Johnson, Jessop angered by decision
 
By David Bell
Today's News-Herald - Havasu City
 
Buster Johnson calls it "disgusting." Carolyn Jessop said, "People need to wake up."

The pair are reacting to the relatively light sentence handed down to a Colorado City man convicted of having sex with a 16-year-old girl and conspiring to have sex with a minor.

Kelly Fischer, 39, was sentenced this week by Mohave County Superior Court Judge Steven Conn to 45 days in jail, three years of probation and required to register as a sex offender.

"To me it's just disgusting. I can't believe this is happening in America," said District 3 Mohave County Supervisor Johnson. "So that's the punishment for rape of a young girl? Our judges give them 45 days? I think the court system is part of the reason these abuses have lasted so long. In my opinion they're harboring these suspects."

Fischer is a member of Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), a sect that practices polygamy in Colorado City and adjoining city Hildale, Utah. Jessop escaped from Colorado City in 2003 with her eight children and she calls the FLDS a "dangerous, destructive cult."

"The victims can't get help and society apparently doesn't want to prosecute the criminals. People need to wake up," Jessop said. "Women are looked on as a criminal as much as a man in these cases, because of the (polygamous) lifestyle. So the court is not really partial."

The FLDS church teaches that a man cannot reach heaven without having at least three church sanctioned wives and that a woman cannot reach heaven unless she is married to a man with at least three wives.

The celestial (plural) marriages are ordered by church leader and self-proclaimed prophet Warren Jeffs and are performed in the church. However, celestial marriages are not recognized by the state of Arizona, which only allows a single marriage by law. That means every wife after the first who bears children is considered a single mother by the state and eligible for medical, food and welfare benefits.

In addition to the alleged financial abuses, women have reported being assigned a marriage as young as 14, their children removed from them if they did not obey their husbands or church leaders explicitly, beaten by wives higher in the pecking order in their households and assigned to new husbands if their current husband dies or is excommunicated from the church.

For more than a decade, Johnson has been calling for investigation and prosecution of those FLDS members that allow and arrange celestial marriages of underaged girls to men as much as 50 years their senior. He said this sentence will be a major stumbling block in getting victims to come forward.

"People get bigger fines and more jail time for things they do in the (Bridgewater) Channel than the rape of our children," said Johnson. "I'm going to keep trying but it's so hard to take the 45 days. To me they're laughing at the system. How can you tell people you are going to protect them when they see that sentence?"

Jessop said she was "given" to a 50-year old man when she turned 18. After years of abuse, she said she decided that "death was better," but fought back for her children. After escaping with the kids in tow, she became the first Colorado City woman to take a man to court over custody, and the first to win.

Jessop, who now lives in Salt Lake City, said the 45-day sentence received by Fischer is a slap in the face of everyone that has fought against the FLDS system.

"I'm hurt over it. The crimes that are being committed will continue until society decides it has to stop. This sentence says society will tolerate the rape of young girl," Jessop said.

Six other men who are accused of sexual misconduct with minors in Colorado City face trials in the coming weeks and months.

A jury convicted Fischer last month. He begins serving his sentence in November.

Jeffs is currently listed on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List and a $100,000 reward has been offered for information leading to his capture. Six people connected to the FLDS leader have been jailed thus far for refusing to testify about Jeffs before a federal Grand Jury.

- You may contact the reporter at dbell@havasunews.com
 
havasunews.com
Originally published Saturday, August 5, 2006
 
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