jury duty at 9 a.m. Monday in Eldorado. Prospective jurors waited patiently in a chilly drizzle driven by a biting wind to get into the Memorial Building, and once inside again waited for two hours while lawyers and the defendant rotated in and out of Judge Barbara Walther’s chambers. Defendant Raymond Merril Jessop, 38, is accused of child sexual assault in the case, the first criminal trial to come out of the historic raid by the state against the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints. Jessop and 11 other men were indicted by a Schleicher County grand jury late last year, with many of the allegations springing from records and other evidence seized during the April 2008 raid at the ranch. Walther has presided over the FLDS cases since the beginning, having overseen the mass custody hearings after 439 children were removed from the ranch and, earlier this year, hearing pre-trial motions in the Jessop case. "I apologize for getting a late start," Walther told the jury pool Monday morning. "It’s kind of like getting children ready for school." Sometimes, she said, it happens quickly, and sometimes it takes longer than expected. Walther thanked the jurors for showing and then ticked off possible exemptions to jury duty, such as being older than 70. She invited potential jurors to come to the bench to discuss exemptions. As the morning progressed, she released about 17 more members of the jury pool. At noon, she announced "The good news: Lunch." She added," The bad news: You’re going to have to come back at 1:30." She cautioned the jury pool against discussing anything to do with the case with the media or their spouses. She left potential jurors with a warning: "If you don’t come back after lunch, the sheriff will go find you and bring you back." Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Jury selection begins in FLDS criminal trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Michelle Roberts The Associated Press Deseret News Originally published Monday, Oct. 26, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — More than 150 potential jurors, including 10 women in prairie dresses and braids, crammed into a makeshift courtroom Monday as jury selection began in the first criminal trial stemming from the raid of a polygamist sect's ranch last year. Raymond Jessop, 38, is charged with sexual assault of a child, stemming from his alleged marriage to an underage girl. The girl, according to church documents seized by authorities, gave birth at age 16 at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado. If convicted, Jessop faces up to 20 years in prison. He is also charged with bigamy, but that charge is to be tried separately. Prosecutors allege Jessop has nine wives, including three that were married to a brother before the brother was excommunicated by Warren Jeffs, the jailed leader of the Fundamentalist LDS Church. The FLDS, which believes polygamy brings glorification in heaven, is a breakaway sect not recognized by the mainstream Mormon Church, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago. In all, 12 sect members have been charged with crimes ranging from failure to report child abuse to sexual assault and bigamy. Potential jurors for what would be Schleicher County's first jury trial in more than a decade waited Monday morning on plastic folding chairs in a building next to the courthouse. A few were dismissed with early exemption claims, and about a dozen FLDS members, conspicuous because of their distinct dress, remained in the pool. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Jury prospects winnowed down as lawyers get to work on FLDS member trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Matthew Waller San Angelo Standard-Time Originally published October 26, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — ELDORADO — The jury pool was poised to shrink Monday afternoon because of blood relationships and heavy publicity in the trial of Raymond Merril Jessop. Seven of the approximately 17 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints who had been called for jury duty in the trial told a prosecutor they were related to Jessop, the 38-year-old FLDS member accused of child sexual assault. The allegation against Jessop is a second degree felony punishable by 2 to 20 years in prison. It is the first criminal trial to come out of the historic raid by the state against the sect’s ranch near Eldorado. Jessop and 11 other men were indicted by a Schleicher County grand jury late last year, with many of the allegations springing from records and other evidence seized during the April 2008 raid. On Monday in a cramped space inside the Memorial Building in Eldorado, the sect members sat shoulder-to-shoulder with fellow Schleicher County residents summoned for jury duty in Jessop’s case. The day started with 153 out the original 300-member pool. Nearly half the prospective jurors were previously excused or exempted. The prairie dresses and intricate braids of the women and the long-sleeved simple shirts and jeans of the men — as well as their names — made the YFZ Ranch residents stand out from their neighbors. State prosecutor Eric Nichols was first up among the attorneys to suss out prospective jurors’ feelings on various issues or determine if they were qualified to serve during voir dire, the trial-within-a-trial used by jurists to settle issues that come up during court proceedings. Nichols’ question about being related to the defendant was the first expected to whittle down the panel. But no hands went up when Nichols asked if anyone was related by marriage to Jessop. Some of the soft-spoken women had to repeat their names several times. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Watch Fox News coverage of the first day of jury selection for the Raymond Jessop trial in Eldorado, Texas | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Judge, lawyers in Jessop trial sift panel as jury selection goes into another day | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Trish Choate San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published October 26, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — ELDORADO — The jury pool was poised to shrink Monday afternoon because of blood relationships and heavy publicity in the trial of Raymond Merril Jessop. Seven of the approximately 17 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints who had been called for jury duty in the trial told a prosecutor they were related to Jessop, the 38-year-old FLDS member accused of child sexual assault. The allegation against Jessop is a second degree felony punishable by 2 to 20 years in prison. It is the first criminal trial to come out of the historic raid by the state against the sect’s ranch near Eldorado. Jessop and 11 other men were indicted by a Schleicher County grand jury late last year, with many of the allegations springing from records and other evidence seized during the April 2008 raid. On Monday in a cramped space inside the Memorial Building in Eldorado, the sect members sat shoulder-to-shoulder with fellow Schleicher County residents summoned for jury duty in Jessop’s case. The day started with 153 out the original 300-member pool. Nearly half the prospective jurors were previously excused or exempted. The prairie dresses and intricate braids of the women and the long-sleeved simple shirts and jeans of the men — as well as their names — made the YFZ Ranch residents stand out from their neighbors. State prosecutor Eric Nichols was first up among the attorneys to suss out prospective jurors’ feelings on various issues or determine if they were qualified to serve during voir dire, the trial-within-a-trial used by jurists to settle issues that come up during court proceedings. Nichols’ question about being related to the defendant was the first expected to whittle down the panel. But no hands went up when Nichols asked if anyone was related by marriage to Jessop. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Call to jury drains some workplaces in Eldorado | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Matthew Waller San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published October 26, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — ELDORADO — The large jury pool called in the trial of Raymond Merril Jessop — 153 out of the 300 summoned came to Eldorado’s Memorial Building on Monday — affected the town’s business life and institutions. Some offices closed completely for part of the day. With a population of 2,815, the original call affected more than 10 percent of the county population, and the 153 people left after the excused and exempted jurors amounted to about one of every 14 adults in the county. Members of County Clerk’s office left blue signs throughout the courthouse saying the office would be closed Monday due to the trial, and it stayed closed until Monday afternoon. "There isn’t anybody here to run it," a staff member in the nearby County Judge’s office said Monday morning. Sarah McNealy, a deputy in the office, said two of her coworkers were helping with the jury selection and one had answered the jury summons, leaving the office unstaffed until Monday afternoon, when McNealy returned to Eldorado after having taken her husband to San Angelo for a doctor’s appointment. The Schleicher County Independent School District lost some staff to the process. Superintendent Billy Collins, the district, said principals knew a day of being shorthanded was coming and prepared for it accordingly, although he could not say how many staff members were missing. "We have some absentees, but we’re handling the situation and we’ll be okay," Collins said. "We’re just trying to proceed as normal as possible." Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Raymond Jessop goes on trial in Texas for marriage to underage girl | |||||||||||||||||||||
| A dozen defendants face charges in crackdown against Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Daniel Nasaw in Washington The Guardian - London, England Originally published Monday 26 October 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Jury selection began today in the trial of a Texas religious figure accused of a polygamous marriage to an underage girl, the first of a dozen defendants to face charges in a crackdown on what authorities describe as the sect's culture of polygamy and underage sex. In a case that drew worldwide attention, Texas authorities last year removed more than 400 children from the compound of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, an insular Mormon breakaway sect, after receiving an anonymous telephone call reporting sexual abuse there. Raymond Jessop, 38, is the first of a dozen members of the group accused of facilitating or engaging in underage polygamous marriages. In his trial, prosecutors are expected for the first time reveal evidence of illicit sex on the sect's Yearning for Zion ranch, a 1,700-acre plot of former scrubland that includes gardens and a massive limestone temple. Jessop, 38, is son of the sect's de facto leader. The man the group believes to be its prophet, Warren Jeffs, is in prison after being convicted of being an accomplice to rape for his role in arranging an underage marriage. Jury selection got underway in Eldorado, Texas today as prospective jurors lined up in the rain outside a municipal building. Attorneys must seat a jury of 12 from pool of about 300 people, and could face difficulty because of the case's notoriety and the small size of the community. The Associated Press reported that at least 10 in the jury pool sported the long frontier-style dresses and buttoned-up shirts favoured by members of the sect, many of whom vowed to register to vote ahead of the trial in order to be eligible for jury service. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Polygamous sect leaders go on trial for abusing underage 'wives' | |||||||||||||||||||||
| The leaders of a polygamous sect in Texas have gone on trial accused of "marrying" and sexually abusing underage girls. | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Nick Allen North America - USA Daily Telegraph - London, England Originally published 26 Oct 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| More than 400 children were taken into care after a remote ranch belonging to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was raided by police last year. Raymond Jessop, 38, the first of 12 members of the sect to be tried, faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of sexually assaulting a child. He will be tried later on a separate charge of bigamy relating to a second alleged underage wife. Members of the sect, a group that broke away from the Mormon church, are said to believe that polygamy brings "glorification in heaven". Their base, a sprawling 1,700-acre ranch called "Yearning for Zion" on the outskirts of Eldorado, was established in 2003 by self-declared "prophet" Warren Jeffs. At the ranch, girls as young as 13 are said to have been "spiritually married" to middle-aged men and required to have sex with their new husbands on a bed inside a huge temple building. One man living there is alleged to have had 20 wives and a 16-year-old girl was said to have given birth to four children. It was raided in April 2008 following an anonymous call from a woman at the ranch. A total of 439 children were then removed, making it the largest child custody case in American history. Jessop's trial is taking place in the same isolated community where the ranch is located and prosecutors said the case may have to be moved to find an impartial jury. Sect members have been deliberately registering themselves to vote so they can be selected for jury duty in the trials of the dozen men. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| First member of polygamous sect in Texas to face trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Raymond Jessop's trial is the first criminal case to proceed after the FLDS was accused of child abuse at a Texas ranch last year. Jury selection began Monday. | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Daniel B. Wood Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor From the October 26, 2009 edition | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Jury selection began in Texas Monday in the first criminal case to go to trial after a polygamous sect was accused of child abuse last year. In April 2008, as the child-abuse accusations came to light, some 450 children were removed from a ranch operated by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). It became the largest child-custody case in US history, and it was largely resolved when the Supreme Court of Texas ruled the following month that the children should be reunited with their parents. But criminal investigations of some members of the group – which seeks to live in a closed society – continued. Now, Raymond Jessop is set to stand trial, charged with sexual assault of a child – an underage girl he allegedly married first. If convicted, he could serve 20 years in prison. Eleven other men have been charged with crimes ranging from failure to report child abuse to bigamy. "These trials may demonstrate a clash between an asserted right to freedom of religion and the necessity of residents to abide by criminal laws," says Jessica Levinson, adjunct professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. The message of these trials, she says, may be: "If you live in our country, you must abide by our criminal laws. Some activities are not made legal simply because one claims he is exercising his religious freedom." For now, however, the immediate question is whether the judge can seat a proper jury in the remote, west Texas town of Eldorado. The court needs to find 14 people in a county of 2,800 who can set aside what they heard about the sect last year in a deluge of media reports. "It's extremely unlikely that we'll have anyone who will say they have not heard about this trial," state District Judge Barbara Walther said at a pretrial hearing, according to the Associated Press. It's not inconceivable that the location of the trial may be shifted. "While judges rarely grant change-of-venue requests, if they cannot find an appropriate jury pool in Eldorado, such a request may be granted," Ms. Levinson says. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Judge, lawyers go on with jury selection in Jessop trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Trish Choate San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published October 26, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO — The judge in a child sexual assault trial that is receiving media attention from as far away as England and France was optimistic late Monday that she’d be able to dismiss many of the more than 150 members of a jury panel soon after their return at 9 a.m. today. Defendant Raymond Merril Jessop is accused of sexually assaulting a child, an underage girl he is alleged to have taken as a wife. The clean-cut 38-year-old resident of the YFZ Ranch and member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints could serve two to 20 years in prison if found guilty. He watched quietly all day Monday as 51st Judicial District Judge Barbara Walther worked to move forward the selection of 12 jurors and two alternates from among 153 Schleicher County residents who answered a summons for jury duty, including 17 members of Jessop’s sect. "We’re hoping tomorrow we’re going to send most of you home," Walther said Monday evening. She dismissed all but 36 members of the jury panel and kept defense and prosecution attorneys after 5 p.m. Monday. The judge began having quiet discussions with lawyers and members of the jury panel who had various issues that could lead to their dismissal from the pool of potential jurors. The issues? Seven FLDS sect members called for jury selection are related to Jessop, for one thing. Jessop’s is the first criminal trial to come out of the historic raid by the state authorities of the sect’s Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado in April 2008. Jessop and 11 other men were indicted by a Schleicher County grand jury late last year. Many of the allegations spring from records and other evidence seized during the April 2008 raid. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Mormon polygamist Raymond Jessop on trial after raid on sect's compound | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
James Bone in New York London Times - London, England Originally published October 27, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| A polygamist whose nine wives allegedly include three daughters and two sisters of the self-styled prophet of a Mormon sect became the first person to go on trial yesterday after a controversial raid on the group’s Texas compound. Raymond Jessop, 38, appeared in court in the small town of Eldorado 18 months after police raided the Yearning for Zion ranch and removed 439 children in the largest child custody case in US history. Mr Jessop is one of a dozen men in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) who face charges of child abuse, sexual assault and bigamy. The sect split from the mainstream Mormon church, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago. Sect members began moving from Utah to Texas when the group bought a 1,700-acre ranch on the outskirts of Eldorado six years ago. Police raided the ranch in April 2008 after a Colorado woman called a domestic-abuse hotline in Texas pretending to be a teenage girl raped and beaten by her much older husband. The call was later determined to be a hoax but authorities took the children at the ranch away from their families. The children have since been returned to their log cabin-style homes but prosecutors are pursuing some of the sect’s men. Mr Jessop faces up to 20 years in jail if convicted of sexual assault of a child because of his alleged marriage to a minor. According to documents seized at the ranch, he refused to take his under-age wife to hospital when she went into labour in August 2005 because he feared officials would discover her age and turn him in. The age of consent in Texas is 17. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Jury chosen for US polygamy trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
| The sexual assault trial of a member of a US polygamy sect is to continue with a second day of jury selection at a Texas court. | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
BBC News Originally published Tuesday, October 27, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Raymond Jessop, 38, faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty of the charge related to his alleged marriage to an under-age girl. It is the first criminal case stemming from a raid on the sect's ranch last year. About 150 people, including members of the sect, were eligible for jury duty. The Yearning For Zion Ranch was raided in April, and hundreds of children removed after one girl complained of abuse. A total of 12 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have been charged with crimes ranging from failure to report child abuse to sexual assault and bigamy. Court documents stated that Mr Jessop's alleged wife gave birth to a daughter at the ranch when she was 16. Prosecutors allege he has nine wives. His bigamy trial will be held later. The sexual assault trial was expected to last two weeks, assistant Attorney General Eric Nichols was quoted by Associated Press as saying. Two of Mr Jessop's alleged under-age wives, as well as former sect members, are due to give evidence for the prosecution. In April 2008, US officials removed 416 children from the sect's ranch after receiving a report of sexual abuse. A Texas court later overturned the decision to remove the children. It said the state had overstepped its authority because of the lack of evidence about widespread sexual abuse. The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is a breakaway sect of Mormonism that supports polygamy. Their leader, Warren Jeffs, has already been imprisoned in Arizona for conspiracy to rape. He faces more charges in Texas. The 10,000-strong sect, which dominates the towns of Colorado City in Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, split from the mainstream Mormon church more than a century ago. See photos | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Nice the next two days, rain possible Wednesday night | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Mark Lisheron Weather Watch Austin-American Statesman Originally published Tuesday, October 27, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Don’t let the forecast of beautiful sunny skies today lull you into taking out your laptops while driving to work and checking on that new scheduling system Delta Airlines just put into place. You don’t know where you’ll end up. The high today under a glorious sun is supposed to be 71, according to the National Weather Service. The skies are expected to remain clear and the overnight low might get into the upper 40s. Wednesday should be nice, too, although the Weather Service says it may cloud up and be a little windy, with gusts of up to 20 miles an hour. The high should be 78. The threat of rain is 40 percent Wednesday night, along with some gustiness and a low of 71 degrees. The chances of showers and thunderstorms increase to 60 percent on Thursday with a high in the mid-70s. An even 50-50 on the rain chances Thursday night with an overnight low of 49, the Weather Service says. Rain chances diminish to 20 percent on Friday and dissolve into a beautiful, sunny Saturday. The high on Friday, under cloudy skies is 76, with a low overnight of 51. Saturday’s high is expected to be near 83. Saturday night should be clear, with a low around 52, the Weather Service says. I suspect some of you commuters ignored the warning in my (newspaper slang dead ahead!) lede and read this forecast on your laptops anyway. You know who you are. The same people who think it’s just swell to text lol, sos and blt while trying to steer. The same people who knit, play cat’s cradle and get stuck in the Chinese finger torture while they drive. Well, if you’d be kind enough to look up, you’ve probably overshot your destination by hundreds of miles in spite of all the air traffic controllers trying to get you to turn around. You may be in Eau Claire, WI. or Upper Sandusky, OH. Or if you were heading west, look around for women in muslin dresses, black stockings and shoes made by malicious cobblers. You are now in Eldorado, a place where hair-dos are perpetually swept up and marriage standards are swept under the carpet. There’s a trial getting started in Eldorado. A member of the Yearning for Zion Ranch is charged with bigamy. I’d beat it if I were you. If you’re not dressed like you drove in for the barn raising it’s a good bet you’ll draw jury duty. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Jury selection continues in W. Texas polygamist sect trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By TERRI LANGFORD HOUSTON CHRONICLE Originally published Oct. 27, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO — The first criminal trial stemming from the Texas raid of a polygamist ranch continues this morning with the second day of jury selection. By late Monday, 138 remained of 300 potential jurors originally summoned. Visible in the pool were at least a dozen members of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, a breakaway Mormon sect who practice polygamy and are easily identifiable by their frontier-style dress. The group's 1,700-acre Yearning For Zion Ranch, located about 200 miles northeast of San Antonio near Eldorado, was descended upon by Texas Rangers and law enforcement in 2007 after child welfare workers found several underage girls who were pregnant or mothers. Once jurors are selected, they will begin hearing testimony in the child sexual assault case against Raymond Merril Jessop, the first of 12 FLDS members to face trial for their part in arranging or participating in underage marriages. His father, Frederick Merril Jessop, is the senior leader of the FLDS because the group's prophet, Warren Jeffs, is jailed in Utah for forcing girls into underage marriages in that state. Both Jeffs and the elder Jessop are among the defendants in the Texas case, and each will be tried separately. On Monday, at least seven FLDS members among the jurors told attorneys there were related to the defendant. Another 12 potential jurors, none of them FLDS members, said they could not put aside what they knew about the case and make an unbiased conclusion based on the facts. Another 13 said they could not, because of personal reasons, deliberate on a sexual abuse of a child case. At least three dozen had a problem with the idea of probation for a sexual assault case, which is a possible sentence under the guidelines. Schleicher County is small, with only 2,800 people. The jury selection process has been an amusing look at how everyone knows everyone, even for county residents: When asked how many people knew the sheriff, the entire jury pool laughed. Defense attorney Mark Stevens laughed at his own question. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday News Update | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS CRIMINAL TRIAL CONTINUES | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
KSAN - KLST San Angelo Originally broadcast Tuesday, Oct 27, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
IT HAS BEEN A YEAR AND A HALF SINCE AUTHORITIES RAIDED THE Y-F-Z RANCH IN SCHLEICHER COUNTY. TODAY THE CRIMINAL TRIAL OF RAYMOND JESSOP WHO FACES A CHARGE OF CHILD SEXUAL ASSAULT WILL CONTINUE. ABOUT 300 PEOPLE REPORTED TO THE SCHLEICHER COUNTY COURTHOUSE FOR JURY DUTY EARLY YESTERDAY MORNING. 38-YEAR-OLD RAYMOND JESSOP IS CHARGED WITH SEXUAL ASSAULT OF A CHILD IN CONNECTION WITH UNDERAGE MARRIAGES AT THE Y-F-Z RANCH NEAR ELDORADO. AMONG THOSE REPORTING FOR JURY DUTY WERE ABOUT A HALF DOZEN WHO ACKNOWLEDGED BEING RELATED TO JESSOP. BY LATE YESTERDAY AFTERNOON THE JURY POOL HAD BEEN NARROWED DOWN TO 36 PEOPLE.
THEY'LL REPORT TO THE SCHLEICHER COUNTY COURTHOUSE THIS MORNING AS THE JURY SELECTION PROCESS CONTINUES. WILLIE JESSOP NOT ALLOWED INTO COURTROOM YESTERDAY BEFORE THE TRIAL BEGAN -- WILLIE JESSOP THE ACTING MANAGER OF THE Y-F-Z RANCH WAS NOT ALLOWED INTO THE COURT ROOM. JESSOP WAS ACCOMPANIED BY A LAWYER AS HE TALKED TO D-P-S TROOPERS WHO PREVENTED HIM FROM GOING IN. THIS IS WHAT HE HAD TO TELL US AS HE LEFT THE COURTHOUSE "We're trying to sort it out. Kicking us out of the courthouse and w're the only ones representing they families -- a little bit disappointed," Jessop said. WE WILL HAVE MORE ON THIS STORY TONIGHT AT 6 WHEN OUR CAROLYN MCENRUE WILL BE LIVE IN EL DORADO. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS: Sect patriarch let into court | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Defense attorneys explore prospective jurors’ experiences with Child Protective Services | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By TRISH CHOATE San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published October 27, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — ELDORADO — A leader in the polygamist sect with 12 men facing criminal charges in Schleicher County said he doesn’t necessarily think the first trial should set the tone or decide key issues for the other trials. "Each trial and each circumstance has to stand on its own issues and its own set of facts," Willie Jessop, spokesman for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, said Tuesday afternoon on the Schleicher County Courthouse lawn. Willie Jessop, an FLDS patriarch who often acts as the sect’s spokesman, said he came from his home in Hildale, Utah, at the request of defendant Raymond Merril Jessop, who is being tried on a charge of child sexual assault in connection with allegations that he married an underage girl. Willie Jessop took a seat in the courtroom set up in the Memorial Building near the courthouse at 3:05 p.m. Tuesday — for the first time — to watch the jury selection process, which was in its second day. He said authorities hadn’t allowed him to enter the courtroom previously. When he asked to see a document from 51st Judicial District Judge Barbara Walther barring him from the courtroom, he was allowed in, Willie Jessop said. "I’m shocked," he said, adding that perhaps Walther didn’t know he hadn’t been allowed past security. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS defendant's argument rejected | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By TERRI LANGFORD Houston Chronicle Originally published Oct. 27, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO — Attorneys moved closer to seating a jury in the first criminal case resulting from the state's 2008 raid on a polygamist sect's ranch after narrowing a jury pool to 34 on Tuesday. At least two more jurors are expected to be interviewed today before prosecutors and attorneys for Raymond Merril Jessop begin their final eliminations or strikes, according to a courtroom discussion after 76 jurors had been interviewed over two days. Fourteen jurors are needed, 12 plus two alternates, before opening statements can begin. State District Judge Barbara Walther heard Jessop's defense team make another go at keeping Deputy Attorney General Eric Nichols and his team from discussing polygamy or plural marriages, common within the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, during the child sexual assault trial. "How is it relevant?" Jessop's attorney Mark Stevens asked Walther. "It is highly prejudicial." Nichols countered that the state the victim — a 16-year-old girl in 2005 — was living in is relevant and he made no promise not to introduce the fact that the victim was one of eight illegal marriages Jessop had. "It is proof to the element of the crime," Nichols said. The judge refused to bar the mention of plural marriage or polygamy. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday News Update | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS CRIMINAL TRIAL CONTINUES | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
KSAN - KLST San Angelo Originally broadcast Wednesday, Oct 28, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
JURY SELECTION WILL CONTINUE TODAY IN ELDORADO IN THE TRIAL OF FLDS MEMBER RAYMOND JESSOP. THIS IS THE FIRST CRIMINAL TRIAL RESULTING FROM THE LAW ENFORCEMENT RAID ON THE Y-F-Z RANCH IN APRIL OF LAST YEAR. THE 38-YEAR-OLD JESSOP FACES A CHARGE OF SEXUAL ASSAULT OF A CHILD.
JURY POOL MEMBERS ARRIVED YESTERDAY MORNING FOR INDIVIDUAL QUESTIONING. EACH POTENTIAL JUROR IS INTERVIEWED PERSONALLY BY THE PROSECUTOR FOR THE STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE, DEFENSE ATTORNEYS AND JUDGE BARBARA WALTHER. QUESTIONS INCLUDED JUROR'S ATTITUDES ON PLURAL MARRIAGES, AND THEIR WILLINGNESS TO CONSIDER THE ENTIRE RANGE OF PUNISHMENT IN A CASE INVOLVING A CHARGE OF CHILD SEXUAL ASSAULT. QUESTIONING CONTINUED UNTIL LATE YESTERDAY EVENING, AND WILL RESUME AT 9:00 A.M. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| More potential jurors dismissed in trial of polygamous sect member | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Matthew Waller San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published October 28, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — ELDORADO — Jury selection may be nearing a conclusion today in the trial of polygamous sect member Raymond Merril Jessop. Judge Barbara Walther this morning dismissed another 44 prospective jurors. A crowd of prospective jurors who had been summoned for a 10:30 a.m. appearance today at the Memorial Building in Eldorado were told to come back at noon. Walther said further announcements will be made by noon, fueling speculation that she may be ready to seat a jury. Jessop’s trial began Monday with jury selection from a pool of 153 prospects. He is charged with sexual assault of a minor. This is a breaking news story. Further developments will be added as information becomes available. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Curtain rises on W. Texas polygamist sex trial today | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By TERRI LANGFORD Houston Chronicle Originally published Oct. 28, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO — The issue of polygamy and how it pertains to a child sexual assault case is expected to be a contentious issue when opening statements in the first criminal trial involving a West Texas religious sect begin today. Late this morning, attorneys were making their final strikes from the jury panel in the trial of Raymond Merril Jessop, 38. He is the first of 12 men from the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints to stand trial following a raid of the breakaway Mormon sect’s ranch in Eldorado. Texas Rangers and other law enforcement officers descended upon the ranch in 2008 after child welfare workers found several underage girls there who were pregnant or already were mothers. Opening statements were set to begin as soon as the selections were made of 12 jurors and two alternates. Tuesday night, Jessop’s attorney Mark Stevens asked again whether the terms "plural marriage" and "polygamy" should be mentioned during the trial. Evidence seized from the FLDS Yearning From Zion Ranch in 2008 includes a journal dictated to followers from now jailed prophet, Warren Jeffs. That dictation indicates the group kept one of Jessop’s eight spiritual wives, a 16-year-old girl, from going to the hospital after she appeared to be struggling through labor for three days. Jessop is also charged with bigamy. But because he will be tried on that charge separately, Stevens reasoned that the terms should not be used during this trial. Deputy Texas Attorney General Eric Nichols disagreed and state District Judge Barbara Walther rejected Stevens’ request, which he had made earlier at a pre-trial hearing this month. Stevens said those terms have proved to be so prejudicial among potential jurors, that using them would be unfair to his client. He indicated me may enter an objection every time the terms are uttered. After the court recessed for the night, Stevens declined to say whether he would make good on that promise. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Jury seated in polygamist raid trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By MICHELLE ROBERTS Associated Press Fort Worth Star Telegram Originally published October 28, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — Eight men and four women have been seated on a jury to hear the first criminal case stemming from the raid of a polygamist group's West Texas ranch last year. It took the summoning of 300 residents and individual interviews of more than 80 people over 2 1/2 days to get 12 jurors and two alternates in sparsely populated Schleicher (SHLYE'-kur) County. Opening arguments are scheduled to begin Wednesday afternoon in the case against 38-year-old Raymond Jessop. He's charged with sexual assault of a child, a charge stemming from his alleged marriage to an underage girl in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Prosecutors say Jessop has nine wives. He has also been indicted on bigamy but will be tried on that charge later. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Jury seated, proceedings to start in trial of polygamous sect member | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Matthew Waller San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published October 28, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — ELDORADO — A jury has been seated and proceedings will start today in the trial of polygamous sect member Raymond Merril Jessop. Judge Barbara Walther this morning dismissed another 44 prospective jurors and told another group of them who had been summoned for a 10:30 a.m. appearance today at the Memorial Building in Eldorado to return at noon. At noon, she announced the jury had been seated, released all others summonsed for jury duty, and said the trail proceedings will begin at 3:30 p.m. in the Memorial Building, a community center in downtown Eldorado where the jury vetting took place. Jessop’s trial began Monday with jury selection from a pool of 153 prospects. The 38-year-old man is charged with sexual assault of a minor, a second degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison and a fine up to $10,000. Jessop’s attorney, Mark Stevens of San Antonio, has elected to have Jessop sentenced by the jury rather than the judge in the event he is found guilty. Jessop is the first of a dozen men from the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado to go to trial on criminal charges based largely on evidence seized in the state’s raid of the ranch in April 2008. Material taken away from the ranch, owned and occupied by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, included computers, data files, marriage records, photographs and other documents. Walther determined earlier this year to hold the trial in Eldorado and summoned a massive pool of 300 potential jurors, of whom nearly half were excused or exempted before jury selection began on Monday. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS: Relief registers with those passed over for jury duty | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By TRISH CHOATE San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published October 28, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — ELDORADO — Nearly 140 Schleicher County residents were exonerated from jury duty this week. Fist pumps and cries of "Yes!" broke out Wednesday when 51st District Judge Barbara Walther released 46 prospective jurors the long arm of the law had put away in her makeshift courtroom in the Eldorado Memorial Building. A jury was selected, and they weren’t on it. "Yes!" The minutes, hours and, eventually, two and a half days had ticked by during jury selection. Without a book, a magazine and certainly not a newspaper, prospective jurors, forbidden to leave the room, were left to entertain themselves. For a while, it was the perfect chance to catch up with fellow Schleicher County residents. Eventually, out and out boredom took over. Eyelids drooped, foreheads floated down to rest on the backs of hard folding chairs, and the 4-by-8-inch blue cards with black numbers burdening each prospective juror became about the most interesting thing around. Besides the ceiling with 10 buzzing fans, the hardwood floor or the three walls and one folding divider forming their cell. One man had it beat Tuesday. He was playing with a deck of cards. A Texas Ranger eyeballed the contraband and confiscated it, exercising skills learned as a member of an elite force to quell the insurrection. By Wednesday, a potential juror spotted balancing her 4-by-8 inch card on her forehead had just about had enough. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS: Jury seated, trial to begin in Jessop case | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Trish Choate San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published October 28, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — ELDORADO — A jury of seven men and five women was seated at about 1 p.m. Wednesday in the child sexual assault trial of a polygamist sect member. At least five of the jurors have Hispanic surnames, and none appeared to be members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a religious community with a stronghold in Schleicher County. The judge told jurors to return to begin hearing evidence at about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. The 12 jurors and two alternates — two women — must spend the length of the trial not discussing goings on that have drawn international attention. That means avoiding talking about one of the hottest topics in town with the approximately 1,800 residents of Eldorado and the 1,000 more or so that live out in Schleicher County. And, of course, with their own spouses. "I will tell you, it’s a little bit difficult in a small town," 51st Judicial District Judge Barbara Walther told her new jury. Not following the judge’s instructions could result in a mistrial in the case against Raymond Merril Jessop. Walthers is not sequestering the jury at this time, allowing them to separate for meals and recesses and spend their nights at home. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Jury seated in Texas polygamist raid trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Michelle Roberts Associated Press Deseret News Originally published Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — Eight men and four women were selected Wednesday for the jury that will decide the first criminal case stemming from the raid of a polygamist group's ranch in West Texas last year. Court officials called 300 jurors to get 12 jurors and two alternates in tiny Schleicher County where everyone knows one another and media images of the sect's women wearing prairie-style dresses were impossible to avoid. The original pool included 17 residents of the Yearning For Zion Ranch, but none are on the jury panel for the trial of Raymond Jessop. The 38-year-old is accused of sexual assault of a child, a charge stemming from his alleged marriage to an underage girl in the Fundamentalist LDS Church, a sect that believes polygamy brings glorification in heaven. Opening statements were scheduled to begin Wednesday afternoon. Prosecutors say the girl, who gave birth at the ranch at age 16, was one of nine women married to Jessop, including three who were reassigned to him after his brother was excommunicated from the sect by jailed leader Warren Jeffs. Jessop faces a bigamy charge, stemming from his alleged marriage to one of Jeffs' daughters, but will be tried on that indictment later. Defense attorneys sought to bar prosecutors from talking about polygamy during the trial, but Judge Barbara Walther refused to prevent them from discussing the so-called "spiritual" marriages between men and multiple women in the community. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS trial jury gets preview of state's case | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By TERRI LANGFORD HOUSTON CHRONICLE Originally published Wednesday, Oct 28, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO — More than a year after Texas officials descended on the Yearning For Zion Ranch, removing a polygamist sect's 439 children after finding underage brides, the first criminal trial opened Wednesday with a prosecutor promising to prove with DNA, witnesses and documents that a sect member impregnated a 16-year-old girl. "You will see evidence that establishes that this offense occurred just down the road from this courthouse at the YFZ Ranch," Deputy Attorney General Eric Nichols told the panel of seven men and five women of case against Raymond Merril Jessop, 38. Jessop is the first member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to be tried here as a result of the state's 2008 raid on the sect's ranch near Eldorado in West Texas. Eleven other men have also been charged. Jessop is charged with sexual assault of a child, a crime that Deputy Attorney General Eric Nichols said was committed four years before the state's raid. Jessop was 33 in 2004, when he impregnated the girl, Nichols said. The girl gave birth to a baby girl the following August. The Chronicle does not publish the names of suspected sexual assault victims. In a reversal of sorts, Nichols did not mention that the girl was suspected to be one of eight illegal spouses, known as "spiritual" wives by the FLDS. Nichols had told the court that the terms "polygamy" and "spiritual wives" should not be barred from Jessop's trial because they are elements of the crime. Defense attorne, Mark Stevens of San Antonio had argued as recently as Tuesday that the terms be barred because his client is to be tried separately later on a bigamy charge. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| First trial is underway in raid of Texas polygamist compound | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Raymond Merrill Jessop, 38, is charged with sexual assault of a minor, having allegedly fathered her child. Prosecutors argue Jessop's marriage to the girl is not legal in Texas. | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Nicholas Riccardi Los Angeles Times Originally published October 28, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Reporting from Eldorado, Texas - The first criminal prosecution stemming from a controversial raid on a polygamous sect's compound here began today as a state prosecutor told jurors he would prove that a key member of the group had had sex with a 16-year-old girl. Raymond Merrill Jessop, now 38, is charged with sexual assault on a minor for allegedly fathering a child with the daughter of the sect's self-styled prophet, Warren Jeffs. The girl was one of Jessop's wives, but prosecutors argue that the marriage is not legal in Texas. "We will ask you to conclude, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Raymond Merrill Jessop is guilty of sexual assault on a woman less than half his age," Deputy Atty. Gen. Eric Nichols told the jury of eight men and four women in a brief opening statement. Under Texas law, someone can be convicted of sexual assault of a minor, even if the relationship was consensual, if the victim was younger than 17 and not lawfully married to the assailant. Defense attorney Mark Stevens countered that the state does not have enough evidence to prove a crime occurred. "In this country, we don't try people based on their clothes or their hairstyles. And we don't try people on their beliefs or the churches they worship in," he said. "I believe if we stick to the facts and the evidence in this case, that Raymond will do just fine." Neither side mentioned the explosive circumstances that brought Jessop -- whose father is acting as the sect's leader while Jeffs serves a life prison term for his conviction in Utah as an accomplice to rape -- to court. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Jury seated, listens to opening arguments in FLDS case | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Trish Choate Abilene Reporter-News Originally published October 28, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO — A defense attorney made a plea to jurors Wednesday evening to look past the appearance, lifestyle and religion of a polygamist sect member accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old he’d taken as a wife. The jury of seven men and five women appeared to be riveted during the defense attorney’s opening statement, all their eyes on him when he said Raymond Merril Jessop, 38, wasn’t on trial for polygamy at the Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado. "We don’t try people because of their clothes or their beliefs or because of the churches they go to," lead defense attorney Mark Stevens said, adding shortly, "If we stick to the evidence and the facts, Raymond will be just fine." Stevens and prosecuting attorney Eric Nichols each gave opening statements about 15 minutes long beginning about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday while Jessop, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, watched. Then 51st Judicial District Judge Barbara Walther told the jurors to go home, watch the baseball game but not the news afterward, then report back at 9:15 a.m. today for coffee and doughnuts in the jury room. A delay of about two hours preceded Wednesday’s opening statements. But the first major action of the early evening was Jessop telling the judge in a loud voice that he was pleading not guilty. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Prosecutor: Polygamist sect man assaulted teen | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By MICHELLE ROBERTS Associated Press Taiwan News - Taipei, Taiwan Originally published 2009-10-29 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| A 38-year-old man from a polygamist sect sexually assaulted a teenager less than half his age at the Yearning For Zion Ranch, a prosecutor charged Wednesday to open the first criminal trial since the ranch was raided. An attorney for defendant Raymond Jessop disputed the allegation, telling jurors there is no evidence Jessop sexually assaulted the girl in Schleicher County. The location is critical, since prosecutors must prove they have the jurisdiction to prosecute the alleged crimes. Jessop was one of 12 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints charged after authorities raided the ranch last year and swept 439 children into foster care. The children were later returned to their parents after an appellate court intervened, but documents and DNA seized during the raid resulted in criminal indictments on charges ranging from failure to report child abuse to sexual assault and bigamy. All the men will be tried separately. Assistant Attorney General Eric Nichols said Jessop was 33 when he had sex with a 16-year-old girl, who later gave birth to a daughter. Under Texas law, generally, no one under 17 can consent to sex with adult. Nichols did not discuss the relationship between the two in his opening statement, but prosecutors have said in court documents the teen is one of Jessop's nine wives. Jessop has also been indicted on a bigamy charge that will be tried later. "You will see evidence that establishes that this offense - the offense of sexual assault of (the teen) - occurred just down the road from this courthouse at the YFZ Ranch," Nichols told jurors. Defense attorney Mark Stevens said prosecutors would not be able to show evidence of a crime occurring in Texas, and he urged jurors not to be distracted by the alleged polygamy or the religious beliefs Jessop and the church. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS trial gets underway | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Sam Mata KETK News - KETK 56 Tyler, Texas Originally broadcast October 29, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ElDorado — Opening statements in the criminal trial of Raymond Jessop are underway. A prosecutor told jurors Wednesday witnesses, documents, and DNA will show Jessop sexually assaulted a teenage girl at a west Texas Ranch. Jessop’s attorney insists prosecutors don’t have evidence to show a crime occurred. He told jurors not to be distracted by the group’s prarie-style clothing, braids, or religious beliefs. This is the first criminal trial stemming from last year’s raid on the groups ranch. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday News Update | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS CRIMINAL TO BEGIN | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
KLST San Angelo Originally broadcast Thursday, Oct 29, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
TESTIMONY IS SET TO BEGIN THIS MORNING IN THE TRIAL OF RAYMOND JESSOP...A MEMBER OF THE FUNDAMENTALIST LATTER DAY SAINTS. JURY SELECTION WAS COMPLETED LATE YESTERDAY MORNING. ATTORNEYS FOR BOTH SIDES GAVE THEIR OPENING STATEMENTS YESTERDAY.
ACCORDING TO PROSECUTOR ERIC NICHOLS, WITH THE TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE, JESSOP IS ACCUSED OF HAVING SEX WITH A 16-YEAR-OLD GIRL AT THE Y-F-Z RANCH NEAR ELDORADO IN NOVEMBER 2004. HE TOLD JURORS THAT THE GIRL GAVE BIRTH TO A CHILD. DEFENSE ATTORNEY MARK STEVENS SAID JURORS SHOULD CONSIDER EVIDENCE, NOT RELIGION, IN THEIR DECISION. ORIGINALLY MORE THAN A DOZEN F-L-D-S MEMBERS WERE AMONG THE 300 PEOPLE CALLED FOR JURY DUTY, BUT NONE WERE CHOSEN TO SERVE ON THE JURY. F-L-D-S SPOKESMAN WILLIE JESSOP SAYS HE'S DISAPPOINTED. "We're clearly disappointed that they didn't include anyone from the FLDS faith. And we've been very concerned about that. Even with as many that were here, and all that. Clearly, it's a big disappointment to us, but the trial is underway, and we'll see how it plays out," Wille Jessop said. TESTIMONY IS SET TO BEGIN THIS MORNING AT NINE-THIRTY. DISTRICT JUDGE BARBARA WALTHER IS NOT ORDERING THE JURY TO BE SEQUESTERED...SHE IS ALLOWING THEM TO RETURN HOME WHEN COURT IS NOT IN SESSION. HOWEVER, SHE INSTRUCTED THEM NOT TO DISCUSS THE CASE WITH ANYONE. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Testimony Begins in FLDS Member's Trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Reported by: Laura Kellerman KLST-TV Originally published Thursday, Oct 29, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| The prosecution began presenting evidence at 9 a.m. Thursday in the trial Raymond Jessop (pictured), the first man from the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado to go on trial. Jessop is charged with sexual assault of a child. Texas' deputy attorney general Eric Nichols claims Jessop married a 16-year-old girl five years ago, who then gave birth to a child. Opening statements began late Wednesday afternoon, after two and a half days of jury selection. Some residents of the YFZ Ranch were part of the 150-person jury pool, and were quickly dismissed. During opening arguments, Jessop's defense attorney set out to make it clear to the jury that it sould be an evidence-based case. We don't try people for their hair, their clothing, or their religion, Mark Stevens said. Stevens is a noted defense attorney from San Antonio. The jury in this case will not be sequestered, which is often what happens during such high-profile trials. The case is being tried in Schleicher County. The county's courthouse is too small for such a trial, so it will take place in a next-door municipal building. Jessop faces up to 20 years in prison. See photo | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Testimony starts in polygamist trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By MICHELLE ROBERTS Associated Press Dallas Morning News Originally published October 29, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| A law officer who took part in the 2008 raid of a West Texas polygamist group's ranch was the first to testify in a member's criminal trial. Texas Ranger Nick Hannah took the stand Thursday in the Eldorado (el-doh-RAY'-doh) trial of 38-year-old Raymond Jessop, who's accused of sexual assault of a child. Hannah described for the Schleicher (SHLYE'-kur) County jury the layout of the Yearning for Zion Ranch that was raided in April 2008. Hannah was asked to identify piles of documents, computers and other evidence seized from the ranch. Jessop's charge stems from his alleged marriage to an underage girl. His trial is expected to last about two weeks. Besides the assault charge, Jessop faces a bigamy charge, but that case is to be tried later. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Trial for FLDS member interrupted | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Trish Choate San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published October 29, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
SAN ANGELO, Texas — ELDORADO — The child sexual assault trial of a polygamist sect member came to a screeching halt just before 3 p.m. today because a jurist’s child may have swine flu. Judge Barbara Walther sent the jurors home and told her bailiff to tell the jurors the court would call them in the morning. Walther, 51st Judicial District judge, announced that a juror’s child younger than 5 has a high temperature. Walther said they would not continue until the child gets better. She told the attorneys in the trial of Raymond Merril Jessop, 38, to stay and they would take up other matters. The judge later sent everyone home for the day, including the attorneys and defendants. The court will convene for a bench hearing at 10 a.m. Friday that doesn’t require the jury’s presence. This is a breaking news story. More developments will be reported as information becomes available.
choatet@shns.com / 202-664-9439 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| BREAKING NEWS | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Raymond Jessop Trial Notes | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Eldorado Success Originally published October 29, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
2:50 p.m. Thursday, October. 29, 2009 Jury Sent Home Jurors in the Raymond Jessop case were suprisingly sent home minutes ago after it was revealed that a child of one of the jurors was ill and running a fever. Child is younger than 5. Court will recovene at 10 a.m. tomorrow without jury. Sgt. Paul Horn, Attorney General's investigator testifed concerning DNA samples collected from alleged victim and her child on July 11, 2008 in San Antonio. Texas Ranger Sgt. Nick Hanna testified earlier that on April 9, 2008, he collected DNA evidence from Raymond Jessop who he found at an address on Sideview Road in San Angelo. DNA evidence taken by Sgt. Henry Guevara, Attorney General's investigator, to University of North Texas in Ft. Worth. Photos of DNA collection kits, as well as the envelopes they were sealed in, were also submitted into evidence. District Attorney investigator Diane Wilson said she collected DNA samples again on April 12, 2008, from alleged victim and her child. Sgt. John Schneemann, Attorney General's investigator, testified that on June 4, 2008, he took 35 DNA samples collected by Diane Wilson to Ranger Kemp office at DPS office. The following day, he took the DNA samples to University of North Texas in Ft. Worth and delivered them to Ruth Donaho. 1:55 p.m. Thursday, October. 29, 2009 FLDS Jurors Released by Defense The Eldorado Success has learned that all 17 FLDS members included in the original jury pool were dismissed or excused by defense attorney Mark Stephens. Apparently, if the 17 had remained in the pool they would have had to answer questions under oath during the "voir dire" portion of jury selection. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Possible H1N1 case halts FLDS sex assault trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Juror's child falls ill; meanwhile, Texas Ranger testifies Jessop's 'wife' was underage | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By TERRI LANGFORD HOUSTON CHRONICLE Originally broadcast October 29, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO — The first criminal trial stemming from the FLDS ranch raid in West Texas has come to an abrupt halt. The judge in the sexual assault trial of Raymond Merril Jessop, 38, recessed on Thursday after a Schleicher County juror’s young child developed flulike symptoms. State District Judge Barbara Walther said the child is under age 5, has a high fever and may have swine flu. The trial is recessed until at least Friday. Prosecutors earlier Thursday had begun introducing evidence that Jessop's "spiritual wife" was underage at the time he had sex with her. A San Antonio driver’s license and a Utah birth certificate for the suspected victim each showed her to be 16 at the time prosecutors say Jessop had sex with her at the group’s ranch northeast of here. Jessop’s trial began Wednesday with opening statements. Texas Ranger Nick Hanna was the first witness to take the stand, one of dozens prosecutors have indicated they will call. Deputy Attorney General Eric Nichols had Hanna, the primary investigator in the case, verify the documents, computers and digital media drives that were removed from the Yearning For Zion Ranch, which is owned by Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a breakaway Mormon sect. Hanna also verified the driver’s license and birth certificate as genuine. He also said he encountered the victim on April, 4, 2008 when he entered Building 5 on the ranch. He said the girl was the same one seen in a Texas driver’s license photo taken a few months later, that listed a San Antonio address. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Child's flulike symptoms bring FLDS trial to a halt | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Michelle Roberts Associated Press Deseret News Originally published Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — The first criminal trial stemming from the raid of a polygamist sect's West Texas ranch came to abrupt halt Thursday after the child of a juror came down with a high fever and flulike symptoms. Texas District Judge Barbara Walther recessed the sexual assault trial of Raymond Jessop indefinitely, saying a juror's child is younger than 5 and may have swine flu. She did not indicate when the trial may resume. It took 21/2 days and the largest pool in Schleicher County history to seat a jury of 12 people and two alternates in the first of the criminal cases stemming from a raid that catapulted this tiny town into the spotlight as women and children in prairie dresses were taken off the Yearning For Zion Ranch. Jessop, charged with sexual assault of a child, is the first of 12 men from the Fundamentalist LDS Church to face a criminal trial in Texas. The assault charge stems from his alleged marriage to a girl who was 16 when she became pregnant. The jury began hearing the first testimony in the case Thursday morning. They heard only about four hours of testimony — primarily about how and where evidence was collected in the weeklong raid in April 2008. The first witness, Texas Ranger Sgt. Nick Hanna, testified that he found the alleged victim in the sexual assault case with four other women and numerous children at a log cabin-style house during the early days of the raid. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS TRIAL: Possible H1N1 halts trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Juror’s child falls ill; 4 testify before recess | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Trish Choate STANDARD-TIMES WASHINGTON BUREAU San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published October 29, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — ELDORADO — Prosecutors squeezed in testimony from four witnesses Thursday before a suspected case of swine flu closed down the trial of a polygamist sect member accused of sexually assaulting an underage girl he had taken as a wife. A juror’s child was running a high fever and might have H1N1, the judge said just before 3 p.m. Thursday. The trial will be in recess until the child’s condition improves, 51st Judicial District Judge Barbara Walther said. Walther told her bailiff to send the jury of seven men and five women home and inform jurors the court would call them in the morning. She told attorneys to return for a hearing at 10 a.m. today. A few minutes later, defendant Raymond Merril Jessop, a 38-year-old member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, came out of the courtroom pushing a stack of boxes loaded on a small dolly. Jessop is being tried on a charge of sexually assaulting a girl in 2004 who prosecutors allege was 16 when she gave birth to his daughter. If convicted, he could receive two to 20 years in prison. Among the photographs jurors viewed Thursday was a July 2008 picture of a tiny girl prosecutors say is the child of Jessop and the teen. The tiny girl is wearing a pink prairie dress and clinging to the blue skirt of a 19-year-old woman, who prosecutors say is her mother. Also in the photograph is an investigator with the Texas Attorney General’s Office. He holds a swab in his hand used to collect cheek cells. Prosecutor Eric Nichols spent the day questioning four law enforcement officers to establish the credibility of biological samples collected from Jessop, the mother and child. Nichols also produced birth certificate and driver’s license records to verify the ages of those involved. His first witness was the Texas Ranger who was the lead investigator. Sgt. Nick Hanna testified that he walked into a log cabin-style home at the Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado on April 4, 2008, spotting the young woman who prosecutors allege Jessop sexually assaulted. Hanna testified that on April 9, 2008, he took Jessop to a jail nurse in San Angelo. The nurse drew blood for DNA testing from Jessop. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Friday News Update | |||||||||||||||||||||
| JUDGE STOPS JESSOP'S TRIAL THURSDAY | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
KLST San Angelo Originally broadcast Friday, Oct 30, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| PROCEEDINGS IN THE TRIAL OF FLDS MEMBER RAYMOND JESSOP CAME TO A HALT YESTERDAY. 38-YEAR RAYMOND MERRILL JESSOP IS CHARGED WITH SEXUAL ASSAULT OF A 16 YEAR OLD CHILD. TESTIMONY BEGAN YESTERDAY BUT -- DISTRICT JUDGE BARBARA WALTHER DISMISSED THE JURY MID-AFTERNOON AFTER GETTING WORD THAT A JURY MEMBER'S CHILD HAD A HIGH FEVER AND POSSIBLE SWINE FLU. BEFORE THEY WERE DISMISSED, JURORS HEARD FROM FOUR EXPERT WITNESSES, INCLUDING TEXAS RANGER NICK HANNA. HE'S BEEN INVOLVED WITH THE INVESTIGATION SINCE THE RAID ON THE Y-F-Z RANCH IN APRIL OF 2008. HANNA TESTIFIED YESTERDAY THAT THREE TRAILER LOADS OF EVIDENCE WERE REMOVED FROM THE RANCH. HANNA ALSO SAYS HE TOOK A BLOOD SAMPLE FROM JESSOP AT THE TIME. OTHER EXPERT WITNESSES TALKED ABOUT TAKING TISSUE SAMPLES FROM THE ALLEGED VICTIM. DEFENSE ATTORNEYS QUESTIONED WHETHER TISSUE SAMPLES WERE PROPERLY STORED. JUDGE WALTHER WILL PRESIDE OVER A HEARING WITHOUT THE JURY AT TEN THIS MORNING. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Eldorado residents, FLDS members maintain cordial relationships | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Matthew Waller San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published October 30, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — — Velma Galindo, a server at Jo Jo’s Café in Eldorado, said she sees her Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints neighbors only occasionally. Sometimes Galindo sees them in stores, but mostly she notices them as building contractors doing work around the town. "I only ever met the ones building homes," Galindo said. "I’m sure they’re not all these horrible people." This week it has been hard not to notice the residents of the FLDS Yearning For Zion Ranch, as women in long dresses and elegantly braided hair and men in pressed slacks and button-up collard shirts were among the 153 who responded to a 300 person jury summons. Thus members of the two communities intermingled for the first of 12 criminal trials that came about because of evidence gathered during the massive 2008 raid on the YFZ Ranch. Still, five years after the arrival of the FLDS members, their presence is something of a mundane mystery for Eldorado residents. Yvette Rodriguez, a gas station convenience store employee whose husband was among the 300 residents summoned for jury duty in Raymond Merril Jessop’s trial, described her relationship with FLDS members as one of indifference. "They don’t bother me, and I don’t bother them," Rodriguez said. Justice of the Peace Judge James Doyle said their presence in town is scarce. "They keep to themselves," Doyle said. Occasionally they get tickets for speeding and for having their trucks overloaded with materials, he said. "You don’t have any DWIs," Doyle said. "It’s against their religion." Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| BREAKING NEWS | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Raymond Jessop Trial Notes | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Eldorado Success Originally published October 30, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
2:26 p.m. Friday, October. 30, 2009 Court Recesses Until Monday Defense attorney Mark Stephens restated a motion he had filed on Thursday asking Judge Walther to toss out the search warrant under which Raymond Jessop's blood, buccal cells and hair were collected for DNA analysis. Stephens also argued against any mention of his client's marriage status. Judge did not rule on any of the defense objections but ordered everyone to be back Monday morning. 12:45 p.m. Friday, October. 30, 2009 Defense Challenges Admissibility of DNA Evidence Despite the fact that jurors remained home Friday morning, Raymond Jessop's attorney Brandon T. Hudson argued before Judge Barbara Walther that scientific analysis of DNA evidence is not yet advanced enough to be allowed into evidence. He also challenged the credentials and the credibility of Amy Smutts, one of the state's DNA experts. Smutts is a forensic analyst at University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth. She said that DNA evidence showed a probability of 99.999998 percent that Raymond Jessop is the father of the alleged victim's child. Hudson also challeged the paternity test given to his client. Judge Walter ruled that the DNA evidence may be introduced and the state's expert will be allowed to testify. Court to resume after lunch break. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Judge will allow DNA expert to testify in FLDS trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Trish Choate STANDARD-TIMES WASHINGTON BUREAU San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published October 30, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — ELDORADO — Prosecutors in a child sexual assault case against a polygamist sect member scored a victory today when the judge ruled she would allow a DNA expert to testify before the jury about paternity tests indicating the defendant fathered a child with a 16-year-old. Also, 51st District Judge Barbara Walther decided the science behind the DNA evidence was generally accepted and that the DNA evidence was relevant to the case against defendant Raymond Merril Jessop, a 38-year-old member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Walther’s ruling came after about a 90-minute hearing today, and it came in spite of defense attorney Brandon Hudson’s contentions: DNA expert Amy Smuts didn’t know enough about the testing to explain it to a jury, Jessop could just be related to the real father of the child in the close-knit FLDS community, and paternity tests designed for civil cases aren’t suitable for criminal court. The jury wasn’t present during the hearing. The judge dismissed the seven-man, five-woman jury just before 3 p.m. Thursday because a juror’s child under 5 was running a high fever and might have swine flu. The hearing might have been a skirmish in other cases, but it was a full-on battle in this one because of the nature of the charge against Jessop, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He’s accused of sexually assaulting an underage girl in November 2004 at the Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado. He’d taken the girl as a wife, and paternity tests showing a nearly 100 percent probability that he’s the child’s father could be very damaging if they convince the jury. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Analyst: FLDS defendant likely fathered girl's child | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Lab reports a 99.9% match on DNA tests | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By TERRI LANGFORD HOUSTON CHRONICLE Originally published October 30, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO — A DNA analyst testified Friday that tests shows a member of a polygamist sect on trial for sexual assault is 99.9 percent likely to have fathered the child born to an underage girl. Raymond Merril Jessop, 38, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is being tried in the 2004 sexual assault of a child. The girl, who also belongs to the sect, was 16 years old at the time of the alleged assault. Two separate samples of DNA taken from the girl and her daughter were sent to the University of North Texas Health Science Center along with a blood sample from Jessop. Forensic analyst Amy Smuts testified DNA from the three showed Jessop was a 99.9 percent match with the girl's daughter, who is now 4 years old. Smuts testified during an expert testimony hearing. Such hearings are held outside the presence of a jury to determine whether an expert witness is qualified to testify before the jury. State District Judge Barbara Walther decided to hold the hearing after trial testimony was brought to a halt during the first day of testimony. On Thursday, a juror's child had a fever of 103 degrees and flu-like symptoms. The jury is scheduled to return Monday morning. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS TRIAL: Judge to let DNA expert testify in Jessop trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Defense attempts to cast doubt on her credibility | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Trish Choate STANDARD-TIMES WASHINGTON BUREAU San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published October 30, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — ELDORADO — DNA expert Amy Smuts became uncomfortably aware Friday in court that she couldn’t hold forth on Bayes’ theory, hasn’t read that book by Phillip Good or reviewed the latest important DNA case in Texas law. But a judge ruled Smuts, a forensic analyst at a respected DNA lab, has the scientific chops to testify about paternity tests indicating a nearly 100 percent probability defendant Raymond Merril Jessop fathered a child with a 16-year-old in November 2004 at the Yearning for Zion Ranch. Defense attorney Brandon Hudson nearly left teeth marks in the air Friday in his attempt to convince a judge Smuts wasn’t a qualified expert witness, and DNA tests that could persuade a jury to find his client guilty of child sexual assault weren’t exactly junk science — but they weren’t good science for this case. For one thing, the FLDS community is close-knit, perhaps skewing the tests, Hudson said. Plus, the paternity testing in question was designed for civil court cases. Smuts was on the stand most of an approximately 90-minute hearing while Hudson tried to prove to the judge the expert was anything but. He swung from hammering at Smuts to being helpful — defense-lawyer style — in the makeshift 51st Judicial District courtroom in the Memorial Building. The bespectacled Smuts, dressed in a light blue sweater, was flipping through her papers when Hudson volunteered: "I don’t mean this in any snarky or sarcastic way ... but I have the formula right here." Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Polygamy challenged as renegade Mormon group's trial grips Texan town | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Court case sheds light on Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, where it is alleged that bigamy and sexual abuse of girls, some as young as 12, are widespread. | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Philip Sherwell in Eldorado, Texas North America - USA Daily Telegraph - London, England Originally published 31 Oct 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| The demure women in prairie dresses and clean-cut men in plaid shirts milling around the square of the small Texan town of Eldorado looked like a throwback to a bygone era. On their nearby gated compound, they tend their orchards and their dairy, dedicating their lives to God and raising their children to eschew many of the trappings of modern life. But although it may sound like a simple innocent existence, a very different interpretation emerged last week of life among the renegade Mormons of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was laid out in the makeshift courtroom set up in Eldorado's draughty community hall, where, over coming weeks, the key tenet that marks the sect out from mainstream Mormons - polygamy - will come under challenge. Prosecutors claim that the church's controversial practice of "spiritually uniting" young women with men often several decades older is a cover for rampant sexual abuse, as well as bigamy. It is Little House on the Prairie meets Big Love, the HBO television series about a family of fundamentalist Mormon polygamists - but with child sexual assault thrown in, if the critics are correct. Not surprisingly, the case has gripped America and electrified the tiny town of Eldorado, which boasts just 1,900 people, two eateries and one traffic light. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Monday News Update | |||||||||||||||||||||
| JESSOP CRIMINAL TRIAL CONTINUES | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
KLST San Angelo Originally broadcast Monday, Nov 2, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| THE CRIMINAL TRIAL OF FLDS MEMBER RAYMOND JESSOP WILL RESUME THIS MORNING IN ELDORADO. 38-YEAR-OLD JESSOP IS CHARGED WITH SEXUAL ASSAULT OF A 16 YEAR OLD GIRL. THE ALLEGED INCIDENT HAPPENED IN LATE 2004 AT THE Y-F-Z RANCH NEAR ELDORADO. LAST FRIDAY -- WITHOUT THE JURY -- JUDGE WALTER AGREED TO ADMIT D-N-A EVIDENCE FROM BLOOD AND TISSUE SAMPLES FROM JESSOP AND THE ALLEGED VICTIM. A FORENSIC SCIENTIST FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS LAB IN FORT WORTH TESTIFIED ABOUT THE ACCURACY OF THE EVIDENCE. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Testimony resumes in FLDS trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Associated Press Deseret News Originally published Monday, Nov. 2, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — Testimony has resumed in the first criminal trial stemming from the 2008 raid of a polygamist group's West Texas ranch. Jurors were sent home Thursday after a child of one juror came down with flu-like symptoms, but on Monday, all 12 jurors and two alternates were back in court. They began hearing from a forensic expert and others in the trial of 38-year-old Raymond Jessop. The member of the Fundamentalist LDS Church is on trial for sexual assault of a child. Prosecutors say he impregnated a 16-year-old who was among his nine alleged wives. Forensic expert Amy Smuts said two sets of genetic tests showed Jessop's genetic markers matched those of the alleged victim's daughter. Jessop, who could face up to 20 years in prison, is the first of a dozen FLDS men to face trial after authorities raided their Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| First Sex-Assault Trial After Raid on Polygamists Under Way | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By STEPHANIE SIMON Wall Street Journal Originally published November 2, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| The first criminal trial stemming from the state of Texas' 2008 raid on a polygamist ranch is under way, with prosecutors attempting to prove that a middle-aged man sexually assaulted a minor he had taken as one of his nine "spiritual wives." Prosecutors plan to use DNA evidence to show that Raymond Merril Jessop, now 38 years old, fathered a child with the girl in 2004, when she was 16. It is illegal in Texas to have sexual relations with a minor outside of a lawful marriage, even if the minor consents. Prosecutors contend the marriage in question wasn't lawful because Mr. Jessop already had several wives. He has pleaded not guilty. Defense attorneys declined to comment. The Texas attorney general's office, which is handling the case, wouldn't comment. A jury was seated last week, but stopped hearing testimony after just a few hours because of the illness of a juror's child. The trial is expected to resume Monday. Past efforts to prosecute members of the polygamist group -- known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or FLDS -- foundered when the alleged victims refused to testify. Some of the girls insisted they never consummated their marriages. Others said they had conceived children through artificial insemination. Even with DNA evidence in hand, the prosecution "is going to need a witness," said Arnold Loewy, a professor of criminal law at Texas Tech University. "The fact that they purported to be married doesn't conclusively prove that they had sexual relations," said Prof. Loewy, who has no ties to the case. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| The First Texas Polygamy Case: DNA Evidence but No Victims? | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Ashby Jones Law Blog Wall Street Journal WSJ on the cases, trends and personalities of interest to the business community. Originally published November 2, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| An interesting criminal trial has cranked up down in Texas, one pitting state prosecutors against Raymond Merril Jessop (pictured), a man affiliated with a polygamist group known as FDLS, or the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Prosecutors are attempting to use DNA evidence to show that Jessop fathered a child with a then 16-year old whom he had taken as one of his nine "spiritual wives." Click here for the WSJ story, from reporter Stephanie Simon; here for the AP’s take on Day One of the trial. Simon explains that it is illegal in Texas to have sexual relations with a minor outside of a lawful marriage, even if the minor consents. Prosecutors contend the marriage in question wasn’t lawful because Jessop already had so many wives. He has pleaded not guilty. Defense attorneys declined to comment. The Texas attorney general’s office, which is handling the case, wouldn’t comment. Prosecutors plan to use DNA evidence to show that Jessop fathered a child with the girl in 2004, when she was 16. In many criminal cases, DNA evidence can be the smoking gun that either proves innocence or guilt. But here, that might not be the case. Past efforts to prosecute members of the polygamist group have foundered when the alleged victims refused to testify. Some of the girls insisted they never consummated their marriages. Others said they had conceived children through artificial insemination. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| UPDATE: Expert testifies "99 percent" certainty that Jessop fathered child by 16-old-year | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
TRISH CHOATE Standard-Times Washington Bureau San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published November 2, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — ELDORADO — A DNA expert did the math to show jurors Monday that altering calculations to determine paternity would barely change results of paternity testing indicating polygamist sect member Raymond Merril Jessop fathered a child with a 16-year-old. Forensic analyst Amy Smuts stepped off the stand around 3:30 p.m. Monday, but not before a defense attorney trotted out a list of her documented mistakes in the lab in 2008. "I switched a sample essentially," Smuts said during Jessop’s child sexual assault trial. Under prompting from prosecutor Amy Goodwin, Smuts confirmed the handful of mistakes defense attorney Brandon Hudson had cited were the entire list of her documented errors in 2008. Hudson also raised the question of inbreeding among members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and its possible affect on paternity testing during the child sexual assault trial. Jessop is accused of sexually assaulting a teenager about half his age in November 2004 at the Yearning for Zion Ranch. Prosecutors allege he took the teen as one of eight "purported wives" in addition to his legal wife. In Texas, the legal age of consent to sex is 17 unless the underage person is married. Prosecutors allege Jessop’s polygamist lifestyle rules out a legal marriage with the girl, now a woman in her early 20s. Hudson has been trying to fend off DNA evidence instrumental in the prosecution’s case before 51st Judicial District Judge Barbara Walther. Goodwin brought up an additional report from the lab where Smuts works, the Center for Human Identification at the University of Health Science Center in Fort Worth. The report pertained to comparison testing of DNA samples that included Jessop’s brother or half brother, Merril Leroy Jessop. The analysis showed Merril Leroy Jessop wasn’t the biological father of the child in question. The report was an answer to Hudson’s repeated contention that one of the defendant’s brothers could have been the child’s father, something that could slip by because of the lab’s methods of determining paternity. Hudson appeared surprised at seeing the report. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Tempers flare over evidence in FLDS trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
TRISH CHOATE Scripps Washington Bureau San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published November 2, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO Tempers flared and objections flew Monday evening while lead attorneys clashed over whether jurors could see a photograph album, a marriage certificate and other evidence in the child sexual assault trial of a polygamist sect member. Lead defense attorney Mark Stevens worried out loud what jurors might think of him after his objections resulted in the jury filing out of the courtroom for a second time in less than an hour. Lead prosecutor Eric Nichols said some people in court might be getting tired. "I’m not tired. I’m mad," Stevens said, his voice rising as the clock ticked toward 7 p.m. "Gentlemen!" 51st Judicial District Judge Barbara Walther said. Defendant Raymond Merril Jessop, 38, looked almost as drained as jurors who are to decide whether the member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is guilty of sexually assaulting an underage girl in November 2004 at the Yearning for Zion Ranch. Minutes later, Stevens said he was "forced" to move for a mistrial that would bar his client being retried. Walther quickly denied it. Stevens said Nichols wasn’t following agreed upon procedures to handle the introduction of evidence to the jury. Nichols said he was simply building his case, establishing links in a chain to prove, for instance, the location prosecutors contend a sexual assault occurred that resulted in Jessop fathering a child with a 16-year-old girl. "People might not like it, but that’s what’s happening," Nichols said. Walther allowed jurors to see a Washington County, Utah, marriage certificate for the union of Jessop and Mary J. Musser from Aug. 29, 1994. Prosecutors contend that Musser is Jessop’s legal wife and that he took eight "celestial" wives, including an underage bride who gave birth to his daughter. Defense attorneys have a keen interest in keeping talk of polygamy out of the trial, as well as evidence to prove the location of the sexual assault their client is accused of. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| LATEST NEWS | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Raymond Jessop Trial Notes | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Eldorado Success Originally published November 2, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
6:50 p.m. Monday November, 2, 2009 Jury in and out of courtroom Jurors spent much of the afternoon, going back and forth from the courtroom to the jury room because of a series of objections raised by defense attorney Mark Stephens. One such objection was raised when Deputy Attorney General Eric Nichols attempted to introduce YFZ Ranch documents showing the alleged victim was one of Raymond Jessop's "plural wives." The Defense is resisting any mention of polygamy. Judge Walther agreed at one point and kept jurors from seeing a photo album showing Jessop with a number of his plural wives. A defense motion for a mistrial was denied after the state offered evidence that Jessop was married to the alleged victim "for time and eternity" by his father, Frederick Merril Jessop. Other testimony referred to the birthing room on the YFZ Ranch, birth certificates, computer records and marriage certificates. Other witnesses included FBI agent Kay Peterson, Texas Ranger Lt. Aaron Grigsby, Texas Ranger Sgt. John Bushing, FBI agent Landry Conrad, Texas Ranger Sgt. Thomas Jason Kinerd and Texas Ranger Bart Bivins. A hearing on the evidence is slated for 10:00 a.m. Tuesday. The jury is not scheduled to return until 1:30 p.m. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Testimony Reveals Details of FLDS Way of Life 11/02/09 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Alan Waltrip CBS 7 News KOSA - Odessa, TX Originally published November 2, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Eldorado – New details about the living conditions of members of the FLDS church are surfacing in the midst of the sexual assault case. According to the testimony of a Texas Ranger, a birthing center was set up in a log cabin type home on the YFZ ranch. The Ranger was asked by prosecutors to identify 19 photos taken at the birthing center during the weeklong raid in April of 2008. The photos showed a makeshift doctor's office with a portrait of jailed polygamist group leader Warren Jeffs hung over the delivery bed. 38-year-old Raymond Jessop faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted on a charge stemming from his alleged marriage to an underage girl. Jessop's attorney says there is no credible evidence the girl was assaulted or gave birth at the ranch. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Photos show birthing center at sect's Texas ranch | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By MICHELLE ROBERTS The Associated Press Houston Chronicle Originally published November 2, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — A birthing center on the bottom floor of a log cabin-style building at a polygamist group's West Texas ranch was set up like a medical office with one distict difference: A portrait of jailed polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs hung over the delivery bed. Jurors in the first criminal trial since Texas authorities raided the Yearning For Zion Ranch were shown 19 photos of the birthing center Monday as Texas Ranger Bart Bivens identified the items in the images. Most of the photos were typical of a medical office where babies are delivered. The birthing center had a baby scale, diapers and bottles. It also had a bed that could be equipped with metal stirrups for examinations and deliveries. A portrait of Jeffs, who is revered by the sect as a prophet but was also convicted as an accomplice to rape in Utah, could be seen on the wall over the bed. The photos were introduced into evidence by prosecutors in the case against 38-year-old Raymond Jessop, who faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of sexual assault of a child. The charge stems from his alleged marriage to an underage girl who gave birth in August 2005. Defense attorney Mark Stevens said there was no credible evidence that the girl, now 21, was assaulted or gave birth at the ranch, which is run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Bivens conceded under cross-examination that he did not know whether the birthing center was built before the alleged victim gave birth. FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop said in an interview later that the building was not constructed until sometime after 2005, though he did not know the exact date. Willie Jessop is a distant relative of the defendant, and their last name is common in the FLDS community. "There's a lot more than one clinic out there," said Willie Jessop, who argued the photos were misleading. "They just throw everything and the kitchen sink in there." Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday News Update | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 9 PEOPLE TAKE THE STAND IN JESSOP TRIAL | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
KLST San Angelo Originally broadcast Tuesday, Nov 3, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| THE JURY WAS BACK AND THE TRIAL OF F-L-D-S MEMBER RAYMOND JESSOP RESUMED YESTERDAY MORNING IN ELDORADO. NINE WITNESSES TOOK THE STAND IN THE CHILD SEXUAL ASSAULT CASE OF FLDS MEMBER JESSOP. WHEN THE STATE TRIED TO PRESENT A PIECE OF EVIDENCE LABELED AS A MARRIAGE RECORD BETWEEN JESSOP AND THE ALLEGED VICTIM...DEFENSE ATTORNEY MARK STEVENS OBJECTED.. THE JURY WAS ASKED TO LEAVE THE ROOM. ATTORNEYS THEN ARGUED ABOUT WHETHER EVIDENCE OF A PURPORTED MARRIAGE BETWEEN JESSOP AND THE ALLEGED VICTIM AND OTHER INFORMATION COULD BE ADMITTED. STEVENS TOLD THE JUDGE HE THOUGHT THERE WAS AN AGREEMENT THAT SOME EVIDENCE WOULD BE INTRODUCED CONDITIONALLY. DURING A HEATED MOMENT, STEVENS SAID --QUOTE-- I AM FORCED TO MOVE FOR A MISTRIAL." DISTRICT JUDGE BARBARA WALTHER DENIED THAT MOTION. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Mormon Sect Leader Goes on Trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr. The New York Times Originally published November 3, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Tex. — A year and a half after the state authorities raided a fundamentalist Mormon ranch here, the first of a half-dozen leaders of the sect has gone on trial on charges that he had sex with an under-age girl who state officials assert was one of several wives assigned to him by church elders. The trial, taking place in a makeshift courtroom in this rural hamlet, has opened a window on the polygamous world inside the Yearning for Zion ranch, the compound of log buildings built around a stone temple where the state contends that arranged marriages involving under-age girls were commonplace. But the proceeding has also exposed the difficulties prosecutors face in proving sex crimes were committed at the ranch, since the young woman at the center of the case, like most of the female sect members, has not cooperated with the authorities. The state’s case rests mainly on genetic evidence that links the defendant, Raymond M. Jessop, 38, to a child born in 2005 to the 16-year-old girl he was living with along with several other women. On Monday, Amy Smuts, a forensic scientist at the University of North Texas, testified that DNA samples taken from Mr. Jessop, the young woman and her baby showed Mr. Jessop was the likely father of the child. She said there was a 99.9 percent probability Mr. Jessop had fathered the child, who is now 4. In addition, the state has introduced dozens of documents and photographs seized from the ranch in April 2008 in an effort to prove that Mr. Jessop was not legally married to the girl at the time and that she was impregnated by him while they were living in Texas. Both are necessary for the charge to be valid. The defense, meanwhile, has fought to keep the jury from seeing any evidence regarding Mr. Jessop’s polygamous lifestyle, arguing that it is irrelevant to the charge of sexual assault. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| LATEST NEWS | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Raymond Jessop Trial Notes | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Eldorado Success Originally published November 3, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
12:30 p.m. Tuesday November, 3, 2009 Lawyers argue over evidence Jurors stayed home Tuesday morning as attorneys for the prosecution and defense teams argued over the admissibility of evidence before Judge Barbara Walther. The judge will allow evidence in that serves to establish jurisdiction but will redact references to plural marriage. One of Warren Jeffs' statements concerning the problems the alleged victim was having in childbrith will be allowed, however. Jurors are slated to return and court is to resume at 1:30 p.m Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Judge orders redaction of polygamist documents | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Michelle Roberts Associated Press Deseret News Originally published Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — A Texas judge ordered Tuesday that a document showing a member of a polygamist sect had at least four wives who were pregnant or nursing at the same time should be excluded from his trial on charges of child sexual abuse. In a hearing before jurors were to return for the trial of 38-year-old Raymond Jessop, Judge Barbara Walther ordered that several documents demonstrating his multiple marriages be redacted to show jurors only information about the alleged victim. Jessop later will face a separate trial on bigamy charges, and his attorney, Mark Stevens, sought to prevent any mention of polygamy in this case. He is charged with sexual assault of a child — a teenage girl he allegedly married and fathered a child with — and could face up to 20 years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty. Walther said a list taken from a records vault at the Yearning For Zion Ranch should be redacted to remove the names of other families and three other alleged wives who were pregnant or nursing shortly after the alleged victim gave birth to a girl in August 2005. The judge also ordered prosecutors to hold back any dictations of Warren Jeffs, the jailed leader of the Fundamentalist LDS Church, a breakaway Mormon sect, to include only information about Jessop and the alleged victim before offering them into evidence. Jeffs, convicted previously as an accomplice to rape in Utah, is regarded as a prophet by the sect, and he recorded rambling daily dictations covering a range of religious teachings and orders regarding the YFZ Ranch. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Attorneys spar over evidence in Jessop trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
TRISH CHOATE Scripps Washington Bureau San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published November 3, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — ELDORADO — When it came time to pick a Texas Ranger to wiggle through a little hole into the Temple Annex vault of the YFZ Ranch in April 2008, Sgt. Jesus "Jesse" Valdez was the one. The powers that be figured Valdez, a Ranger on the short and small side, was little enough to get through the hole by the vault door during a historic raid at the Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado, Valdez testified Tuesday in the child sexual assault trial of a polygamist sect member. "I removed everything but my outer clothing to make myself as skinny as I could," Valdez said. Jurors and defendant Raymond Merril Jessop, a 38-year-old member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, looked at a photograph projected on a screen showing the hole authorities had somehow carved out beside the door. Law-enforcement officers had already tried getting in through a window several times with no luck, Valdez told the seven-man, five woman jury in Jessop’s trial. Jessop is accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old in November 2004. Prosecutors say he had taken her as a spiritual wife. In early April last year, authorities were executing a search warrant at the YFZ Ranch and looking for an underage girl abused at the hands of a husband. The call that led to the search warrant turned out to be a hoax, and the girl was never found. But Valdez and the other officers were on a serious mission to find her during the raid. He was one of a succession of Texas Rangers who testified before a jury Tuesday — when prosecution and defense attorneys weren’t wrangling over evidence out of earshot of jurors. Much of that evidence was collected during the raid and, in particular, from the vault. Valdez testified that the door to the vault wasn’t just a regular door. "It was like a bank door," he said. He later found out it was a Class 1 Hamilton safe door, Valdez testified. As such, it was 18 inches to two feet thick and made of steel. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS: Ranger recounts entry to YFZ vault | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Officers seized 3 trailers’ worth of items from it | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
TRISH CHOATE Scripps Washington Bureau San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published November 3, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — ELDORADO — A computer cop delivered what could be bad news Tuesday evening for a polygamist sect member accused of sexually assaulting an underage girl in November 2004 at the Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado. Lt. Lannie Hilboldt, a computer forensic examiner, testified before a jury about the training and software he used to extract "deleted" information from computers seized in April 2008 at the YFZ Ranch. "Anytime you delete an item, it’s actually not deleted," Hilboldt testified during the child sexual assault trial of Raymond Merril Jessop. "We can recover anything, basically." The digital detective from the Texas Attorney General’s Office had jurors’ attention even though it was getting close to 7 p.m. Tuesday and he turned out to be the last witness of the day. The seven-man, five-woman jury had been at it since about 1:30 p.m., having been allowed a late start in part so they could vote. Hilboldt spoke loudly and clearly in fairly simple terms about how he uses specialized software to undelete information on computers like those seized at the ranch. Only reams of new data entered into a computer can result in a real deletion, Hilboldt told jurors. Otherwise, deleted information is simply data a computer system can’t find anymore. But jurors didn’t find out Tuesday exactly what Hilboldt found on those computers. They could learn more about that evidence at 9 a.m. today when court is to resume. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Evidence Redacted in FLDS Member Trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Reported by: Laura Kellerman KTAB Abilene Originally published Wednesday, Nov 4, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| The child sexual assault case of FLDS member Raymond Merril Jessop continues today. The trial continued Tuesday with no jury, while judge Barbara Walther considered whether certain pieces of evidence could be admitted. She ruled the state will have to redact references to polygamy involving Jessop and other FLDS members, since polygamy isn't a charge in the trial. The alleged victim's marriage record will be allowed, but not other marriage records. Jessop is charged with sexual assault of a child. Texas' deputy attorney general Eric Nichols claims Jessop married a 16-year-old girl five years ago, who then gave birth to a child. He faces up to 20 years in prison. Texas Ranger Jesse Valdez testified being on the Yearning for Zion Ranch ranch during the raid in April 2008 and described the inside of the temple annex vault where evidence was seized. Pictures presented by the state show that the walls of the interior were reinforced with concrete and the door resembled a fixed bank vault door. The case is being tried in Eldorado, Schleicher County. The county's courthouse is too small for such a trial, so it will take place in a next-door municipal building. The trial was halted last Thursday when one of the juror's children came down with the flu. See photo | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Ex-member testifies in polygamy trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
KXAN 36 Austin Originally published November 4, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO (AP) - A former member of a polygamist sect has taken the stand in the sexual assault trial of the first group member tried since Texas authorities raided the group's ranch last year. Rebecca Musser left the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 2002, before the church bought the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado. But she said Wednesday that jailed leader Warren Jeffs kept detailed notes on his interactions with church members because he believed God would hold him accountable. Jeffs' detailed notes are likely to be a key part of the prosecution's case against 38-year-old Raymond Jessop. Jessop is charged with sexual assault of a child, stemming from his alleged marriage to an underage girl See photo | |||||||||||||||||||||
| LATEST NEWS | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Raymond Jessop Trial Notes | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Eldorado Success Originally published November 4, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
6:20 p.m. Wednesday November 4, 2009 Defense grills Musser Rebecca Musser, one of former FLDS prophet Rulon Jeffs many wives, spent much of her time on the stand Wednesday afternoon sparring with defense attorneys. She was called by prosecutor Eric Nichols to testify about recordkeeping practices of within the FLDS priesthood. The plucky witness didn't seem to be intimidated as defense attorney Mark Stevens challenged her time and again. Musser told the jurors that FLDS prophets ruled every aspect of the daily lives of the people. Law professor, John J. Sampson of the University of Texas then testified that the alleged victim could not possibly be considered as Raymond Jessop's wife under Texas law since he was already married to another woman. At the end of the day, Judge Walther informed the jury that she expected closing arguments to occur tomorrow. The judge continued by saying that once jury deliberations begin, the jurors must remain together. "Pack a suitcase" she told them as she advised that she planned to sequester them in a hotel tomorrow night if they don't reach a verdict tomorrow afternoon. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Defense grills former FLDS teacher in Jessop trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
TRISH CHOATE Standard-Times Washington Bureau San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published November 4, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — ELDORADO — The woman who stood up to now imprisoned Warren Jeffs had no trouble standing up to a bulldog defense attorney Wednesday during the child sexual assault trial of a polygamist sect member. Rebecca Musser, an attractive, poised blond in her early 30s who left the sect, testified Jeffs pressured her to marry again soon after the death of her spiritual husband, who was a church leader and Jeffs’ father. "Within one month of his father’s death, he started marrying his father’s young wives," Musser said during a hearing out of earshot of the jury. Then in her mid-20s, she butted heads with Jeffs because she didn’t want to remarry, she testified in the trial of Raymond Merril Jessop, 38, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She testified that Jeffs told her, "I will break you. I will train you to be a good wife." The hearing was to explore her knowledge of FLDS record-keeping practices and opinions as an expert witness. Prosecutor Eric Nichols appears to be depending on her at least in part to authenticate and discuss documents such as dictations from "Prophet" Jeffs, who took over his father’s role as church leader after Rulon Jeffs died. Before the jury left for the hearing, Musser testified about her childhood at a school exclusively for FLDS members where she had been taught the basics of English, math and writing in addition to classes on the history of the priesthood, which Musser defined as "the power of God on earth." She remembered Warren Jeffs teaching a priesthood class on the crucifixion, for example. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS men lead all aspects of sect life, former member says | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Michelle Roberts Associated Press Deseret News Originally published Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — Women in a polygamist sect were taught that their fathers or husbands and the sect's prophet had the right to direct every aspect of their lives, a former member testified Wednesday in the child sexual abuse trial of a current sect member. "As a woman you have no direct connection to God," said Rebecca Musser, a former member of the Fundamentalist LDS Church. "Every area of our lives was directed by the church and their teachings." Musser left the church in 2002 and never lived at the Yearning for Zion Ranch, the site of a state raid in April 2008 that led to the trial of Raymond Jessop, 38, who is accused of marrying an underage girl. Prosecutors asked Musser to talk about her experience in the FLDS and how church records are kept. Jessop is the first man from the sect to face trial since the raid. The girl he is accused of marrying when she was 15 had been "reassigned" to Jessop from his brother, according to records seized by authorities. If convicted, Jessop faces 20 years in prison. The prosecution is relying heavily on records and dictations by jailed FLDS leader Warren Jeffs that were seized from the ranch. In one dictation, Jeffs indicates that he advised people at the ranch to avoid taking the girl to the hospital even though she had been in labor for days. "I knew that the girl being 16 years old, if she went to the hospital, they could put Raymond Jessop in jeopardy of prosecution as the government is looking for any reason to come against us there," Jeffs wrote. Prosecutors sought to establish with Musser that the records were kept as a normal part of church business in an effort to make them admissible in the trial. Musser, who was once married to Jeffs' elderly father and later testified against Jeffs at his trial in Utah, said Jeffs kept detailed accounts of his interactions with FLDS members because he believed God would hold him accountable. "He would keep a little notebook in his pocket and was constantly jotting down notes," she said. "That, in essence, would be something he'd be responsible for to God." Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS TRIAL: Defense grills ex-member of sect | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Closing arguments may come today | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
TRISH CHOATE San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published November 4, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — ELDORADO — A judge told jurors to pack a suitcase before reporting to court today for the child sexual assault trial of a polygamist sect member. Before dismissing the jury of seven men and five women Wednesday evening, 51st Judicial District Judge Barbara Walther told them they might hear closing arguments around midday, and once they begin deliberating on a verdict, they can’t go home until they’ve reached one. Just in case they have to be sequestered, her bailiff has reserved rooms for them, Walther said. The jury is expected to decide the fate of Raymond Merril Jessop, 38, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Jessop is accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in November 2004 at the Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado. Prosecutors allege he had taken the underage girl as a "spiritual wife." Wednesday, jurors heard testimony from ex-FLDS member Rebecca Musser. She told them she was "Ray’s" cousin. "His mother and my mother are sisters from different mothers," Musser said. While she spoke softly enough the microphone had to be nudged forward, Musser was a poised witness who appeared to enjoy taking on lead defense attorney Mark Stevens. After standing up to now imprisoned "prophet" Warren Jeffs, she had no trouble standing up to Stevens on Wednesday. During a hearing out of the jury’s earshot, Musser testified Warren Jeffs pressured her to marry again soon after the death of her spiritual husband, Rulon Jeffs, in September 2002. He was the church "prophet," or leader, and Warren Jeffs’ father. "Within one month of his father’s death, he started marrying his father’s young wives," Musser said. Then in her mid-20s, she butted heads with Jeffs because she didn’t want to marry him. Jeffs told Musser, "I will break you. I will train you to be a good wife," she testified. She left the FLDS Nov. 3, 2002, giving up most communication with family members in the sect. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday News Update | |||||||||||||||||||||
| CLOSING ARGUMENTS MAY START THURSDAY | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
KLST San Angelo Originally broadcast Thursday, Nov 5, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| JUDGE BARBRA WALTHER OF THE FLDS CRIMINAL TRIAL AGAINST RAYMOND JESSOP STATES THAT TESTIMONY IS COMING TO A CLOSE. AND THAT JURY MEMBERS COULD BEGIN HEARING CLOSING ARGUMENTS LATER TODAY. YESTERDAY THE JURY HEAR TESTIMONY FROM SEVERAL WITNESSES --INCLUDING FROM A FORMAL "CELESTIAL" OR "SPIRITUAL" WIFE OF F.L.D.S. PROPHET ROULON P. JEFFS. YESTERDAY EVENING BEFORE SHE DISMISSED THE JURY JUDGE BARBARA WALTHER TOLD JURY MEMBERS TO PACK A SUITCASE BECAUSE WHEN THEY DO GO INTO DELIBERATION THEY WILL HAVE TO REMAIN TOGETHER. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS Member Trial Could Go to Jury | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Reported by: Laura Kellerman/CBS News KRBC Abilene Originally published Thursday, Nov 5, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Testimony is coming to a close in the child sexual assault trial of FLDS member Raymond Merrill Jessop. Judge Barbara Walther said Wednesday evening that jury members in Eldorado could begin hearing closing arguments as soon as today. Before she dismissed them, Walther told jury members to pack a suitcase, because when they do go into deliberation they will have to remain together. Jessop is charged with sexual assault of a child. Texas' deputy attorney general Eric Nichols claims Jessop married a 16-year-old girl five years ago, who then gave birth to a child. He faces up to 20 years in prison. Testimony continued late into the evening Wednesday. A former "celestial" or "spiritual" wife of FLDS prophet Roulon P. Jeffs also testified. Rebecca Musser, who is now in her mid 30s, testified that she grew up in an FLDS home in Salt Lake City, Utah. She graduated from the Alta Academy, which is a private school for FLDS students only, where in addition to English and math lessons, she also learned about FLDS church doctrine. Musser testified that in 1995 she was "placed in a celestial marriage" at age 19 with then-prophet Roulon Jeffs, who died seven years later. Jeffs was the father of current FLDS leader Warren Jeffs. Musser said she was taught that members' lives were dictated by the prophet, including what clothing they wore, how they wore their hairstyles, even some of the food they eat. They also learned that celestial marriage was the most important step in a woman's life. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Sex-assault case involving West Texas sect member could go to jury today | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Associated Press Dallas Morning News Originally published November 5, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — Closing arguments are expected today in the sexual assault trial of a member of a polygamist sect in West Texas. The case against 38-year-old Raymond Jessop would then go to the jury for deliberations. Jessop, facing a charge of sexual assault of a child, could be sentenced to 20 years in prison if convicted. He is the first member of the sect to be tried since authorities raided the Yearning For Zion Ranch last year. Prosecutors planned to finish calling witnesses this morning. Defense attorneys were then expected to argue to state District Judge Barbara Walther -- without calling any witnesses -- that the case should be dismissed because the state failed to prove its case. Assistant Attorney General Eric Nichols used the testimony of Texas Rangers and a former member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to introduce church marriage records, family photos and dictation by jailed sect leader Warren Jeffs as evidence in Jessop's trial. One dictation by Jeffs indicated that he advised Jessop and others in August 2005 not to take the girl who is the alleged victim in the case to the hospital, even though she had been struggling in child labor for days. "I knew that the girl being 16 years old, if she went to the hospital, they could put Raymond Jessop in jeopardy of prosecution as the government is looking for any reason to come against us there," Jeffs said, according to seized church records. Many documents presented to jurors were heavily redacted to remove references to multiple marriages. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| LATEST NEWS | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Raymond Jessop Trial Notes | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Eldorado Success Originally published November 5, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
4:10 p.m. Thursday November 5, 2009 Jessop case goes to the jury A panel of 12 Schleicher County, Texas jurors is now weighing the fate of Raymond Merril Jessop. The State and the Defense have both rested their cases and final arguments ended minutes ago. The Success will post a verdict if and when it is handed down. 12:40 p.m. Thursday November 5, 2009 Prosecution rests its case Texas Ranger Nick Hanna was the only witness on the stand this morning as prosecutors wrapped up their case against Raymond Jessop. Documents identified as personal records of Jessop, his legal wife, and his alleged victim were introduced. A prophet's dictation from Warren Jeffs was also entered into evidence in which Jeffs acknowledges that the alleged victim was having difficulty with child birth and had been in labor at the YFZ Ranch for 3 days. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Prosecution rests case against FLDS man | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Associated Press Deseret News Originally published Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — Prosecutors rested their case Thursday in the first criminal trial of a member of a West Texas polygamist sect after days of plodding through photos and records seized from the group's ranch. Lawyers for 38-year-old Raymond Jessop, charged with child sexual abuse, have not indicated whether they will call any witnesses in his defense. Jurors could begin deliberating as early as Thursday. Texas Ranger Nick Hanna testified that sect records seized from a cement vault in a temple annex demonstrated that a teenage girl and Jessop were living at the Yearning For Zion Ranch when they entered a so-called "spiritual marriage" and she became pregnant at age 16. Jessop's attorney, Mark Stevens, has argued that prosecutors failed to show that any assault happened in Texas — a necessary element in demonstrating the court's jurisdiction. "There is no way one can draw a reasonable inference ... that this alleged event must have occurred on that ranch," he said during a hearing Thursday. Jessop is the first member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to go on trial since authorities raided the ranch last year and swept more than 400 of the sect's children into temporary foster care. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison. Assistant Attorney General Eric Nichols used the testimony of Texas Rangers and a former FLDS member to introduce church marriage records, family photos and dictation by jailed sect leader Warren Jeffs as evidence in Jessop's trial. One dictation by Jeffs indicated that he advised Jessop and others in August 2005 not to take the girl to the hospital even though she had been struggling with giving birth for days. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Prosecutor: Child is proof of assault of sect teen | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By MICHELLE ROBERTS The Associated Press Google News Originally published November 5, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
ELDORADO, Texas — A prosecutor in the first criminal trial stemming from the raid of a polygamist group's Texas ranch urged jurors to convict a 38-year-old member of sexual assault of a child. Standing before photos of the alleged victim and her daughter, Assistant Attorney General Eric Nichols said the evidence showed that Raymond Jessop was guilty. Nichols said the alleged victim was brought to the Yearning For Zion Ranch at age 15 and entered a so-called "spiritual" marriage with Jessop. She became pregnant at age 16. Defense attorneys argued that prosecutors failed to produce a witness that placed Jessop in Schleicher (SHLYE'-kur) County at the time of the alleged assault — a critical element in the case. Jurors began deliberations late Thursday afternoon. If convicted, Jessop could face 20 years in prison.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Texas polygamist sect member guilty of sex assault | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By MICHELLE ROBERTS The Associated Press Houston Chronicle Originally published Nov. 5, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — Jurors in the first criminal trial following the raid of a polygamist group's Texas ranch have convicted a member of sexual assault of a child. Thirty-eight-year-old Raymond Jessop was convicted Thursday of the charge that stemmed from his alleged marriage to an underage girl. He's the first group member to face a criminal trial since Texas authorities raided the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' ranch in Eldorado last year. Prosecutors say the girl was brought to the Yearning For Zion Ranch at age 15 and entered a so-called "spiritual" marriage with Jessop. She became pregnant at 16. Defense attorneys argued prosecutors failed to produce a witness that placed Jessop in Schleicher (SHLYE'-kur) County at the time of the alleged assault. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS TRIAL: Jessop guilty of sexual assault | |||||||||||||||||||||
| He faces 2 to 20 years in prison | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
TRISH CHOATE Standard-Times Washington Bureau San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published November 5, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| The jury in the trial of Raymond Merril Jessop issued its verdict at 6:25 p.m. Thursday in the Memorial Building in Eldorado after deliberating less than three hours. Jessop, a 38-year-old member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was led away in handcuffs to the Schleicher County Jail. A half smile played on his face as he nodded to FLDS men in the makeshift courtroom. His attorney Brandon Hudson patted him on shoulder as he went by. Jessop will remain in jail until 10 a.m. Monday, when the punishment phase of the trial will be held. Jessop’s sentence will be determined by the jury. He could get two to 20 years in prison and a fine up to $10,000 for sexual assault of a child, a second degree felony. After nearly nine days, 21 witnesses, lessons in science and statistics, a whirl of photographs and secret and sacred church records seized at the Yearning for Zion Ranch, and finally 90 minutes of closing arguments, the seven-man, five-woman jury filed into the jury room at 4:05 p.m. Thursday to deliberate on a verdict. Judge Barbara Walther told them they needed to be unanimous in order to convict. One jury member was replaced by an alternate. All the witnesses in the trial were called by the prosecution. The jury didn’t hear from the defendant, but jurors are forbidden to take that into account in determining a verdict. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Polygamist Sect Leader Convicted of Sexual Assault | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr. The New York Times Originally published November 5, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Tex. — One of the leaders of a polygamist sect was convicted Thursday night of sexually assaulting an under-age girl whom the church elders had assigned to him as one of his nine wives. A jury of seven men and five women deliberated 2 hours 20 minutes before returning a verdict of guilty in the first trial of a dozen members of the Yearning for Zion Ranch just outside this rural hamlet in West Texas. The defendant, Raymond M. Jessop, 38, seemed unperturbed as Judge Barbara Walther of State District Court read the verdict. Mr. Jessop was immediately handcuffed and taken into custody by the Schleicher County sheriff. He smiled and nodded to several other men in his religious group, who sat grave-faced as he was led away. Mr. Jessop will be sentenced after a second hearing before the jury on Monday. He faces penalties ranging from 2 years’ probation to 20 years in prison. His lawyer, Mark Stevens, declined to say if he would appeal, though the defense had argued in hearings before trial that the state illegally seized the church documents that were crucial to the case during a raid on the ranch in April 2008. Outside the courtroom, some defense lawyers predicted a long legal battle in the appellate courts over the legality of that raid. Mr. Jessop is one of the most prominent members of a breakaway sect that has at least four other communities in Arizona and Utah. He is close to Warren S. Jeffs, the self-styled prophet and leader of the sect. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| GUILTY | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Raymond Jessop convicted on one count of Sexual Assault of a Child | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Eldorado Success Originally published November 5, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Raymond Merril Jessop was led from the courtroom in handcuffs Thursday evening moments after being found guilty on one count of Sexual Assault of a Child. He was taken across the courthouse square and booked into the Schleicher County Jail. Court is slated to reconvene on Monday for the penalty phase of the trial. Jessop faces up to 20 years in prison. See photo | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Jury Verdict: FLDS Sect Leader Guilty of Child Sex Assault | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Staff Writer FOX 13 Utah Originally published November 5, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas - The first polygamist sect member to face criminal trial following last year's raid at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in West Texas was convicted Thursday of sexually assaulting an underage girl with whom he had a so-called "spiritual marriage." Raymond Jessop, 38, didn't visibly react when the verdict was read after just more than two hours of jury deliberations. Free on bond during trial, he was immediately handcuffed and led to jail. Jurors were expected to return to court Monday to begin deciding his sentence on the child sexual assault conviction. He faces up to 20 years in prison. Lawyers in the case declined to comment on the verdict Thursday. Jessop allegedly has nine wives. He also faces a bigamy charge, but that case is to be tried later. The girl in the assault case, now 21, was previously in a spiritual marriage with Jessop's brother before being "reassigned" to Jessop when she was 15, according to documents seized at the ranch. She became pregnant at age 16. During closing arguments, Assistant Attorney General Eric Nichols stood before photos of the young mother and toddler in prairie dresses. "There is a sound foundation based not just in documents -- based in DNA evidence for which the documents serve as corroboration ... that Raymond Merril Jessop behind those gates, behind that guard house, behind those walls, sexually assaulted" the then-teen, he said. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Texas polygamist sect member guilty of sex assault | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By MICHELLE ROBERTS The Associated Press Google News Originally published November 5, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — The first polygamist sect member to face criminal trial following last year's raid at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in West Texas was convicted Thursday of sexually assaulting an underage girl with whom he had a so-called "spiritual marriage." Raymond Jessop, 38, didn't visibly react when the verdict was read after just more than two hours of jury deliberations. Free on bond during trial, he was immediately handcuffed and led to jail. Jurors were expected to return to court Monday to begin deciding his sentence on the child sexual assault conviction. He faces up to 20 years in prison. Lawyers in the case declined to comment on the verdict Thursday. Jessop allegedly has nine wives. He also faces a bigamy charge, but that case is to be tried later. The girl in the assault case, now 21, was previously in a spiritual marriage with Jessop's brother before being "reassigned" to Jessop when she was 15, according to documents seized at the ranch. She became pregnant at age 16. During closing arguments, Assistant Attorney General Eric Nichols stood before photos of the young mother and toddler in prairie dresses. "There is a sound foundation based not just in documents — based in DNA evidence for which the documents serve as corroboration ... that Raymond Merril Jessop behind those gates, behind that guard house, behind those walls, sexually assaulted" the then-teen, he said. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS trial leads reporters to quirky cafe | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Husband, wife owners used to seeing steady flow | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Matthew Waller San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published November 5, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — ELDORADO — Near noon, hungry reporters have been in the habit of setting out from the courthouse for the lunch recess, a break from the criminal trial of members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Eldorado. They converge, almost daily, on Jo Jo’s Cafe, right off Highway 277, north of the courthouse. The business cards set on each table inside tell the truth about the restaurant’s strength and weakness: "Food is great, parking sucks!" Once seated inside, patrons receive menus with a cover drawing of a monkey seated at hot meal with a fork and knife in either hand, and a spoon held by its tail. It’s no imaginary mascot. The picture depicts Jo Jo, the husband and wife owners’ pet spider monkey. "Nothing sounded right," co-owner Dawn Engdahl said about trying to name the business after different members of her immediate family. When they used Jo Jo’s name, "it was just something different and it was catchy." Jo Jo is not the owners’ only monkey. Engdahl said her family also has two more monkeys: a pigtail macaque, Chester, and a snow macaque, Amber. None of them live at the diner but all have dishes on the menu named after them, as do the owners’ three children. Besides having their names as edible namesakes, the Engdahl monkeys also eat food from the diner that their owners bring home. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Friday News Update | |||||||||||||||||||||
| RAYMOND JESSOP FOUND GUILTY IN ELDORADO. | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
KLST San Angelo Originally broadcast Friday, Nov 6, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
A JURY HAS RETURNED A GUILTY VERDICT FOR FUNDAMENTALIST LATTER DAY SAINTS MEMBER RAYMOND JESSOP. JUDGE BARBARA WALTHER SAYS ATTORNEYS FOR BOTH SIDES AGREED TO ALLOW JURORS TO GO HOME FOR THE WEEKEND, INSTEAD OF SEQUESTERING THEM. THEY WILL RETURN FOR THE SENTENCING PHASE OF THE TRIAL MONDAY MORNING. CAROLYN MCENRUE WAS IN ELDORADO LAST NIGHT:
AFTER DELIBERATING ABOUT TWO HOURS, THE 7-MAN, 5-WOMAN JURY RETURNED A VERDICT OF GUILTY IN THE CHILD SEX ASSAULT CASE OF 38-YEAR-OLD RAYMOND MERRILL JESSOP. JESSOP IS THE FIRST OF 12 MEMBERS OF THE POLYGAMOUS F.L.D.S. GROUP TO GO TO TRIAL ON CRIMINAL CHARGES. MOST OF THE EVIDENCE PRESENTED IN THIS CHILD SEXUAL ASSAULT CASE WAS SEIZED DURING THE RAID AT THE Y.F.Z. RANCH IN APRIL OF LAST YEAR, THAT TURNED INTO THE LARGEST CHILD CUSTODY CASE IN HISTORY. DURING TESTIMONY, JURORS HEARD ABOUT PRIESTHOOD RECORDS, AND PERSONAL AND FAMILY RECORDS THAT CAME FROM A CONCRETE REINFORCED VAULT INSIDE THE TEMPLE ANNEX ON THE 1,700 ACRE Y.F.Z. RANCH. THE EVIDENCE INLCUDED PHOTO ALBUMS, DICTATION FROM F.L.D.S. PROPHET WARREN JEFFS, EVEN BIRTH AND NURSING MOTHER LISTS. MEMBERS OF THE F.L.D.S. CHURCH ARE TAUGHT TO KEEP VERY ACCURATE FAMILY RECORDS. AND MUCH OF THAT EVIDENCE WAS PRESENTED IN THE STATE'S CASE TO SHOW JESSOP HAD SEX WITH A 16-YEAR-OLD GIRL FIVE YEARS AGO AT THE RANCH, WHO WAS NOT LEGALLY HIS WIFE, BUT ONE OF HIS EIGHT CELESTIAL--OR SPIRITUAL--WIVES. D.N.A. FORENSIC EVIDENCE INDICATED A 99.9 PERCENT PROBABILITY THAT JESSOP IS THE FATHER OF THE VICTIM'S YOUNG DAUGHTER. ATTORNEYS DID NOT CALL JESSOP, OR THE NOW 21-YEAR-OLD WOMAN TO THE STAND TO TESTIFY IN THIS CASE. THE SENTENCING PHASE WILL BEGIN MONDAY MORNING HERE IN ELDORADO. ELEVEN OTHER F-L-D-S MEMBERS ALSO WERE INDICTED BY A SCHLEICHER COUNTY GRAND JURY. THE NEXT MEMBER SCHEDULED FOR TRIAL IS ALLAN KEATE. HE'S ALSO CHARGED WITH SEXUAL ASSAULT OF A CHILD. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS Member Found Guilty of Sexual Assault | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Reported by: VERTEXNews/Newsroom Solutions KRBC Abilene Originally published Friday, Nov 6, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| After deliberating less than three hours on Thursday, the jury in the trial of Raymond Jessop found him guilty of sexually assaulting a child. Prosecutors claimed the 38-year-old member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints took a 16-year-old girl as a spiritual wife in 2004 at the YFZ Ranch and fathered a daughter with her. Attorneys did not call Jessop, or the now 21-year-old woman to the stand to testify in this case. The punishment phase of the trial will begin on Monday. Jessop could be sentenced to anywhere from two to 20 years in prison and be fined up to $10,000 dollars. Jessop was the first of the sect to stand trial. Eleven other FLDS members were indicted on criminal charges after last year's raid on the ranch in Eldorado. Most of the evidence presented in this child sexual assault case was seized during the raid at the group's ranch in April of last year. It turned into the largest child custody case in history. During testimony, jurors heard about priesthood records, and personal and family records that came from a concrete reinforced vault inside the temple annex on the 1,700 acre ranch. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Texas polygamist sect member found guilty of sexual assault | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
CNN Originally published November 6, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| (CNN) -- A polygamist sect member arrested following last year's raid of a west Texas ranch was convicted Thursday of sexually assaulting an underage girl with whom he had entered into a "spiritual" marriage, the state's attorney general said. Raymond Jessop was found guilty of assaulting a girl under the age of 17, and is expected to be sentenced Monday, said Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for the attorney general. Jessop, a member of the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado, Texas, faces up to 20 years in prison. The girl was among more than 400 children seized from the ranch in April 2008 by state child welfare workers. The children were returned after the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the state had no right to remove them and lacked evidence to show that they were in danger of abuse. A Texas jury indicted Jessop of sexual assault of a minor along with other members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The church -- a 10,000-member offshoot of the mainstream Mormon church -- openly practices polygamy on the ranch, as well as in Utah and Arizona. Critics of the sect say young girls are forced into "spiritual" marriages with older men and are sexually abused. Sect members have denied that any sexual abuse takes place. See photo | |||||||||||||||||||||
| LATEST NEWS | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Raymond Jessop Trial Notes | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Eldorado Success Originally published November 6, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
3:15 p.m. Friday, November 6, 2009 Court session ends abruptly Defense attorneys objected to Carolyn Jessop being certified as an expert witness. She is a best-selling author and former polygamous wife of YFZ Ranch overseer Frederick Merril Jessop, father of convicted defendant Raymond Jessop. Judge Walther decided not to certify Ms. Jessop as an expert, but apparently she will be allowed to testify Monday as a general witness during the penalty phase of the trial. The defense indicates they will have many objections to her testimony. Raymond Jessop was convicted last night on one count of Sexual Assault of a Child. He faces up to 20 years in prison. Jurors are slated to set his punishment after hearing witnesses next week during the penalty phase. Raymond Jessop is the first of a dozen YFZ Ranch defendants to face trial following last year's raid on the 1,691 acre ranch. 2:50 p.m. Friday, November 6, 2009 Carolyn Jessop expected on the stand Attorneys finished questioning Utah psychologist Dr. Larry Beall, moments ago and he will be called to testify before the jury Monday when the penalty phase of Raymond Jessop's trial begins. Meanwhile, Carolyn Jessop, best-selling author and former polygamous wife of YFZ Ranch overseer Frederick Merril Jessop, is slated to be questioned by attorneys next. She is expected in the courtroom in a matter of minutes. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS TRIAL: All eyes still on Jessop, for now | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Sentencing set for Monday as 11 others await day in court | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
TRISH CHOATE Standard-Times Washington Bureau San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published November 7, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — ELDORADO — Raymond Merril Jessop has been the only man on trial the past two weeks in Schleicher County. Even the eyeball-torturing lighting in the 51st Judicial District Courtroom couldn’t trick anyone into seeing 11 other shadows cast behind his as he sat quietly at the defense table. Jessop is the first to be tried among 12 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints facing charges in the county. He kept his tanned, attractive face nearly free of expression and didn’t twitch when fingers pointed at him over nine grueling days in the makeshift courtroom where he was on trial, charged with sexually assaulting a 16-year-old in November 2004 at the Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado. Then Thursday evening, Jessop, 38, walked past a group of men in the gallery who appeared to be members of his polygamist sect. Things were different now. Anyone could see that. He didn’t walk the same — not because of the new burden of a jury’s guilty verdict branding him a sex offender, but because of how the cuffs binding his hands behind him contorted his posture. He gave a single nod and looked directly at the men, among them Willie Jessop, a well-known FLDS spokesman and leader. Their presence was likely a show of support. Willie Jessop has said the defendant asked him to be there. Then the moment passed, and two law-enforcement officers led Raymond Jessop to the nearby Schleicher County Jail. The 11 other men facing charges stemming from an April 2008 raid on the YFZ Ranch weren’t sitting at the defense table with Raymond Jessop. But they probably know a seven-man, five-woman jury begins deciding his punishment Monday for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl he’d taken as a spiritual wife. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Punishment Phase Begins on Monday for FLDS Member | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Staff Report KWES NewsWest 9 - Midland, Texas Originally published November 9, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO - An Eldorado jury takes on the task of deciding the punishment for Polygamist Sect Member Raymond Jessop on Monday. The 38-year-old was charged last week with sexually assaulting a child. He faces up to 20-years in prison for his marriage to a 16-year-old girl, who gave birth to his child. Jessop is also accused of having eight other wives. He'll go to trial later on a bigamy charge. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Sentencing Underway in Texas for FLDS Member, Jessop | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Ben Winslow Fox 13 New Originally published November 9, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
ELDORADO, Texas - Sentencing is underway for a member of the Utah-based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints convicted of child sex assault. Raymond Jessop, 38, faces up to 20 years in prison. Jessop was convicted on Friday after a jury in a rural Texas town deliberated only a couple of hours before handing down the guilty verdict. Jessop was accused of fathering a child with a 16-year-old girl he had taken as a plural wife. He was taken into custody and has been held over the weekend at the Schleicher County Jail, authorities said. That same jury is now deciding what kind of sentence he will get. They will take testimony in a hearing that could last all day. Among the witnesses: former FLDS member Carolyn Jessop, who chronicled her life in the polygamous church in the best-selling book "Escape." She was once married to the current leader of the FLDS Church's "Yearning for Zion" ranch, located outside Eldorado. Raymond Jessop is the first of a dozen FLDS members charged with various crimes to stand trial. Most face child sex assault charges and bigamy. The charges were leveled in the aftermath of last year's raid on the YFZ Ranch that resulted in hundreds of children being taken into state protective custody based on a phone call alleging abuse. That call is believed to be a hoax and the children were ultimately returned after a pair of Texas courts ruled the state acted improperly. The criminal cases, however, move forward with the next one scheduled to begin in December.
Fox 13's Ben Winslow will have more on the sentencing of Raymond Jessop from Texas on Fox 13 News at 5 and 9. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Protesters offer different opinions on FLDS trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Matthew Waller San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published November 9, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — ELDORADO — Usually a complacent scene surrounds the Memorial Building that has housed Raymond Merril Jessop’s trial for sexually assaulting a minor. Yellow caution tape surrounds the building, police officers chat with each other while guarding the door, and a few photographers linger on the lawn beneath pecan trees. On Monday, however, the day of the sentencing, two protesters added to the mix, holding two poster board signs on wooden stakes, demonstrating the mix of strong opinions that the trial has caused throughout West Texas. One sign carried a piece of a verse from Luke 6:37 of the Bible: "Judge not, lest you be not judged." The other said, "I wish Jesus hadn’t said that!" The holder of the Bible verse sign, Stephen Smith, said he is a doctor from San Angelo who had examined some of the children taken from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints community called the Yearning for Zion Ranch in April of 2008. "They were some of the happiest kids I’ve seen," Smith said. Smith said his protest was about freedom of religion for the FLDS members, saying that the laws governing sexual relationships should be subservient to religious and cultural teaching. "God designed us to have children at that age," Smith said of the age of certain minors. "Our Congress knows better than God," he added sarcastically. With regard to laws prohibiting adults from having sex with minors, Smith said, "Perhaps the law should be changed." Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Talk of 'celestial wives,' long-term effects of assault | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
TRISH CHOATE Standard-Times Washington Bureau San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published November 9, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas — ELDORADO — Raymond Merril Jessop had worked too hard became overheated one summer day this year, but he toughed it out in his truck for a day so his son could have fun playing with the James kids and partaking of the shrimp boil that evening, Louis and Jacquelyn James testified Monday evening. The truck was air-conditioned, but it wasn’t the hospital Louis James figured Jessop, 38, should have gone to. Yes, the Christoval couple knew all about the 38-year-old polygamist sect member’s conviction of child sexual assault Thursday, but the Jessop they got to know while he was helping build their home was a good man, they testified individually during the punishment phase of the trial for the member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. "My children loved Raymond," Jacquelyn James told the seven-man, five-woman jury. During the anecdote about Jessop’s sacrifice for the shrimp boil, Louis James said, "A father wouldn’t do that, but a dad dang sure would." The couple was among character witnesses who voluntarily testified on Jessop’s behalf Monday evening. Jurors are to report back 9:30 a.m. today to the improvised 51st Judicial District Courtroom to hear closing statements from the defense and prosecution. Then they will begin the task of deliberating on what his punishment should be for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in November 2004 at the Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado. Jurors will have to choose between two portraits drawn in the courtroom of Jessop. Is he the self-sacrificing, hardworking father who can cross the boundaries of religion and culture to form friendships and who can be trusted not to smoke, drink or cuss around someone’s family? Or, as the prosecution would have jurors believe, is Jessop the powerful FLDS man who benefited from the church grooming underage girls to accept marriage with men twice their age, married eight "purported" wives in addition to his legal wife, helped hide now imprisoned Warren Jeffs and endangered his unborn child and the victim while she was in labor? Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Testimony in Sentencing for FLDS Member | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Ben Winslow Fox 13 New Originally published November 9, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas - A jury that convicted a member of the Utah-based FLDS Church will begin deliberating his sentence. After a day-long hearing on Monday that included hours of testimony, a judge set closing arguments and deliberations on Tuesday in the case of Raymond Jessop. Jessop, 38, was convicted of child sex assault for fathering a child with a 16-year-old girl who was a polygamous wife. He faces up to 20 years in prison. The jury is deciding the sentence. On Monday, testimony included an FBI agent, a pair of Texas Rangers who testified about documents, and two former members of the polygamous church. Carolyn Jessop, who was once Raymond Jessop's step-mother by marriage to his father, testified about her experiences within the FLDS Church. "Polygamy was a saving principle of God," she said. "God's laws supersede the laws of man." Jessop chronicled her life in the FLDS Church in her best-selling book, "Escape." Her testimony included plenty of objections by lawyers for Jessop, particularly over her testimony regarding so-called "spiritual marriages," which include polygamous marriages. "Spiritual marriage is the only marriage that matters," Jessop said. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| LATEST NEWS | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Raymond Jessop Trial Notes | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Eldorado Success Originally published November 9, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
7:55 p.m. Monday, November 9, 2009 Defense Offers Witnesses in Penalty Phase of Jessop Trial Texas Ranger Nick Hanna, the prosecution's final witness, concluded his testimony this afternoon during the penalty phase of the Raymond Jessop Trial. The defense then brought in four character witnesses, including Cody Engdahl of Eldorado, Louis and Jacqueline James of Christoval, and Clint Reichenau of Wall, all of whom said they met Jessop when he helped build their homes. Jessop was employed by his brother Richard Jessop's construction company Texan Supply and Service. Both prosecution and defense rested their cases moments ago and will return tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. for closing remarks. The jury will then decide Raymond Jessop's punishment. 5:20 p.m. Monday, November 9, 2009 Penalty Phase Continues in Raymond Jessop Trial Rebecca Musser concluded her time on the stand Monday afternoon by identifying FLDS family and marriage records. Dr. Larry Beall, a Utah psychologist, then testified concerning sexual assault of young girls. He also testified about the difference between coercion and personal consent. Texas Ranger Nick Hanna was on the stand testifying about marriage and family records when the court recessed for a short break moments ago. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS Member Faces Sentencing In Texas | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Associated Press KUTV 2News Originally published Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas (AP) - After being duped by false leads and chastised by a court for its handling of polygamist sect children, the state of Texas has won a criminal conviction in its first trial of a sect member charged with sexually assaulted an underage girl. Raymond Jessop, 38, was convicted late Thursday for having sex with the teen with whom he had a so-called spiritual marriage. He faces up to 20 years in prison when the jury reconvenes Monday to begin deciding his sentence. Early on, the weeklong raid of the Yearning For Zion Ranch was hounded by missteps. After scouring the ranch for days in April 2008 in search of a caller who claimed to be an abused girl, law enforcement acknowledged "Sarah Barlow" didn't exist. Several weeks after Texas child welfare officials put all 439 sect children in foster care in one of the largest child custody cases in U.S. history, an appellate court ruled that Texas authorities had overstepped, and the children went back to their parents. But authorities still seized documents from homes and concrete vaults in the towering limestone temple and annex building at the ranch - documents that would help convict Jessop and indict 11 other members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Jurors deliberated for little more than two hours before convicting Jessop, who did not visibly react as the verdict was read. Free on bond during trial, he was immediately handcuffed and led to jail. Lawyers in the case declined to comment on the verdict Thursday. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday News Update | |||||||||||||||||||||
| PUNISHMENT PHASE FOR FLDS MEMBER RAYMOND JESSOP | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
KLST San Angelo Originally broadcast Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| THE PUNISHMENT PHASE CONTINUES TODAY IN THE TRIAL OF RAYMOND JESSOP, A MEMBER OF THE FUNDAMENTALIST LATTER DAY SAINTS. JESSOP WAS FOUND GUILTY LAST WEEK ON A CHARGE OF SEXUAL ASSAULT OF A CHILD --- A SECOND-DEGREE FELONY. PUNISHMENT COULD BE TWO TO TWENTY YEARS IN PRISON. HOWEVER, POTENTIAL JURORS WERE ALSO ASKED DURING JURY SELECTION IF THEY COULD CONSIDER THE FULL RANGE OF PUNISHMENT, WHICH COULD INCLUDE PROBATION OR COMMUNITY SERVICE. PROSECUTORS CALLED SIX WITNESSES YESTERDAY IN THEIR EFFORT TO SHOW THAT JESSOP HAD 9 WIVES -- ONE TO WHOM HE WAS LEGALLY MARRIED -- AND EIGHT DESCRIBED AS SPIRITUAL WIVES. PROSECUTORS SAY THE VICTIM WAS 16 WHEN SHE BECAME JESSOP'S SPIRITUAL WIFE IN 2004. DEFENSE ATTORNEYS PRESENTED FOUR WITNESSES, INCLUDING A MAN FROM ELDORADO WHO DESCRIBED JESSOP AS "A GOOD MAN," "HONEST AND TRUTHFUL," AND THAT HE "TRUSTS HIM MORE THAN SOME PEOPLE IN THIS COMMUNITY." | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Jessop jurors continue deliberations | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
TRISH CHOATE Standard-Times Washington Bureau San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published November 10, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — ELDORADO — A Schleicher County jury retired about 11:50 a.m. Tuesday to decide the fate of convicted sex offender Raymond Merril Jessop. On Thursday, the jury took about two hours to convict the polygamist sect member of sexually assaulting a child. As of 1:10 p.m. Tuesday, the jury was still determining punishment. Tuesday morning, the 38-year-old member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints sat quietly while prosecutors urged the seven-man, five woman jury to send a message by giving him the maximum punishment: 20 years in prison for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old in November 2004 at the Yearning For Zion Ranch near Eldorado. "Giving Mr. Jessop a recommendation for probation would be like giving him a get-out-of-jail-free card wrapped up in a bow," prosecutor Angela Goodwin told jurors. For their part, defense attorneys urged the jury to give Jessop probation, considering Jessop had no prior felony convictions, has been a good father, has been hardworking and has been a man of God, faithfully following the dictates of his religion. "Make no mistake about it," lead defense attorney Mark Stevens said. "Probation is punishment." The defense and the prosecution were each allowed 30 minutes for closing arguments, capping a trial now in its 12th day. Jessop did not testify on his own behalf, nor did the victim, now in her early 20s. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| LATEST NEWS | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Raymond Jessop Trial Notes | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Eldorado Success Originally published November 10, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
6:00 p.m. Tuesday, November 10, 2009 Jessop gets 10 years...no probation A Schleicher County jury just sentenced Raymond Merril Jessop to 10 years in state prison and an $8,000 fine. There will be no probation. The jury reached the verdict after deliberating more than six hours. Under Texas law, Jessop must serve half of the sentence before he is eligible for parole. Watch this site for additional news. Updates will also be emailed directly to our E-Delivery subscribers. 11:46 a.m. Tuesday, November 10, 2009 Jury Deliberating Punishment for Jessop State prosecutors asked the jury to "Look Raymond Jessop in the eye and tell him, not here," and give him 20 years in prison after he was found guilty of sexual assault of a child. Prosecutor Eric Nichols told the jurors that they cannot avert their eyes. "This is a higher calling," he said. "This is one of those moments." For their part, the defense argued that Jessop is a man of his faith and a dutiful man. The jury was then asked to render a 10 year sentence with probation. Jurors began deliberating moments ago. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Jessop sentenced to 10 years | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Staff report San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published November 10, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
SAN ANGELO, Texas — ELDORADO --- Raymond Merril Jessop was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Schleicher County jury today and fined $8,000. He must serve at least five years of his sentence. The jury deliberated six hours.
Jessop, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was convicted of child sexual assault last week. The story is developing. More details will be reported as they become available. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS: Jessop sentenced to 10 years | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Next sect trial is 3 weeks away | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Matthew Waller San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published November 10, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — ELDORADO — Convicted sex offender Raymond Merril Jessop smiled Tuesday on the way to the Schleicher County Jail from a makeshift courtroom where he’d been sentenced to 10 years in prison. "I am at peace. I’ll say that," the 38-year-old polygamist sect member said in the early evening darkness. Jurors took about six hours before handing down the sentence of 10 years in prison and an $8,000 fine. Jessop, who faced a maximum sentence of 20 years and a $10,000 fine, will have to serve at least five years before becoming eligible for parole. Jessop’s conviction of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in November 2004 at the Yearning for Zion Ranch and the punishment determined by a seven-man, five-woman jury mark a victory for prosecutors in the first of what may be many trials springing from the April 2008 raid on the ranch. "Today, justice was served," prosecutor Eric Nichols of the Texas Attorney General’s Office said, flanked by Texas Rangers, 51st District Attorney Stephen Lupton and other law-enforcement officials. Besides Jessop, 11 other members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints face charges ranging from aggravated sexual assault to failure to report child abuse. Another trial is set to start in about three weeks. Asked if he thinks the conviction sent a message to the FLDS church about underage marriage, Nichols said, "We try one case at a time." Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS Member Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison For Child Sex Assault | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Ben Winslow Fox 13 New Originally published November 10, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas - After deliberating for more than five hours, a jury decided Tuesday that a member of the Utah-based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will serve 10 years in prison and will also pay an $8,000 fine for child sex assault. Raymond Jessop, 38, was convicted last week of child sex assault for fathering a child with a 16-year-old girl who was a polygamous wife. Jessop said after the verdict that he was at peace with the decision. Jessop is the first of 12 FLDS members to face criminal charges coming out of last year's raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch. In closing statements on Tuesday, prosecutors and defense lawyers made impassioned arguments about how much of a sentence Jessop should get. "Probation is punishment," Jessop's attorney, Mark Stevens, told the jury. He attacked Texas prosecutors' case, calling it a "paper case," noting that much of the evidence comes from the documents and diaries seized from the FLDS Church's temple annex last year. "This is a case about the flesh and blood of a victim," countered assistant Texas Attorney General Eric Nichols, showing pictures of Jessop and his young wife, whom he married at 15. She gave birth to a child about a year later. Defense attorneys showed their own photos of happy, smiling children and pointed out the character witnesses, members of the Eldorado community who have done business with Jessop and spoke highly of him. "The government has done nothing but prove to you over and over again that he's a faithful man," defense attorneys said. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS member sentenced to 10 years in prison | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Ben Winslow Fox 13 New Originally published November 10, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas - A member of the Utah-based Fundamentalist LDS Church will spend the next 10 years in a Texas prison with no chance of probation. A jury in rural Schleicher County, Texas, deliberated about six hours on Tuesday before handing down the sentence. As he was led from the courthouse to jail, Raymond Jessop spoke with Fox 13's Ben Winslow. "Mr. Jessop, do you feel you're being persecuted because of your religion?" he was asked. "I'm at peace," he replied. "I'll say that. That's all." The 10 year sentence follows Jessop's conviction on a felony child sexual assault charge. Prosecutors alleged the 38-year-old Hildale man fathered a child with a 16-year-old girl who was his polygamous wife in an arranged marriage. "Raymond Merril Jessop had engaged in a total of one legal marriage in the state of Utah, and after that, a total of eight so called 'spiritual' or 'celestial marriages' within the FLDS Church," said deputy Texas Attorney General Eric Nichols. Polygamy and the Utah-based FLDS Church were a central theme at sentencing. Prosecutors focused on a culture of arranged marriages between teenaged girls and men twice their age. Defense attorneys portrayed Jessop as a "man of faith." "They know what this is," FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop said of Texas authorities. "It's a religious war that they have chosen to take out on the FLDS." Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Jury gives Jessop 10 years for sexual assault | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Trish Choate Abilene Reporter-News Originally published November 10, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO — Convicted sex offender Raymond Merril Jessop smiled Tuesday on the way to the Schleicher County Jail from a makeshift courtroom where he’d been sentenced to 10 years in prison. "I am at peace. I’ll say that," the 38-year-old polygamist sect member said in the early evening darkness. Jurors took about six hours before handing down the sentence of 10 years in prison and an $8,000 fine. Jessop, who faced a maximum sentence of 20 years and a $10,000 fine, will have to serve at least five years before becoming eligible for parole. Jessop’s conviction of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in November 2004 at the Yearning for Zion Ranch and the punishment determined by a seven-man, five-woman jury mark a victory for prosecutors in the first of what may be many trials springing from the April 2008 raid on the ranch. "Today, justice was served," prosecutor Eric Nichols of the Texas Attorney General’s Office said, flanked by Texas Rangers, 51st District Attorney Stephen Lupton and other law-enforcement officials. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Jessop sentenced to 10 years for FLDS child sex case | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
ABC 4 News Originally published November 10, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
EL DORADO, Texas (ABC 4 News) - Raymond Jessop, the 38-year-old man convicted of child sex abuse stemming from a raid on the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Yearning For Zion Ranch near El Dorado, Texas has been sentenced to 10 years in jail and given an $8,000 fine.
Stay tuned to ABC 4 News and ABC4.com for more on this story. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Texas polygamist gets 10 years for sexual assault | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
CNN Originally published November 11, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
(CNN) -- A polygamist sect member arrested following last year's raid of a west Texas ranch was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison for sexually assaulting an underage girl, authorities said. Raymond Jessop was found guilty last week of assaulting a girl under 17, with whom he had entered into a "spiritual" marriage, said Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for the state attorney general. Jessop also received an $8,000 fine, said Sheriff David Doran, of Schleicher County, Texas. The victim in the case was one of 400 children seized from the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado, Texas, in April 2008 by state child welfare workers. The children were returned after the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the state had no right to remove them and lacked evidence to show that they were in danger of abuse. Jessop belongs to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The church -- a 10,000-member offshoot of the mainstream Mormon church -- openly practices polygamy on the ranch, as well as in Arizona and Utah. Critics of the sect say young girls are forced into "spiritual" marriages with older men and are sexually abused. Sect members have denied any sexual abuse.
CNN's Dave Alsup contributed to this report. See photo | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Polygamist gets 10 years for marrying teen | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
U.S. News United Press International Originally published Nov. 11, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- The first dissident Mormon to be convicted of sexually assaulting a child at a Texas compound was sentenced to 10 years in prison Tuesday. Raymond Jessop, 38, was also ordered to pay an $8,000 fine, KSTU-TV, Salt Lake City, reported. A jury in Eldorado, Texas, sentenced him after deliberating five hours. Jessup and 11 other men were charged after a raid last year on the Yearning for Zion Ranch, operated by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. More than 400 children were seized in the raid, although courts later ordered them returned to their mothers. Investigators determined some men had married under-age girls. Jessup's wife was 15 when they married and 16 when she had a child. "This is a case about the flesh and blood of a victim," Assistant Texas Attorney General Eric Nichols told the jury as he showed a picture of Jessop and his wife. Defense lawyers used photographs of children and families to suggest those involved in polygamous relationships at the ranch are happy with it. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Polygamist gets 10 years jail for sex assault | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
WA Today - Perth and Western Australia Originally published November 11, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| The first polygamist sect member to face criminal trial following a raid on a United State's ranch has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for sexually assaulting an underage girl with whom he had a so-called "spiritual marriage". Jurors who last week convicted Raymond Jessop, 38, handed down the sentence on Tuesday that includes an $8,000 fine. His lawyers had sought probation for the conviction that could have brought him up to 20 years in prison. Jessop, who prosecutors allege has nine wives, still faces a separate bigamy charge to be tried later. He is the first member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to go on trial since authorities raided the sect’s Yearning for Zion Ranch, in West Texas, in April 2008. The girl in the assault case, now 21, was previously in a spiritual marriage with Jessop’s brother before being "reassigned" to Jessop when she was 15, according to documents seized at the ranch. She became pregnant at age 16. An appeal, planned "as quickly as it can be filed", will challenge the search warrants initially obtained with what authorities now acknowledge were false calls to a domestic abuse hot line, said Willie Jessop, an FLDS spokesman and Raymond Jessop’s distant cousin. "We believe he will be released when the government is held accountable," Mr Jessop said on Tuesday. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Polygamist sect member is sentenced to 10 years | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Bob Johnson Tampa Deism Examiner Originally published November 11, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Raymond Jessop, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, an offshoot of the Mormons, was found guilty of sexually assaulting an underage girl and was sentenced to 10 years in prison and an $8,000 fine. Most of the attention regarding this religion/cult has been on the harm done to the girls who are born into it and pushed off to marry church leaders at an early age. However, this overlooks the harm that is being done to the boys who are born into the church. In order to allow for multiple wives for the men, they must have many more girls and women than they have boys and men. To guarantee this, it has been reported that the church will take many of their young men and dump them in cities to be completely on their own! This happens so often these abandoned boys have a name: the lost boys. The patriarch of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Abraham/Abram, had multiple wives and concubines. (Genesis 25:6) The Bible also teaches how men with two wives, one hated and one loved, should treat their son born to the wife who is hated at Deuteronomy 21:15. Surah 4:3 in the Koran approves of men having multiple wives when it says, "marry of the women, who seem good to you, two or three or four;" Regarding an appropriate age for marriage, which is a key issue in this case, the Bible is silent on this topic. Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormons, however, is reported to have had several wives which he married when they were only 13 or 14 years old. This, of course, is illegal in our secular society.
Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/Deist1737 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Next FLDS trial will be in Eldorado Dec. 7 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Jennifer Rios San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published November 12, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — Jury members will again be pulled from Schleicher County for a second sexual abuse of a minor trial involving a member of a polygamist sect. Authorities decided Thursday afternoon to hold the jury trial in Eldorado, according to district clerk administrators. District Clerk Peggy Williams said she is planning on sending out 300 notices today. Jurors will be pulled from voter registration rolls and driver’s license records. Allen Keate will be tried Dec. 7 on a charge of sexual abuse of a child, a second-degree felony that carries a punishment of two to 20 years in prison and a fine up to $10,000. An April 2008 raid of the sect’s YFZ Ranch near Eldorado resulted in the removal of more than 400 children and criminal charges against 12 Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints men. The Texas Supreme Court later ordered the state to return most of the children to their parents. In the first trial against Raymond Merril Jessop, nearly half of the 300 prospective jurors were excused or exempted before prospective voire dire, a time when jurists are questioned on their backgrounds and potential biases against the defendant. The jury convicted Jessop of sexual abuse of a child last week. The jury earlier this week sentenced Jessop to 10 years in prison and fined him $8,000. He remains in jail in Schleicher County pending a transfer to state prison. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS Trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Reported by: KLST News - San Angelo, Texas Originally broadcast Friday, Nov 13, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| A SCHLEICHER COUNTY GRAND JURY INDICTED ALLAN KEATE IN JULY OF LAST YEAR FOR SEXUAL ASSAULT OF A CHILD THREE MONTHS AFTER OFFICERS SEIZED HUNDREDS OF PRIESTHOOD AND OTHER RECORDS FROM THE POLYGAMOUS GROUP'S Y-F-Z RANCH. KEATE'S TRIAL IS SCHEDULED TO BEGIN MONDAY, DECEMBER SEVENTH. A SCHLEICHER COUNTY JURY CONVICTED AND SENTENCED F-L-D-S MEMBERS RAYMOND JESSOP TO TEN YEARS IN PRISON. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Line Between Pervert, Vanguard Shifts Again | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Letters To The Editor The Post-Journal - Jamestown, New York Originally published November 14, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
To the Readers' Forum:
Raymond Jessup, in the news and on trial in Texas for marriage to an under age girl connected with a polygamous sect, could get off free and perhaps become a hero if he would do two simple things. 1.) declare himself a homosexual. 2) make a handsome contribution to the Democratic Party. The line between pervert and vanguard has shifted before and will again. Norman P. Carlson Busti | |||||||||||||||||||||
| OUR OPINION: Law finally focus of cases involving sect | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
San Angelo Standard Times Originally published November 14, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — The trial of Raymond Merril Jessop finally shifted focus from curious religious behavior to legalities, and a jury has found at least some of that behavior to be criminal. After considering evidence, jurors in Eldorado determined that Jessop was guilty of having sex with an underage girl he had taken as a "celestial" wife. Then on Tuesday jurors sentenced the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints member to 10 years in prison and fined him $8,000. It was the first of 12 scheduled trials emanating from the April 2008 raid on the polygamist sect’s YFZ Ranch in Schleicher County. The trials will unfold over the coming year, but the next key decision will be made not in a West Texas courtroom, but in an appeals court in Austin, where FLDS leaders plan to challenge the verdict. That offers the prospect of intriguing legal arguments, and sect members no doubt are heartened by the fact an appellate ruling went in their favor after 439 children were taken into protective custody following the raid on their ranch. For the past year a half, it is the FLDS religious practices that have dominated West Texans’ discussions about the sect. In the trial, attention was focused on the law and evidence and testimony about whether Jessop heeded it. Jurors declined to comment after the trial, but it’s likely they were swayed by the testimony of a clinical psychologist who talked about the trauma experienced by young girls forced into sex with older men, especially those in positions of power. That, after all, is at the heart of Texas law that seeks to protect children. Religious tolerance is an ideal widely embraced by Americans, and while the arrival of the FLDS members in Schleicher County five years ago initially caused some concern, that had largely faded until charges of child sexual assault arose. Each remaining case is different, and even the charges aren’t all the same — some face allegations of bigamy and failing to report abuse. The prosecution will have to prove the facts in each. But in one case involving one man and one young victim, 12 Schleicher County residents have said that a crime occurred and that it merited serious punishment. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS: New jurors sought as Eldorado tires of trials | |||||||||||||||||||||
| One case down; 11 other sect members remain to be tried | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Jennifer Rios, Matthew Waller San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published November 14, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — If you live in Schleicher County and you didn’t get called to jury duty in the polygamist sect-related cases, don’t worry — chances are there will be other opportunities. Already the search has started for a jury in the trial of Allan Eugene Keate, a Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints member charged with a first-degree felony of sexual assault of a minor. His case is scheduled for Dec. 7 in Schleicher County. Brenda Mayfield, the county’s elections administrator, said prospective jurors are pulled from voter registration or driver’s license rolls. The jury pool in Schleicher County is 2,596, Mayfield said. Nearly 1,900 of the pool comes from registered voters. "If they were on the first list pulled by their voter card, and they’re pulled in this list, it could be because of their driver’s license," Mayfield said. Anybody who did not serve on the jury in the first case involving an FLDS member that wrapped up last week is eligible to sit on a jury for the remaining cases. There are still 11 other cases involving church members from the Yearning for Zion Ranch. "The only way they’re out of the mix for the other trials is if they’ve served," Mayfield said. Some Eldorado residents have already had enough of the trial. "I think it’s a mess," Shirley Emmons said. "It’s going to make our taxes go up for all that trial." Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS writings, pictures to be used in Texas trials | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Ben Winslow Fox 13 News Originally broadcast November 15, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ELDORADO, Texas - Authorities are gearing up for the next prosecution of a member of the Utah-based Fundamentalist LDS Church. Allan Eugene Keate, 56, will go on trial Dec. 7 on a charge of child sex assault. Last week, Raymond Jessop, 38, was convicted of child sex assault and sentenced to 10 years in a Texas prison for fathering a child with a 16-year-old girl who was a plural wife. He will face a separate bigamy charge at a later date. In all, a dozen FLDS members, including polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs, 53, face criminal charges related to underage marriages. "The court has set a series of trial dates that stretch into December of next year," said Eric Nichols, an assistant Texas Attorney General. Key to those cases is hundreds of boxes of evidence seized by police in last year's raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch outside Eldorado. Authorities, acting on a phone call alleging abuse, raided the ranch and placed 439 children in state protective custody. Texas child welfare officials alleged a pattern of abuse, with girls becoming child brides and boys groomed to be sexual perpetrators. The state's case imploded, however, when a pair of Texas appellate courts found the children were not at any immediate risk of abuse and ordered the children returned. The evidence seized from the YFZ's temple annex was used to build a dozen criminal cases against FLDS men accused of taking underage girls as plural wives. They included family photographs, marriage records and thousands of pages of dictations by Jeffs. Prosecutors first used them in Raymond Jessop's trial in the absence of witnesses, who have said they are not crime victims. Collectively, they paint a picture of some underage marriages being performed at the ranch Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 51st Judicial District - Schleicher County FLDS Pre-Trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
District Courts Calendar co.tom-green.tx.us Last Updated on: Monday, November 16, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Location: Courtroom C; Judge Walther When: Thursday, November 19, 2009 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM 992 The State of Texas VS Allan Eugene Keate PTH E.Nichols/A.Goodwin/R.Wilson | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SCHLEICHER COUNTY - FLDS CRIMINAL TRIAL #2 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
District Courts Calendar co.tom-green.tx.us Last Updated on: Monday, November 16, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Location: Courtroom C; Judge Walther
992 The State of Texas VS Alan Eugene Keate Jury Trial E.Nichols/A.Goodwin/R.Wilson | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Tom Green County to help with FLDS cases | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Commissioners OK grant for one part-time staffer | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Matthew Waller San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published November 17, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — The effect of the ongoing criminal cases involving members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has stretched across Schleicher County and into Tom Green County. The Tom Green County Commissioners Court this morning approved funds to ease the stress of staffing legal proceedings in those cases. Specifically, the Commissioners Court met today to approve a grant that pays for a part-time court administrator to help the 51st District Court in cases brought against several men associated with the FLDS Yearning for Zion Ranch outside of Eldorado. Money for the grant comes from the County Essential Services out of the Texas governor’s office. "It’s fully funded," Nathan Cradduck, the county auditor, said. "There is no match required." The grant is a continuation of a grant that expired in August 2009, Cradduck said. The money for the position will extend the grant to August 2010. The grant is for about $37,000. "If the cases go past that time, we can always apply again," Cradduck said. "That’s why this is a continuation grant." Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Choate: JoJo's made trials of trial coverage bearable | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Trish Choate Times Record News - Wichita Falls, Texas Originally published November 19, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| WASHINGTON — An Army fights on its belly, and a reporter writes on her gut. That doesn’t quite work, but you know what I mean. I covered a trial for 2½ grueling weeks in Eldorado, Texas. I put in 10 to 12 hour days usually and wrote two to three stories daily. (That’s reporterspeak for: It was quite enjoyable, but don’t tell my bosses because the more sadistic among them might not let me do something like that again.) One thing that relieved the utter, complete surrender of my life to journalism was JoJo’s Café. Sure, the restaurant had an advantage. It was often the only place open in the tiny town. The food was standard fare at Texas cafes: chicken-fried steak with real cream gravy, Tex-Mex and breakfast served all day. But if you’ve ever tried to eat a chicken-fried steak in the East, you know it will be served with a strange, yellow, snot-like substance purporting to be gravy. And if you’ve ever tried to eat Tex-Mex in the East, you know it is usually a losing gamble — a cacophony of odd types of cheese, mystery sauces and salsa the consistency of tap water. It’s hard to go wrong with breakfast though, and I will say the East has elevated brunch to a high art and science. Many times during those trial days, I rushed into JoJo’s with my laptop battery and my energy on low. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS: Judge denies move of next FLDS trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Michael Kelly San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published November 20, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — In a pre-trial hearing Friday, 51st District Judge Barbara Walther denied a state request to move the trial of Allan Eugene Keate from Schleicher County to Tom Green County. Keate is the second member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and resident of the Yearning For Zion Ranch to go to criminal trial as an outcome of the state’s historic raid on the ranch in April 2008. Keate was represented by Abilene attorney Randy Wilson. Outside the courthouse after the decision, FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop said the state is attempting to distance the trial from the setting of the ranch raid. "The state wants to isolate people from what they have done. They took away the children and the mothers, and now they’re taking away the fathers," he said. The Child Protective Services Department and law enforcement raided the secretive 1,700-acre ranch over several days in the spring of 2008, acting on a complaint that turned out to be a hoax. During the process 439 children and most of the women on the ranch were removed into protective custody, resulting in a mass series of custody hearings. The children were eventually returned to their families, but evidence seized during the raids is being used to prosecute several of the sect’s male members on child sex abuse charges. The FLDS practices polygamy, taking what are termed "spiritual" wives. The first of the 12 men to go to trial, Raymond Merril Jessop, was sentenced last month to 10 years in prison by a Schleicher County jury. Jessop was charged taking an underage girl as one of his wives. Several of the remaining men face similar charges. "The bottom line is, this is selective prosecution. They’re trying to justify these terrible acts," Jessop said, referring to the 2008 raid. "This is the state trying to make victims. There are people who understand that. They would understand in Schleicher County." Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Judge challenged in trial of FLDS members: Motion to disqualify to be heard Monday | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Matthew Waller San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published December 4, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SAN ANGELO, Texas — ELDORADO — A district court hearing in Eldorado to quash indictments against 10 members of the FLDS was cut short after the defense attorneys presented a motion to disqualify the judge, 51st District Judge Barbara Walther. The defense claimed the judge’s role in selecting a grand jury commissioner to choose the grand jury that issued the indictments interferes with her role in judging the case at trial. The defense, represented by lead attorney Jerry Goldstein, also argued that the grand jury composition underrepresented Hispanics, with only one on the 12-person jury in a town that is 37.5 percent Hispanic. The 10 men are members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the polygamist sect that operates the secretive Schleicher County ranch. Most of the indictments allege child sex abuse associated with the sect’s practice of men taking multiple "spiritual wives," some of whom are alleged to be younger than the Texas age of consent. The first of the men to go to trial, Raymond Merril Jessop, was found guilty in November of child sex abuse, a second-degree felony, and sentenced to 10 years in prison. The second, Allan Eugene Keate, was scheduled to go to trial Monday, when jury selection was scheduled to begin. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| YFZ Trial Update | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Defense asks Judge Walther to recuse herself | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Eldorado Success Originally published Friday, December 4, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
A hearing concerning defense motion to quash YFZ indictments began at 10 a.m. Friday but ended abruptly after the prosecution called its first witness and defense attorney Gerald Goldstein moved that Judge Barbara Walther recuse herself. The defense claims that the grand jury that indicted the YFZ defendants did not include enough Hispanic members and asks that the indictments be thrown out. Since Judge Walther participated in the grand jury selection process, the defense says she is a witness. Judge Walther recessed the hearing and announced that it would reconvene 11 a.m. on Monday, December 7, 2009, presumably with another judge on the bench.
The motion to recuse applies only to the hearing and not to the Allan Keate trial. THE SUCCESS has learned that jury selection in Keate's trial, originally set to begin on Monday, has been moved back a day and will now begin at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, December 8th. Additional updates will be posted as they become available. Updates will also be emailed directly to our E-Delivery subscribers. See photo | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS Trial | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Reported by: KLST News - San Angelo, Texas Originally broadcast Friday, Dec 4, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| IN COURT IN THE MEMORIAL BUILDING TODAY IN ELDORADO -- DEFENSE ATTORNIES ASKED DISTRICT JUDGE BARBARA WALTHER TO RECUSE HERSELF. THE HEARING CONCERNS DEFENSE CLAIMS THAT THE SCHLEICHER COUNTY GRAND JURY THAT INDICTED THE 12 MEMBERS OF THE POLYGAMOUS GRUOP AT THE Y-F-Z RANCH -- DID NOT INCLUDE ENOUGH HISPANIC MEMBERS -- BASED ON THE POPULATION IN SCHLEICHER COUNTY. DEFENSE ATTORNEY GERRY GOLDSTEIN FROM SAN ANTONIO -- MOVED THAT JUDGE WALTHER RECUSE HERSELF -- SAYING SHE IS ACTUALLY A "WITNESS" IN THE ISSUE -- BECAUSE SHE WAS A PART OF THE GRAND JURY SELECTION PROCESS. THE CHILD SEXUAL ASSUALT TRIAL FOR 57-YEAR-OLD F-L-D-S MEMBER ALLAN KEATE WAS SCHEDULED TO BEGIN MONDAY MORNING -- BUT TODAY'S HEARING WILL NOW TAKE PLACE MONDAY. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Second FLDS Trial This Week 12/6/09 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Jay Hendricks CBS 7 News - KOSA - Odessa, TX Originally broadcast December 6, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Eldorado, Texas - Jury selection for a second FLDS member charged with sexual assault of a child has been postponed until Tuesday in Eldorado. The trial of Allen Eugene Keate was delayed after a motion was filed to void indictments against 12 members of the FLDS polygamous sect. The defense claims Judge Barbara Walther should be disqualified for playing a role in the selection of a grand jury commissioner. That same jury issued the indictments. The judge to hear the motion was not named Friday, but Walther told the defense a judge was standing by. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| YFZ Trial Update | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Keate Trial Notes | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Eldorado Success Originally published Monday, December 7, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
10:45 p.m. Monday, December 7, 2009 Judge denies motion to quash YFZ indictments Judge Barbara Walther moments ago denied the defense motion to quash the grand jury indictments of 10 YFZ defendants after hearing from retired Texas A&M mathematics professor Dr. Williams Smith concerning the the statistical breakdown of anglo and latino populations in Schleicher County. Smith was called as an expert witness by the prosecution. Smith's testimony differed from that of defense expert Robert R. Brischetto of San Antonio. Ultimately the difference in the men's interpretation of the statistics boiled down to comparing registered voters to qualified voters who were not registered. Judge Walther's ruling leaves standing the conviction of Raymond Merril Jessop on a felony charge of Sexual Assault of a Child and paves the way for the trial of Allan Eugene Keate on a similar charge. Jury selection in the Keate trial is slated to begin at 10 a.m. Tuesday morning in the makeshift courtroom inside the Schleicher County Memorial Building. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS indictments upheld, Keate trial begins today | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
By Staff Report San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published December 8, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| After two hearings lasting 12 hours Monday, the stage is set for the trial of Allan Eugene Keate, beginning today in the Memorial Building in Eldorado. Judge Barbara Walther, known for marathon courtroom sessions, presided over a joint consolidated motion by the defense attorneys for 10 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on Monday in the same makeshift courtroom where last month Raymond Merril Jessop was convicted of child sexual abuse and sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Schleicher County jury. Keate is the second of the 10 to go to trial on a charge of child sexual abuse based on evidence acquired during the state's historic raid in April 2008 on the Yearning For Zion Ranch, the 1,700-acre community near Eldorado operated and inhabited by members of the polygamist sect. Attorneys for the sect members argued Monday that the indictments against their clients should be quashed because the Schleicher County grand jury that issued the indictments did not have enough Hispanic members to represent the community profile in accordance with the accused men's civil rights. Walther denied the motion in a hearing that ended a few minutes before 11 p.m. Walther denied a motion to disqualify her on the basis of her being a potential witness in the grand jury challenge after she was told that a different judge wouldn't be assigned to hear the motion to disqualify. Walther said she would not serve as a witness and said, "I know of no constitutional grounds for disqualification." The FLDS legal team, led by Jerry Goldstein, had argued that Walther should not be allowed to hear the motion against the indictment because she had a role in selecting the grand jury commissioner. Read more | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday News Update | |||||||||||||||||||||
| FLDS CRIMINAL TRIALS TO PROCEED | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
KLST San Angelo Originally broadcast Tuesday, Dec 8, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 51ST DISTRICT JUDGE BARBARA WALTHER PRESIDED OVER A HEARING ON A "MOTION TO QUASH GRAND JURY INDICTMENTS" IN THE F-L-D-S CRIMINAL CASES. DEFENDANTS SCHEDULED FOR TRIAL OVER THE NEXT YEAR -- WERE IN THE MEMORIAL BUILDING IN ELDORADO YESTERDAY -- INCLUDING RAYMOND JESSOP WHO WAS CONVICTED OF CHILD SEXUAL ASSAULT LAST | |||||||||||||||||||||