| Arrest warrant issued for Texas sect's leader | |
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By Byron Harris WFAA TV Channel 8 - Dallas-Fort Worth | |
Friday evening, Arizona officals issued an arrest warrant for a polygamist leader building a huge compound in West Texas. The Eldorado Success newspaper reports that the so-called prophet Warren Jeffs has been charged with sexual conduct with a minor. News 8's Byron Harris has been investigating the sect's history and activities, and has this report on what he found. The red sandstone clliffs of Canaan Mountain give Colorado City, Arizona a peaceful beauty - but what's happened to its women and girls make it a cauldron of potential violence. "It is a lot like Waco," one nearby resident said. Those who live in Colorado City defend the way residents live. "There are many, many families who are living this lifestyle," one said. "It is a freely-chosen lifestyle." That chosen lifestyle is polygamy. In Colorado City, population 9,000 - along with Hilldale, Utah, right across the border - it's been normal for decades for men to have several wives, often as young as 13 years of age. Colorado City is a stronghold of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or FLDS, an outcast offshoot of the Mormon church. The town's land is held by a trust controlled by the church's prophet Warren Jeffs, who by church authority can excommunicate members, take wives away from men - and as in one case, teach racism as religious doctrine. "You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, or rude and filthy," Jeffs can be heard in an audiotape addressing his followers. Randy Mankin runs the only newspaper in Eldorado, a small town 45 miles from San Angelo He's been watching the FLDS build a small city near Eldorado for the last several months. "The pace of construction is just phenomenal," Mankin said. "We're hearing from some of our sources that they're working 20 hour days." In 2003, church members bought 1500 acres just outside Eldorado. They called it the YFZ Ranch, and told the Texans it was going to be a hunting preserve. Only later did the locals find out YFZ stood for "Yearning For Zion." Eldorado resident J.D. Doyle monitors the property for the city at least once a week from the air. "They've got eleven 21,000-square-foot buildings," Doyle said. "They've got the meeting hall, which is probably double that." And they have a huge temple, which has nearly popped out of the ground. A photo taken January 1 shows the area for the foundation. In months, there was a stone building, and now a stunning structure graces the site - all behind locked gates. The residents of Eldorado said they have no contact at all with the people who live at the YFZ Ranch. The ranch appears to get groceries and construction materials elsewhere. The only phone is a mobile phone, and only Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran has the number. Doran said the YFZ Ranch inhabitants don't grant interviews. He's been acting as a go-between for concerned citizens of Eldorado and the members of the FLDS. "I've made three trips to the twin cities of Colorado City, Arizona and Hilldale, Utah," Doran said. The attorney generals of both Arizona and Utah have taken strong action against the church in the last three weeks. The state of Arizona seized records at the Colorado City School District. Agents for the Arizona Attorney General named Warren Jeffs in a search warrant affidavit, and questioned whether school funds were used by the church, why the district bought a plane, and where $170,000 in school funds went. "I can't go into details about our investigation, but this is an important step," said Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard. Utah Attoney General Mark Shurtleff announced a hearing to remove prophet Warren Jeffs and other church members from the trust that controls property in Hilldale and Colorado City. Just three weeks ago, Shurtleff testified before the Texas Legislature about polygamy and the prophet. As a result, Texas laws have been strengthened to make polygamy a felony. Additionally, it's a crime to marry a woman under the age of 16. In Arizona, it's a first-degree felony to have sex with a girl as young as 13 - the age at which some young women are forced by the church to marry much older men. Sherriff Doran will be the one to enforce Texas' new law in Eldorado. "In our community, if there's a law broken - whether it's incest, rape, what have you - we're going to enforce that aggressively," Doran said. "It's no different for this group." But as the white temple continues to rise on the outskirts of town, no one knows exactly how many people live there, what's going on in its community or how big it will get. It will be months before a true picture emerges through the West Texas dust. The warrant issued Friday in Arizona calls for the arrest of Warren Jeffs, though his whereabouts are unknown. E-mail: bharris@wfaa.com | |
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WFAA.com Originally broadcast June 11, 2005 | |
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