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| Abuse is Rampant! | |||
Young, underage girls are forced into marriage. Women and children are beaten. There is rape and incest. Allegations of tax and welfare fraud exist. Young boys are run out of town because they become the "competition", as there are never enough women to supply the demand for wives. The prophet teaches racism. There are rumors about a cache of weapons to be used to defend themselves, if necessary. Young girls are taken back and forth across international borders to become "child brides." People are evicted from their homes just because the men in control don't like their attitude. Many children are denied a basic education and spend their days working at hard labor or tending to their siblings instead of going to school. It was found that the local school district was being "looted" for personal gain. Then property and assets belonging to all citizens who are beneficiaries of the United Effort Plan Trust started "disappearing" in defiance of a court order not to liquidate assets of the Trust. Life has become oppressive and many people live in fear and suspicion of their own relatives. People are disappearing in the middle of the night and family members have no idea where they have gone. Below are some news articles describing the horrendous abuses that are prevalent. These news articles are listed in chronological order. | |||
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| Top court hears dispute dividing polygamist sect | |||
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By Matthew Brown The Associated Press Originally published October 10, 1997 | |||
| SALT LAKE CITY - Feuding factions of a polygamist sect on the Utah-Arizona border took their dispute to the Utah Supreme Court on Thursday, arguing whether the religion's leaders can evict dissidents from their homes. A 5th District judge ruled more than a year and a half ago that leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints must compensate dissenters if they want to boot them from their homes in the Short Creek Valley. But leaders of the polygamist clan that operates a communal economy in the adjacent towns of Hildale and Colorado City, Ariz., appealed, saying the former followers knew the rules and the state can't dictate what a church teaches its members. "Religious leaders spelling out the rules of conduct in their sermons should not have to look over their shoulders at what jurists may be thinking," argued attorney Raymond Scott Berry. "The religious body deserves some protection." The court took the matter under advisement, but not before telling Berry that his clients can't use the state's "legal machinery" to accomplish only their ends, and prevent others who may feel wronged by the church from doing the same. "You claim a legal right to be upheld by the state, but you oppose the state looking to see if that legal right can be upheld," said Chief Justice Michael Zimmerman. The longstanding dispute between the church's United Effort Plan Trust and 21 families who have left the group focuses on a primary tenet of the faith - that all property is held in common. Read more | |||
| Time to end abuse, welfare fraud in polygamist clans | |||
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By Scott N. Howell Deseret Morning News Originally published February 6, 2000 Sen. Scott Howell, D-Granite, is the Minority Leader of the Utah Senate. | |||
| SALT LAKE CITY - The first time I was personally introduced to the horrors and injustice that polygamy creates, I felt stunned. Immediately, I took it upon myself to take action against the serious abuses polygamy directs specifically toward women and children. Not only does this issue harm its participants, it also affects all Utahns by tarnishing this state's otherwise wonderful image. As we enter the new millennium, it is time to address these serious issues and wipe our slate clean. Polygamy has been handled and clearly drafted, at least within the law books. The Utah Constitution states "polygamous or plural marriages are forever prohibited." The obvious lack of enforcement hurts our state on two separate levels. First, the lifelong negative ramifications caused by abuse to both the women and children involved in polygamy are devastating. The personal accounts of women courageous enough to leave such harmful relationships are appalling. Common circumstances faced by female members include complete control over their private lives and thoughts, manipulation, pressure to participate in improper physical relations, threats and intimidation, guilt, gender discrimination and isolation. Read more | |||
| Parents Heed 'Prophet,' Abandon Schools | |||
| Education: Enrollment dwindles and concerns rise for all students in two polygamist communities | |||
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By Julie Cart Salt Lake City Weekly Originally published October 10, 2000 | |||
| HILDALE, Utah--This remote territory straddling the line between Utah and Arizona has long been an outlaw community where residents practice polygamy with impunity. Now parents here have removed their children from school en masse at the behest of a 92-year-old religious "prophet" and may cause the public school system to crumble. Three-quarters of the students in the region's schools did not return to their classrooms this fall, an exodus that has raised questions about how far parents can go in balancing their religious beliefs with the state's mandate to educate children. "It breaks my heart to feel like some of these students are not getting the education they should get," said Max Tolman, the first-year principal at Phelps Elementary School in Hildale. Read more | |||
| Seven brides for one brother: Plural marriage is rife in the western United States | |||
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By Suzan Mazur The Financial Times Ltd. Originally published October 28, 2000 | |||
| When 17-year-old Lorraine Johnson set off for Canada from her home in Colorado City, Arizona, more than year ago, she had her father Ray's consent to marry into another polygamous group. It meant her swapping her Mormon fundamentalist community on the Utah-Arizona border for the Bountiful commune in British Columbia's Creston Valley. Her father won't say if she is married, but others inside the closed society, which straddles the Canada-Idaho border, confirm that Lorraine is now one of the common-law wives of the community's 44-year-old leader Winston Blackmore, who is believed to have 30 wives. For most modern western women, it is hard to imagine how anyone could endure life as a multiple wife. But for Lorraine and other's like her there may be little choice for girls raised in polygamist societies with no experience of any other way of life. They may also become trapped in a cycle of poverty and dependence. Utah state Senator Ron Allen says: "We have thousands of women pulled out of school at an early age, forced into marriages with older men, kept isolated from society, constantly impregnated, and often placed on public assistance with no financial means of their own. They are forgotten citizens facing abuse and fear. On top of it all, the victims are constantly taught that God is just pleased as punch about the whole deal. It has to stop." Read more | |||
| How did U.S. teen end up in polygamists' commune, mom asks | Mother fears girl secretly wed after getting over border | ||
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By Fabian Dawson Edmonton Journal Originally published November 2, 2000 | |||
| The American mother of a teen bride has filed a report with the RCMP asking police to find out how her daughter ended up at a polygamous commune in the East Kootenays. "I am concerned my daughter may have been married in secret and I want to know how she got across the border without parental consent," Lenore Holm said Wednesday. Her daughter Nichole was 16 when she came across the border last May after Holm objected to her marriage to a 39-year-old Utah polygamist with 10 kids. The report was compiled by a U.S. child advocate and ex-members of the polygamous group called the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Reports are being prepared in about 30 other cases of underaged girls and teens that have been married off to polygamists in B.C., Utah and Arizona. Read more | |||
| Runaway girl returned to polygamists | |||
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The Associated Press Originally published April 6, 2001 | |||
| ST. GEORGE (AP) -- A 15-year-old girl who ran away from her polygamous family, saying they planned to force her into an arranged marriage, was returned to her family Thursday by Washington County authorities. People who helped the girl run away said her family told her they had planned her marriage to Warren Jeffs, the No. 2 leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the son of its top leader, Rulon Jeffs. The sect is based in the border communities of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah. Activists and sympathetic family members contacted state and county officials to arrange protective custody. "We had offered (to) the sheriff's department that we would provide shelter and were waiting to hear whether they were going to provide shelter, and we never heard from them, " Janina Chilton of the Utah Department of Human Services told KSL-TV. "We just found out the girl had been released back to her family, so we will certainly start an investigation at this point." Read more | |||
| Spotlight shines again on Colorado City | |||
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By Abbie Gripman Kingman Daily Miner Originally published Friday, July 27, 2001 | |||
| The Mormon presence in Colorado City dates back to an apocryphal anecdote involving church prophet Brigham Young. Legend has it that in the 1850s, Young was returning to Salt Lake City from a visit to the pioneer settlement of Pipe Springs, 20 miles east of present-day Colorado City. Young instructed his buggy driver to stop at the top of Cedar Ridge and, as he looked down over the Short Creek area, declared, “This will someday be the head and not the tail of the church. These will be the granaries of the Saints.” When the church disavowed polygamy in 1890 and began to excommunicate those who would not give up the practice, a group of stalwarts settled in remote Short Creek (now Colorado City) and called themselves the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Colorado City’s remote location and the low profile kept by residents allowed the church to prosper. Law enforcement authorities have tried three times, all without success, to wipe out the open practice of polygamy in Short Creek. The last incident was the infamous 1953 Short Creek raid. After the raid, the town’s name was changed to Short Creek in Arizona and Hildale in Utah, to avoid association with the event. Since the traumatic raid, life in Colorado City has settled into a relatively quiet routine. But recent events, both inside and outside the community, have raised the profile of the town and threatened the lifestyle of its residents. Read more | |||
| 'If you leave, you go to Hell' | Polygamy: One religion's custom is the rest of the world's joke | ||
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By Allen Abel National Post (Canada) Originally published February 23, 2002 | |||
| "I want to be a god," the polygamist said as we sat on his long, curving sofa. "If I have more wives, I can have more children," he told me, his voice rising, pounding the armrest with the fervour that is always least temperate in those who think themselves divine. "I believe that I'm emulating the Man Upstairs," he said. "God has sired billions of children with billions of wives in Heaven. I'm practising exactly the same thing, right here on Earth. "I WANT TO GET WITH GOD'S PROGRAM!" Read more | |||
| 'Word is out' Canada is a safe haven | Prosecutors fear any case would fail Charter of Rights test | ||
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By Stewart Bell National Post (Canada) Originally published July 12, 2002 | |||
| VANCOUVER - Canada has a growing polygamy problem that is earning the country a reputation as a safe haven for men who want to keep several wives, an anti-polygamy lobby group charged yesterday. The failure of authorities to take action against a polygamist colony near Creston, B.C., combined with increased immigration from countries where the practice is common are said to be fuelling the increase. "The word is out there that B.C. is a safe place for polygamists," said Debbie Palmer of Eye on Polygamy, which hosted a public forum last night in Vancouver. "There are many polygamous families coming to Canada looking for a safe haven." Read more | |||
| 20 wives say goodbye to husband and a way of life | Polygamy: One religion's custom is the rest of the world's joke | ||
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By Chris Ayres UK Times Originally published September 17, 2002 | |||
| The lifestyle of America’s largest polygamist sect is in jeopardy after the death of its leader, a child rape case and economic hardship. Rulon T. Jeffs, 93, president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, died last week leaving 19 or 20 widows, about 60 children and hundreds of grandchildren. Five thousand followers attended his funeral and at least 33 of his sons were pallbearers. The church, which has an estimated 10,000 members, will have to endure a lengthy succession battle. The two main candidates are Fred Jessop, 92, a church bishop, and one of Mr Jeffs’s sons, Warren, 45. But the complex process of deciding on a new prophet, understood by few, could take months, even years. Read more | |||
| A Survivor of Polygamy - Don't Forget the Other Victims | |||
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By Janet E. Johanson MohaveCountyNews.com Originally published March 19, 2003 | |||
| Don't Forget the Other Victims of Polygamy. I am thrilled that Elizabeth Smart has returned to her family. I know from personal experience the pain of having family members secreted away by fundamentalist Mormons who practice polygamy and other extremist beliefs. In this flurry of attention to a bright, lovely, talented typical Morman girl, lets not forget about the thousands of other bright, lovely, talented girls in Hilldale, Utah; Colorado City, Arizona; Creston, B.C.; and, in numerous enclaves in the Salt Lake and Utah Valleys who are being taken from their families at young ages and being made to submit to older men who brainwash them in their perverted belief systems. These girls have even less choice than Elizabeth had, because, in many cases, their own families sacrifice them to these men in order to further their own status within the polygamist cults. I, too, sought, fought, prayed, and pled for the return of my 6 nephews and nieces: Wayne, Vonnie, Taylor, Julia, Janelle, and Deanne Thornton (Fischer) from 1987 to 1991. Read more | |||
| Polygamists Probed | Arizona launches a probe into alleged improper spending by the Colorado City school district | ||
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By John Dougherty Phoenix New Times Originally published May 1, 2003 | |||
| The spiritual leader of a fundamentalist Mormon sect along the Arizona-Utah border apparently fathered a child with a second underage girl he considers one of his many wives, according to Utah birth records obtained by New Times. A Utah birth certificate shows that 47-year-old Warren Jeffs is the father of a baby girl delivered by Lori Steed, who was 17 years, 11 months, two days old at the time of conception, based on a full-term gestation. The baby, Elizabeth Jeffs, was born in Hildale, Utah, on May 9, 2001. The revelation about Jeffs comes at the same time as details surface about how Arizona and Utah law enforcement officials botched the arrest of fugitive polygamist Orson William Black, and subsequently allowed his wives and children -- including his alleged sexual-abuse victims -- to flee to a hideout in Mexico. Read more | |||
| Young wives' ages come under scrutiny | States' officials are investigating possible fraud in Mormon group | ||
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By Jane Zhang The Spectrum Originally published May 29, 2003 | |||
| COLORADO CITY, Ariz. -- As the populations of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, continue to grow -- fueled largely by a high birth rate among families who are members of a breakaway Mormon group that believes in polygamy -- the two towns are coming under more scrutiny from state officials. Utah and Arizona prosecutors are taking a look at the ages of some of the younger wives and are investigating what they say is tax and welfare fraud in the two towns. In Hildale, 66 percent of residents are on Medicaid. In Colorado City, it's nearly 100 percent. Read more | |||
| Jury convicts officer of illegal sex with underage wife | |||
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The Associated Press Originally published August 14, 2003 | |||
| ST. GEORGE, Utah - A police officer accused of bigamy and illegal sex with a girl he took as a third wife when she was just 16 was convicted by a jury Thursday - a case that one official suggested would lead to more. Jurors ruled that Rodney Holm, an officer in the polygamous border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., committed bigamy and also broke Utah law banning sexual relations involving 16- and 17-year-olds when their partner is 10 or more years older, unless the couple is legally married. Holm, 37, who lives in Hildale, was accused of having sex with Ruth Stubbs when she was 16. He was 32 when he allegedly took Stubbs as a "spiritual" wife, which is not a legally recognized union. Read more | |||
| Polygamy meeting draws sides | Lots of talk, but few solutions | ||
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By Mark Shaffer The Arizona Republic Originally published August 23, 2003 | |||
| St. George, Utah -- Carla Holm said she was one of the lucky ones when she ran away to Seattle from her polygamist household in Colorado City, Ariz., at age 15 in 1996. Holm said she eventually was able to make it on her own. She even earned a high school degree two years ago. But more typical, Holm said, was the plight of her three teenage cousins. They all fled their surroundings six months ago, couldn't make it elsewhere and were all forcibly married within a week upon their return. Holm said Friday during the first polygamy summit of Arizona, Utah and Canadian law enforcement officials and elected leaders that more safe havens are needed to keep the teens who choose to leave off drugs and off the streets. During a two-hour meeting behind closed doors, the officials discussed a wealth of subjects concerning Colorado City and neighboring Hildale, Utah, including child safety and sex abuse, potential legislation, penalties for bigamy, welfare and school district fraud and certification of police officers in the two communities. "Maybe we can't make the border go away, but with (cooperation in) law enforcement we can make it more invisible," Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said after the meeting. Goddard said he couldn't discuss details of the meeting but there were some "poignant questions raised about serving (Arizona) subpoenas in Utah." Read more | |||
| 'Foreigners in their own country' | |||
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By Mark Shaffer and Joseph A. Reaves The Arizona Republic Originally published September 28, 2003 | |||
| They are the forgotten victims of polygamy, young men pushed out of towns like Colorado City as older men take on more wives. Most have eight grades of education or less. Many of them are victims of abuse and have severe emotional scars. They have only rudimentary building skills and speak old-school English, straight out of the frontier 1800s. "They're like foreigners in their own country," said Carolyn Jessop, a former Colorado City polygamist wife who fled earlier this year and moved to Salt Lake City. Most of them bounce from low-end job to low-end job along 500 miles of the Interstate 15 corridor between Salt Lake City and Pahrump, Nev., west of Las Vegas. They often live together, sometimes as many as 10 packed into one apartment. According to Flora Jessop, a former polygamist wife now living in Phoenix, many of the young men end up in the jails of Utah and Nevada after being convicted of crimes. Read more | |||
| Young males often forced to leave | Seen as a threat by older men, they are ill-prepared for the outside world, with minimal education. | ||
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The Arizona Republic tucsoncitizen.com Originally published Monday, September 29, 2003 | |||
| They are the forgotten victims of polygamy, young men pushed out of towns such as Colorado City as older men take on more wives. Most have eight grades of education or less. Many of them are victims of abuse and have severe emotional scars. They have only rudimentary building skills and speak old-school English, straight out of the frontier 1800s. Most of them bounce from low-end job to low-end job along 500 miles of the Interstate 15 corridor between Salt Lake City and Pahrump, Nev., west of Las Vegas. "There's a percentage that eventually figures out how to make it," said James Black, a travel consultant in Park City, Utah, and former Colorado City resident. "But there's a lot more who never figure it out." When Black was young, he was one of the designated men who could rise to be a future prophet in Colorado City's polygamist society. But as Black got older, he started asking tough questions. For instance: Why should any man have multiple wives in modern-day America? And why are teenage girls mere chattels for some men who are old enough to be their grandfathers? That is when he says the church hierarchy ratcheted up the pressure on the 15-year-old Black to leave. His secret love since the first grade "disappeared overnight" and was married to a polygamist in Canada. Read more | |||
| In God's Name | After years of neglect, the law takes a hard look at Colorado City, Ariz., a sect-run town where old men marry teenage girls, TV is banned, and polygamy runs rampant | ||
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By Thomas Fields-Meyer and Oliver Jones in Colorado City People Magazine Originally published October 6, 2003 | |||
| Pennie Peterson was 14 when she learned she was about to become the fifth wife of a 48-year-old man. Frightened, she ran away from her family--which included her father, his three wives and Peterson's 38 brothers and sisters--and met friends by a roadside in Colorado City, Ariz. "They took me to their house in Las Vegas," recalls Peterson, 34, nearly 20 years later. "And I never went back." Colorado City, a desert town some 50 miles north of the Grand Canyon, is a world of its own. Just below the border of Utah, the community teems with children, yet there are no competitive sports leagues, no dances, not even a backyard pool. Most kids are homeschooled. Even quilting bees have been forbidden by town leaders for fear they might promote gossip. Men and boys dress in a uniform of dark pants, striped shirts and suspenders; women and girls wear long-sleeved, ankle-length dresses, even in summer. But what truly sets this place apart is the group that controls it, a radical Mormon offshoot called the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) that has more than 8,000 members and espouses polygamy--which is illegal in all 50 states. One local historian estimates that plural marriages account for about half the city's unions. Mayor Dan Barlow, 70, a polygamist, sees nothing too unusual about his town. "We are just families," he says, "with a little bit of a different take on things." Now, after decades of being ignored, that little difference could land town leaders in big trouble. Last year Barlow's son Dan Jr. pleaded guilty to sexually abusing one of his daughters. Read more | |||
| Nearly 50% Residents Late on Utility Bills Due to Rate Hike | |||
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KSL-TV Channel 5 Originally broadcast October 15, 2003 | |||
| (Hilldale-AP) -- Residents in two Utah border towns are having trouble keeping up with their utility bills. Almost half the residents of Hilldale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona are late in paying their electric bills. Most residents have an average bill of two-hundred dollars. The Twin City Power manager says that's probably the highest in the country and he'd rather work with residents than shut them off. The electric hike went up July 1st, and that's having an effect on other utilities. Water and sewer rates haven't increased, but officials say the number of late payments are up to 47 percent. The two communities have larger than normal families and typically are one-income households - which also may contribute to the delinquent payments. | |||
| Three wives will guarantee you a place in paradise | The Taliban? No: welcome to the rebel Mormons | ||
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By Julian Coman Telegraph.co.uk Originally published October 19, 2003 | |||
| As a polygamous husband is jailed and traumatised women start to speak out, a siege mentality grips a fundamentalist Mormon sect, reports Julian Coman from Hildale, Utah High in the mountains above the most notorious polygamous community in America, two grim-faced men on horseback have come to meet - but not welcome - me. "This is private property," said one. "No pictures. You have got to leave right now." The men are blocking the way to a deep man-made cave. Here, according to the few locals prepared to talk, the elders of an eccentric breakaway Mormon sect have prepared a last stand against further interference by Utah state authorities - stockpiling food and, some say, weapons, as if in readiness for a siege. The godfearing polygamists of Hildale and neighbouring Colorado City, members of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) have good reason to be jumpy. Read more | |||
| Road to Polygamy: Part 1 | |||
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KXLY News 4 - Spokane, Washington & Northern Idaho Original broadcast November 5, 2003 | |||
| A group of religious fundamentalists operating in both the United States and Canada is raising the eyebrows of law enforcement on both sides of the border. Several agencies say they are trafficking young girls across the border to become child brides. They're called the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They have no affiliation with the modern Mormon church, and believe a man must have more than one wife to reach the highest plains of heaven. That means, young women are often trafficked back and forth from FLDS headquarters in the U.S. to a small community just across Idaho's border into Bountiful, British Columbia. Read more | |||
| Road to Polygamy: Part 2 | |||
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KXLY News 4 - Spokane, Washington & Northern Idaho Original broadcast November 5, 2003 | |||
| A group of religious fundamentalists operating on both sides of the U.S.-Canadian border are raising the eyebrows of law enforcement. The group known as Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day's Saints claim they're being persecuted for their religion; others claim they're dangerous criminals. For decades, FLDS members have lived in communities along the Utah/Arizona border and just across Idaho's border in Bountiful, British Columbia. Polygamy is the corner-stone of their beliefs, as men believe they need more than one wife to reach the highest plains of heaven. Former church members say young women are forced to marry in their teens, and that abuse and incest are common. Now, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is mounting a crusade to stop it. He claims crimes go far beyond polygamy: to everything from welfare fraud to violence. "We hear that children are being taught and forced to kill animals in a bloody manner, so they get used to killing," Shurtleff claims. "That there are people that if the prophet tells them to kill, they will kill." Read more | |||
| Mayor of polygamist community resigns amid apparent power struggle | |||
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The Associated Press Originally published January 13, 2004 | |||
| COLORADO CITY, Ariz. (AP) --The mayor of a polygamist community straddling the Utah-Arizona line has resigned after apparently clashing with the leader of a renegade sect of the Mormon church that all but runs the town. Dan Barlow, the only mayor in the 19-year history of Colorado City, submitted a one-sentence resignation letter Monday. The town clerk said a new mayor will be selected by the Town Council. Barlow and about 20 men were ousted Saturday from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a maverick sect of the Mormon church, The (St. George) Spectrum reported Tuesday. In an apparent move to solidify his position as church leader, Warren Jeffs also stripped the men of their wives and children, and their right to live in the town about 100 miles northwest of Flagstaff, the newspaper reported. Meanwhile, The Salt Lake Tribune reported that among those Jeffs excommunicated were four of his own brothers and Barlow's son, nephew and three brothers. Read more | |||
| Teens flee polygamist towns | Girls, boys leave Colorado City, Utah's Hildale | ||
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By Mark Shaffer The Arizona Republic Originally published January 19, 2004 | |||
| The anticipated exodus of teenage girls from the strife-torn, polygamist communities of Colorado City and Hildale, Utah, began in earnest this weekend as about 10 fanned out to towns in southern Utah seeking protection, anti-polygamy activists said Sunday. The movement followed a ruling by a Maricopa County juvenile court judge late Friday that two 16-year-old teens from Colorado City, who had fled to the Valley last week, would be allowed to stay in foster homes rather than remain in state custody. "We've got eight runners now, including two with children, and got a bunch more coming," said Flora Jessop of Phoenix, a former Colorado City resident who has been active in opposing multiple marriages since she escaped from the polygamist enclave as a teenager in the mid-1980s. Bob Curran, director of the St. George, Utah, group Help the Child Brides, said "a number" of both teenaged girls and boys have left the towns in the past few days and many have made contact with Utah child-protection officials. "We had one runaway yesterday, a 16-year-old girl, whose marriage already was all planned out and we got her to the child-protective people," Curran said. "There are also a lot of young boys fleeing and they are reluctant to have contact with the state. We are encouraging the kids to get out now amidst all this turmoil." Read more | |||
| Colorado City-area runaways return home | |||
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By Jane Zhang The Spectrum Originally published Tuesday, January 20, 2004 | |||
| ST. GEORGE -- The runaways ran again -- this time away from a St. George-area home back to the homes they tried to flee in the Colorado City-Hildale area. No, the six youths didn't want the government's help to leave the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, even though law enforcement and children's services agencies have vowed to protect them against domestic abuse or the forced marriages of young girls to adult men. Instead, they returned Sunday night after barely a day or two out of the polygamist enclave, which has been teeming with uncertainty since Jan. 10, when the prophet, Warren Jeffs, surprised many by ousting 21 men -- including then-Colorado City Mayor Dan Barlow and his three brothers -- from the FLDS church. Read more | |||
| A cult of abuses | Colorado City females are property, to trade and 'assign' | ||
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Opinions The Arizona Republic Originally published January 22, 2004 | |||
| Children kept out of school. Adolescent girls given as second and third wives to old men. Teen boys banished. Out-of-favor men expelled, and their wives and children assigned to those who please the ruling elite. A backward, Third World nation? No. The USA. The land of the Bill of Rights. The home of the rule of law. For more than 50 years, an enclave of lawbreakers and advocates of child sexual abuse has straddled the Arizona-Utah border, unrepentant and unchallenged. Girls were property, boys were competition, women were chattel. All were denied access to the justice system and the protection of the Constitution. Read more | |||
| US polygamists' children flee amid church leadership crisis | |||
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Agence France-Presse Originally published January 23, 2004 | |||
| SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, (AFP) - Teenage daughters of polygamists from a fundamentalist offshoot of the US Mormon church are fleeing their families amid a sect leadership crisis, according to state officials. Law enforcement and social services officials said several teenage girls had fled their families and the shadowy splinter sect of the Utah-based Mormon church over the past two weeks, apparently to avoid being married off to older men at a young age. The flight began after the "prophet" of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) -- which is not recognized by the mainstream Mormon church -- excommunicated more than 20 male members of his sect on January 10 and threatened to take away their wives and children. The expulsion by leader Warren Jeffs, outraged many leading citizens of the two small desert towns where sect members live -- Hilldale and Colorado City, which lie along the border between Arizona and Utah, sources said. At least three young girls seized the opportunity of the crisis to leave their families, and -- despite calls by the fathers to have them returned -- authorities in Utah and Arizona have put the girls into protective care. "Currently in state custody, there is one girl in Utah and two in Arizona," said Elaine Tyler, a volunteer for the group, Help the Child Brides, in nearby St. George, Utah. Read more | |||
| Man to fight expulsion | Chatwin calls FLDS prophet 'Hitler-like dictator' | ||
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By Patrice St. Germain The Spectrum Originally published Saturday, January 24, 2004 | |||
| COLORADO CITY -- Nine months ago, Ross Chatwin, then a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was told to repent. On Jan. 14, James Zitting, a member within the church, was sent to deliver a message to Chatwin telling him to leave his home immediately. But Chatwin, 35, has no plans of leaving his home, his wife and six children. On Friday, Chatwin spoke to a group of media gathered on the front lawn of his modest home about standing up to Warren Jeffs, the self-proclaimed prophet of the church and the United Effort Plan, which owns the land on which his home is built. Not only was there plenty of media to document the event, but also numerous sheriff's deputies from the Mohave County Sheriff's Office. They formed a ring around the property. Several remained on the lawn while others were strategically placed on the road in front of Chatwin's home and on the slope behind his home. In a prepared speech, Chatwin asked for help in stopping Jeffs, a man he calls a Hitler-like dictator. Read more | |||
| Ex-members of polygamy sect say 'evil dictator' rules from desert church | |||
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By Patrick O'Driscoll USA TODAY Originally published January 26, 2004 | |||
| COLORADO CITY - Mormon outcasts fled here nearly 70 years ago to practice "plural marriage" in Utah's desert borderlands. But a church feud, outside investigations and prosecutions have brought the glare of 21st-century publicity to the largest band of polygamists in America. Earlier this month, Warren Jeffs, the "prophet" of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, excommunicated nearly two dozen men from the priesthood, ordering them to leave their church-owned homes and their families. The secretive sect, known as the FLDS, is an offshoot of the original Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which settled Utah in the mid-1800s and is now one of the fastest-growing religions in the world. On Friday, one of the ousted men challenged the leader's authority publicly. He held a news conference in the middle of this tight-lipped community of about 10,000 people. (The twin FLDS towns of Colorado City and Hildale, Utah, are indistinguishable from each other along an invisible state line.) Ross Chatwin hosted reporters and photographers on the porch of the house where he and his family had been assigned to live. Read more | |||
| Blasphemous Backlash | Ross Chatwin said no way to polygamy's holy man before the national press. Will others join him now? | ||
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By John Dougherty Phoenix New Times Originally published January 29, 2004 | |||
| COLORADO CITY -- With his wife and six children clustered behind him on the front porch of his modest home, Ross Chatwin did what no resident of this isolated, fundamentalist Mormon town has ever done. Chatwin, 35, publicly denounced the religious leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) before more than two dozen reporters from across the country. It was the first news conference in the closed polygamous society's 70-year history and the first time so much press, including network television and the New York Times, had descended on the town in Mohave County. Raised in a culture where absolute obedience to the FLDS is the church's first commandment, Chatwin ignored thinly veiled death threats circulating through town and harshly criticized the iron-fisted rule of Prophet Warren Jeffs, against whom Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is pursuing charges. Shurtleff maintains that Jeffs has cohabited with underage girls and has arranged the cohabitations of many other men in his congregation with girls younger than the age of legal consent. Read more | |||
| The Man Behind the Curtain | |||
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By John Dougherty Phoenix New Times Originally published January 29, 2004 | |||
| Fundamentalist Mormon cult leader Warren Jeffs has convinced thousands of polygamist followers that he receives direct revelations from God, visions that reveal the most intimate details of their personal lives. But Jeffs' insights may be based far more on modern technology than any supranatural spiritual powers. Warren Jeffs, the Prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, may have been secretly making audio and video recordings of confessions by church members. Warren Jeffs made the recordings in the decade before assuming control of the church following the September 2002 death of his father and former prophet, Rulon Jeffs, according to allegations by a longtime member of the church who was excommunicated last November. "He was secretly recording personal interviews with his father," says Richard Holm, a Colorado City town councilman and businessman who also provided transportation to Rulon Jeffs for many years. Holm says Warren Jeffs has accumulated thousands of audio and video tapes that detail church members' transgressions, confessions and goals in life. Holm says he has personally seen some of the recordings. Read more | |||
| On polygamy, a crackdown and a bid for legitimacy | |||
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By Katharine Biele Christian Science Monitor Originally published January 30, 2004 | |||
(SALT LAKE CITY) America's often-isolated believers in polygamy are coming into the public eye - confronted by a new crackdown even as some civil rights advocates contend that plural marriage should be legitimized. The most sensational of the recent incidents has come in the small, tight-lipped community of Colorado City, Ariz. Recently, a power struggle has emerged within the polygamy-oriented sect that dominates the town. Some men have been excommunicated and their wives and children been "reassigned" to other men. The turmoil there - apparently a bid by the church leader to consolidate his control of the community - comes as America's estimated 100,000 polygamists are in the spotlight on other fronts:
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| Former polygamist church member receives threatening letter | |||
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The Associated Press Originally published February 5, 2004 | |||
| Mohave County authorities are investigating a possible death threat against a former member of a polygamist church. Ben Bistline, a former member and outspoken critic of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, received a letter Jan. 23 at his home near Colorado City, vowing revenge and predicting that God will order "the destroying angels to go forth, and they will kill off all the wicked." The only hope for a person who disobeys is blood atonement, the letter said. Bistline told the East Valley Tribune that the letter did not frighten him, but he turned it over to law enforcement anyway. "If they were going to kill me, they would have just come over and killed me," he said. "It's just some kid." Read more | |||
| Former Colo. City man alleges death threat | |||
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By Mark Hall Today's News-Herald Originally published February 5, 2004 | |||
| Mohave County Sheriff's detectives are investigating what is believed to be a death threat aimed at a former church member in the largely polygamous community of Colorado City. On Jan. 20 Ben Bistline, now a historian, received an anonymously typed letter, which, based upon interpretation, is a threat on his life. "You stand for apostates and gentiles and you as your kind should take this letter as a warning ... If I were you I would be shaking in my shoes with fear for your life because the Lord's going to take your life. You've brought down a scourge and condemnation upon yourself. At this point there's no place you can hide that the prophet can't find," the letter warns. About a year ago, Bistline and his family left the Colorado City for the nearby community of Cane Beds. He said he believes the threat is related to a historical book he wrote about the community, which is set for release soon. "I hope it is a hoax - I'm not running from it; I'm not totally at ease," Bistline said. "The thing that is scary about the letter is the mentality of it." Read more | |||
| Runaway Teenager Returned Home to Polygamist Community | |||
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The Associated Press Originally published February 8, 2004 | |||
| ST. GEORGE, Utah (AP) -- A 17-year-old girl who ran away to St. George from the polygamist enclave of Colorado City, Ariz. after an alleged altercation with her father has been returned to her home, a newspaper has reported. The unidentified teenager spent two weeks in Utah and Arizona state custody before being returned home Jan. 30, The (St. George) Spectrum reported. The girl's return home came after 5th District Court Judge James Shumate dismissed a protective order she had obtained against her father, saying the St. George court did not have jurisdiction over an Arizona case. Representatives from the Arizona Child Protective Services and Utah State Division of Child and Family Services said they found no evidence of abuse in their interviews with the teenager. The girl, who left town on Jan. 17, spent 10 days living at a youth crisis center operated by Utah's Youth Corrections Facility before being turned over to Arizona custody Jan. 27. Anti-polygamy activists were angered by the decision to return the teenager to her home. Utah and Arizona's child protective services have failed to protect children fleeing abuse in their polygamist homes, said Flora Jessop, an anti-polygamy activist and former Colorado City resident. "The kids are running from the predators of their own homes," Jessop was quoted in the newspaper's Saturday edition. "They are being sent back to abuse." Read more | |||
| Yes, Polygamy Is Everybody's Business | It's no 'private matter' when children are raped and intellectually starved in isolated settings. | ||
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By Naomi Schaefer Riley The Los Angeles Times Originally published February 9, 2004 | |||
| In January, a lawsuit was filed in federal court to overturn Utah's 113-year-old ban on polygamy. The action, which was prompted by the Supreme Court's decision to strike down Texas' anti-sodomy law last year, comes as no surprise. Conservative Justice Antonin Scalia warned in his dissenting opinion in Lawrence vs. Texas that "if, as the court asserts, the promotion of majoritarian sexual morality is not even a legitimate state interest, none of the above-mentioned laws (against fornication, bigamy, adultery, adult incest, bestiality and obscenity) can survive rational-basis review." Utah polygamist Tom Green -- who is appealing his convictions on bigamy on the ground that, like the men in Texas, what he does in his own home is no one else's business -- could not have agreed more. But before we slide down the slippery slope of this kind of reasoning, we should consider an important distinction about polygamy -- its treatment of children. The American West is dotted with polygamous communities, most of them "fundamentalist" Mormon sects, in rebellion against the church's renunciation of polygamy more than 100 years ago. Polygamy's negative effects on children in these communities are well documented and truly shocking. We know from firsthand accounts and court cases that child rape, incest, physical abuse, sexual abuse and child marriage are often realities. Read more | |||
| Author of book about Colorado City reports threat to sheriff's office | |||
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By Linda Stelp Kingman Daily Miner Originally published Tuesday, February 10, 2004 | |||
| The Mohave County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a threatening letter mailed to a Colorado City author who has published a book about the polygamous community. Ben Bistline said he received the letter Jan. 21 and “turned it over to the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office right away. They said they would investigate.” Bistline, 68, who said he is 90 percent blind, wrote and self-published the 450-page book last year. “The Polygamists: A History of Colorado City, Arizona” is currently sold through Agreka.com, a company in Scottsdale that publishes historic books. In March, the book will be released through Amazon.com and be available at Barnes & Noble stores. The author said he is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which no longer practices polygamy. However, polygamy is widely practiced by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, an offshoot of the Salt Lake City-based Mormon Church. Bistline said he lived in Colorado City up until a year ago, when he moved to Cane Beds two miles to the south. “There has never been a correct history of Colorado City written,” he said. The letter, a copy of which was received by the Miner, states in part, “The prophet says the only hope for a person who disobeys is blood atonement. He hasn’t told anybody to kill anybody else.” Read more | |||
| In land of no first kiss, prophet rules Taliban-style | |||
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Agence France-Presse Originally published February 18, 2004 | |||
| COLORADO CITY, United States (AFP) - The world of Britney Spears and bare midriffs is kept at bay here by mountains and canyons -- and the prophet. If local women venture onto the dusty streets at all, they sport ankle-length dresses, buttoned-up blouses and 1930s hairstyles with buns and pompadours. And they always defer to men. Men cast somber glances at strangers, derive their self worth from the number of wives they have and defer to the prophet. His name is Warren Jeffs. In the largest US community of open polygamists, the 48-year-old cleric is judge and jury, bank and police, and above all defender of the faith as head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. There is no area of local life that does not bear his imprint. "The prophet decides who marries whom and when," says Flora Jessop, a native of Colorado City who fled in 1986 after being forced to marry her cousin. "A lot of times, you only have a couple of hours' notice," she recalls. "They come in and say, 'Get ready to be married. Here is your dress.' And off you go." Read more | |||
| Girls From Polygamous Homes Flee | Two girls placed in state foster care last month after fleeing from the polygamous community of Colorado City are on the run again. | ||
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The Associated Press KLS 1160 Newsradio Original broadcast February 18, 2004 | |||
| Two girls placed in state foster care last month after fleeing from the polygamous community of Colorado City are on the run again. The 16-year-olds left Sunday while on a weekend camping trip in west Phoenix. Flora Jessop of Phoenix, a former Colorado City resident who left as a teenager in 1986, says the girls were scared they would be returned to their parents. Jessop says that in letters they left behind the girls wrote that they feared being locked up or forced to marry much older men if they were sent home. A Child Protective Services spokeswoman says police have been notified, and law enforcement officials statewide have orders to hold the girls if they find them. Read more | |||
| FLDS towns in turmoil | Sect leader under fire as outside pressures build | ||
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By Nancy Perkins Deseret Morning News Originally published February 22, 2004 | |||
| COLORADO CITY, Ariz. — Richard Holm's life — the one he knew here and the one he hoped for in the hereafter — came to a bitter end Nov. 11, 2003, when his church leader ordered him into repentance and out of his home. Warren Jeffs, the reclusive leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, told Holm through an intermediary that not only did he no longer hold the priesthood in the polygamous church, his wives, now entitled to a "noble release," could ask for a different husband and his home would be reoccupied by a worthy member. "We had a heaven in our home up until last November," Holm said last week, adding that such an announcement by the man FLDS members revere as their prophet is tantamount to a public execution. "We were a happy family. Those were wonderful times." With his priesthood stripped, any chance of getting to the highest degree of heaven is gone, according to FLDS doctrine. His access to his children now is also in doubt. Holm, 51, is the latest among a growing list of men recently excommunicated by Jeffs, who is accused by some of being a dictator unnecessarily disrupting families and putting a community of about 6,000 that shuns attention into the public spotlight. Read more | |||
| Author paints image of complex lifestyle in Colorado City | |||
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By Jane Zhang The Spectrum Originally published Wednesday, March 17, 2004 | |||
| COLORADO CITY, Ariz. -- To Ben Bistline, the myth of Colorado City lies in three words: Money, power and sex. Leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which controls most of the land and property in the area, preach that a man has to have at least three wives to go to heaven, he said. But the men, most of them already giving up their money and belongings to the church, are not granted plural wives unless they are deemed to be "worthy" enough. That is, Bistline said, they give the people in power enough money. When schemes to gain money or power go awry, men are expelled, women and children "reassigned" and their houses and property repossessed by the church. "Your first responsibility is to the leaders; Your family comes second," said Bistline, 68, a longtime Colorado City resident who believed in but never lived polygamy. Read more | |||
| Escape From Colorado City | |||
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By Jana Bommersbach Feature Story Phoenix Magazine Originally published May 2004 | |||
| They could be sisters, or certainly cousins, these two pretty redheads curled up on a sectional sofa in a North Phoenix "safe house." Both of their names are Fawn, and together, they're known as "the two Fawns" - as though they're lost baby deer. And in a sense, they are, these two runaways from the polygamist community of Colorado City, which straddles the Arizona-Utah border. They say they ran and sought safety with strangers because they feared that their families would marry them off to old men against their will; that they'd be wife No. 3 or No. 5, and would spend the rest of their lives with the "sister wives" who take turns being bedded by the man of the house. They feared that they'd be reduced to nothing but "breeding machines" - all in the name of a cult disguised as a religion. These young girls say they know there must be more on the outside - that girls out here can get an education, can have a say in their own lives, can be spared from a culture where sex with a child is not only condoned, but encouraged. They say they had to flee to survive. Read more | |||
| 'Deborah Norville Tonight' for May 25 | Guests: Laurene Jessop, Flora Jessop, Ross Chatwin, Eddie Farnsworth, Mark Shurtleff | ||
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Deborah Norville MSNBC Originally broadcast Tuesday, May 25, 2004 | |||
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DEBORAH NORVILLE, HOST: Escape from polygamy. This woman was once a hostage of marriage, held captive, she says, by her polygamous husband. And when she tried to break free, she was thrown into a mental hospital. Tonight in her first television interview, Laurene Jessop recounts her dramatic escape from a notorious sect in Arizona and her relentless fight to regain custody of her children. We‘ll also meet the woman who helped Laurene on the outside. Now this ex-polygamist is on a mission to make sure other women and children don‘t suffer the same fate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This type of lifestyle is geared toward the ownership of women and children. NORVILLE: Tonight, polygamy in America. Just how widespread is it, and why is the law often powerless to stop it? The facts may shock you. ANNOUNCER: From Studio 3-K in Rockefeller Center, Deborah Norville. NORVILLE: And good evening. Tonight we begin with the story of one women, a story that she has never told before until now. She lived in a community in Arizona, a polygamist community in which she was born and stayed for just about all of her life until she escaped. Read more | |||
| Cults abusive to women, children | |||
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By Janet French Edmonton Journal Originally published June 12, 2004 | |||
| Edmonton -- Cults where men have more than one wife subject their children to lives of abuse, a conference heard Friday. "You can all but kill a child for disobeying," Utah journalist and researcher Andrea Moore Emmett said at the American Family Foundation Conference on cults in Edmonton. The U.S. group educates and counsels people affected by cults around the world. Moore Emmett said Canadian and American authorities do nothing to stop polygamist colonies from forcing children to work at slave labour, denying them schooling and abusing them physically, sexually and emotionally. Canada's most notorious polygamist cult is the Bountiful, B.C., settlement of the Utah-based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Former Bountiful resident Debbie Palmer escaped the group in 1988 after she was forced to become the sixth wife of a man in his 50s when she was 15. She told the conference the group's elders frequently marry off teenage daughters to older men who are sometimes their uncles. The leaders justify their matchmaking and abuse by claiming the colony is protected by God, and the decisions are God's will, she said. Read more | |||
| Arizona Man Says FLDS Prophet Stole His Family | |||
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The Eldorado Success Originally published June 17, 2004 | |||
| Richard Holm, 51, of Colorado City, Arizona, an admitted polygamist, says he never expected to find himself fighting for custody of his children. Much less, did he think the court battle would involve the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). As a faithful member of the church and loyal follower of its prophets, Holm says he was stunned to learn that he had been excommunicated by new FLDS Prophet Warren Jeffs. Holm, a respected businessman and longtime member of the Colorado City, AZ City Council, said he thought life was about as good as it could get. He and his two wives, Lorena and Alice, and their seven children owned and operated a Motel in the twin cities of Colorado City and Hildale. Holm also provided transportation for the church’s former prophet, Rulon Jeffs. Holm says that new prophet Warren Jeffs secretly recorded meetings his father had with church members. Among those recordings are audio tapes of confessions that church members believed were meant only for the ears of their former prophet. Holm says those tapes are now being used to blackmail and intimidate FLDS members into following the leadership of Warren Jeffs. “He is a sinister man,” Holm said of Warren Jeffs. “Only an evil man would tear apart a man’s family this way.” Read more | |||
| Polygamists fight over childrens' future; mother's mental state questioned | |||
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By Mike Watkiss KTVK NewsChannel 3 - Phoenix Originally published Friday, July 23, 2004 | |||
| At 46 years of age, and after what she calls a life of abuse, Laurene Jessop, a single mother of five, is facing the daunting task of picking up the pieces and starting her life over from scratch. Jessop recently gathered up her three young daughters and went on the run, fleeing from the polygamist community of Colorado City. "I was born and raised in Colorado City," Jessop said, explaining she has 56 brothers and sisters. Earlier this year, Jessop escaped the community, landing in Phoenix, trying to flee her polygamist husband, who wants to take their children back with him to northern Arizona. It's a story of a desperate mother and one that is becoming painfully familiar from those who have lived in the closed and secretive polygamist society. But Jessop has been open about her past, saying that she was molested by her father, Jack Cooke, who served a five-year prison term for molesting his daughters. But Jessop said that was just the beginning of the abuse. Read more | |||
| FLDS leaders facing abuse suit | Nephew says he suffered sexual assaults as child | ||
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By Linda Thomson Deseret Morning News Originally published Friday, July 30, 2004 | |||
| A 21-year-old man is suing the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, its leader Warren Steed Jeffs and Jeffs' brothers, Blaine Balmforth Jeffs and Leslie Balmforth Jeffs, alleging the three men sexually abused him as a child. Brent Jeffs, who is a nephew of the three men, filed the civil suit in 3rd District Court Thursday seeking a jury trial and unspecified damages. Also named in the suit is the United Effort Plan Trust (UEP Trust), which Brent Jeffs claims was created in 1942 as a charitable and business entity. The FLDS Church is not affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Brent Jeffs in his lawsuit asked the court for a restraining order to keep the FLDS Church from destroying business records and for a restraining order or preliminary injunction to prevent the defendants from disposing of assets and appearing to be insolvent before the court can make a final judgment. Jeffs, who lives in Bluffdale, alleges in his suit that during the 1980s when he was 5 and 6 years old, he was repeatedly sodomized by Warren Jeffs, who calls himself the church's prophet, and also by Blaine and Leslie Jeffs during Sunday church services. Read more | |||
| The Price of Polygamy | |||
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Posted by lsaintcrow storyhunters.com Originally posted August 2, 2004 | |||
| I've written a lot about Warren Jeffs lately. The 'prophet' of the FLDS makes a good story, between his nutty ideas on women and his fanatical pursuit of money- and the security cameras on the cinderblock wall around his house. (By the way, he's probably retreated to Texas to avoid the gathering storm.) Yet there's something else about Warren Jeffs I haven't written about: the cost of his practice of 'casting out' members of his community. A great many of these castaways are teenage boys, thrown out in some cases with only the shirts on their backs- and told to go out into a world they have been raised to fear. "These are just a few of the boys who've been told to leave or left on their own," Steed said. "Many had nowhere to go, no food to eat. Some of them were kicked out with nothing more than the clothes on their backs and with the understanding they would be destroyed [by God]." The boys have been exploited, victimized and discarded, deprived of basic educations and threatened with eternal damnation, Fischer said. (Salt Lake Tribune) One was thrown out because he spoke to non-churchmembers and watched Charlie's Angels. One wanted to go to public school after Jeffs handed down an edict barring any kind of schooling but homeschooling. Read more | |||
| Lawsuit: FLDS Church Conspired to Excommunicate Males | |||
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The Associated Press Originally published August 27, 2004 | |||
| SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Six former members of a breakaway polygamous sect banished or excommunicated from the church filed a conspiracy lawsuit today against the church's prophet and one of his assistants, claiming a pattern of unlawful activity and conspiracy to get rid of surplus boys and men. The plaintiffs, all so-called "lost boys" and former members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, based in Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Ariz., included in the court complaint portions of federal racketeering statutes sometimes used in organized crime prosecutions. The plaintiffs claim that FLDS church president and prophet Warren Jeffs and Sam Barlow, a former Colorado City police chief and close associate of Jeffs, have engaged in assault, terroristic threats, unlawful dealing of property, theft by extortion, child kidnaping, official misconduct and theft of services. According to the complaint filed in 3rd District Court, the church has engaged in "systematic excommunication" of adolescents and young men in order to reduce competition for wives. FLDS attorney Rodney Parker, who has represented the FLDS in legal matters, said the lawsuit lacked merit. | |||
| Man Arrested for Kidnapping Former Wife and Her Infant | |||
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The Associated Press KSL-TV Channel 5 Originally published September 3, 2004 | |||
| HILDALE, Utah (AP) -- A Washington City man is facing kidnapping charges after forcing his former wife in the polygamous border town of Hildale into his truck. It happened August 30th. Thomas Vaughn Barlow is accused of assaulting his former wife and forcing her and her infant into his semitrailer truck. He was arrested by Hildale police and has been charged with first-degree felony child kidnapping, second-degree felony kidnapping and three misdemeanor counts of abuse and assault. The 45-year-old is in a Washington County correctional facility on $34,000 bond. Most of the residents in Hildale and neighboring Colorado City, Arizona are members of the Fundamental Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and practice polygamy. | |||
| More Media Attention for Colorado City | |||
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By Buster Johnson Mohave County Supervisor MohaveCountyNews.com Originally published September 21, 2004 | |||
| Senator Linda Binder and I attended Yavapai College's Zaki Gordon Institute Shorts Film Festival in Phoenix. Each year they have a wrap up premiere screening of their graduates' short films. Seven films were premiered. The topics all varied and had some very interesting content. I was there mainly to view "Hidden in the Heartland". A film by Dot Reidelbach. This was a documentary film about the abuses in Colorado City. "This story is told through the voices of polygamists still living in the town, women who have escaped, men who have been evicted and reporters who have extensive knowledge of the ongoing criminal activities." The film was very well edited and flowed quite well. The stories told were hard hitting and very personal. The room was extremely quiet as the story was told and everyone present was riveted to the screen. The film crew did an excellent job of telling the story in a twenty minute short. The film won Best Director in the Documentary category and Audience Choice Award. They are in the process of making a 90 minute film that will go into more depth. Read more | |||
| Teen boys subtracted in polygamy math: | Sect leaders drive out young males to sustain their polygamous lifestyles | ||
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By Daphne Bramham Vancouver Sun Originally published Friday, November 12, 2004 | |||
| To make polygamous math work, teenage boys are an expendable commodity. In the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints -- a breakaway sect of the Mormon church -- members believe a man can only enter God's Kingdom if he has three or more wives. So, at the very least, two out of every three boys born into FLDS are expelled from the sect-controlled towns like Bountiful, B.C. and the twin-city church headquarters of Colorado City, Ariz. and Hildale, Utah. But lately, the number of disposable boys has been rising as the church's leaders indulge themselves. The prophet Warren Jeffs is believed to have as many as 80 wives. Other leaders -- including the excommunicated bishop of Bountiful, Winston Blackmore -- have 20 or 30. The math is simple: The more wives the elders take, the more young men need to be eliminated from the community. Read more | |||
| Hildale Company Fined for Child Labor Violation | |||
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By Kallee Nielson The Spectrum Originally published November 18, 2004 | |||
| A Hildale excavating company was fined $6,000 after two boys, about 12 years old, were sighted on an excavation site. One of the boys reportedly climbed into the cab of a road grader and started to move it on the site at SunRiver phase 15, according to the citation issued by the Utah Labor Commission’s Occupational Safety and Health Division. Under state and federal law, children under the age of 18 are not allowed to work near excavation operations or operate heavy equipment. The Spectrum was unable to reach a spokesperson at R & W Excavating. According to an inspection report, the construction foreman told the inspector the children were the company owner's sons and it was a Saturday. Read more | |||
| Preserving perversion | Until state gets tougher, polygamy and abuse will go on in Colorado City | ||
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Opinions The Arizona Republic Originally published December 16, 2004 | |||
| Arizona needs a bang, not a whimper, to deal with the perverse sect of polygamous child abusers living in Colorado City. The group's "prophet," Warren Jeffs, profits nicely indeed from sect members who reside on property his trust controls, and they do what he says, even if that includes handing over underage daughters as "spiritual" sex toys for old men. A Utah judge ordered the reclusive Jeffs to answer a civil suit that charges he molested his nephew, Brent Jeffs. According to the suit, a 5-year-old was told that being raped by his three uncles would make him a man. Another pending lawsuit alleges that adolescent males were ousted from the community because they represented competition to the old men who need three wives, according to cult teaching, to attain the best seats in heaven. Young brides are the best. Stories about the abuse of underage girls are plentiful. Polygamy is against the law. But members of Profit Warren Jeffs' Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints receive generous state assistance based on illegally created "families." The Department of Economic Security reports that in fiscal year 2003, $2.3 million in benefits went to Colorado City. Read more | |||
| Polygamy backer is wrong | |||
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Opinion Deseret Morning News Originally published Wednesday, February 2, 2005 | |||
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I am writing regarding the article "Leader passes out a polygamy primer" (Jan. 9). While the coverage of Senator Ron Allen's distribution of the anti-polygamy book "God's Brothel" is informative, the most gripping parts of the article were the comments from Mary Batchelor, director of pro-polygamy Principle Voices of Harmony. Central to her opinion is the view that the book "is no different than collecting stories of abuse from monogamous marriages and claiming that they represent the entire institution."
Here I must strongly disagree with Ms. Batchelor. Unlike the general monogamous population, polygamists are part of a religious system that preaches subordination and dehumanization of women. A religious group with these kinds of extremely sexist teachings is bound to be abusive toward females, far more than the general population. Kim Burgess Salt Lake City | |||
| Polygamy is an 'insult' to populace | |||
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Letters The Spectrum Originally published Sunday, February 20, 2005 | |||
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To the editor:
To the male leaders and those who follow polygamy as a religion or otherwise, I feel it is an insult to the general male population. The way the male leaders and their followers treat their wives, mothers, daughters and children, in dress and otherwise -- yet you see no alteration in the male ways or dress to distinguish them from the general public! Our wives, mothers, daughters and children are our most treasured and loved family members and should be treated as such! There have been several instances of mismanagement of their schools, so that only their way of life and teachings are permitted. Should we stand for this? Several months ago, many young males (boys) were turned out of their homes -- was it so the young girls could be married to older males? Was it so that the general public had to take over their care and responsibilities, and save them these expenses and care? Are our elected officials, in their capacity as responsible members of their profession, neglecting to serve as elected? Can't more be done to correct these injustices and others, especially in Southern Utah and Northern Arizona, or is their lawyer too smart for those representing us? Errol G. Brown Kanab | |||
| FLDS member shares concerns | |||
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By Mike Weland Kootenai Valley Press Originally published February 25, 2005 | |||
| FLDS member shares concerns: After reading an anonymous letter regarding life inside the FLDS, another member, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of speaking out, sent a long response, rebutting much of what the initial writer said and casting serious doubts as to the legitimacy of FLDS "prophet" Warren Jeffs and his teachings and casts an insider's look at the allegations against the FLDS, which has compounds in Arizona, Utah, Texas, Colorado and in Bountiful, British Columbia. In addition, corrections in the chronology of one significant event in the history of the church, the death of former "prophet" Rulon Jeffs, Warren's father, was corrected; instead of 1998 as earlier reported, it turns out the elder Jeffs actually suffered a stroke in 1998, and did not succumb until 2002, when Warren usurped the top spot and allegedly took control of a long-established trust owned by all members of the sect, a trust that owns their homes, their businesses, their very means of living. While the response is long, it is presented here with only slight modification. The identity of the member is being withheld over strong concerns of reprisal from church leaders, who forbade members of the sect to speak to the media. Read more | |||
| The noose tightens | Lawsuits bring polygamist leader closer to justice | ||
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Opinions The Arizona Republic Originally published February 25, 2005 | |||
| Incrementally - and without any great demonstration of courage on the part of law enforcement - the noose is closing around the neck of Arizona's most notorious polygamist. Of course, Warren Jeffs is likely hidden away in his cult's new digs in Texas. And the slight tug on the rope came from a court motion that's part of a lawsuit against Jeffs, not from a bold law enforcement effort. Nevertheless, it is progress against the cult that likes to go by the respectable sounding name of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It is not associated with mainstream Mormons, who reject polygamy. With colonies in Colorado City, Ariz., Hildale, Utah, Bountiful, British Columbia and a 1,691-acre compound in western Texas, Jeffs' cult is under investigation for welfare fraud, financial irregularities and child and sexual abuse. Two lawsuits against Jeffs give an indication of what life is like under his rule. One was filed by his nephew, who accuses Jeffs of sexually abusing him as a child and dubbing it "God's work." The other involves a group of young men who allege they were banished from the community because their youth gave them a competitive edge over the old men who claim young girls for their harems. The girls, some as young as 13, are reportedly forced into plural marriages in a cult where women are viewed as property. Warren Jeffs reassigned wives and children to new families as discipline. He also banished men and threw families out of their homes. That's where the latest glimmer of good news about this cult can be found. Read more | |||
| Meeting focuses on issues within polygamous towns | |||
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By Rachel Olsen The Spectrum Originally published March 4, 2005 | |||
| ST. GEORGE - In a public meeting Thursday, authorities and residents attempted to educate one another about a wide range of viewpoints on topics like welfare fraud, child abuse and domestic violence in polygamous communities. Moderator Cliff Donovan quickly pointed out in the meeting that abuse exists in every society and subculture. However, organizers attempted to devote the two hours Thursday to a discussion about abuses in the specific culture, in the effort to make progress within the typically closed communities. Meeting participants had a variety of sentiments regarding the benefit of the meeting - from calling the meeting a start to saying it was all a lot of lip service on the part of government officials. The meeting included mentions of specific abuse cases and defenses of the principle of polygamy. "I'm always glad to be in a diverse group (of opinions)," said Ann Wright, a member of a Centennial Park group that practices polygamy. Although Wright said she and those with her looked at issues of polygamy from a religious standpoint, they too did not want underage marriages or the abuse of families and children. "(Government) did as much as they could in a meeting like this. It can be hard in a group of strong feelings," Wright said. Read more | |||
| Polygamous prophet may move flock from Ariz.- Utah border | |||
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By Travis Reed The Arizona Republic Originally published March 5, 2005 | |||
| HILDALE, Utah - No one in this secluded polygamous town along the Arizona border is necessarily sure what it'll look like a month from now. They don't know where they'll live, who will live with them or whether they'll be torn from their families and neighbors and uprooted two states away. At least, if they do know, they're not saying. And neither is the man who will make that decision for them - the reclusive prophet of the polygamous Fundamental Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter Day Saints, who is reportedly building a new, heavily fortified compound in Texas where he and his closest supporters will live. "I'm not in a position where I would know much about it. So I don't know that I could really comment one way or the other," said church member David Zitting, who is also Hildale's mayor. "I just can't say what's going to happen." Observers of the FLDS church, however, are convinced church prophet Warren Jeffs - who has a reported 50-70 wives - is culling his flock and preparing the most devout followers for the move to Texas to avoid prosecution in Utah on allegations of forced child marriages, sexual abuse, welfare fraud and tax evasion. Authorities say the claims haven't produced criminal charges because they can't get anyone to talk to them in this distrustful enclave. "Warren's going to pick out the most devout followers of him, and then move them (to Texas.) He's got to keep (the cities) going, because they're his slaves," said Sam Brower, a detective hired by former church members who's investigated the sect for two years. Read more | |||
| Polygamy meeting doesn’t do much | |||
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Opinion The Spectrum Originally published March 20, 2005 | |||
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To the editor:
I attended the town hall meeting recently at the Holiday Inn concerning problems in the polygamous communities of Hildale and Colorado City. I didn’t feel like the meeting accomplished a great deal. While some of the major violations of the law were mentioned by the respective attorneys general, I believe that some very important issues are either being ignored or have not come to the attention of those responsible for the welfare of our children. These issues are the violation of child labor laws, failure to educate their children and totally insulating the children from the world of ideas. I believe the most egregious child abuse going on in the polygamist communities is the shielding of their children from ideas. What a terrible shame to keep children from having the opportunity to learn enough to be able to have a choice and exercise their God-given free agency. While all parents have the right to teach their children the values they consider right and proper, parents don’t have the moral right to keep their children in ignorance of the rest of the world. Laws or no laws against polygamy, the adherents to this lifestyle would have to isolate themselves from the rest of society. If the polygamists were to live among the rest of us, within two generations they would disintegrate as a movement. I challenge the polygamist to expose their children to a broad education and then accept the choices that the children would make. Roger Clawson St. George | |||
| Talk of Racism Emerges From FLDS Texas Polygamist Compound | |||
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KUTV 2 News Headlines Originally broadcast April 5, 2005 | |||
| The FLDS compound built by polygamist leader Warren Jeffs and his followers continues to grow in Eldorado, Texas. Now Jeffs reportedly plans to dedicate a huge temple on the site and is predicting the end of the world. Meantime, evidence that Jeffs is preaching racism has surfaced in the Texas media as the people of Eldorado continue to wonder about their new polygamist neighbors. An Eldorado, Texas newspaper has obtained an audio CD that it says shows FLDS leader Warren Jeffs preaching racism to his sect. Jeffs and his followers are building a huge compound in Eldorado, including the first FLDS temple. Jeffs has selected certain followers from the Hildale and Colorado City polygamist community to join him at the Texas compound. Many of his followers have been banished from the cult and remain in the southern Utah and Arizona community. Jeffs reportedly plans to dedicate the temple in Texas on Wednesday and has also reportedly preached that end of the world would occur on April 6th. The Eldorado Success says it was handed a CD that contains racist sermons and lessons from Warren Jeffs referring to African Americans. Here's a portion of that CD. Purported voice of Warren Jeffs: "You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth or rude and filthy, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind." "So I give this lesson on the black race that you can understand its full effect as far as we are able to comprehend. And that we must beware, if we are for the prophet, for priesthood, we will come out of the world and leave off their dress, their music, their styles, their fashions, the way they think - what they do, because you can trace back and see a connection with immoral filthy people." Read more | |||
| Secret Tapes of FLDS Leader Warren Jeffs | As Texas authorities this week keep a close eye on the FLDS Church's new compound in Eldorado. KSL Newsradio has obtained secret recordings of the most elusive polygamist leader in Utah. | ||
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By Ben Winslow KLS NewsRadio 1160 Originally broadcast April 5, 2005 | |||
| ELDORADO, TEXAS-(KSL News) -- Secret recordings capture the voice of elusive polygamist leader Warren Jeffs. The tapes obtained by KSL Newsradio and the Eldorado Success Newspaper paper run for hours, and cover Jeffs' preaching about everything from blacks to teenage girls and marriage. Jeffs says, "You should be praying that you will be given to a husband who will prove faithful to the end. It is true you don't these things into your own hands, and date and seek out a husband. But the actions you must take is self-preparation." Jeffs also speaks to women already married. "The woman, if she is not careful will be overbearing and always ask permission for what she wants. And ladies, build up your husbands by being submissive." Jeffs is openly racist in his preaching saying the black race was allowed on Noah's Arc. Read more | |||
| Tapes Reveal Some of Polygamist Leader's Teachings | |||
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John Hollenhorst Reporting KSL-TV Channel 5 Originally broadcast April 5, 2004 | |||
| All seems quiet near a polygamist compound in Texas where a Utah-based polygamist group awaits a self-proclaimed Doomsday. Their prophet has reportedly predicted the world will end tomorrow. And tonight, we'll hear that prophet's own voice and words, giving us some insight into his teachings. We first told you in February about the Texas Prophecy of Warren Jeffs. At that time Jeffs' followers were working in a frenzy to build a huge temple, apparently hoping to complete it by tomorrow, April 6th. In recent days, we've been told that a number of Jeffs’ followers have traveled to the Texas compound from their homes on the Utah-Arizona border. But who is Warren Jeffs? And what are his teachings? John Hollenhorst reports on secretly made recordings of his teachings. Jeffs took control of the Fundamentalist LDS Church several years ago from his home in Hildale, Utah. Since then he's dropped out of sight while starting new compounds in Colorado and Texas. Critics say Jeffs has become increasingly fanatical, and tries more and more to control his followers' lives. In the border community of Hildale Utah and Colorado City Arizona, Warren Jeffs' word is law, for those who choose to obey. In secretly made tapes of his sermons obtained by KSL Newsradio, Jeffs makes it clear that righteous girls don't choose their husband. They're told to submissively accept the husband they're assigned to. Read more | |||
| Tempest in Texas | Racist cult 'prophet' Warren Jeffs is on the move, and a tiny West Texas town fears another Waco | ||
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Intelligence Report By Susy Buchanan Southern Poverty Law Center Originally published April 27, 2005 | |||
| ELDORADO, Texas -- This is a town of 1,951 residents, 13 churches, three restaurants, and a motel that fills with hunters during deer season. The town paper, the Eldorado Success, covers high school football, wedding anniversaries and city council meetings — typical small-town stories in what was once a typical west Texas town. All that changed on March 24, 2004, when the biggest story to ever hit Eldorado debuted on the paper's front page: "Corporate Retreat or Prophet's Refuge?" the headline read. The Success sold 200 copies in a single day, causing a near-traffic jam outside the paper's office, says editor Randy Mankin. The story Mankin broke concerned the true identity of Eldorado's new neighbors. In November 2003, David Allen Steed had purchased a 1,691-acre ranch just outside of town, telling locals it would be used as a hunting retreat for business clients from Las Vegas. But Mankin discovered that Steed was actually an agent for a breakaway Mormon sect known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) and based in an Arizona-Utah border community long known as Short Creek (encompassing the twin cities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.). He began researching the FLDS, and what he would learn would astonish him: stories of "blood atonement," child brides, rabid racism, multiple wives, and a secretive, religious dictator. The more he learned, the more apparent it became that the folks at the ranch had no interest in hunting at all. Read more | |||
| In His Own Words | FLDS 'prophet' Warren Jeffs offers up some harsh opinions on blacks, women, gays, violence and the end of the world | ||
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Intelligence Report Southern Poverty Law Center Originally published April 27, 2005 |
On Blacks | ||
| "The black race is the people through which the devil has always been able to bring evil unto the earth." "[Cain was] cursed with a black skin and he is the father of the Negro people. He has great power, can appear and disappear. He is used by the devil, as a mortal man, to do great evils." "Today you can see a black man with a white woman, et cetera. A great evil has happened on this land because the devil knows that if all the people have Negro blood, there will be nobody worthy to have the priesthood." "If you marry a person who has connections with a Negro, you would become cursed." "I was watching a documentary one day and on came these people talking about a certain black man. ... And then it showed the modern rock group, the Beatles. ... And so the manager of the group called in this Negro, homosexual, on drugs, and the Negro taught them how to do it. And what happened then, it went world wide... . So when you enjoy the [rock] beat ... you are enjoying the spirit of the black race and that's what I emphasize to the students. And it is to rock the soul and lead the person to immorality, corruption, to forget their prayers, to forget God. And thus the whole world has partaken of the spirit of the Negro race, accepting their ways." Read more and hear Warren's comments | |||
| Cult busters | Legislature provides new tool to rescue Colorado City school district | ||
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Opinions The Arizona Republic Originally published May 24, 2005 | |||
| This is a good-news editorial. But it can't be full of happy talk because the core issue remains deeply disturbing, illegal and so tightly entrenched that victims defend it. The good news nibbles around the edges of the polygamous cult that festers in Colorado City and in Hildale, Utah. Known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, this group has nothing to do with the mainstream Mormon Church or any other legitimate religion. This is a cult, and it uses the trappings of religion to exercise complete control over its followers. This editorial can't praise law officers who rode in on fast horses and conquered a cult that assigns young girls as multiple wives of old men while driving young men away from the community. That didn't happen. This editorial can't rejoice in the fact that dramatic prosecutions have been announced against a group that allegedly engages in child sexual and physical abuse, welfare fraud and tax evasion. Those prosecutions, we trust, are in the works. But they are, we are told, hard to put together because the cult members are too brainwashed to testify against their abusers. Read more | |||
| Buildings disappear in Colorado City, Hildale, Utah | |||
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The Associated Press KVOA Channel 4 - Tucson Originally broadcast June 1, 2005 | |||
| KINGMAN, Ariz. The special investigator assigned to Colorado City by Mohave County says two buildings disappeared over the weekend. One in Colorado City and the other in the neighboring town of Hildale, Utah. Investigator Gary Engels says the buildings were dismantled and hauled away after a Utah judge last Friday ordered a freezing of the trust that controls most of the property and assets in the border communities. Engels says he suspects the dismantling flies in the face of the court order. He says some of the activity is captured on videotape and that he's relayed the information to the attorney's general offices in Arizona and Utah. (thanks to Dave Hawkins, KGMN) | |||
| Two Buildings Disappear in Colorado City | |||
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KSL-TV Channel 5 Originally broadcast June 2, 2005 | |||
| Investigators say two buildings in a polygamous community at the Utah - Arizona border have ... vanished! An investigator in Arizona says a building in Colorado City ... and another in Hildale, disappeared over the weekend. He thinks they were dismantled ... to defy a court ruling. The ruling froze assets belonging to the FLDS Church. An attorney for the FLDS Church had no comment. | |||
| Colorado City buildings disappear | |||
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e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published June 2, 2005 | |||
| COLORADO CITY, Ariz. – The special investigator Mohave County has assigned to Colorado City questions whether leaders in the polygamous northern Arizona community and the neighboring town of Hilldale in Utah quickly violated court orders issued May 27. Gary Engels said the dismantling and removal of two buildings might fly in the face of the judicial decree. District Judge Robert W. Adkins issued a restraining order temporarily freezing the assets of the United Effort Plan (UEP), a church-controlled trust with an estimated value of $100-million. Many homes, businesses and other assets in Colorado City and Hilldale are tied up in the trust. Judge Adkins removed church leader Warren Jeffs and five others as trustees, placing the trust under temporary management by an accountant, pending further court proceedings. Engels said crews were tearing down a business on UEP property in Hilldale the day after the court order was issued. He said the Cozy Log sold materials used for cabin construction from a steel building 100 ft. wide and 220 ft. long. "They dismantled it in about 30 hours and hauled it away," Engels said. "That building sits on UEP property and now UEP property is controlled by the courts and not by the UEP." Engels said another building disappeared over the weekend in Colorado City. "They just jack hammered the foundation right out from under that thing, backed something under it and hauled it off," Engels said. Read more | |||
| Life in Colorado City | |||
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e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published June 8, 2005 | |||
| LAKE HAVASU CITY, Ariz. – Opinions are mixed as to what really goes on in Colorado City. Flora Jessop, a former polygamous sect member in Colorado City who escaped and became a child victim advocate, spoke in Lake Havasu City Monday night and said the children there don’t ever make decisions. "They are told how to wear their hair from the day they are born, what clothes they can wear, what colors they can wear, the styles they can wear, the house they live in, the husband they marry; they never get to choose," said Jessop. She also said hundreds of teenage boys die each year by getting ‘run over.’ "They don’t do autopsies on these children because they are considered a traffic accident and if it’s a traffic accident, it is considered an accident," stated Jessop. Mohave County special investigator Gary Engels said he wasn’t aware of all these deaths occurring in the actual city limits but tries to help people like Jessop with requests they make to protect the children. Engels concluded by giving his take on what Colorado City is to him. "This community is totally run and controlled by one man and nothing is done up there without this one man’s permission and I have serious questions and concern about this one man’s sanity and the things that he has been doing," said Engels. | |||
| Polygamist indicted in child-sex case | Mohave County files 2 counts on elusive leader | ||
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By Mark Shaffer The Arizona Republic - Flagstaff Bureau Originally published June 11, 2005 | |||
| KINGMAN - In a major blow to polygamy on the Arizona-Utah line, a Mohave County grand jury on Friday indicted the elusive leader of a multiple-marriage sect on two felony sex-crime charges involving the arranged marriage of a 16-year-old girl. Warren S. Jeffs, 49, president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was charged with one count each of sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor in Colorado City from March to June 2002. Mohave County Attorney Matthew Smith said a 28-year-old man, whom he would not identify, also was being sought on two counts of sexual assault and one count of sexual conduct with a minor. Smith said that Jeffs did not have sex with the teen but arranged for her to be married to the other man, who was already married at the time. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said the criminal charges could force Jeffs out of hiding and make him answer a series of civil complaints lodged against him. "This sends a message that Warren Jeffs is not above the law," Shurtleff said. Read more | |||
| Polygamist charged in sex case | Jeffs leads sect that is putting together Colorado compound | ||
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By Gwen Florio Rocky Mountain News Originally published June 14, 2005 | |||
| COLORADO CITY, Ariz. - The reclusive leader of a breakaway polygamist branch of Mormonism - whose members are building a compound in southwestern Colorado - has been charged with felony child sex abuse. Authorities in Arizona last week indicted Warren Jeffs, 49, for allegedly arranging the "celestial" marriage in 2002 of a 16-year-old girl to a married man at least 10 years older. The charges are the first criminal complaints against Jeffs, who has not been seen since January, according to Andrea Esquer of the Arizona Attorney General's Office. Jeffs is the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, whose members are believed to make up the largest polygamist community in the United States. He exerts total control over his followers, according to law enforcement authorities and former members of the sect. It is Jeffs who determines who a man will marry and how many wives he'll take - and Jeffs who can order a man out of his own home and turn his wives and children over to other men, they said. About 5,200 of his followers live in Colorado City and Hildale, Utah, its twin town on the Arizona-Utah border. But sect members recently bought land in southwestern Colorado outside Mancos, west of Durango, and in Eldorado, Texas, where they are building compounds. Read more | |||
| Cutting the cards | |||
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Opinion The Spectrum Originally published Tuesday, June 14, 2005 | |||
| It's not polygamy - more than one spouse between consenting adults - that is so egregious. In fact, the use of the word "polygamy" as a catch-all for the many grievances surrounding it may be partially to blame for inadequate address of the problems. Perhaps it's time we started calling things what they really are - naming the polygamy-clouded accessories that reside firmly in the realm of the unacceptable and obscene. Among those accessories are welfare fraud, education and information censure, pedophilia, incest and perpetuation of the concept that divinity is somehow at the helm. That sexual abuse of young girls and resulting teen pregnancy has hidden beneath the robes of God in our state for so long is absolutely inexcusable. We raise our voices against oppression and mistreatment of women in countries like Afghanistan. We're appalled by thoughts of what allegedly occurs at Michael Jackson's Neverland. Yet somehow in Utah (and Arizona) we just turn the other cheek when it comes to similar crimes and corruption. Crimes like ending a girl's education and closing her mind at puberty. Crimes like banishing young men to reduce the number of males in the "herd." Corruption like granting revered status to men who father dozens of children, who will likely not be fully supported with basics, much less higher education. Corruption like using a position of trust or the guise of religion to prey upon minor girls, convincing them that sexual relations with someone two or more times their age is a sacred duty. Read more | |||
| Sex claims hit US polygamy sect | |||
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BBC News news.bbc.co.uk Originally published Tuesday, 14 June, 2005 | |||
| A polygamous sect in a remote part of the US is under the spotlight after its reclusive leader was indicted on charges of arranging the marriage of an underage girl and a 28-year-old man who was already married. Warren Jeffs, of the Fundamental Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), has been charged by the authorities in Arizona with conspiring to commit sexual conduct with a minor. He is already being sued by five so-called Lost Boys, who say they were banished from their community to lessen the competition for wives. The 10,000-strong FLDS split from the Mormon Church more than a century ago after the latter renounced polygamy. The sect dominates the towns of Colorado City, in Arizona, and Hildale, in Utah, less than a mile away. Members believe a man must marry at least three wives in order to ascend to heaven. Read more | |||
| Sheriff hunts FLDS leader | |||
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By Tom Vaughan The Mancos Times Originally published June 16, 2005 | |||
| Prophet Warren Jeffs, head of the polygamous denomination that purchased two 60-acre parcels in the Mancos Valley in 2003 and 2004, is now a wanted man. A Mohave County, Ariz., superior court judge issued a warrant Friday for the arrest of Warren Steed Jeffs, based on charges of sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. Both are Class 6 felonies in the state of Arizona, punishable by not more than one year in jail and up to a $150,000 fine. Bail has been set at $500,000. According to Mohave County Attorney Matthew Smith, "Jeffs is not charged with personally having sexual contact with the girl but with arranging the marriage of a 16-year-old girl with a man who was at least 10 years older than she." Montezuma County Sheriff Gerald Wallace told The Mancos Times Sunday that, "We are actively searching for Warren Jeffs." Read more | |||
| Seven Colorado City men leave jail in Kingman | |||
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The Associated Press KVOA Channel 4 - Tucson Originally broadcast July 11, 2005 | |||
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KINGMAN, Ariz. Seven residents of the polygamous community of Colorado City - all sought on alleged sex offenses involving underage girls - have left a Kingman jail. Six of the seven surrendered to authorities in Kingman this morning. The other man was arrested Friday. Prosecutors say an eighth man has not yet been served with an arrest warrant. Mohave County Sheriff Tom Sheahan says County Attorney Matt Smith and a Flagstaff lawyer representing the men made arrangements to have the suspects booked and then released on bond. The charges against the men stem from underage girls they're accused of taking as polygamous wives. One of the men indicted -- Rodney Holm -- is a former police officer in neighboring Hildale, Utah. He was previously convicted in Utah of bigamy and illegal sex with a teenage girl that he had taken as a third wife.
(Thanks to Dave Hawkins at KGMN) | |||
| Alleged Colorado City polygamists turn themselves in on sex charges | |||
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By Jim Seckler Mohave Daily News Originally published Tuesday, July 12, 2005 | |||
| KINGMAN - A Colorado City man pleaded innocent Monday in Superior Court to sexual charges involving a minor while six others also turned themselves into authorities. David Romaine Bateman, 48, was the only one arrested Friday after a Mohave County grand jury indicted Bateman and four others the day before. Bateman faces felony charges of sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. The charges against Bateman come from having sexual conduct with a minor from an unlawful marriage in 2001 or early 2002, a Mohave County Attorney's Office release stated. Bateman was booked into county jail on a $30,000 bond. Superior Court Judge James Chavez lowered Bateman's stipulated bond to a $2,500 cash-only bond. The three other men surrendered voluntary after they were indicted Thursday and warrants were issued. The men were booked into county jail Monday and released on $2,500 cash-only bonds. A fourth man was also indicted Thursday but could not be identified until he is served with an arrest warrant or turns himself in. Read more | |||
| $10,000 Reward Offered for Warren Jeffs' Arrest | |||
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Office of Attorney General Terry Goddard Press Release Originally released July 13, 2005 | |||
| (Phoenix, Ariz. - July 13, 2005) Attorney General Terry Goddard today announced an unprecedented reward of $10,000 for information leading to the arrest of fugitive Warren Jeffs. Jeffs was indicted in June on one count of sexual conduct with a minor and one count of conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. Both are class 6 felonies, and if convicted, Jeffs' could face anywhere from four months to two years in prison. He is the leader of Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), a polygamist sect based in Colorado City. "Jeffs' influence over the members of the FLDS church has led to numerous child abuse charges," Goddard said. "His hold on this community continues to hurt its members, and it is time he answered to these charges in a court of law." The Mohave County Sheriff's Office will take any calls in this case. Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Jeffs' is asked to contact the Mohave County Sheriff's Office at 1-800-526-1911 or 928-753-2141. The reward is being offered jointly by Goddard and Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. It marks the first time the Arizona Attorney General's Office has offered a reward in pursuit of a fugitive. "The Arizona and Utah Attorneys General, the Mohave County Attorney, the Mohave County Sheriff and the FBI are working together to address various crimes and problems confronting the Colorado City/Hildale community," Goddard said. Read more | |||
| Web operators deny pyramid scheme | |||
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The Associated Press Fort Wayne Journal Gazette Originally published July 17, 2005 | |||
| DANVILLE – Operators of an online club disputed in court the state attorney general’s contention that their Web site is a scam. Attorney General Steve Carter says Elite Activity is an illegal pyramid scheme that requires participants to give a $100 gift, pay a $16 Web fee and recruit members. The group’s operators contend it is a charitable club whose members give money to each other to share their blessings. "What is the difference between giving money freely and getting blessed?" Delmar Neely of Mooresville asked Friday during a hearing in Hendricks Superior Court. Judge Robert W. Freese previously had ordered Neely and the other organizers – Michael Roller, Plainfield; Harvey Dockstader Jr., Colorado City, Ariz.; and Dataport, a software company that hosts the site – to stop promoting Elite Activity. Carter on Friday said the group was violating the order by continuing to run the Web site, www.eliteactivity.tv, and asked Freese to find the group in contempt of court. Read more | |||
| Utah must stamp out abuses within polygamist enclaves | |||
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Opinions Provo Daily Herald Originally published July 20, 2005 | |||
| We ask that the governing bodies and people of Utah be more willing and determined to interfere with Utah's polygamist communities now hiding behind the ideas of "religious freedom," "consenting adults," and "parental permission." If these people truly lived with respect for families and children and with only voluntary participation, than we would be more willing to concede that we should be tolerant. However, underage girls being forced into marriages against their will is rape and slavery. Having so many children that one cannot remember all of their names nor provide financially for their needs is cruel and irresponsible. Read more | |||
| FLDS legal problems keep mounting | |||
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By Tom Vaughan The Mancos Times Originally published July 20, 2005 | |||
| The pace of legal actions against Prophet Warren Jeffs and others in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is picking up. The sect, which until recently was based in "Short Creek" — the traditional name for the twin cities of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, now owns two 60-acre parcels in the Mancos Valley and a 1,691 acre compound in Schleicher County, Texas. In addition to an abiding belief in plural marriage (a practice stopped by the LDS in 1890 and banned by them in 1904), the several thousand members of the FLDS pay strict allegiance (and $1,000 monthly tithes) to Jeffs. As the self-styled "Prophet," he has exercised sole control over their lives and wealth since replacing his father as FLDS leader in 2002. Within the patriarchy, he has cast out men who he considered not faithful enough to his orders, and then "reassigned" the wives, children and property of those expelled to other FLDS men. The assets of the multi-million dollar United Effort Plan Trust, set up to consolidate the sect’s holding and provide benefits to all members, appear to be solely at Jeffs’ disposition. There have been long-standing accusations of spouse- and child-abuse within the FLDS, as well as allegations of welfare fraud, sexual molestation, statutory rape and, of course, bigamy. Partly because the FLDS controlled the entire Short Creek and partly because "mum’s the word" within the group, action on these charges has been sporadic and ineffectual. Read more | |||
| More simple math | |||
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e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published August 1, 2005 | |||
| COLORADO CITY, Ariz. – Mohave County Attorney, Matt Smith, secured indictments on charges of a sexual nature, against eight Colorado City men, three of whom will be arraigned Monday morning in Kingman, on little more than simple math. By looking at the birth certificates issued to underage mothers in Colorado City, and the names of the fathers on those certificates, he was able to secure the grand jury indictments. Now Christopher Morales at the Arizona Department of Health’s Vital Statistics Department may have some questions about deaths in Colorado City as well; the deaths of its children. "It looks high as a proportion of all deaths in this place," said Morales. "Again statistically speaking, seven out of ten deaths every year are among elderly." TSN reviews of Arizona Vital Statistic Department records, however, show in Colorado City, at or over fifty percent of the deaths every year, between 1996 and 2001, were of children. | |||
| 'Shocked and outraged' over child deaths | |||
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e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published Wednesday, August 3, 2005 | |||
| KINGMAN, Ariz. - Colleen Widell, president of the American Institute on Domestic Violence, was in Kingman Monday for the arraignment of the first three Colorado City men indicted for sex crimes with minors. She responded to the news that TSN investigations have revealed a much higher than normal child death rate in Colorado City, compared to other communities in Arizona. "The way I feel, I hope, is how everybody feels," said Widell. "We should be shocked and outraged that more than 50 percent of the graves in any cemetery are children. When you go to a gravesite, you should see old people there, not children. I think that's something that deserves further investigation." Arizona Health Department Vital statistics records show that the deaths of children made up at or over 50 percent of all deaths recorded for the community between 1996 and 2001. | |||
| Johnson reacts to 'tremendous' kid death rate | |||
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e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published August 15, 2005 | |||
| COLORADO CITY, Ariz. - Mohave County Supervisor Buster Johnson has weighed in on the high number of children that seem to consistently make up the majority of the death rate in Colorado City. Proportion seems to be a big question. "The head stones have been video taped, and there's a list of them," said Johnson. "I have a list, and I've looked at them too. It's just tremendous, you know, usually, you go to a cemetery and its World War II vets. I mean you'll have some younger people that have died, but you never have the proportion that's up in there." TSN's review of the cause of death among Colorado City's children indicates a particularly high rate of reportedly accidental deaths involving children being run over by automobiles, most of whom were two-years-old. | |||
| Child deaths 'cause for concern' | |||
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e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published August 16, 2005 | |||
| COLORADO CITY, Ariz. - Mohave County officials are taking a closer look at the number of child deaths in Colorado City. TSN's review has found 57 percent of the deaths in the northern Arizona community were children in the year 2000, a disproportionate number listed as accidental. One county official who declined to go on record said they "see cause for concern," and recommended state child protective services conduct an investigation. | |||
| Kid deaths stats comparison | |||
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e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published August 17, 2005 | |||
| COLORADO CITY, Ariz. - Records seem to indicate that the children of Colorado City are more likely to die in preventable accidents than children in other cities. TSN's review of death records shows that in 2000, there were a total of seven recorded deaths in Colorado City. Four of those were children in accidents, which made 57 percent of the recorded deaths. Meanwhile 585 total deaths were recorded for Lake Havasu City in 2000, which has a population more than ten times the size of Colorado City, but only seven of those deaths were children. If Havasu had a 57 percent child death rate that year, over 333 children would have died. Between the years of 1996 and 2001, the percentage children made up of the death rate reached as high as 100 percent of all recorded deaths in the community, and never dipped below 50 percent. | |||
| Byers talks kid deaths in Colorado City | |||
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e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published August 18, 2005 | |||
| KINGMAN, Ariz. - Mohave County Supervisor Pete Byers, R-Dist. 1, expressed doubts that the disproportionate numbers of child deaths in Colorado City mean anything other than children make up an equally large portion of the town's population. "I don't really want anybody up there hurting the children, and I've done everything I possibly can up there to stop that," said Byers. Byers admitted he's sure there is some domestic violence in the town, and acknowledged it does go unreported, but indicated a disinterest in any further investigation of the large number of reportedly accidental child deaths in the community. | |||
| Probe of Colo. City deaths urged | |||
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By Caleb Soptelean Today's News-Herald Originally published August 21, 2005 | |||
| A high-ranking state official agreed Sunday there needs to be more light put on the deaths of Colorado City children. Attorney General Terry Goddard and Flora Jessop made their remarks before a gathering of Mohave County Democratic Party faithful at Hualapai Mountain County Park on Sunday afternoon. Jessop - who escaped from the polygamous community in Mohave County near the border with Utah 20 years ago - called for an investigation into the children's deaths. Colorado City and the adjoining community of Hilldale, Utah, are largely under the control of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, whose members still engage in polygamy. "The number of children dying from being run over is alarming." She said children were "drinking pure hydrogen peroxide." Goddard said the situation should be "looked into," but noted that Sunday was the first time he heard of two-year-old children being run over with automobiles. Jessop said there are a number of children who are stillborn or born with birth defects because of inbreeding. "Children are being born without all their organs" or have organs on the outside of their bodies. Read more | |||
| Dems pleased with turnout, Jessop talks abuse | |||
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e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published August 23, 2005 | |||
| KINGMAN, Ariz. - Ernie Brannon, chairman of the Mohave County Democratic Central Committee, said the party's picnic in the Hualapai Mountains was a smashing success. "It's probably the biggest one we've had," said Brannon. "We had close to 250, as far as I know, it's the record. We had Attorney General Terry Goddard, and Ms. (Flora) Jessop from the Colorado City affair. Democrats are very concerned about what's going on in Colorado City. It's been long coming to do something about it." During the picnic, Jessop spoke about the high proportion of child deaths in Colorado City, especially those listed as having been run over. She said the deaths are not investigated. "Never," said Jessop. "The county (medical examiner) in Mohave County signs off on these death certificates without ever seeing a body. In Utah and Arizona children being run over is considered a traffic accident, so no autopsy is ever performed." Jessop said she believes classifying children as having been run over could shield possible abusers from any further investigation. | |||
| Under Siege | Polygamists are barricading their homes in the midst of mounting legal assaults by authorities | ||
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By John Dougherty Phoenix New Times Originally published September 22, 2005 | |||
| Fundamentalist Mormon polygamists along the Arizona-Utah border are steeling themselves against law enforcement agencies coming at them from several fronts. Formidable eight-foot walls -- built from blocks, wood and steel, and occasionally mounted with surveillance cameras -- are under construction around the homes of many of the followers of Warren Jeffs, the self-proclaimed prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who has landed on the FBI's most-wanted list. The 49-year-old Jeffs has instructed disciples to refuse to communicate with outsiders, especially authorities who are bearing down on community members for misuse of public funds and sex with underage girls. "Tell them nothing!" is the order Jeffs delivered to the FLDS faithful. Read more | |||
| Woman who left U.S. polygamous cult speaks at Vancouver film fest | |||
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Canadian Press The Brandon Sun - Manitoba, Canada Originally published Thursday, October 13th, 2005 | |||
| VANCOUVER (CP) - In a new documentary about alleged horrors in a closed polygamous community in the United States, women who have fled say that child abuse is as plentiful as the wives. It's happening in Canada too, warns filmmaker Laurie Allen, here for the world premiere Thursday of Banking on Heaven. In the film, showing at the Vancouver International Film Festival, Allen looks at Colorado City, Ariz., home to a fundamentalist Mormon splinter group. Followers of the same religion started a community in Bountiful, B.C., in the late 1940s where polygamy has been practised openly for decades. Debbie Palmer, a woman who fled Bountiful, says hundreds there are loyal to the self-proclaimed prophet Warren Jeffs who ruled Colorado City. Jeffs is wanted by the FBI on three charges of sexual conduct with a minor in connection with his role performing marriages between allegedly underage girls and older men. He also is charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. Banking on Heaven speaks with women who have escaped from Colorado City. They say they were married off as young as 14 to men who had many wives, and kept pregnant for as long as they could bear children. "The same thing is happening in Bountiful," says Allen. She says her information is based on conversations she's had with women who have fled Bountiful and other communes connected with it, including Palmer. Read more | |||
| Polygamous Settlement Defies State Crackdown | |||
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By Timothy Egan The New York Times Originally published October 25, 2005 | |||
| COLORADO CITY, Ariz., Oct. 19 - One year ago, Arizona authorities set up shop in a double-wide trailer here at the edge of the nation's largest polygamous community, trying to bring at least a semblance of secular law to an American small town like no other. Theirs was the first independent government presence in half a century at this settlement straddling the Arizona-Utah border, a place frozen in a 19th-century frontier theocracy inspired by the early Mormon Church. But the twin towns of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, continue to defy the law, the authorities say and dissidents say: under the direction of leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, women are still being removed from their husbands and assigned to other men, and girls under 18 are ordered to become brides of older men on a day's notice, all despite the presence of full-time outside law enforcement. DeLoy Bateman, a high school science teacher here who left the church several years ago, says his daughter's marriage was recently broken up by church leaders. She was ordered to become the bride of her father-in-law, a man twice her age, Mr. Bateman says. "This just makes me want to cry," said Mr. Bateman, a lifetime resident of Colorado City. "They tore up this marriage and ordered her to have sex with this older man. I've lost my daughter and her children to this church. I have to stand outside on the sidewalk and beg if I want to see my grandchildren." Read more | |||
| "Spiritual Wife" or Single Mother? | The film Banking On Heaven explores polygamy and religion in Colorado City | ||
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By David Sanderson The Dominion - Montreal, Canada Originally published October 27, 2005 | |||
| Recently premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival, Banking on Heaven condemns what one American senator calls, "Arizona's dirty little secret" - the community of Colorado City, AZ. Colorado City is home to one of the world's largest congregations of Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS), a term broadly applied to splinter sects from mainstream Mormonism, claiming to be the true church and practicing "celestial unions" - polygamy. Through interviews with outcasts and escapees, interspersed with hidden camera footage, Banking on Heaven presents a compelling case that systematic sexual, physical, and mental abuse is inherent to this community and, indeed, to fundamentalist Mormonism. The premiere provoked a strong audience response and was attended by both director Dot Reidelbach and writer/producer Laurie Allen, who grew up in Colorado City before leaving at age eighteen. Read more | |||
| Ex-Follower Talks About Warren Jeffs' Influence in Community | |||
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John Hollenhorst Reporting KSL-TV Channel 5 Originally broadcast October 28, 2005 | |||
| The whereabouts of fugitive polygamist leader Warren Jeffs remain a mystery, but a former follower says his dictatorial grip and bizarre policies still hurt the polygamous town he controls. Walls, fences, short ones, very high ones -- the latest fashion in the landscaping of America's biggest polygamy community. Richard Holm, Former Follower: "It's a certain amount of paranoia I believe." Richard Holm used to be a member, until Warren Jeffs kicked him out and tore apart his family. Now Holm makes this border town sound a bit like Nazi Germany, a place where the person next door may be a spy for Warren Jeffs, and where you can get in serious trouble for watching TV or cruising the internet. Richard Holm: "He's rewarded people for ratting on their neighbors and friends." Read more | |||
| Religion no excuse for crimes | |||
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Opinion The Spectrum Originally published November 19, 2005 | |||
| Instead of basking in that glow, the state is saddled with the reputation of being a place where you can get 5.5 wives but only 3.2 beer. Long ago, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the state's dominant religion, condemned polygamy. As with any religion, there are sects with their own doctrines. Such is the case with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which embraces plural marriage. The First Amendment guarantees the right to worship freely. It does not grant adult men the right to have sex with underage girls, illegally collect welfare for the children born from polygamy or for any church to inflict its beliefs on others. Mark Shurtleff, the Utah Attorney General, estimates there are 40,000 polygamists in his state, yet prosecution is rare even though many who have fled the FLDS church allege that incest, statutory rape, underage marriage, welfare fraud, tax evasion, trafficking of minors across borders for the purpose of sex and other heinous crimes occur regularly within the little border towns of Hildale and Colorado City, and other communities where church followers have taken sanctuary. Read more | |||
| Barlow's attorney may ask for dismissal | |||
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By Jeff Pope Kingman Daily Miner Originally published November 30, 2005 | |||
| KINGMAN The attorney representing a former member of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints said he might ask that the case be dismissed. Public defender Robert Wingo said he is receiving discovery evidence but told Mohave Superior Court Judge Steven Conn that he is considering filing a motion to dismiss based on the arrest of his client, Thomas Vaughn Barlow, 46. Colorado City police officers arrested Barlow when he tried to attend his mother's funeral in the community run by the FLDS. Church leaders excommunicated Barlow making him unwelcome in the town. Police charged him with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and assault. Wingo said the prosecution has offered him a plea agreement. Barlow appeared for his hearing by telephone from his home in Washington, Utah. Conn scheduled an omnibus hearing for Dec. 19. | |||
| Woman files lawsuit against Jeffs | |||
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By Patrice St. Germain The Spectrum Originally published December 14, 2005 | |||
| ST GEORGE - A lawsuit was filed in 5th District Court in Iron County Tuesday afternoon against Warren Jeffs, prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, on behalf of a woman who alleges that Jeffs commanded her to enter into a spiritual marriage with an adult man many years her senior without her consent, a marriage license or legal sanction when she was still a minor. The civil case, which will be heard by Judge Michael Westfall, was filed by the Salt Lake City law firm of Hoole & King in behalf of a woman identified only as "M.J." Attorney Roger Hoole would not reveal his client's age, the name of her spiritual husband or the number of children the two had in an effort to protect her identity. Hoole said at this point he is not asking for a specific amount in damages. Jeffs is the leader of the FLDS church, a polygamous group based in the twin cities of Hildale and Colorado City, Ariz. Court documents state that Jeffs instructed and commanded "M.J." and a man identified only as "S.J." to live together as husband and wife and "to produce children and thereby multiply and replenish the Earth. After Jeffs performed the spiritual marriage, 'M.J.' was required to participate as commanded in the spiritual marriage and engage in non-consensual sexual intercourse with 'S.J.'" Read more | |||
| Paying a big price for polygamy | |||
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Letters From the Issue of Thursday, January 12, 2006 Phoenix New Times | |||
| I recall my sister saying when she was a public nurse covering the Utah side of the polygamous community that she had never seen so many birth defects caused from years of relatives marrying relatives. She also reported that the welfare system was supplying a large amount of money to the community 20 years ago in the way of checks and food stamps. The public was paying a big price for polygamy. I talked to her in her home in St. George, Utah, the other day about the fumarase deficiency children, and she said she thought more people than ever were going into polygamy, which was the worst news I could hear. Polygamy was one reason I left the Mormon Church. Read more | |||
| Why isn't Colorado City and its cult more in the news? | |||
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Letters From the Issue of Thursday, January 12, 2006 Phoenix New Times Originally published January 12, 2006 | |||
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It's outrageous what's happening there. Underage teens are forced into marriage with their own family members. The basic rights of Americans are banned in that town. How do the polygamists get away with it? Why can't the FBI or any other police agency just go in and break that place apart? Or why can't Arizona refuse to officially recognize that town? Why is taxpayer money paying for a religious school that is not for all the children in the community? I read the Arizona Republic every day, and it seems their only big concern is immigration, about which they use all the conventional stereotypes. Sorry to say, but what the #*@! are state lawmakers doing about the problems in the Colorado City area?
Greg Alvarado, Phoenix Editor's note: Locally, Channel 3's Mike Watkiss has done credible reporting on polygamy in Arizona and Utah. | |||
| Barlow Still Faces Kidnapping Charge | |||
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e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published February 1, 2006 | |||
| KINGMAN, AZ - A prosecutor in Kingman has dismissed charges against a man who scuffled with police at his mother's funeral in Colorado City. Thomas Barlow, 46, is no longer charged with disorderly conduct, assault and resisting arrest. Colorado City police officer Jonathon Roundy said in his report that he attempted to remove Barlow after he tried to drape flags in place of flowers over his mother's casket at her funeral service last October. Roundy said he was assisted by police chief Fred Barlow as they each held one of Barlow's hands during their attempt to escort him outside. Roundy said they pushed Barlow down as he struggled for freedom and that the police chief was injured when Barlow landed on his leg. The leg was fractured, according to Roundy. Read more | |||
| Polygamy Comes to TV | |||
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Entertainment Tonight Originally published March 2, 2006 | |||
| Most Americans believe that the practice of polygamy -- where an individual multiple spouses -- is a thing of the past in America. Shockingly, polygamy is still alive and well and on Thursday night's "Primetime," when JOHN QUIÑONES goes inside a religious sect in Colorado City, AZ, where one husband has 15 wives and 75 children. Last night, ET had a sneak peek as Quiñones was inducted into the secret world by LAURENE JESSOP, who took the reporter to the home where she was raised and from which she managed to escape two years ago. Tonight, we look at the other side of polygamy when Quiñones talks to women who say they don't mind sharing their man with other women. They live in a mansion, have great jobs, and always know where their husbands are because they share them with other wives. These women say their world of polygamy is liberating. Read more | |||
| State urged to scrap its law against polygamy | |||
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By Ben Winslow Deseret Morning News Originally published Thursday, March 2, 2006 | |||
| Sporting buttons saying "Bigger Love," members of Utah's polygamous communities gathered at the University of Utah for a special "town hall" meeting Wednesday night to discuss the problems within polygamy before an audience of government officials, sister-wives, lawyers and activists on both sides of the issue. "We hoped not to be in your face about it, but we wanted to make a statement," said Joyce Steed, a member of the polygamous community of Centennial Park, Ariz. The Utah attorney general's Safety Net Committee hosted the panel discussion to get public comment about how to end isolation and help victims of abuse in the state's many polygamous communities. "I turned a blind eye to it," Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said. "In Utah and Arizona for decades, we turned a blind eye." Many of those in attendance suggested the best way to end the isolation and abuse is to decriminalize polygamy in Utah. "Polygamy is as old as the world. It is here to stay," said Marlyne Hammon of Centennial Park, Ariz. One of the wives of polygamist John Daniel Kingston stood up to speak in agreement. "The state of Utah won't let me get married," said Heidi Mattingly-Foster. "What makes them decide who I can and cannot love?" Read more | |||
| Family tree bears bad fruit | |||
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Opinion The Spectrum Originally published March 2, 2006 | |||
| The polygamous towns of Hildale and Colorado City have remained small, closed societies for generations. The reasons However, it is now apparent that the residents of these border towns are paying a price for their insularity. Because most of the 8,000 residents of these communities trace their lineage back to four founding members, and marriages within these family lines are common, the result has been a limited genetic pool, which as the laws of science decree, will lead to problems. In the case of Hildale and Colorado City, the lack of diversity in the genetic pool has led to a very high occurrence of a rare disease called fumarase deficiency, a degenerative condition that causes disabilities such as mental retardation and muscle control problems. Only about 50 cases have been diagnosed on the entire planet, but as many as 20 have been diagnosed just in the two small polygamous towns. The abnormal concentration of cases results from people carrying the gene for the disease marrying other people who carry that gene. Read more | |||
| Some unions go too far | |||
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By Boston Herald editorial staff bostonherald.com Originally published Saturday, March 18, 2006 | |||
| The latest "rights" cause, according to Newsweek, is polygamy. Doubt it? Check your TV. HBO has begun a series "Big Love," a sympathetic look at a man with three wives. In a case before the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, a Utah couple is appealing the refusal of the state to grant a second marriage license. Their lawyer, Brian Barnard, argues that under the Supreme Court’s Lawrence vs. Texas decision in 2003 overthrowing state laws against sodomy, individuals have, as the majority put it, "the full right to engage in private conduct without government intervention: - including taking more than one spouse. Some slopes are indeed slippery, as Massachusetts learned when the Lawrence decision was used as the basis of the state Supreme Judicial Court’s discovery of a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. It’s unlikely the current U.S. Supreme Court would accept Barnard’s argument, if it gets that far, but you never can tell. There are good reasons why Western societies outlaw polygamy. First, experience shows that polygamists are mostly men who claim wives in their teens before they are capable of any choice. Read more | |||
| Lesson from polygamy TV | |||
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By Chris Jones The Daily Texan - The University of Texas at Austin Originally published March 22, 2006 | |||
| Last Sunday, HBO debuted its new show "Big Love," following "The Sopranos." Like HBO's previous "dramedy" "Six Feet Under," "Big Love" is the tale of slightly off-kilter suburbanites - but rather than Six Feet Under's mopey undertakers, "Big Love" showcases a polygamist family of man and wife and wife and wife. On the one hand, "Big Love's subject matter is fairly novel for mainstream television, but at the same time, the show's not nearly as groundbreaking as it clearly wishes to be. One of the running themes of "Big Love" is that, for all the weirdness of balancing three families headed by one father, the protagonists have the same worries about money, time, life and love that we all do. "Big Love's" bad guys are considerably more interesting, especially fundamentalist cult leader Roman Grant. A man who stands almost entirely outside of our Enlightenment-derived American culture, Roman falls somewhere between a feudal lord and the chief of some nomad tribe. His organization collects huge tributes from all the businesses in his insular community of polygamists, and treats women either as yet another teenage bride to be acquired or yet another daughter to be married off to secure a strategic alliance. Roman comes across as someone for whom the concepts of equality and personal freedom don't even register - it's "I, me, mine" covered with a veneer of religious belief and authoritarian dogma. Read more | |||
| Is man on the run in sex-abuse case? | |||
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By Ben Winslow Deseret Morning News Originally published March 22, 2006 | |||
| CEDAR CITY -- Iron County sheriff's deputies are looking for a man believed to be on the run after being charged with sexually abusing a child. Wayland Wyler, 39, is wanted on a $50,000 cash only warrant after he refused to turn himself in to the Iron County Sheriff's Office on Friday. Detective Michael Crouch said Tuesday Wyler agreed to meet with deputies twice for questioning. Both times, he did not show up. Wyler is accused of sexually abusing a preteen child, who reported the abuse to a parent. In 2005, he was convicted of domestic violence/child abuse in Washington County. Detectives said they believe Wyler is still in southern Utah and has ties to the Colorado City-area. He is described as 5 feet 11, 200 pounds, with brown hair and green eyes. | |||
| Contractor fined over minors' work | |||
| Labor department says 3 youths were illegally employed | |||
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Deseret Morning News Originally published Friday, March 24, 2006 | |||
| A contractor in Hildale, Washington County, has been assessed a $10,395 penalty by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division for illegally employing three minors. The department said Wednesday that Paragon Contractors Corp. employed the three in violation of the youth employment provisions of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. The department said an investigation by its Wage and Hour Division's Salt Lake district office showed that two minors, 12 and 13 years of age, worked in violation of the 14-year age minimum for non-agricultural employment. The same two minors and a 15-year-old were working on a residential home construction site in violation of the regulatory occupation standards for minors under 16 years of age, it said. The three were found working on a roof, a hazardous occupation prohibited for workers under 18, the department said. The 15-year-old was operating a table saw, also a violation of the hazardous occupation restrictions for those under 18, it said. Read more | |||
| Fugitive surrenders over alleged child sex abuse | |||
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By Ben Winslow Deseret Morning News Originally published March 25, 2006 | |||
| CEDAR CITY -- A fugitive wanted by police for allegedly sexually abusing a pre-teen child surrendered Friday. Wayland Wyler, 39, turned himself in at the 5th District Courthouse in Cedar City. He was accompanied by an attorney, said Iron County Sheriff's detective Michael Crouch. Wyler was booked into the Iron County Jail on a $50,000 warrant for sodomy upon a child. He is scheduled to return to court April 5. | |||
| FLDS escapee says South Dakotans should be worried | |||
| Flora Jessop says South Dakotans have reason to be worried about the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) compound discovered recently in Custer County. | |||
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By Norma Najacht Custer County Chronicle Originally published March 30, 2006 | |||
| Jessop should know. Born into the Hildale, Utah, compound, she escaped from the FLDS when she was 16 years old. Jessop said she wasn't surprised when she learned of the South Dakota compound because the FLDS has been spreading out in preparation for taking over the North American continent. The FLDS believes that the second coming of Christ will cleanse the earth and FLDS members will be the only ones left for a place in Heaven, she said. "It's fascinating to watch," Jessop said. "Before they start building a compound, they court law enforcement, portraying an image that they are harmless." However, Warren Jeffs, FLDS prophet, is not on the FBI's Most Wanted List because it's all hype, she added. "It's very disturbing," she said. "In fact, one of Jeffs' idols is Hitler. "They're very racist." They are so racist, the Southern Poverty Law Center categorizes them as the most rabid hate group in the nation, she said. Jessop said Jeffs' followers take an oath to die and kill for him and are taught law enforcement is enemy number one. "One day they will go to war with law enforcement and the streets will run red with the blood of the enemy," she said. "We were taught that from the time we could walk." She said the compounds aren't like homes in that they are fortified, built with thick walls and stocked with food, clothing and other survival items. "They are very much armed. They have many, many weapons," she said. "The possibility for violence is there." Read more | |||
| LDS members: Don't confuse us with FLDS | |||
| The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) is not to be confused with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), commonly referred to as Mormons, said local members of the LDS. The LDS abandoned polygamy in 1890 when the federal government outlawed the practice. | |||
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By Norma Najacht Custer County Chronicle Originally published March 30, 2006 | |||
| "We do not practice, nor do we condone in any way, the practice of polygamy," said Frank Carroll, local member of the LDS church. "We know that polygamy leads to a high incidence of abuse, especially of children and women. A current Hollywood HBO series called "Big Love" is alarming to us as it falsely portrays polygamy as a happy normal lifestyle. We reject that assertion and believe that the practice of polygamy leads to great unhappiness and rampant abuse, not to mention being illegal in this country. "Any church member adopting the practice (of polygamy) today is excommunicated. Groups that continue the practice in Utah and elsewhere have no association whatsoever with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," Carroll said. Gordon B. Hinckley, president of the LDS, objects even to the term FLDS and its association with the LDS. "There is no such thing as a 'Mormon Fundamentalist,'" said Hinckley. "It is a contradiction to use the two words together." "The fundamentalists broke away from the rest of the Mormons, but it's not just a minor aspect of the FLDS's religion," said Jon Krakauer, author of "Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith," a book about Mormon Fundamentalism, said. "It's the most important principle according to Joseph Smith. It's the truest of their beliefs. It's the cornerstone of their religion. Every man has to have at least three wives." Read more | |||
| Why polygamy doesn't work | |||
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Your views North Jersey Media Group northjersey.com Originally published April 1, 2006 | |||
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Columnist William Tucker hit the nail on the head ("Why polygamy doesn't work," Other Views, March 21).
If Tucker understands it, why not the writers of HBO's new series "Big Love"? Hollywood generates reality from fantasy. There are 100,000 practicing fundamentalists who like Brian David Mitchell are willing to kidnap young women like Elizabeth Smart to realize their dreams of three to seven connected sister-wives. They need little girls, some as young as 10, to maintain the needed control to make these girls lifetime breeders. They believe that their progeny will make them bigger gods in the hereafter. And allowing taxpayers to foot the bill -- or "bleeding the beast" -- is acceptable from their point of view. No one objects to what adults do behind closed doors. But it is neither American nor acceptable under the historical origins of this practice to offer a religiously protected free pass to pedophiles and have taxpayers pick up the price tag. Jay Beswick Lancaster, Calif., March 22 The writer is a child-bride protection activist. | |||
| Inside the World of Polygamy | |||
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CNN LARRY KING LIVE Originally broadcast April 6, 2006 | |||
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LARRY KING, CNN HOST: Tonight, a shocking look inside the real world of polygamy, the controversial practice of men marrying multiple wives. We'll meet women who say they had to flee arranged marriages in fear and left their religious community whose leader is believed to have had 60 wives. He's now a fugitive charged today with felony rape as an accomplice. Also with us polygamy advocates who say they've never been happier than to share their husbands. A retired lawman who practiced polygamy for 20 years, then left the lifestyle for one wife. And, the children of polygamy, why do some say they had to run away from it?
It's all next with your calls on LARRY KING LIVE. Good evening. In the early days of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or the Mormons, polygamist marriage wasn't only sanctioned it was highly regarded. But when the church changed its policy on polygamy and banned it in the late 1800s not everybody went along. And today there are an estimated 37,000 people who still practice plural marriage. Tonight, you'll meet some who sing the praises of polygamy and some who call polygamist community mind controlling cults. One more thing before we start. Because so many polygamists label themselves Mormon we invited a representative of the official Mormon Church on the show. They declined. But LDS Church President Gordon Hinckley, a frequent guest on this program, did provide a statement which says in part: "I wish to state categorically that this church has nothing whatever to do with those practicing polygamy. They are not members of this church. Most of them have never been members. They are in violation of the civil law. They know they are in violation of the civil law. They are subject to its penalties. The church, of course, has no jurisdiction whatsoever in this matter." Read more | |||
| New charges filed against Utah church leader | |||
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The Associated Press WHO TV - Des Moines, Iowa Originally broadcast April 7, 2006 | |||
| SALT LAKE CITY A fugitive polygamist church leader has been charged in Utah with first-degree felonies for his role in allegedly arranging a marriage between a teen-age girl and an older man. Warren Jeffs is the leader the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which is based in the twin cities of Hildale and Colorado City, Utah. A prosecutor says the case is not about religion or polygamy. He says it's about a violation of the law by a person in a position of power and authority over a vulnerable young girl. The charges allege that Jeffs arranged and performed a religious marriage ceremony involving the girl over her objection. The girl is said to be between 14 and 18 years old. | |||
| Some members of polygamy sect fleeing as law closes in | |||
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By Gwen Florio and Brian Passey USA TODAY Originally published April 12, 2006 | |||
| HILDALE, Utah — Its prophet is on the run, accused of uniting teenage girls with older, already-married men. Its members are being evicted for tax evasion here and in adjoining Colorado City, Ariz., and police officers in both towns are being forced to choose between their jobs and plural marriage. The nation's largest polygamist sect — founded in defiance of the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' ban on polygamy more than a century ago — is under pressure as never before. The real-life drama playing out in this isolated community mirrors the darker themes of the new HBO series Big Love. That show features a polygamous family living in suburban Salt Lake City, surrounded by mainstream Mormons. Here, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is resisting what its members see as the secular world's anti-polygamy stance. As the law closes in — the group's fugitive prophet, Warren Steed Jeffs, was charged last week with rape for allegedly forcing a teenage girl to marry an older man — members are leaving these twin towns and building compounds in West Texas, southwestern Colorado and South Dakota's Black Hills. Read more | |||
| Governor signs "Lost Boy's" law | |||
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By Chris Vanocur ABC 4 TV Originally broadcast May 2, 2006 | |||
| When adult men in closed polygamous communities take two or three or even more young women for themselves, it leaves a lot of young men without potential mates, or even dates. Those young men, boys really, are often the same age as the girls taken as wives by men more than twice their age. There is no place for these teenage boys, who are often seen as rivals by the older men. The boys are often forced out of their secretive polygamous communities, not allowed to contact their families and former friends. They are alone, with no money and no place to go. The boys are not the only ones who leave. Some of the young girls, who want more out of life than sharing one man with several other women and bearing as many children as possible; choose to run away. But when they leave their closed community, they are cast adrift in a strange world. They have no legal identity, no birth certificate, little formal education, and no real knowledge of the world outside. They are underage. They are legally, and often socially, helpless. Read more | |||
| Polygamous Prophet: Outsider or Criminal? | |||
| Warren Jeffs Remains at Large and Now on FBI Ten Most Wanted List | |||
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By Jake Tapper and Jack Date ABC News Originally published May 8, 2006 | |||
| To his followers Warren Jeffs is a prophet. To the Mormon Church he's an outsider, and to the FBI he is a criminal. Jeffs leads an estimated 10,000 church members who broke off from mainstream Mormons decades ago, calling themselves the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They practice polygamy with girls as young as age 12, authorities say. Jeffs is now wanted for alleged sexual conduct with a minor and for forcing teenage girls to marry older men against their will. He was added to the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" list over the weekend. "I would consider those to be very heinous [acts]," said FBI special agent Tim Furhman of the Salt Lake City bureau. "And for that reason we have placed him on the top 10 list." In his church and in recent audio recordings, Jeffs, 50, has preached that women should obey men. In one recording obtained by the Eldorado Success newspaper, Jeffs said if woman are not careful they will be overbearing and they should always ask permission for what they want. He also said ladies should "build up your husband by being submissive." The tapes also reveal racist views. In one recording, Jeffs says that anyone who "mingles their seed with the seed of Cain, the Negro, they also would lose all rights to priesthood blessings." Read more | |||
| FBI Hunts Polygamist Preacher | |||
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ANDERSON COOPER 360 DEGREES CNN Originally broadcast May 9, 2006 | |||
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ANNOUNCER: Polygamist on the run -- America's most wanted. Now his nephew is speaking out against the uncle he calls a child molester. Across the country and around the world, this is ANDERSON COOPER 360.
Live from the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, here's Anderson Cooper. COOPER: Hey, thanks for joining us on this Tuesday night. Well, coming, he's the fugitive who calls himself a prophet. Some of his former followers now say he's just evil. Tonight, we will hear from some of those former followers of Warren Jeffs, the so- called lost boys. They were kicked out from the sect. Hear what they have to say about the case against Jeffs. Plus, the young man who knows Warren Jeffs like few others, his own nephew, who says this alleged man of God doesn't just molest girls. He molest boys as well. His own nephew says he himself was molested by Jeffs. We will talk with him ahead. COOPER: Just ahead, the state that seems to be getting more than their fair share. We're "Keeping Them Honest" -- all that and more when 360 continues. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) COOPER: Well, he's on the same list as Osama bin Laden, America's most wanted. His name is Warren Jeffs, the fugitive leader of a fundamentalist offshoot of the Mormon Church. He's wanted for marrying and having sex with a number of underage girls. He's also accused of molesting boys. He and his thousands of followers believe in polygamy, and, tonight, we take you inside this sect. In a moment, we will talk with a nephew of Warren Jeffs, a young man who says he himself was molested by his uncle. Also, we hear from the authorities now hot on his trail. Read more | |||
| Blind Eye to Culture of Abuse | |||
| Children of a polygamist sect have been exploited, molested for years. | |||
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By David Kelly and Gary Cohn The Los Angeles Times Originally published May 12, 2006 | |||
| COLORADO CITY, Ariz. — For half a century, while polygamous members of this remote enclave engaged in widespread sexual abuse and child exploitation, government authorities on all levels did little to intervene or protect generations of victims. Here in the sparsely populated canyon lands straddling Arizona and Utah, members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or FLDS — an offshoot of Mormonism — live by their own rules. The religious sect of about 10,000 portrays itself as an industrious commune of the faithful, choosing to live apart from a hostile world. But their simple lifestyle and self-imposed isolation have concealed troubling secrets that are only beginning to emerge. Court records, undisclosed investigative reports and interviews by The Times over the last year show that church authorities flout state and federal laws and systematically deny rights and freedoms, especially to women and children. "The fact that this has been going on all these years, and the fact that justice has not been there to protect women and children ... from amazing civil rights violations — it is an embarrassment," said Utah Atty. Gen. Mark Shurtleff. "I don't want to indict the states of Utah and Arizona, but mea culpa — we are responsible." Among sect members, girls as young as 13 are forced into marriage, sexual abuse is rampant, rape is covered up and child molesters are shielded by religious authorities and law enforcement. Read more | |||
| Where Few Dare to Disobey | |||
| Members of a polygamist sect endure abuses, or risk losing everything. | |||
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By David Kelly and Gary Cohn The Los Angeles Times Originally published May 13, 2006 | |||
| To his followers, Warren Jeffs is a teacher and spiritual leader who channels divine revelations — the man they call their prophet. To the FBI, Jeffs is an accused rapist and fugitive on its 10 Most Wanted list with a $100,000 bounty on his head — a man it calls armed and dangerous. Despite the conflicting images, one thing is clear: Jeffs' four-year reign as the patriarch of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or FLDS, has been the most tumultuous in at least 50 years. His authoritarian rule has sparked internal conflict and lawsuits alleging sexual abuse and other criminal misconduct. And that, in turn, has attracted rare public scrutiny of this secretive sect of 10,000 polygamists and its remote enclave on the Utah-Arizona border. Those who have fled or been exiled, along with state investigators, describe it as a tyrannical theocracy. "I have a corner of my state that is worse than [under] the Taliban," Utah Atty. Gen. Mark Shurtleff acknowledged. Read more | |||
| THE VENT | |||
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The Spectrum Originally published May 13, 2006 | |||
| If you employ those who support Warren Jeffs you are in turn aiding and abetting Mr. Jeffs' flight from justice. You are supporting pedophiles, child labor, the suppression of women's rights and the abuse of the welfare system. | |||
| Texas Polygamy Blog Posting | |||
| Holy Cow, What's This All About? | |||
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texaspolygamy.blogspot.com Originally published May 18, 2006 | |||
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Anoymous said...
Debate it, disect it, moan about it or cry about it, but the other shoe is about to drop. Its simple logic if you have read the news. Activists like Flora and MIB stated 5 years ago in writing and in the news what the Utah Attorney General is stating today. Organized Crimes and Exploitation of female minors. Child Abandonment of well over 100 boys and welfare fraud. Nice and neat paper trails to prove each claim. Winkie in Canada has given blood, as have many of the children he sired. The claim of unwed mothers to defraud government social service programs is under scrutny. Why else would Winston claim he might be charged any day - and that explains his press conference. Canada records show one of his brides was 14, shy of her 15th birthday and a second was indeed 15. On CBC TV Winston lied about the underage issue and therefore like many here, has no credibility. Sam Roundy the former Colorado City Chief of Police lied on camera to Mike Watkiss of News 3 TV, "none of my Officers have taken under age brides, no I don't want to comment on this". Dan Barlow lied on camera and this was repeated by others. When the truth was easier, the FLDS faithful lied to protect the faith. Now when statements are made, is it a lie or the truth? Who knows who cares! Read more | |||
| Prosecution of polygamists justice not "persecution" | |||
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Cult News from Rick Ross CultNews.com Originally published May 18, 2006 | |||
| As the FBI closes in on Warren Jeffs, the fugitive "prophet" of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), other polygamist leaders are beginning to sweat and wonder who will be next. One example is Canadian polygamist leader Winston Blackmore, who wants the media to know that his group is "not ... like Jeffs" reports ABC News in Canada. At a press conference Blackmore attempted to put his spin on recent events, speaking from his home in Bountiful, British Columbia. Rulon Jeffs, the deceased father of Warren Jeffs, once ruled over approximately 10,000 polygamists, primarily located within Arizona, Utah and British Columbia. Blackmore was once one of his "bishops," ruling over the faithful Canadian faction serving like a feudal lord within the Jeffs kingdom. But with the death of King Rulon, Blackmore no longer wants to be simply a vassal, so he broke away from Warren Jeffs. It seems when it comes to the younger Jeffs current status; Blackmore is more than content that the FBI is stalking his enemy. Winston Blackmore reportedly has 28 wives and about 100 children, but he says "We are not [Jeffs] and he does not represent the fundamentals of our faith." Whatever "fundamentals" Blackmore observes they seem to be essentially the same as Jeffs. And the only difference between their communities is largely who's the boss. Read more | |||
| Warren Jeffs Followers Remain Faithful to their Absent Leader; Young Woman Tells of her Escape from Warren Jeffs FLDS; A Look into Utah Polygamist Sect The Kingstons | |||
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ANDERSON COOPER 360 DEGREES CNN Originally broadcast May 24, 2006 | |||
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ANNOUNCER: And how's this for a welcome?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys are all damned idiots. (END VIDEO CLIP) ANNOUNCER: Doors slamming, death threats. Our exclusive look inside a polygamist sect. Cross the country and around the world, this is ANDERSON COOPER 360 live from the CNN broadcast center in New York, here's Anderson Cooper. COOPER: We'll also continue our investigation into polygamist leader Warren Jeffs on the run and on the FBI's most wanted list. Tonight, one of the dangers of polygamy. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's gotten to the point where you're related to almost everybody. More than once. (END VIDEO CLIP) COOPER: The woman who once belonged to a sect where polygamy and incest mixed. Ahead on 360. To us, Warren Jeffs is a polygamist fugitive on the run from the FBI. To his faithful, he's a man of God, a prophet. Tonight, we'll take you back to their isolated community where the followers are finally speaking out. That story's coming up. We'll also have this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) It was a matter of life and death to me. Really. Because I was alive physically, but inside, I was dead. Down there. I had nothing to live for. Read more | |||
| Acting mayor of Colorado City arrested | |||
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By Jill Hunt The Spectrum Originally published May 27, 2006 | |||
| COLORADO CITY - The acting mayor of Colorado City was arrested Friday evening and booked into Purgatory Correctional Facility on a $5,000 cash-only bail. Terrill C. Johnson, 57, was charged with eight counts of false evidences of title and registration - a second-degree felony. Johnson has filled in as mayor since Richard Allred resigned as mayor Feb. 16. One Washington County Sheriff's Office deputy and an officer from the Hildale/Colorado City Marshal's Office served a warrant that was issued out of 5th District Court. According to a press release, law enforcement officers met with Johnson and advised him of the warrant. Johnson surrendered to police without resistance. The arrest came one day after unrelated search warrants were issued on four homes in Colorado City as authorities from Arizona searched for evidence related to eight sexual abuse indictments. Read more | |||
| Fears of new Waco as FBI hunt for Svengali leader of polygamy cult | |||
| Warren Jeffs is one of the USA's 10 most wanted criminals. If he is cornered, carnage could follow, reports Joanna Walters in Hildale, Utah | |||
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By Joanna Walters The Observer - London Originally published Sunday June 11, 2006 | |||
| A freckled-faced teenager in a frumpish dress bursts into the house with an expression somewhere between defiance and fear. Jennifer Barlow is just 17 and in hiding from a man the FBI has just put on its '10 Most Wanted' list, alongside Osama bin Laden. The Feds are hunting Warren Jeffs, a 50-year-old 'prophet' exiled from the Mormon church, who is accused of paedophilia and of forcing young women into a life of polygamy. Jeffs holds sway over several isolated, breakaway communities in the remotest parts of America, including Hildale on the border of Utah and Arizona, where polygamy is the norm. And so far he has evaded capture. Barlow has fled to a friend's house because she fears Jeffs will force her to marry an older man who already has three or four wives. 'I tried to call my mom to tell her I'm OK - my parents always told me it is a world of total damnation out there - but my little brother wouldn't let me speak to her,' she said, her voice quivering. Read more | |||
| Anti-Abuse Billboards Target Polygamists | |||
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By Julie Rose KCPW - Utah Public Radio Originally published June 19, 2006 | |||
| (KCPW News) New billboards are cropping up along highways in southern Utah aimed at polygamist communities. The signs urge people to call a domestic abuse hotline, and Utah Attorney General's spokesman Paul Murphy says the wording was chosen carefully. The signs read "When it hurts at home" and include a number to call for help. Murphy says the original text was "There's no excuse for abuse," but law enforcement officials have found the concept of abuse is different in polygamous communities. "Ask a child from a polygamous family if he has been abused and he may say ‘no,'" says Murphy. "But ask that same child if he's ever been hit or hurt by a family member and the answer changes to ‘yes.'" Read more | |||
| Lakewood conference to explore cults, hate groups | |||
| A 25-year-old research and education foundation that studies cultic phenomena is meeting this weekend. | |||
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By Monte Whaley Denver Post Originally published June 22, 2006 | |||
| There will be plenty of talk about religious faith turned into deadly dogma at a forum on cults that will be held in Lakewood this weekend. Other topics include the influence of hate groups like the White Aryan Resistance and the National Alliance, the whereabouts of polygamous-sect leader Warren Jeffs and the problems faced by gay and lesbian Jehovah's Witnesses. Taking it all in will be Patti Allread, who will be happy to talk about her faith - the Church of Scientology - at the International Cultic Studies Association conference. "I'm not going so much to see what is being said about Scientology," said Allread, "but to answer real questions about the church." She is among about 200 people signed up to learn the latest about cult and hate groups from a list of experts that includes police, former cult members and therapists. The conference starts today and runs through Saturday at the Sheraton Denver West Hotel in Lakewood. Last year's gathering was in Madrid, Spain, and next year it's slated for Brussels, Belgium. Read more | |||
| Defining 'cults' is complex | |||
| Polygamists, former members speak out at Denver meetings | |||
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By Ben Winslow Deseret Morning News Originally published Saturday, June 24, 2006 | |||
| DENVER — Are polygamous groups "cults"? That question was debated here Friday as former members of polygamous groups shared their stories of abuse and control in fundamentalist communities. They came to participate in the 2006 conference of the International Cultic Studies Association, a group of academics, therapists and former cult members, being held over three days at a hotel near Denver. Several sessions dealt specifically with polygamy, and members of the polygamous community of Centennial Park, Ariz., were among those who showed up to challenge the notion that they're "cult members." "Your experience is not mine," one woman told a panel of ex-polygamous wives and therapists. "My experience is not yours." She would not give her name to the Deseret Morning News but said she and others from the polygamous community on the Utah-Arizona border came here to educate themselves on the components of a cult and take steps to avoid falling under that definition. The definition of a "cult" is something that not everyone here at the ICSA conference agrees upon. One man's religion is another man's cult, and in some cases mainstream religions consider other mainstream religions to be cults. Read more | |||
| Was youth-labor law violated? | |||
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Deseret Morning News Originally published Friday, August 25, 2006 | |||
| The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a motion to stop Paragon Contractors Corp. of Hildale and its owners from violating federal Fair Labor Standards Act provisions after it allegedly discovered a 15-year-old worker operated a power-driven table saw on a construction site. The department said the alleged activity, which occurred in June, violates the youth employment occupation standards governing legal employment for 14- and 15-year-olds, and the hazardous occupation orders prohibiting youngsters under 18 from hazardous-work employment. The most recent alleged violation follows similar violations found in 2005 after the department's Wage and Hour Division conducted an investigation. Paragon was fined in February for illegally employing young workers after an investigation disclosed two minors, 12 and 13 years old, employed in violation of the act's 14-year legal age minimum for nonagricultural employment. Those two minors and a 15-year-old were working on a residential home construction site in violation of the regulatory occupation standards for 14- and 15-year-olds. All three were found working on a roof, a hazardous occupation prohibited for people under 18. Read more | |||
| Manhunt for Jeffs is over | |||
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Opinion The Spectrum Originally published August 30, 2006 | |||
| A sigh of relief can be aired by some members of The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the FBI and legal teams of Utah and Arizona with the capture of Warren Steed Jeffs. The 50-year-old polygamist leader has been on the run since Jan. 2005 to evade charges of sexual misconduct in both states for allegedly arranging marriages between underage girls and older men. In May, the fugitive was put on the FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted List with a $100,000 reward for information leading to his arrest. He was apprehended Monday night after a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper pulled over a red 2007 Cadillac Escalade traveling on Interstate 15 just north of Las Vegas. Jeffs was aboard and in the company of one of his wives, Naomi Jeffs, 32, and his brother, Issac Steed Jeffs, also 32. In his possession were cell phones, laptop computers, wigs and more than $50,000 in cash. He seemed more than prepared to keep on fleeing with his tail between his legs, in disguise, completely the contrary to a religious leader's conviction of honesty. Read more | |||
| LARRY KING LIVE | |||
| Warren Jeffs is in Custody | |||
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CNN Originally broadcast August 30, 2006 | |||
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Coming up, inside the strange world of polygamist Warren Jeffs from two women who say they escaped their lives as one of his many wives. And, from an investigative journalist who spent years investigating the crazy cult-like society of Colorado City. That's next on LARRY KING LIVE.
KING: Warren Jeffs is in custody. Joining us from West Jordan, Utah is Carolyn Jessop. At age 18 she was forced to wed 50-year-old Merrill Jessop, a follower of Warren Jeffs. At age 35 under the cover of darkness she took her eight children and fled her abusive marriage and the FLDS. In Phoenix, Arizona is Pennie Petersen, she fled her family and the FLDS at age 14 after learning she was about to be forced into a polygamous marriage with a 48-year-old man who'd molested her. Her father had multiple wives. She has 38 brothers and sisters. She was on this program last night. And in Phoenix as well, Michael Watkiss, investigative reporter for KTVK in Phoenix, producer of "Colorado City and the Underground Railroad." You'll be seeing clips from this award-winning documentary during our discussion. He was raised as a mainstream Mormon. Mike says he has polygamists in his own ancestral tree. Michael, we'll begin with you. What do you make of this whole Jeffs story? MICHAEL WATKISS, KTVK INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Well, I think my first impression Larry, is I'm very grateful that this arrest went down without any violence. The big concern was that Mr. Jeffs travels with bodyguards, they're often armed, and there was the real concern, in this culture there are a lot of women and children. We've been crusading for action for many years, and the big concern was that one of the truly innocent would be hurt. This was the perfect case scenario for police officers. They wanted to pick Warren Jeffs on the road. They did that. This heads-up trooper -- I'm actually in Las Vegas, Nevada standing in front of the facility where Warren Jeffs is now locked up, Larry. This heads-up trooper put Warren Jeffs behind bars, and now he can go to a court and answer the charges. Read more | |||
| LARRY KING LIVE | |||
| Interview With Former FLDS Members | |||
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CNN Originally broadcast August 31, 2006 | |||
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LARRY KING, CNN HOST: Tonight, most wanted polygamist Warren Jeffs captured Monday, in court today under extraordinary security. Now, we'll take you where few outsiders have ever been, a rare look inside his secretive, heavily-guarded community. We'll see his gated compound, the remote city where his followers live, and how they ran and hid from our cameras.
Plus, women who risked everything to escape his sect and what they call a world of forced marriages to abusive husbands with multiple wives. One of them will testify against the prophet-turned- prisoner. She's crucial to the case against him. It's all next on LARRY KING LIVE. KING: Good evening. In our first segment tonight some extraordinary footage for you. Ted Rowlands joins us, the CNN correspondent. He was in the Las Vegas courtroom this morning for Warren Jeffs' first appearance. He spent time on assignment for LARRY KING LIVE in Warren Jeffs' communities in Arizona and Hilldale, Utah. You'll be seeing the video Ted and his crew shot for the first time tonight. In Las Vegas as well is Sara Hammon, grew up in the FLDS community before Warren Jeffs took over. Her late father was a high-ranking FLDS member who taught purity and propriety but was secretly a child molester. Read more | |||
| ANDERSON COOPER 360 DEGREES | |||
| Polygamy in America: Cult or Calling? | |||
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CNN Originally broadcast September 1, 2006 | |||
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ANNOUNCER: ...Cult or Calling?" Reporting from New York, Anderson Cooper.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: The massive manhunt for polygamist leader Warren Jeffs is finally over. In the next hour we'll show you the power that Jeffs had on estimated 10,000 followers. Some have called his sect the Taliban of America. Tonight, we'll also look at who may try to take over for Jeffs now that he's behind bars. The fugitive who was on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list for months and someone we've profiled numerous times on 360 was arrested just outside Las Vegas. It wasn't a dramatic standoff that brought the self-proclaimed prophet of God to justice, it was a routine traffic stop. CNN's Ted Rowlands was the first journalist to talk with the trooper who pulled Jeffs over and has this exclusive report on his capture. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The FBI's manhunt for the prophet Warren Jeffs came to an end Monday night just north of Las Vegas when State Trooper Eddie Dutchover pulled over this burgundy 2007 Cadillac's Escalade. EDDIE DUTCHOVER, LAS VEGAS STATE TROOOPER: The vehicle didn't have no plates on it, and had a temporary registration. ROWLANDS: Jeffs, according to Trooper Dutchover, was in the back seat. His brother, Isaac Jeffs, was driving. In the far back, sitting alone was one of Jeffs' wives, Naomi. DUTCHOVER: Naomi didn't say much of anything. She was just kind of being quiet. Read more | |||
| Visiting Colorado City | |||
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Dispatches from Las Vegas by Richard Abowitz The Movable Buffet Originally published September 6, 2006 | |||
| On Friday I took the three-hour drive to Colorado City to see how much has changed since the arrest of the man the overwhelming majority of its residents believes is God's No. 1 dude on earth, Warren Jeffs. To the rest of us, Jeffs is better known for facing charges related to child rape than for his more spiritual pursuits. Anyway, it isn't clear how aware people of Colorado City are that their prophet was busted in a 2007 Cadillac with a bunch of wigs and $50,000. No store in Colorado City sells newspapers or magazines. The so-called prophet bans those. The public school in town is covered in weeds since the Jeffs pulled all the children out a few years ago. Obviously, there are no bars or video stores. I dropped by one of the few restaurants: the Vermillion Cafe. The tables were mostly banquet-style for reasons made clear by the one family there that included one man, a few women, and a horde of children. A typical Colorado City brood. They wore their Willa Cather outfits and turned totally silent from the moment I entered until I left. I wasn't even thanked for the tip I left when I paid. Not very Vegas. Read more | |||
| Jeffs' Brother Arrested | |||
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e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published September 6, 2006 | |||
| BEAVER DAM, AZ - One of the brothers of jailed polygamous church sect leader Warren Jeffs was arrested over the weekend in the northwest Arizona community of Beaver Dam. Mohave County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Trish Carter said John B. Jeffs, 38, Colorado City, was taken into custody in the Virgin Mountain Estates. Carter said deputies visited the trailer park at about 5:35pm last Friday, responding to a welfare check request from Jeff's unidentified adult son. She said the man expressed concern about the welfare of his 11-year-old brother. Carter said arriving deputies located Jeffs occupying a vehicle parked outside the residence occupied by the 11 year-old. She said Jeffs refused various deputy commands and requests for access to the dwelling to check on the boy. "They had to pull him from his vehicle," Carter said. "There was no sign of struggle, he just wouldn't cooperate." Jeffs was taken into custody and booked into jail for resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors. Carter said deputies determined that the boy had not been harmed. Carter said Jeffs is one of the brothers of Warren Jeffs, 50, the leader of the Colorado City and Hildale, Ut.-based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. | |||
| Warren Jeffs' brother arrested in Arizona | |||
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The Associated Press ABC 4 Originally broadcast September 6, 2006 | |||
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KINGMAN, Ariz. (AP) -- The brother of jailed polygamous leader Warren Jeffs has been arrested in Arizona. The Mohave County sheriff's office says 38 year-old John Jeffs was booked for investigation of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. Deputies arrested Jeffs on Friday while conducting a welfare check regarding his eleven-year-old son, who they say was NOT harmed. Meanwhile, Warren Jeffs is expected to make his initial court appearance in Utah this afternoon. The 50-year-old Jeffs is facing felony sex charges involving an arranged marriage between an underage girl and an older man that carry a maximum penalty of life in prison.
----- Information from: KGMN-FM See photo | |||
| Rumors of child deaths unfounded | |||
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By Patrice St. Germain The Spectrum Originally published September 10, 2006 | |||
| Fronted by a white picket fence, the cemetery in Hildale is the final resting place of children. Many don't have markers and many are only marked with a simple brass plaque. Over the years, the cemetery and the unmarked graves have been the subject of rumors and innuendoes that the numbers and circumstances surrounding the children's deaths are suspicious, but so far, no one has come up with any concrete evidence with names of the "victims" or alleged perpetrators, said Utah Attorney General spokesman Paul Murphy. Longtime resident Jethro Barlow has another way of describing the media reports: overblown, not a story, absolutely not homicides and damaging to the community. "I grew up there all my life and that's my position," Barlow said. "I think all this originated with people who are media mongering." Barlow instead said the deaths of children in the Short Creek area are like the death of a child anywhere. Some are tragic accidents and some are simply family tragedies. Barlow himself lost two sisters to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Read more | |||
| Writer Rose Beecham Goes Undercover in a Polygamous Cult | |||
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By Jane Chen AfterEllen Originally published September 13, 2006 | |||
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The FLDS is the largest and most notorious of the Mormon polygamist cults. Although polygamy was banned from mainstream Mormon religion in 1890, cults such as the FLDS continue to thrive on American soil. Warren Jeffs, the leader of the FLDS, was a fugitive wanted by the FBI, and was taken into custody on August 28, 2006.
In Grave Silence, which won a 2006 Golden Crown Literary Society award, Beecham introduces us to Montezuma County Sheriff's detective Jude Devine, a former FBI agent who is investigating the grisly murder of a local teenage girl. The case takes her deep into the secretive world of a polygamist cult. Complicating matters is her burgeoning attraction to the local forensic pathologist, Dr. Mercy Westmoreland. For the first time in print, Rose Beecham spoke with AfterEllen.com about her experience infiltrating the FLDS and how it influenced the writing of Grave Silence. AfterEllen.com: What made you originally interested in the subject of Mormon fundamentalism? Rose Beecham: I blame it on the Fates. In 1999, I was on a road and hiking trip in Utah with a friend. We had taken a couple of wrong turns and were hopelessly lost and we casually said to each other, "Oh well. Let's just go where this road takes us and find a place to stay." We ended up in [the] Hilldale-Colorado City [area], and it was like we'd beamed onto the set of Shy People meets The Stepford Wives. The women were all in pioneer clothes and had the same really strange hairdo, and the men obviously wanted to blow our heads off. The moment we hit town we were followed everywhere, and after about 10 minutes our car was stopped and we were politely told to leave. Read more | |||
| Polygamy. | |||
| (Utah's open little secret) | |||
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By Kirsten Scharnberg and Manya A. Brachear Chicago Tribune Originally published September 24, 2006 | |||
| EAGLE MOUNTAIN, Utah -- The neighborhood looks like any other in the upper-middle-class suburbs: sprawling homes with porch swings and manicured lawns strewn with discarded kids' bikes. But beneath the all-American veneer, much is different in this upscale subdivision 40 miles south of Salt Lake City. "Pretty much everyone who lives here is polygamous," said Mary--a woman who gave a recent tour of the area and is herself the second wife of a Utah man. She, like other polygamists interviewed for this story, asked to be identified only by her first name for fear of prosecution. "There may be one or two houses that aren't, but virtually everyone else here is one of ours." In the weeks since the arrest of Warren Jeffs, the fundamentalist Mormon leader who made the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list for allegations that he facilitated the rape and marriage of underage girls, there have been constant questions about the real pervasiveness and peril of polygamy in Utah. Mainstream Mormons in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with 12 million members worldwide, have asserted that all polygamous denominations--including Jeffs' Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--are aberrations in a state where the influential Mormon Church suspended the practice of polygamy more than a century ago. But Utah's attorney general, pro-polygamy activists and other experts estimate there are 40,000 people living in polygamous families or communities like this one across the Western U.S.--with a large portion of them residing in suburban Utah. Read more | |||
| Mistrial declared in southern Utah kidnap trial | |||
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By Ben Winslow Deseret Morning News Originally published Friday, September 29, 2006 | |||
| A judge declared a mistrial today in the case of a polygamist man accused of kidnapping one of his former wives. Thomas V. Barlow, 47, was charged in St. George's 5th District Court with attempted kidnapping, a third-degree felony; assault, a class A misdemeanor; and domestic violence in the presence of a child. Barlow claims he was "rescuing" his family from Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs, but prosecutors allege he tried to abduct one of his wives and her child, forcing them into his semi-truck in Hildale, Utah, back in August 2004. "My belief is that Mr. Barlow realized that Warren Jeffs in his mind became a fallen prophet and he felt he had a duty to rescue his family that he loved and cared for deeply," Barlow's lawyer Travis Christiansen told the Deseret Morning News. "Whatever it is under the technical rules of the law ... he was acting to rescue his family from a madman." He said Barlow was excommunicated from the FLDS Church in 2003 by Warren Jeffs, who reassigned the man's two wives to Barlow's brother. Read more | |||
| Judge declares mistrial in Barlow case | |||
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By Patrice St. Germain The Spectrum Originally published September 30, 2006 | |||
| ST. GEORGE - A handwritten witness statement on a Hildale Police Department form resulted in a mistrial against ex-FLDS member Thomas Barlow. Barlow was facing charges of kidnapping, attempted assault and domestic violence in the presence of a child and was having a jury trial Friday morning in 5th District Court when a previously overlooked statement surfaced. Washington County Deputy Attorney Ryan Shaum said the jury had already been seated when he noticed a handwritten statement in a police file. "There was another statement written by someone who had observed injuries on the victim - a handwritten statement on a Hildale police form that was not disclosed until today," Shaum said. Shaum brought the statement to the attention of Barlow's attorney, Travis Christiansen, who also did not know about the statement and filed a motion with the court. Christiansen said the statement, written two days after the alleged incident, was written by an EMT who stated that Barlow's former wife, Terri Shapley, was taken to a local medical clinic and examined by a nurse practitioner. "While she (Shapley) was at the clinic, she was examined and they took photos of alleged injuries inflicted by Thomas Barlow," Christiansen said. Read more | |||
| Heaven's in the bank | |||
| Cult documentary proves the devil's in the dollars. | |||
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By Kendra Kusick Guantlet - University of Calgary Undergraduate Students' Newsweekly Originally published October 5, 2006 | |||
| Profit and prophet go hand in hand according to the latest documentary to screen as part of the Movies that Matter series. Banking on Heaven tears the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints a new stigmata in this documentary expose of their practices along the border between Arizona and Utah. The film examines the notorious FLDS church, which splintered from the Mormon Church in the early 1900s when the Mormons denounced the practice of polygamy. Since then, FLDS followers have grown to about 10,000 and show no signs of slowing their undoubtedly effective reproductive scheme. Director Dot Reidelbach weaves the past, present, and future of the fundamentalist sect together with a dynamic soundtrack to create an informative and emotional experience. Banking on Heaven offers a glimpse into a secretive society where inbreeding is rampant, a man needs at least three wives to get to heaven, teenage girls are married off to older men and the "prophet" Warren Jeffs reigns as a god. Yes, the man whose smirking face was recently smeared across televisions and newspapers everywhere as one of America's 10 most wanted criminals is running a cult with over 10,000 followers. To anyone who watched the news while David Karesh was on a polygamist rampage, this should be a familiar image. Banking on Heaven delves into the deranged society in which Jeff's every word is gospel in the most terrifying, literal sense. Read more | |||
| Low-ball bid by FLDS company potentially has high price: | |||
| Polygamous sect has history of using child labour and paying little | |||
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By Daphne Bramham Vancouver Sun Originally published October 13, 2006 | |||
| Work needs to be done. But what if the only company that bids offers to do the work so cheaply that it's almost inconceivable it can be done at that rate? This isn't about foreigners coming in or companies contracting out to the Third World. This is what happened in Creston a couple of weeks ago. The airport needs a new fence to keep elk off the runway. But the town's tender call only yielded one bid from a local company. It was for $87,750. Unbelievably, that's less than half the price quoted more than a decade ago for the same work even though every other construction-related project the town has tendered for has come in 30 per cent or more over the estimate. The town signed the contract and Mayor Joe Snopek declared it "a very good deal." But he admits it did give him pause. The contract is with a small local company called B Boys Special Products. B Boys is owned by James, Richard and Zane Blackmore. All three live in the polygamous commune of Bountiful and are members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which broke with the mainstream Mormon church after it renounced polygamy in 1890. Read more | |||
| False prophets: Why polygamists believe they're doing God's will | |||
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By Don Miller Santa Cruz Sentinel Originally published October 14, 2006 | |||
| I'm mostly and blissfully ignorant of strange religious offshoots that seem to occur in out-of-the-way locales, usually featuring a few seemingly crazed fanatics putting their own particular, often legalistic, spin on some religious doctrine or tenet. That's why I've passed right by recent headlines about the arrest of a notorious polygamist sect leader, Warren Jeffs, who had been a fugitive for nearly two years, and is currently in a Utah jail cell awaiting trial. Jeffs is charged with two counts of rape for forcing a teenage girl to enter a "spiritual marriage" with an older man and to submit to sex in order to give birth to children. When the girl told Jeffs she didn't want to marry or have sex, the fundamentalist leader told her it was her duty as a church member to submit to his authority because the marriage was ordained by God. As a journalist, I've been aware that polygamy was still around, but only on the periphery, and I really didn't give it much thought except for the HBO TV series, "Big Love." But a friend suggested I read Jon Krakauer's book, "Under the Banner of Heaven," about a 1984 double murder committed by fundamentalist Mormons who believe in the so-called "divine principle" of what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints euphemistically calls "plural marriage" AKA "celestial marriage". Read more | |||
| Husband and wives | |||
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By Ed Pilkington The Guardian - London Originally published Tuesday November 21, 2006 | |||
| Over the years a blind eye has been turned to the practice of polygamy in the United States. But the trial of a Fundamentalist Mormon for assisting in the rape of a minor could change all that. Ed Pilkington visits Utah and uncovers a closed world of 'sisterwives', underage marriages and banished teenagers. Of all the difficult public relations campaigns in the world, this must be among the toughest: to sell polygamy, the practice of keeping more than one wife by one man, as a deeply Christian, rewarding activity that frees the women as much as it forwards the spiritual standing of the man. But that is the challenge Anne Wilde has taken up, as a sort of unofficial spokeswoman for the polygamists of Utah. There is a mystery to why this woman should be devoting herself to the cause when she has no apparent personal connection to polygamy, but we will come to that later. For now, she is sitting in her kitchen in Salt Lake City, explaining why taking multiple wives - "sisterwives" - is a necessary prerequisite for reaching the highest level of Heaven. Wilde's purpose is made particularly tough because polygamy gets a consistently bad press, fuelled by events in some polygamist communities that appear to be anything but celestial. Today, the "Prophet" of a polygamist community in Utah, Warren Jeffs, will be brought handcuffed into court and the evidence presented in public for the first time. He is charged with assisting the statutory rape of a 14-year-old girl, who had allegedly been forced into a spiritual marriage with her cousin. The girl was said by prosecutors to have been ordered to "multiply and replenish the earth" - in other words, procreate - or risk eternal damnation. Read more | |||
| Utah alleges polygamist leader a 'pimp' | |||
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By Daphne Bramham, CanWest News Service Vancouver Sun Originally published Wednesday, November 22, 2006 | |||
| ST. GEORGE, Utah - Polygamist prophet Warren Jeffs accused of arranging marriages between under-age girls and members of his fundamentalist church is nothing more than a pimp, the state of Utah alleged. Jeffs is the 50-year-old leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints a breakaway sect of the Mormon church charged with two counts of rape as an accomplice. The charges are related to his arranging and performing marriages between under-age girls and older men. In Bountiful, B.C., about 500 people follow Jeffs and another 700 have remained loyal to Winston Blackmore, who was excommunicated by Jeffs nearly four years ago. A preliminary hearing for Jeffs began Tuesday. The state's argument which relies on precedents from other cases involving polygamy, as well as from cases involving forced prostitution was made in documents filed Monday. Jeffs was arrested in August in Las Vegas after having spent four months on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list. Jeffs was apprehended in a traffic stop after nearly two years on the run. The state's key witness Tuesday was a young woman who said she was forced into a religious not legal marriage when she was 14 years old. Her husband was 19, and he was also her first cousin. The young woman, who is now 20 and pregnant, sobbed as she told the court how she tried to convince Jeffs, his father Rulon (who was the prophet at the time) and her stepfather Fred Jessop that she was too young to marry. She begged them to at least let her wait two more years until she was 16. However, they refused. Read more | |||
| Two women who found the strength to defy polygamy | |||
| One testifies against 'prophet' Warren Jeffs, the other feels her pain | |||
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By Daphne Bramham Vancouver Sun Originally published Saturday, November 25, 2006 | |||
| ST. GEORGE, Utah - Sara Hammon wept in a Utah courtroom this week as another young woman testified how she was forced at age 14 to marry her 19-year-old first cousin by Warren Jeffs, the prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. "It [the testimony] ripped my heart out," Hammon said. Eighteen years ago, Hammon was also 14, living in the FLDS town of Hildale, Utah and engaged to be married. But Hammon escaped, unlike the young woman who is the state's star witness against Jeffs who is charged with two counts of rape as an accomplice. Jeffs has an estimated 15,000 followers, including about 500 who live in seclusion in Bountiful, B.C. Another 700 or so fundamentalist Mormons in Bountiful follow Winston Blackmore. The woman, who is now 20 and pregnant, spent four hours testifying against Jeffs at a preliminary hearing this week. The hearing resumes Dec. 14. Jeffs, 50, is in nearby Purgatory Correctional Centre, where he's been held since his arrest in August. He'd been a fugitive for more than two years and was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted along with Osama bin Laden. In addition to the Utah charges, he's facing six Arizona charges for sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. The young woman's testimony included an explanation of FLDS teachings. She said girls in the polygamous cult are taught that their only link to God is through men -- their fathers, then their husbands and ultimately, the prophet, who is the embodiment of God on Earth. They are taught that when they marry, they must submit unquestioningly to their husbands' will. If men make bad decisions, it is because their wives are not praying hard enough or aren't pure enough. They aren't taught anything about sex. Even a month after her marriage in April 2001, the 14-year-old had no idea how babies were made. She was in Grade 9 in April 2001 when her stepfather told her the prophet had arranged for her marriage later that week. Eighteen years ago, Hammon was also assigned by the prophet, who was also her father Marion Hammon. She had asked to be married to get out of the family home where she says scarcely a day went by that she wasn't sexually or physically abused by her father or someone else in the family. Read more | |||
| Jon Carroll | |||
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San Francisco Chronicle Originally published Tuesday, November 28, 2006 | |||
| So now we have the case of Warren Jeffs, the 50-year-old leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which is not at all the same thing as the group more commonly known as the Mormons. The FLDS is a break-away group that believes in and practices polygamy. As it happens, I am opposed to laws against polygamy. I think the government should stay out of the bedroom, and that doesn't mean just the bedrooms of people whose sexual or marital practices don't bother me. If consenting adults want to form a polygamous community, they should be allowed to do so. A lot of polygamy, however, is a smoke screen for child abuse, rape, false imprisonment and other crimes. I think those crimes are real crimes. We're not talking about consenting adults here; we're talking about controlling old men and brainwashed underage women. (There are also brainwashed underage men, but that is not at issue in the current trial.) The woman in this case, whose name is not being published because she was allegedly a victim of sexual assault, was 14 when she got married, in a Nevada motel room, to a 19-year-old man. The woman testified that she refused to say "I do," take the man's hand or kiss him. Jeffs presided at the ceremony and, as patriarch, had arranged the marriage, as he arranges all marriages for members of his sect. Jeffs is being accused of being an accomplice to rape. So now we come to the nauseating part. Read more | |||
| Polygamy perils | |||
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Letters to the Editor Mohave Daily News Originally published Monday, December 11, 2006 | |||
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Editor:
I am totally surprised that Rachel Young of the Davis County Cooperative believes that Warren Jeffs is hurting the image of polygamists. How much more damage could be done than that done by her own group, the Davis County Cooperative/ Latter Day Church/Kingston Clan? There have been multiple cases of reported incest in the Kingston group, two men have gone to prison for incest with underaged girls. Another case not ending up in court involved the negligent homicide of a 15-year-old girl in giving birth to her brother's baby, he went on to marry a niece after his sister/wife died. One leader has spoken out in defense of incest to both Newsweek and the Salt Lake City Tribune, stating that it is their religious freedom to commit incest. This group is looked upon as worse than Jeffs'. John Daniel Kingston went to jail for beating a 16-year-old daughter (Mary Ann) unconscious and leaving her in a deserted barn in the Rocky Mountains because she tried to escape sexual relations as the 15th wife to her uncle, his brother. She had already been raped by another uncle at 9 years of age. I don't think Warren Jeffs can match that one. Read more | |||
| "I Grew Up in a Polygamist Family." | |||
| My fundamentalist Mormon background taught me to "keep sweet," but my heart longed for something more. | |||
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By Kathy as told to Jan Brown Today's Christian Woman Magazine November/December 2006, Vol. 28, No. 6, Page 64 | |||
| I was one of 13 children raised by our father and three mothers in a polygamist community in Utah. We were fundamentalist Mormons who practiced the original teachings of Mormonism from its founder Joseph Smith. This teaching includes following the Principle, which states a man must practice polygamy—marrying at least three wives—to enter the Celestial Kingdom. Even though I knew which woman was my biological mother, we were encouraged to treat all the wives the same. Outwardly, our family seemed content, but beneath the surface lay jealousy and pain. We never acknowledged these feelings because we were supposed to sacrifice our emotions. Even laughter was discouraged. We were constantly told to "keep sweet" and that "perfect obedience produces perfect faith." Behind these sugary slogans lay the impossible duty of living in complete obedience to the Prophet. Read more | |||
| Colorado City polygamist sentenced for marriage to underage girl | |||
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The Associated Press Tucson Citizen Originally published December 19, 2006 | |||
| KINGMAN - A Colorado City polygamist convicted of sex offenses linked to his marriage to an underage girl has been sentenced to nine months in prison. David Bateman, 49, was convicted Oct. 25 of sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy after a trial in Mohave County Superior Court. Prosecutors said Bateman fathered a child with the 17-year-old girl, who he had taken as a polygamous wife. The alleged victim, now 22, told Judge James Chavez before Bateman was sentenced Monday that she was not a victim. Midge Steed described Bateman as a "loving husband." Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith said Arizona law rather than young women determines what constitutes a victim. Bateman is a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a polygamous sect based on the Arizona-Utah border. Bateman faced up to two years in prison. Read more | |||
| Park Stops Hiring Minors: 26 Employers Were Fined for Labor Violations | |||
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By Becky Pallack The Arizona Daily Star - Tucson Originally published Friday, 5 January 2007 | |||
| Jan. 5 -- Tucson Raceway Park won't hire minors anymore, a decision made by officials after the park received a small fine from the Industrial Commission of Arizona for violating child-labor law. The park was one of 26 Arizona employers fined by the commission for state child labor law violations in the third quarter of 2006, according to a report released Wednesday. The park was fined $56 for allowing a teenage employee to work more hours than the law allows. By law, children under age 16 may work only three hours on a school day and eight hours on a non-school day. Joyce Ruth, Tucson Raceway Park director of operations, said it was easier to pay the small fine than spend time appealing it. Someone filed a complaint with the commission on opening night, she said. To avoid future problems, the track will stop hiring minors, Ruth said. The Dairy Queen in Picacho, owned by Bowlin Travel Centers Inc., was fined the same amount for the same violation. Bowlin previously was fined in the first quarter of the year for allowing a teenager to cook. Teens under 16 may not cook or bake, operate machinery, or do construction or warehousing work, according to state law. Also fined in the third quarter was Wildcat Golf Partners, which operates the Crooked Tree Golf Course in Tucson, for allowing a teenage worker to operate a golf cart. The company was fined $308. The state labor division received 455 referrals about possible violations in July, August and September. Investigators looked at 81 cases and found violations in 26 cases. In 23 of those cases, the employer was fined less than $300. Read more | |||
| Colorado City, village polygame | |||
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De notre envoyée spéciale en Arizona ARMELLE VINCENT Le Figaro - Paris, France Publié le 11 janvier 2007 | |||
| Dans un bourg de l'Arizona, loin du monde moderne, vit une communauté dissidente du mouvement mormon. Ici la polygamie est une règle de vie, les épouses n'ont aucun droit et les enfants sont surveillés de près. Le chef de cette secte, accusé notamment de complicité de viols, attend la tenue de son procès. Prête à s'enfuir à la moindre alerte, Sara Hammon, 32 ans, s'accroche à la portière de sa voiture des deux mains tandis qu'elle s'entretient avec une femme jeune, et pourtant d'apparence sans âge. La tenue réservée mais féminine de Sara jure avec celle de son interlocutrice qui semble être descendue, la veille, d'un convoi de chariots de l'époque de la conquête de l'Ouest. Chaussée de baskets, accoutrée d'une robe longue disgracieuse au motif floral décoloré par le temps, laissant entrevoir des chevilles soigneusement couvertes par d'épais bas blancs, affublée d'une coiffure non moins démodée formant une espèce d'excroissance sur le haut du crâne et se terminant en une natte, Pam jette des regards craintifs de tous côtés. Dans ce bourg rural de 5 000 habitants, isolé et ultrafermé des États-Unis, à cheval sur l'Arizona et l'Utah, fondé par des renégats mormons à 170 kilomètres de désert du premier tribunal, l'audace de parler à une « païenne », une « créature de Satan », se paie très cher. Cependant, depuis que, fin août, leur tout-puissant prophète Warren Jeffs, 52 ans, a été incarcéré après un an et demi de cavale, les habitants de Colorado City ne savent plus à quel saint se vouer, à quel tyran soumettre leur volonté. Jeffs est accusé de détournement de mineurs et de complicité de viols. On lui reproche aussi l'arrangement de mariages illégaux à son profit: il aurait 75 épouses. Read more | |||
| Bill on polygamy could protect women | |||
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By Mike Watkiss / 3TV KTVK Phoenix Originally broadcast January 24, 2007 | |||
| On Wednesday, a central Phoenix lawmaker introduced a bill in the Arizona house to bar a polygamous parent from gaining custody of his children during a divorce. When women and children leave a polygamous community or marriage, we should protect them, said Ariz. Rep. David Lujan. "It's child abuse," Lujan said. "If these parents are engaging in that type of child abuse, they shouldn't be getting custody of their kids." Ruth Stubbs and her two children left an arranged polygamous marriage in Colorado City in and fought to keep custody of her kids in a Phoenix court in Feb. 2002. When her husband was convicted for having sex with an underage girl, she was awarded custody. Lujan's bill will prevent women like Stubbs from having to fight for custody in the first place. "When women and children finally get the courage to finally leave these polygamous communities only to have courts give custody to the fathers or joint custody, it’s just not going to work in those situations," Lujan said. "I want to protect those kids," he said. He is seeking a half-million dollars to go toward shelters for women and their children who seek to leave their polygamous community. | |||
| Charges dropped against accused polygamist | |||
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The Associated Press East Valley Tribune Originally published February 27, 2007 | |||
| KINGMAN - A member of a polygamist sect was cleared of sexual assault charges Tuesday after his alleged victim refused to testify against him. Randolph Barlow, 33, had been accused of joining in a "spiritual marriage" with Candi Shapley four years ago when she was 16. But Shapley, now 20, repeatedly refused to cooperate with prosecutors, leading to a 30-day sentence in a woman's shelter last year. Prosecutors could have tried to send her to jail for contempt, but they instead asked Mohave County Superior Court Judge Steven Conn to dismiss the charges against Barlow. Defense lawyer Bruce Griffen said Barlow wasn't surprised by the decision. "We all felt that if she was willing to go to jail for contempt, that it was unlikely that that would ever change," Griffen said. Griffen wouldn't comment about whether Barlow and Shapley ever had a sexual relationship. Barlow, a tow-truck driver who is married to another woman, has long contended the state could not prove he ever had a relationship with Shapley, Griffen said. Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Shapley was expected to be a key witness for prosecutors. In addition to the Barlow case, Shapley was supposed to contribute to Arizona's prosecution of polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs. Read more | |||
| Child Brides - Part II | |||
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Submitted by Kiota Progressive U blog ProgressiveU.org - San Mateo, CA Originally published February 28, 2007 | |||
| Debbie's story is not uncommon. The only thing unusual about it is her eventual escape. Most daughters of Mormon fundamentalists are forced into marriage in their early teens, usually to men at least twice their age. And yet the law does little. Let's take a look at 54-year-old Tom Green, married to five wives, with thirty-two children. The oldest of his wives is 22 years younger than him, and the youngest is 29 years younger. Unlike most Mormon polygamists, Green has a thirst for publicity. In 1999, attorney David Leavitt saw Green bragging on national television that he had married all of his wives when they were teens. The youngest of them was only thirteen when she married him, a 37-year-old. Five months after the show aired, Leavitt filed charges against Green, for having sex with five teenaged girls, and for criminal nonsupport of his family, despite receiving over 647,000$ in state and federal assistance. His youngest wife, Linda Kunz, maintains that she enjoys being his wife. When she was twelve years old, her mother married Tom Green (and has since left him). Linda developed a childlike crush on the older man, talking about him constantly, and eventually asking her mother if she could marry her stepfather. Her mother agreed. Before she was fourteen years old, Linda was pregnant. All because of a childish crush - one not uncommon among young girls today who often have innocent crushes on their older male teachers. Read more | |||
| Child Brides - Part III | |||
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Submitted by Kiota Progressive U blog - San Mateo, CA Originally published March 1, 2007 | |||
| The few attempts to stamp out fundamentalist polygamy have failed. For example, the raid on Short Creek - a polygamous town, now known as Colorado City. On July 26th, 1953, 122 polygamous men and women were arrested, and their 263 children placed in foster care. However, by 1956, all of the arrested were free and reunited with their family. The public did not take well to the raid. Photographs of crying children being wrested from their mothers generated public sympathy. But why were the polygamous women arrested? From the time they were born, they were taught that it is their sole duty to serve their often abusive husbands. If the wives had been allowed to keep their children - but the men who'd committed statutory rape, or abused their wives, had been arrested, the raid might've been a success. Aside from that long-ago failed raid, little has been done. As noted above, abuse and rape is mostly ignored. Polygamous fundamentalist Mormon communities continue to recieve vast amounts of money from the government. Colorado City, for example, the residents receive eight dollars in government services for every tax dollar paid. By comparison, residents of the rest of the Mohave County receive just over a dollar for every dollar paid in taxes. Read more | |||
| Lawsuit seeks damages, family information from polygamist leader | |||
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By Jennifer Dobner The Associated Press North County Times - California Originally published May 2, 2007 | |||
| SALT LAKE CITY -- A lawsuit filed against the head of a polygamy-practicing church demands information about the family that an Idaho man contends was taken from him as punishment for his lack of faith. Attorneys for Wendell Musser filed the civil lawsuit against Warren Jeffs on Friday in St. George's 5th District Court. Jeffs, 51, is head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Members believe polygamy will bring them glorification in heaven. Jeffs is being held at Purgatory Correctional Facility, the Washington County jail in Hurricane, on two first-degree felony charges of rape as an accomplice for his role in marrying a 14-year-old church girl to her 19-year-old cousin in 2001. No trial date is set. A telephone message left Tuesday for Jeffs' criminal attorneys, Wally Bugden and Tara Isaacson, by The Associated Press was not immediately returned. Court documents filed in support of the lawsuit say Musser worked for Jeffs as a family caretaker, living in hiding at various locations in Colorado to protect several of Jeffs' plural wives. But Musser was cast out of the fold after being arrested for investigation of drunken driving in 2006 and was forced to leave his wife Vivian and infant son Levi behind. As directed, Musser returned to Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., where an estimated 10,000 church members live, and wrote letters of repentance to Jeffs. Read more | |||
| Polygamy Film "Damned to Heaven" Features Cult Survivors | |||
| Documentary Premieres at Krakow Film Festival as Cult Leader Warren Jeffs Awaits Trial | |||
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Business Wire Originally published May 30, 2007 | |||
| LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The documentary film, "Damned to Heaven," premieres at the 47th annual Krakow Film Festival in Krakow, Poland, May 31 - June 5, as one of 10 (out of 300 submissions) to premiere in the World Panorama program. The Krakow Film Festival is one of the oldest and most respected documentary film festivals in Europe. "Damned to Heaven" will premiere at the Pod Baranami Palace on June 3. "Damned to Heaven" is the story of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS), a polygamist religious sect located in the southwestern United States on the Utah and Arizona border, headed by self-proclaimed prophet, Warren Jeffs. In May 2006, Jeffs was added to the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list. He was captured last September, and currently awaits trial in September 2007, on two counts of first-degree felony rape and the arranged marriage of a 14-year-old girl to her adult cousin. Co-directors Thomas Elliott and Pawel Gula conceived the film, which details the practice of polygamy; sexual and physical abuse; and marriage of underage girls in Colorado City, Arizona. Elliott and Gula had the foresight to begin filming months before Jeffs' capture came to the attention of the American public. The documentary contains exclusive interviews with former cult survivors, many of whom came forward to tell their story for the first time. Read more | |||
| Escape from polygamy | |||
| I started sewing my wedding dress when I was 14 years old. Most girls would never think of marriage at such a young age, but some of my peers were already wives and mothers. I knew it wouldn't be long before I was married off, just like my mother had been, to a man who would eventually have three or more wives. | |||
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By Kathy Jo Nicholson with Jan Brown Glamour Magazine July 2007 Issue | |||
| I was one of 13 children raised by our father and three mothers in a fundamentalist Mormon community in Utah. The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) is not associated with regular Mormonism (LDS). FLDS followers practice the "Principle" of polygamy, which is now banned by the mainstream Latter Day Saints. The idea behind polygamy in the FLDS is that a man must have at least three wives in order to go to heaven. Young girls are "placed" with husbands by the church leader, or Prophet. These spiritual marriages are not legally binding, but in the eyes of FLDS members, they are sacred. If a woman serves her husband faithfully, he may invite her to join him in the celestial kingdom of heaven. But should a woman disobey the Prophet and refuse a life of polygamy, she will be damned to eternal hell. Read more | |||
| Former Polygamist Speaks Out | |||
| Kathy Nicholson Was Preparing for Her Marriage at Age 14 | |||
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Good Morning America ABC News Originally broadcast July 2, 2007 | |||
| Being a 14-year-old girl is hard. Being a 14-year-old girl who's isolated from society, has multiple mothers and is preparing for her wedding is almost unimaginable. That was Kathy Nicholson's life -- until she broke free from America's largest polygamist sect, the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints. The 36-year-old grew up with one dad, three moms and 13 brothers and sisters. She said that while such a lifestyle at times mirrors the one portrayed in HBO's popular series "Big Love," in reality, polygamy is much more pain than pleasure. "I watched my dad go from bedroom to bedroom, tell the wives, 'I love you, good night,' and then crawl into bed with whoever had the turn that night," Nicholson told ABC's John Quinones. "It's a very, very lonely life for those women. And they're told to just swallow their pride, swallow their emotions and 'keep sweet.'" "Keep sweet" meant girls should accept the polygamist lifestyle and the men's wishes without complaint. "'Keep sweet' -- that means don't question," Nicholson said. "That means don't flinch when your husband puts his hands on his other wife's knee or chooses two nights in a row with the other wife because she's ovulating." Read more | |||
| Woman reveals childhood in polygamous household | |||
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By Amanda Townsend CNN Originally published July 31, 2007 | |||
| CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (CNN) -- When polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs appeared in a Las Vegas courtroom last August, Kathy Jo Nicholson, a former member of Jeffs' sect, felt fearful even though she was only watching him on television. "It devastated me. It elated me. It made me afraid. I looked at this man that was so powerful in my life ... and he was just so thin and pale," she said. Today, as Warren Jeffs sits at Utah's Purgatory Correctional Facility awaiting trial, Nicholson has started talking publicly about her childhood in the church Jeffs led -- the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS). She hopes that by sharing her story she will help others struggling with similar issues. "My hope is that they, they'll see it, and it'll mean something," the 36-year-old said. Nicholson recently co-authored an article about leaving her polygamous community for Glamour magazine and is planning to write a book as well. Jeffs, whose approximately 10,000 followers practice polygamy mainly in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, is charged in Utah with being an accomplice to rape by arranging the marriage of a 14-year-old girl to her 19-year-old cousin. He faces additional charges in Arizona. As a child, Nicholson had three mothers and 12 siblings. She considers it a typical FLDS home. At the age of 14, Nicholson started sewing her wedding dress in anticipation of getting married. She knew that at any moment she could be whisked away to meet her husband and that her future likely would include at least two "sister wives." Read more | |||
| Watch Kathy Jo's live interview with Gary Tuchman based on this story above | |||
| Woman describes life in polygamous sect | |||
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United Press International Originally published September 11, 2007 | |||
| LAS VEGAS, 11 (UPI) -- A woman who grew up in the Utah-based polygamous sect headed by Warren Jeffs tells CNN that she fled 20 years ago to escape a polygamous marriage. Sara Hammon said that her father, who had 19 wives and 75 children, molested her for years -- but he could not remember her name. Hammon grew up in the twin towns of Hilldale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., where most members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints live. The sect split from the Mormons more than a century ago. "Probably the worst part of the whole theology," she said, "is the treatment of women and teaching women that they are not equal to men." Hammon told CNN that she thinks too much attention is paid to Jeffs, now on trial for arranging the marriage of a 14-year-old girl to a cousin. "Warren Jeffs is just a person to focus on,” she said. "This system is a well-oiled machine, there's always going to be somebody to step up and take his place. What he has done is terrible ... but I know a lot of other men who were out there and in charge who did some pretty terrible things too." | |||
| Persecution Complex | |||
| Prophet Warren Jeffs' conviction won't stop underage marriages among his followers, much less end polygamy | |||
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By John Dougherty Phoenix New Times Originally published October 4, 2007 | |||
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The recent conviction of Mormon polygamist leader Warren Steed Jeffs on two felony counts of rape as an accomplice is a huge public relations victory for Utah and Arizona authorities who have been under intense pressure to crack down on so-called "spiritual" marriages of underage girls.
But it is doubtful that the conviction of the leader of the nation's largest polygamist sect — considered by his followers to be God's prophet on Earth — will stop illegal marriages of children or stem polygamy. That Jeffs is headed for prison will not even mean a new prophet will reign over the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Insiders say Jeffs' second-in-command, Wendell Nielsen, is running day-to-day operations of the church but that Warren, reminiscent of top organized crime figures, will rule the FLDS from behind bars. That includes deciding who will marry whom in the religion. More than 50 years of government indifference toward widespread abuses within the FLDS has allowed the sect to grow from fewer than 400 people scratching out a living on the remote Arizona Strip in 1953 to an economic powerhouse with more than 10,000 members spread across the West. The sheer size and wealth of the rapidly reproducing congregation, which accounts for only a quarter of the estimated number of polygamists in Arizona and Utah, have forced law enforcement to focus on the most notorious crimes while conceding that little will be done to stem a practice that violates the Arizona and Utah constitutions and has been found unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. Read more | |||
| Eye-opening look at Colorado City's children | |||
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By Richard de Uriarte, editorial writer The Arizona Republic Originally published October 27, 2007 | |||
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After reading reporter Amanda Crawford's account of life in Colorado City, you're struck by the systematic abuse of children, the callous disregard for their futures: A junior in high school testing at a fifth-grade level? Parents pulling kids out of public schools? And until just recently, authorities in two states reluctant to do anything.
Webmaster's note - read these stories: Woman who fled polygamous sect tries for new life After fleeing polygamist sect, woman struggled to find her way | |||
| One Woman's 'Escape' From Polygamy | |||
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Good Morning America Originally broadcast October 29, 2007 | |||
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By the time Carolyn Jessop was 18 years old, she had been coerced into an arranged marriage with a stranger who was 32 years older. Merrill Jessop already had three wives when he and Carolyn got married, but their relationship wasn't uncommon because she was part of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, a cult run by recently convicted Warren Jeffs. Now, she has written a book about her life in one of the country's most infamous sects and it's called "Escape." Her dramatic first-person account details life inside the religious group that garnered national headlines. Jessop, who was born and raised in the group, escaped with her eight children after 17 years of marriage. She then became the first woman ever granted full custody of her children in a contested suit involving the FLDS.
For more on her story, read an excerpt of Jessop's book below.
Early Childhood I was born in the bitter cold but into warm and loving hands. Aunt Lydia Jessop was the midwife who brought me into the world on January 1, 1968, just two hours after midnight. Aunt Lydia could not believe I'd survived. She was the midwife who had delivered babies for two generations, including my mother. When she saw the placenta, she realized that my mother had chronic placental abruption. Mom had hemorrhaged throughout her pregnancy and thought she was miscarrying. But when the bleeding stopped, she shrugged it off, assuming she was still pregnant. Aunt Lydia, the midwife, said that by the time I was born, the placenta was almost completely detached from the uterus. My mother could have bled to death and I could have been born prematurely or, worse, stillborn. Read more | |||
| COVER: Children of Polygamists | |||
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Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly - Episode no. 1109 PBS Originally broadcast November 2, 2007 | |||
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FRED DE SAM LAZARO, guest anchor: Next, to southern Utah and to the pain of children cast out or escaping from polygamous communities. Polygamy was outlawed by the Mormon Church more than 100 years ago, but it has survived in pockets, largely isolated on the edge of Mormon society and the law. The recent trial and conviction of Warren Jeffs shed some light on the practices of the polygamist group he led, called the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The Jeffs case has galvanized efforts to rehabilitate children leaving these communities who number anywhere from 600 to 1,000. Correspondent Lucky Severson provides a glimpse into their lives.
LUCKY SEVERSON: This is St. George, Utah, not far away from a polygamist town that's been accused of driving away many of its young men. KEVIN (to Bruce): Homecoming was so cool. SEVERSON: It's why there's a new shelter here, funded by the state and private doners, to care for kids who have been kicked out of or ran away from the only home they ever knew -- kids like Kevin and Bruce, who had been told that the outside world was a terrible place. BRUCE: We were told everyone out here was bad and nobody cared about you. Nobody is going to help you. KEVIN: Everybody kind of has a hard time. I mean, you always stick out because, I mean, you were raised so much different. Read more | |||
| Forced-marriage tale grim | |||
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By Anne Stephenson, The Arizona Republic The Wichita Eagle - Wichita, Kansas Originally published Sunday, November 4, 2007 | |||
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"Escape" by Carolyn Jessop (Broadway, 432 pages, $24.95)
Carolyn Blackmore was 18 when she was forced to marry Merril Jessop, who was 50 and, like Carolyn, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She was Jessop's fourth wife. Seventeen years later, when she fled his Colorado City home in the middle of the night with her eight kids in tow, Merril had six wives and close to 50 children. Carolyn's story of life in his oppressive household is as bizarre as they come, a mix of horror and black comedy. Merril, guided by church leader Warren Jeffs, reigned over terrorized children and wives who competed desperately for his attention ("Sex was the only currency I had to spend in my marriage," writes the author. "Every polygamist wife knows that."). The sheer chaos of it brings a few laughs, but at its heart the story is grim tribute to those who've been bold enough to leave. | |||
| Polygamy may eclipse threat charges | |||
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By Ben Winslow Deseret Morning News Originally published Wednesday, November 7, 2007 | |||
| A southern Utah man accused of mailing a letter threatening to kill IRS agents will go on trial next week in federal court. But the judge presiding over the trial is expressing concern that Thomas Vaughn Barlow's polygamist past may eclipse the otherwise straightforward federal charges of mailing a threatening communication and interfering with the administration of internal revenue laws. During a brief hearing in federal court on Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Ted Stewart took special note of Barlow's past as a polygamist and member of the Fundamentalist LDS Church, saying he was "not anxious to bring it up" before a jury. "We plan for some of the information to come out at trial. It's a necessary part of the background for the defense," Barlow's attorney Daphne Oberg told the judge. "To the curious mind ... it may become a trial over polygamy," Stewart told Oberg. "Evaluate it very carefully." Assistant U.S. Attorney John Huber said federal prosecutors did not plan to focus on Barlow's past and did not even plan to mention prior criminal charges of attempted kidnapping and domestic violence. "I think that could become really confusing to a jury and can become a trial within a trial," Huber said outside of court. In August, Barlow, 47, was indicted by a federal grand jury, accused of mailing a threatening letter to Internal Revenue Service agents. Copies were also sent to Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. Read more | |||
| Polygamy film wins Red Rock Film Festival award | |||
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The Spectrum Originally published November 9, 2007 | |||
| ST. GEORGE – "Damned to Heaven" received the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature at the Red Rock Film Festival this past weekend in St. George. The documentary now moves to New Mexico for the esteemed Santa Fe Film Festival, Nov. 28 through Dec. 2. "Damned to Heaven", produced by Fresh Produce Media, documents the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a polygamist religious sect on the Utah/Arizona border, headed by Warren Jeffs. Jeffs was placed on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list In May of 2006 and captured the following August. Documentary filmmaker, Thomas Elliott, conceived the idea for the film, and approached cinematographer Pawel Gula to collaborate. Elliott and Gula had the foresight to begin filming months before Jeffs’ capture came to the attention of the American public. "Damned to Heaven" details the practice of polygamy, sexual and physical abuse and marriage of underage girls in Colorado City, Ariz. The film contains exclusive interviews with former cult survivors, many of whom came forward to tell their story for the first time. Read more | |||
| Watch footage from the documentary | |||
| Southern Utahn convicted for sending threats to IRS | |||
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By Geoffrey Fattah Deseret Morning News Originally published Friday, November 16, 2007 | |||
| A southern Utah man has been convicted by a federal jury for mailing threatening letters to the Internal Revenue Service and other government officials. After a three-day trial, the jury Thursday returned verdicts of guilty on counts of mailing threatening communications and interfering with IRS laws against 47-year-old Thomas Vaughn Barlow. Barlow was indicted last August by a federal grand jury of mailing threatening letters to the IRS, as well as sending copies of those letters to Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. Federal prosecutors said some of the letters dealt with Barlow's history with the FLDS Church, while others threatened to kill IRS agents. Barlow has had a past run-in with state law, having previously been charged in St. George with attempted kidnapping, assault and commission of domestic violence in the presence of a child. He was accused of trying to kidnap one of his ex-wives. Read more | |||
| Wyler requests lesser bail, is denied | |||
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By Ryan Dionne The Spectrum Originally published December 4, 2007 | |||
| CEDAR CITY - A judge denied Wayland W. Wyler's request for reduced bail Monday. Wyler, 40, is charged with first-degree sodomy on a child and aggravated sexual abuse of a child. He failed to appear in court Oct. 15 for a status update. When he didn't show, the judge gave him a second chance to appear on Oct. 16. Again, he didn't show. Wyler's attorney, Kenneth Combs, said Monday that the suspect was in the hospital for carbon monoxide poisoning suffered while reportedly working on his vehicle in the garage. Combs even brought in a woman, who reportedly lives with Wyler, to vouch for him. But that didn't seem to matter as the story contradicted Combs' to some extent. From the witness stand, the woman said she found Wyler unresponsive on the garage floor with greasy hands and the hood of his truck open - presumably trying to fix the vehicle. And while Wyler was arrested in Washington County after being in the hospital, contrary to Combs' excuse for Wyler not showing, the woman said the vehicle wasn't running and the garage door was open. The suspect was later arrested on a $50,000 cash-only warrant and remains in Iron County Jail. Chief Deputy Iron County Attorney Troy Little said Wyler has always been considered a flight risk and he believes Wyler was trying to injure himself in October when he went to the hospital. He reportedly didn't appear in court on Oct. 15 because his truck was inoperable, yet the woman he lives with was home and could have taken him, she said, but she didn't know he was supposed to appear. | |||
| Man to stand trial for abuse | |||
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By Tiffany De Masters The Spectrum Originally published December 8, 2007 | |||
| ST. GEORGE - Fifth District Judge Eric Ludlow decided after a preliminary hearing Friday that Wayland Wyler, 40, will stand trial on two counts of sodomy of a child. At Friday's hearing the alleged victim, a female relative of Wyler took the stand and gave her testimony. The 13-year-old sat on the stand while Ryan Shaum, with the Washington County Attorney's Office, and defense attorney Kenneth Combs asked her questions about the alleged sexual abuse. Although the abuse allegedly occurred at several locations, both attorneys focused on incidents that occurred while the juvenile was living in Ivins and St. George. While on the stand the juvenile couldn't recall specific dates. "We have a 13-year-old girl that does struggle with dates. In terms of the actual abuse, she's clear of how it happened and where it happened," Shaum said. He said a medical report from an examination of the juvenile corroborates her statements about sexual abuse. Wyler decided to plead innocent and has decided to go to trial. Ludlow addressed Wyler, stating that if he is convicted of the crimes he could spend five, 10 or 15 years to life in prison. "That could be up to your natural life," Ludlow said. Read more | |||
| Escape from a "live-animal trap" | |||
| Polygamous wife pens riveting drama of life in fundamentalist Mormon sect | |||
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By Sandra Dallas Special to The Denver Post Originally published December 8, 2007 | |||
| "I was beyond caring about Merrill Jessop," recalls his former wife Carolyn as she watched her husband walk out of the delivery room with another wife. "I knew my marriage to him was completely over." Carolyn had just given birth to her seventh child — her husband's 53rd. Merrill Jessop would go on to father more than 100. Contemporary polygamy is something of a joke, the subject of a television drama. Outsiders wonder why, if the women are unhappy, they just don't leave. The answer is in "Escape," a riveting account of Carolyn's life as a plural wife in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), presided over by the infamous Warren Jeffs, recently convicted of rape for ordering a 14-year-old girl to marry an older cousin. Polygamous marriage is a "live-animal trap," Carolyn claims. (The FLDS church is not connected with the larger LDS church, and any Mormon who practices polygamy is excommunicated.) FLDS conditioning begins at a young age, when children are taught the outside world is evil, says the author. Instead of hide-and-seek, children play apocalypse. Girls learn they're worthless and must blindly obey their husbands, most of whom are chosen for them. Women are admonished to "keep sweet," to stay in harmony with their husbands, who are their priesthood heads and whose will they must not only obey but also anticipate. Their salvation is at stake. A woman gains eternal life only through her husband, and at his whim, she lives in paradise as a goddess or spends eternity as a servant to his other wives. Little wonder more antidepressants are sold in southern Utah and northern Arizona, where the FLDS is based, than almost anywhere else in the country. Read more | |||
| Racist Cults | |||
| FLDS Leader Convicted in Child Rape | |||
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Intelligence Report Southern Poverty Law Center - Montgomery, Alabama Winter 2007 | |||
| Polygamous prophet Warren Jeffs has been convicted on two counts of rape as an accomplice and faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced late this year. This is Jeffs' first criminal conviction, although the cult leader faces civil lawsuits in several other cases filed by former followers. Jeffs, who finally was brought to trial after nearly two years on the run, is the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), which splintered off from the Mormon Church in 1890 and has compounds in southern Utah, northern Arizona, Texas, Colorado, South Dakota, Canada and Mexico. In addition to his controversial teachings on the marriageability of young girls, the rail-thin prophet preaches to his more than 10,000 followers that "the black race is the people through which the devil has always been able to bring evil unto the earth." He says that homosexual intimacy "is the worst evil act you can do, next to murder." And he believes that members of the government and the Mormon Church, plus all those outside the cult, are "wicked" people who God will strike from the earth. Read more | |||
| I shared hubby with 5 cult wives | |||
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By David Lowe The Sun - London, England Originally published January 22, 2008 | |||
| WHEN Carolyn Jessop sums up the first 35 years of her life, she calls it a "horror story." But then beatings, polygamy and even child cruelty were part and parcel of her existence in the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints cult. Carolyn’s family stretches back eight generations within the sinister breakaway group of the Mormon church. Forced to marry a 50-year-old when she was just 18, not only did Carolyn bear Merril Jessop eight kids in 15 years, she also shared him with five other wives. Initially, Carolyn could accept sect traditions like multiple marriages, the ban on sugar, and the modest dress code. But she couldn’t accept her husband’s claim that their son Harrison had been struck with cancer as God’s punishment. When Carolyn made it clear she wouldn’t let the tot die, Merril launched into a violent attack and threw her across the room. Afterwards, as she tearfully tended her wounds, the cracks in Carolyn’s faith began to show. And soon she was plotting to escape with her children from the twisted cult that had brainwashed them all. Read more | |||
| Hildale man to serve time for IRS threats | |||
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News Briefs Deseret Morning News Originally published Saturday, February 16, 2008 | |||
| A Hildale man convicted of sending threats to the Internal Revenue Service and other government officials has been sentenced to serve nearly two years in prison. Thomas Vaughn Barlow, 47, was sentenced Thursday to serve 21 months in federal prison after being convicted of mailing threatening communications. Barlow was accused of mailing threats to the IRS and to Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. Federal prosecutors said some of the letters dealt with Barlow's history with the Fundamentalist LDS Church, a polygamous sect based on the Utah-Arizona border. | |||
| Questions surrounding Polygamy and divorce | |||
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By Mike Watkiss / 3TV KTVK - Phoenix Originally broadcast February 19, 2008 | |||
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PHOENIX - Anybody who's been through a divorce knows child custody battles can be brutal. But what happens when those battles are fought against the backdrop of polygamy? Mike Watkiss shares the story of a woman who ran away from polygamy and is fighting to protect her children from what she calls a cycle of abuse. In the minds of a lot of people, with the conviction of Warren Jeffs, the polygamy story came to an end. Far from it. Even as we speak, Arizona lawmakers are grappling with the issue of child custody where polygamy is involved. Should polygamous men be prohibited from fighting for their children? Should courts even consider polygamy? One woman watching this debate very closely is a mother of 8 names Sarine Jessop, who said basically, all of this is the story of her life. Watch the video | |||
| Moroni Jessop corresponds with Mike Watkiss | |||
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KTVK Channel 3 - Phoenix Originally published February 19, 2008 | |||
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Mike,
I wanted to share a few additional comments with you in regard to your story about my former sister-in-law Sarine Jessop. I sort of feel that the camera stole my eloquence. I know that generally your stories in the Polygamy Diaries deal with the negative aspects of polygamy, but, as you know, there are more moderate voices out there who: a) support polygamy and b) do not want to tolerate abuse. I am chagrined that my voice is coming into this in connection to a case that is associated with someone close to me being accused of things that I have always spoken against. It is undeniable that there are many cases in plural marriage where some have had to suffer abuses due to this lifestyle. But those that insist that abuse is inherent in polygamy are wrong. This assumption is unscientific and not researched. (For more info, see "Contemporary Polygamous Families in Modern Society" by Dr. Irwin Altman & Dr. Joseph Ginat, a book that concludes that abuse & dysfunction occur in no greater rate in polygamous families than they do in monogamous families.) Those in this lifestyle who have had to suffer have done so because of the secrecy that I mentioned. This secrecy has been created because polygamy is illegal and has been forced underground. The secrecy has bred a culture that has thrived out of the public eye and allowed the abuses of men with power agendas. If consenting adults were allowed to live this lifestyle out in the open and with dignity, there would be no shadows in which vile men could take child brides or force women into a situation that they do not want to be in. I do not believe nor advocate that polygamy should ever be legalized. But it would be nice to live in a world where people like me could be out in the open without fear of recrimination or having our children yanked away from us. Read more | |||
| Photos suggest FLDS contractors using child labor | |||
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John Hollenhorst reporting KSL 5 TV Originally broadcast February 21st, 2008 | |||
| Contractors say it's a fact of life in Southern Utah: children working on construction sites for companies with ties to Warren Jeffs. We have photos that raise the prospect of an illegal practice that seems commonplace, even though it's rarely prosecuted. Rival contractors sometimes call it slave labor, kids of polygamists working far below the legal age. Under most circumstances, that's 16 for construction and 18 for dangerous tasks. Other contractors say they see kid workers all the time, and it drains dollars away from them to the FLDS Church. Driving past the Cedar City Walgreen's a couple of weeks ago, private eye Sam Brower saw something that made him grab his camera. "Some little kids out working on a construction site," he says. He snapped two photos of a boy he'd seen working with concrete. He appeared exceptionally young. Brower said, "I'm gonna guess about 8, maybe." He also photographed an older boy on the job site and at the wheel of a water truck belonging to R & W Excavating. The head of that company is Willie Jessop, who once testified he was a bodyguard for now-imprisoned polygamist Warren Jeffs. R & W sent us an e-mail denying what the photos seem to show. It said, "We are unaware of the incident to which you refer. We DO NOT employ or condone underage people on our job sites." Brower has investigated the FLDS community for years and says Jeffs has been enriched by child laborers. "They usually stop school at about 8 years old, as soon as they can learn to read a tape measure, and then they're out on a construction job somewhere." Read more | |||
| Author speaks in Redlands about escaping from polygamist cult | |||
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By Megan McClain Redlands Daily Facts - Redlands, California Originally published March 18, 2008 | |||
| Redlands: A woman who escaped from a polygamist cult spoke Tuesday evening about her life in the group and escaping with her children. Carolyn Jessop, a former member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, spoke to a large crowd at the Orton Center at the University of Redlands. She is co-author of the book "Escape", which talks about the ordeal. "Our guest's story is truly a testament to the human spirit," said university student Justin Jimenez, 18, who introduced Jessop at the event. He said the book will be turned into a film starring Katherine Heigl. Carolyn Jessop decided to escape from the Colorado City, Ariz., polygamist group at 35. She said she was the product of six generations of polygamy. "I was taught to be proud of and value that lifestyle," Jessop said. She talked about daily life in the group, which included conservative lifestyles, indoctrination and community projects involving building houses in a day. She had asked her father's permission to go to school to become a doctor at 18. Her father asked the group's leader, who is considered a prophet, and granted her permission to be a teacher and marry Merril Jessop, a man with three other wives and 32 years her senior. She said his 10 teenage daughters were not happy with their father marrying someone their age. Read more | |||
| A disturbing trip to Bountiful - abuse in the name of God | |||
| An angry B.C. journalist demands to know who is going to protect the young from the polygamists | |||
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By Kim Hughes Toronto Star - Ontario, Canada Originally published March 30, 2008 | |||
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The Secret Lives of Saints:
Child Brides and Lost Boys in Canada's Polygamous Mormon Sect by Daphne Bramham Random House Canada, 464 pages, $32.95 Suggesting a North American religious group is like the dreaded Taliban is a grave accusation. Fighting words, you might say, and sure to spin heads. But Vancouver Sun columnist Daphne Bramham has plenty of strong language for the polygamous Mormons of Bountiful, B.C., Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Ariz. – members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or FLDS for short. In her riveting and unsettling book, The Secret Lives of Saints, Bramham variously calls them extortionists, misogynists, racists, child abusers and, most disturbingly, pedophiles. She says the Taliban has nothing on the FLDS where revolting attitudes toward women and children are concerned. Though she concedes that "credit" for the "North America Taliban" designation belongs to Utah Attorney General and FLDS nemesis Mark Shurtleff, Bramham's book is a forceful corroboration of the comparison. Not for nothing did American FLDS leader Warren Jeffs occupy a spot opposite Osama bin Laden on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List before his capture outside Las Vegas in 2006. He would eventually be found guilty of two counts of rape as an accomplice. Yet as Bramham demonstrates time and again throughout The Secret Lives of Saints, nobody save a few vigilant reporters, prosecutors and escaped former FLDS members seems especially outraged about the plural marriages, child brides, cultish schooling and us-versus-them mentality of the sect. Read more | |||
| Official on children at FLDS ranch: 'It is not safe for them to remain' | |||
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By Paul A. Anthony and Matt Phinney San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published April 5, 2008 | |||
| Accusations that a 50-year-old man illegally married and had sex with a now-16-year-old girl led to the removal Friday of 52 girls from a secretive Schleicher County polygamist compound. Some of the girls, ages 6 months to 17 years, showed signs of having been abused or were in danger of abuse, said state Child Protective Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner. Those 18 girls have been placed in CPS custody, Meisner said. "We're dealing with many victims," she said. "There's evidence they have been abused, or are at imminent risk of harm. It is not safe for them to remain on the compound." Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Tela Mange said Friday evening officers were still searching for Dale Barlow, identified as the subject of an arrest warrant - signed by 51st District Judge Barbara Walther on Thursday afternoon and released just before 5 p.m. Friday. According to the warrant, authorities were to seize any records or documents detailing the marriage of Barlow and the 16-year-old and the resulting birth about eight months ago of a girl. It also orders the seizure of computer equipment, hard drives and data storage equipment from the ranch, as well as DVDs, videotapes and photographs. Read more | |||
| Texas ranch probe grows | |||
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By Wendy Leonard Deseret Morning News Originally published Sunday, April 6, 2008 | |||
| After FLDS Church leaders balked, local law-enforcement officials entered and searched the sect's temple late Saturday, looking for a 16-year-old girl who reported being abused. Local newspapers in Eldorado, Texas, reported that law-enforcement personnel serving a search warrant on the YFZ polygamist ranch had entered the temple, which FLDS members consider sacred, and then moved on to the temple annex. There was no report of any violence, although FLDS Church leaders had initially refused to let police enter the temple. Ambulances were moved into the area near the West Texas ranch earlier in what authorities said was a precautionary move in case things took a turn for the worse. Texas officials said Saturday that 183 individuals — including 137 infants and children — were removed from the ranch while they searched for a 16-year-old member who reported being abused. Law enforcement is "preparing for the worst," said prosecutor Allison Palmer, noting that the ambulances were being sent "in case this were to go in a way that no one wants." Of the 137 children, 18 are in custody of the Texas Child Protective Services and have already been placed in foster homes in the area. "They seem to be doing well, given the circumstances," said CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins. Those removed from the compound were taken based on evidence of abuse or neglect, Crimmins said, "or the imminent threat there might be abuse or neglect and the grounds that we are unaware of other family or caregivers that we're sure could protect them from that abuse or neglect." Read more | |||
| Former polygamists tell of isolation and brainwashing | |||
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By JACK DOUGLAS JR. Fort Worth Star-Telegram Originally published Sunday, April 6, 2008 | |||
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The young girls who have been taken from a polygamist compound in West Texas, their stares wide-eyed but blank as they pass the fields of TV cameras, come from an intolerant faith that turns women and their young daughters into "baby factories" ordered to obey the men who abuse them or suffer the wrath of God, former polygamists said Saturday. The heavy law enforcement presence at the compound of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 45 miles south of San Angelo, is eerily reminiscent of what happened on July 26, 1953, when police staged a massive raid on the Arizona polygamist community of Short Creek, taking away more than 300 women and children. "Here is a community ... dedicated to the wicked theory that every maturing girl child should be forced into the bondage of multiple wifehood with men of all ages for the sole purpose of producing more children," Arizona Gov. Howard Pyle said at the time.
Religious-rights defense But authorities retreated then, and they may be at risk of retreating again, because polygamist groups have largely been successful in arguing that such intervention tramples their religious rights and breaks up their families, said John Llewellyn, a retired Salt Lake County sheriff's lieutenant in Utah, where polygamists are most prominent. "This is a good opportunity where maybe Texas will show the rest of the country what Utah should have done years ago," said Llewellyn, 74, a former polygamist who has renounced the practice and is finishing his fifth book, tentatively titled Mormon Polygamy, A Virus of the Mind. (The mainstream Mormon church renounced polygamy more than a century ago.) Read more | |||
| Insider's View Of Polygamist Sect | |||
| Women In Them Are "Breeding Machines," Woman Who Escaped One Tells The Early Show | |||
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Julie Chen The Early Show - CBS Originally broadcast April 7, 2008 | |||
| PHOENIX, Ariz., April 7, 2008 - (CBS) The still-unfolding drama at the polygamist compound in Eldorado, Texas is focusing renewed attention on the world of polygamy. Some 200 women and children were removed Friday and Saturday from a compound built by polygamist leader Warren Jeffs after a 16-year-old girl complained of abuse. State troopers were looking for evidence of a marriage of the girl, who is said to have had a baby at 15, and 50-year-old Dale Barlow. Girls younger than 16 cannot marry under Texas law, even with parental approval. On The Early Show Monday, co-anchor Julie Chen spoke with Laurie Allen, who was born into polygamy and escaped at age 30. Her documentary, "Banking on Heaven," exposes the struggles women and children face in a polygamist sect. "(Polygamy is) a life where, as a female, you really don't think for yourself, you're basically told what to do. You really are just a breeding machine to further the agenda of the male patriarchy," Allen told Chen. "This is what I experienced." "And it's just a very oppressive environment -- or repressive. You know, you don't get education. I never finished the fourth grade growing up. So, when you do finally get the wherewithal to get out, it takes about 20 years to really transition into the outside world and to discover your own identity, because you've been taught all your life to just do what you're told." Read more | |||
| The Life of a Polygamous Woman | |||
| Warren Jeffs Had Strict Rules Governing His Female Followers | |||
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By DAN HARRIS, CHRIS STRATHMANN, KIRAN KHALID and IMAEYEN IBANGA Good Morning America ABC News Originally published April 8, 2008 | |||
| The various pictures of heavily-clad women - many carrying small children and boarding buses - following a weekend raid on a polygamous compound in Eldorado, Texas, has spotlighted again the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Days Saints, especially its female members. As authorities try to unravel what could be the country's largest child abuse case in the nation's history, some wonder how and why women in the cloistered community led by the jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs were silent for so long. More then 400 women have been evacuated from the compound after officials got a phone call from a female member claiming sexual misconduct. The women spend much of their days caring for children on the compound's 1,700 acres. The women till gardens, quilt and often were forced to marry while still in their teens. The main compound is concentrated along the Arizona-Utah line but several enclaves have been built elsewhere, according to The Associated Press. Former members said it's the power of persuasion and control that keeps the women captive. "He is their God. He's told these people, 'I am Jesus Christ,'" said former church member Flora Jeffs, speaking about Warren Jeffs' control. The isolation of the group, which broke off from the Mormon church after it refused church demands to ban polygamy, shows in the members' attire. Women wear hand-sewn garments, their extremely long hair pinned up in braids, and don ankle-length dresses, as if from another century. Read more | |||
| Raid shines light on secretive polygamous sect | |||
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CNN Originally published April 8, 2008 | |||
| ELDORADO, Texas (AP) -- Until the raid on their compound last week, the women and girls of the Yearning for Zion Ranch spent their days caring for its many children, tilling gardens and quilting, dressed in pioneer-style dresses sewn by their own hands. But it was no idyllic recreation of 19th-century prairie life, authorities say. Since last week, they have interviewed members of the polygamist sect looking for evidence that that girls younger than 16 were forced into marriages with older men. Five miles off the highway, beyond a double gate, the group's members live lives that are isolated even for the scruffy West Texas prairie. Their 1,700-acre ranch is like its own city, with a gleaming temple, doctor's office, school and even factories. "Once you go into the compound, you don't ever leave it," said Carolyn Jessop, who was one of the wives of the alleged leader of the Eldorado complex, but who left the sect before it began moving to Texas in 2004. By Monday, state authorities had taken legal custody of 401 children, saying they had been harmed or were in imminent danger of harm. Merrill Jessop, who oversees the ranch and is a presiding elder in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, told the Salt Lake Tribune that officers conducting the search were collecting cell phones "as fast as they can find them." He said the men were becoming worried about their wives and children because they have no Internet or television access. "There needs to be a public outcry that goes far and wide," he said. "What's coming we don't know. The hauling off of women and children matches anything in Russia or Germany." Read more | |||
| Forced Sex Alleged At Compound Temple | |||
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CBS News Originally published April 10, 2008 | |||
| (CBS/AP) Young teenage girls at a polygamist compound in West Texas were required to have sex in a soaring white temple after they were married in sect-recognized unions, according to court documents unsealed Wednesday. The temple "contains an area where there is a bed where males over the age of 17 engage in sexual activity with female children under the age of 17," said an affidavit quoting a confidential informant who left the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Agents found a bed in the temple with disturbed linens and what appeared to be a female hair, said the affidavit signed by Texas Ranger Leslie Brooks Long. The Rangers are the state's investigative law enforcement arm. The temple also contained multiple locked safes, vaults and desk drawers that authorities sought access to as they searched for records showing alleged marriages of underage girls as young as 12 or 13 to older men and births among the teens. The affidavit unsealed Wednesday mentions a 16-year-old girl who has four children. Texas law prohibits polygamy and the marriage of girls under 16. Early Show national correspondent Hattie Kauffman reports that compounds like the one in Texas is paid for by taxpayersin the form of welfare. The more kids, the bigger the welfare check, Kauffman says. Laurie Allen, a woman who had escaped from polygamy, said, "Some of the women in this town have 26 babies." Read more | |||
| Who Foots Bill For Polygamist Communities? | |||
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Hattie Kauffman Early Show CBS News Originally broadcast April 10, 2008 | |||
| (CBS) The raid on the polygamist compound in Eldorado, Texas has not only focused public attention on such sects, it's sparked many questions about them. One such query: Who pays their bills? A significant part of the answer, according to Early Show national correspondent Hattie Kauffman is -- taxpayers, in the form of welfare. Kauffman and Laurie Allen, who escaped from polygamy, drove around one such community, in Colorado City, Ariz., and saw many mammoth homes built to accommodate multiple wives and children. How the man of the house can afford to build such super-sized dwellings! The answer: He can't. He doesn't pay for them, you do. As Allen explained to Kauffman, "What happens is a man marries one wife, she's his legal wife, then he marries ten other wives in the church, and all the other wives are, by law, single women, so they have all these children with him, and they all get welfare." The more kids, the bigger the welfare check, Kauffman points out. "Some of the women in this town have 26 babies," Allen told her. And the women, Kauffman adds, have no choice. The fundamentalists believe a man needs three wives to get into heaven. And the wives exist for one reason: to make babies. "On my wedding night, I was raped," another escapee from polygamy, Pam Black, said to Kauffman. She had 13 babies but, she says, "knew nothing about sexuality or intimacy, friendship." Read more | |||
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Polygamy Gets Taxpayer Boost CBS Early Show - April 10, 2008 A polygamist's additional wives are legally considered single mothers, receiving welfare from the state that funds the community. Hattie Kauffman reports and interviews a woman who escaped. | |||
| Birth defect is plaguing children in FLDS towns | |||
| Fumarase Deficiency afflicts 20, is linked to marriages of close kin | |||
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By John Hollenhorst KSL-TV Deseret Morning News Originally published Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2006 (Republished Thursday, April 10, 2008) | |||
| It's one of the darkest secrets of the Warren Jeffs polygamist community. An especially severe form of birth defect is on the rise and may mushroom in coming generations. "I don't want to describe it in too much detail," said Isaac Wyler, who was related by marriage to some of the victims. "It's not a real pretty sight." According to experts and former Jeffs followers, the cause of the birth defect is clear: Intermarriage among close relatives is producing children who have two copies of a recessive gene for a debilitating condition called Fumarase Deficiency. They predict the scale of the problem will increase dramatically in the future. Wyler, who has lived in the polygamist community most of his life, said he expects residents to continue marrying close relatives. "Around here," Wyler said, "you're pretty much related to everybody." Fumarase Deficiency is an enzyme irregularity that causes severe mental retardation, epileptic seizures and other cruel effects that leave children nearly helpless and unable to take care of themselves. Dr. Theodore Tarby has treated many of the children at clinics in Arizona under contracts with the state. All are retarded. "In the severe category of mental retardation," the neurologist said, "which means an IQ down there around 25 or so." Until a few years ago, scientists knew of only 13 cases of Fumarase Deficiency in the entire world. Tarby said he's now aware of 20 more victims, all within a few blocks of each other on the Utah-Arizona border. Read more | |||
| Colorado City CPS phone call resembles one made in Texas | |||
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By Amanda J. Crawford The Arizona Republic Originally published April 11, 2008 | |||
| Arizona child-welfare officials are investigating a call from a 16-year-old girl alleging sexual abuse in the polygamist stronghold of Colorado City - a call similar to one in Texas that led officials to raid a related polygamist compound last week and take more than 400 children into state custody. The calls came within a week of each other and were allegedly made by girls of the same age and involved similar allegations of abuse. In both cases, the calls were made to outside organizations and referred to child-welfare authorities. In both cases, officials were unable to immediately find the girls who made the calls. It is unclear at this time whether the calls are related. But the Arizona case prompted a significantly different response than in Texas where police officers stormed the compound of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, took all the children into state custody and confiscated evidence from the temple. In Arizona, no children have been taken into state custody - in part, officials say, because of differences in the communities and state laws. "I don't have the authority, and local officials don't have the authority, to go in and, based on an unverified phone call, sweep up 400 children," said Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, who has made cracking down on abuses in Colorado City a hallmark of his administration. "If we found that girl (who made the allegations), we could take her into custody and perhaps her siblings in custody. There is no way in Arizona law we could reach any further." Read more | |||
| Expert: FLDS Polygamist Group is A Classic Cult | |||
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By Jim Cross KTAR 92.3 - Phoenix Originally published April 11, 2008 | |||
| The raid on a polygamist compound in Texas could signal the beginning of the end of a lifestyle that has flown under the radar in America, according to an expert on cults. The Fundamentalist Church of Latter-day Saints, which operates the compound near Eldorado, Texas, along with other communities around the country -- including Colorado City, Ariz. -- fits the classic criteria of a cult, according to Rick Ross. He says there are about 50,000 polygamists living in North America and Mexico. "The level of harm done by polygamist groups is horrific, and, in particular, this group (FLDS) has a long history of very seriously damaging children through sexual abuse, neglect and physical abuse." More than 400 children were taken from the Texas compound after authorities received a phone call from a 16-year-old girl, who said she had been forced to marry an older man and have his child. Arizona authorities received a similar call from a 16-year-old girl in Colorado City, but authorities said they had no power to act on the unverified call. These children come from a "world within our world," completely controlled by the church group, according to Ross. "Without television, without newspapers, without all the things that kids grow up with these days. All information, all associations, everything around them controlled by the organization." The harm done to children by the FLDS church, whose leader Warren Jeffs is jailed on sex charges in Kingman, is amazing, Ross says. As soon as children reach puberty, Ross says, "they become so much like a commodity that has literally been passed from one community to another community... The child can be married off, her husband can take her as so much property. She is obliged to obey him and submit to him, even if he's violent, even if he's abusive." Read more | |||
| Women also to blame for abuse | |||
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Opinion The Spectrum Originally published April 16, 2008 | |||
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The article I read of a mother's plea for her children at the FLDS compound in Texas is alarming. The traumatization of these children could be a direct result of a mother allowing her children to be abused by an adult male.
It would not be necessary for a physical examination if there were not accusations that these children had been violated. How do they think these children got pregnant? If you choose to live like this, that's your choice as an adult. These children only know what they are taught, and I am sure if taught to be children again they would be just as happy. These women are not so stupid that they don't know the laws. Why else would they move to Texas where it is OK to marry off a 16-year-old child. My prayers are with these children, and as a community there should be no pity for the adults of this compound. And the mothers should be held responsible as well as any man who committed any crimes. That would certainly send the message that in this type of environment the children lose the most. Stacy White St. George | |||
| LARRY KING LIVE | |||
| Inside Raided Polygamist Home | |||
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CNN Originally broadcast April 16, 2008 | |||
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Good evening.
We begin tonight at the Eldorado Yearning For Zion Ranch in Texas with three women, all of whom have been separated from their children. They are Esther, Marilyn and Sally. And they're in front of a bunch of other women, much faced with the same plight. Marilyn, we'll start with you. How many children do you have? MARILYN, SPEAKING FROM INSIDE YFZ RANCH: I have one. KING: Just one. How old? MARILYN: She is 7-years-old. KING: Esther, how many do you have? ESTHER, SPEAKING FROM INSIDE YFZ RANCH: I have five. KING: And what are their ages? ESTHER: They range from six to 13. KING: And, Sally, how many do you have? SALLY, SPEAKING FROM INSIDE YFZ RANCH: I have nine that they have taken, ages 5 to 17. KING: Were you -- Marilyn, were you surprised at the raid? MARILYN: Yes, sir, I sure was. KING: What were you doing at the time? MARILYN: I was eating dinner. KING: And was your child with you? MARILYN: Yes, she was. KING: And, Esther, tell us what happened. ESTHER: At the time, I was doing what I call story and song with my son. We were singing and reading and I was helping him with his after-school homework. And... KING: And did they just come bursting in? ESTHER: They said they want -- there's a whole group of people out at the gate. That was the first we knew it. This was April 3. So we came up to the window to see what was going on. We could see no one out there. Read more | |||
| Outside Looking In | |||
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By Claudia, Assistant Editor PoliGazette News and Analysis from Different Moderate Perspectives Originally published April 17th, 2008 | |||
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Poligazette is priveledged to give you an EXCLUSIVE interview with an ex-member of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). Les Zitting is a survivor. For decades he has lived with the memories and worked through the difficulties of someone brought up in the heart of a sect. He is the 6th son of a woman who was herself the 9th wife of one of the leaders of the FLDS in the 50s, Charles Zitting. His father died when Les was only four years old. His mother remarried, and Les has a total of 16 siblings and half-siblings, including an eldest brother who is still prominent within the FLDS and a sister married into the also prominent Jessop family and sisters and nieces married to Warren Jeffs. He has graciously allowed himself to be interviewed about what life is like within the FLDS and his views on the situation currently underway in Texas.
Q. News reports say that abuse was commonplace within the sect, and that girls were forced to marry upon reaching puberty. Based on your personal experience and knowledge of the group, would you say this is an accurate portrayal or is it more sensationalist? Were girls being "married" before the age of 16 commonplace or the exception? A. I would have to answer TRUE and some even much earlier than age 12. Q. Is there any awareness inside the group that sexual relations between a very young teen and a man decades her senior is inappropriate? Do you know if girls feel it’s wrong in any way or do they simply accept it as "gods will"? A. How can a boy or girl even question who does what, when the only thing you have ever understood is — we are the "Elite people of God" and our Leaders are in His "Perfect Will". You do not even question!! Read more | |||
| Polygamy in the American Southwest - Child Brides, Polygamous Communities | |||
| Colorado City, Arizona and Hilldale, Utah | |||
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By Elizabeth R. Rose Southwest US Travel About.com - a part of The New York Times Company Originally published April 17, 2008 | |||
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If you happen to be driving along in Utah or on the Utah-Arizona border you know you are in a land founded by hard-working Mormons. As I visited Bryce and Zion National Parks, we encountered some charming villages down some of the back roads that had, as their centers, a Mormon Church. The Mormons have had a very positive effect on the countryside. The towns are orderly and close-knit.
While these small towns are charming, there is a darker side to aspects of fundamentalist sects that have their roots in the Church of Latter-Day Saints. There are those that have carried things to the extreme. The Salt Lake Tribune published a "Polygamist Leadership Tree" that provides an excellent overview of the origins and linkages between Polygamist sects in the United States and Canada. Polygamous sects have founded isolated communities in the Southwest, and have developed a society that defies the laws of both Arizona and Utah and supports polygamous marriage including the marriage of under-age girls and older men. One such community is located in Colorado City, Arizona. Colorado city (map)is in Mojave County. The closest larger community is St. George, Utah, known as a retirement and recreation community. St. George is quite a distance away. Colorado City is very isolated. Another community, Hilldale, Utah, is home to the nation's largest polygamist community. It is across the border from Colorado City. Read more | |||
| FLDS Prophet's Nephew Testifies Against Polygamists | |||
| Former Sect Member Speaks Out Against Sexual Abuse Inside Compound | |||
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Good Morning America ABC News Originally broadcast April 18, 2008 | |||
| As the nephew of Warren Jeffs, the self-proclaimed prophet of the polygamist compound in El Dorado, Texas, Brent Jeffs says that he knows all too well the misery and heartache of sexual abuse inside the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Brent Jeffs was a victim of rape and molestation at the hands, he says, of his uncle, Warren, who is currently imprisoned. In fact, it was Brent Jeffs who first filed charges of sexual assault against Warren Jeffs. "The entire cult, as I would put it, is run by complete fear. Everything they do is run by fear. They control the women and the children all by fear," Brent told ABC's John Quinones. As another long day at court is expected today and authorities try to determine what is to become of the 416 children taken from the El Dorado compound, attention has been focused on the abuse of young girls, but Brent says the boys were also in danger. "When I was a little boy, around 5 or 6, just attending the regular Sunday school, even when my grandfather was the prophet at the time, behind closed doors, Warren was sneaking around behind and would come down and escort me down the hall and into the bathroom and molest me as a kid. Threatening me with eternal damnation if I did not do exactly what he said." Brent says he didn't complain because he thought he "was going to be in trouble. I thought I'd burn in hell for saying something. That's why I kept it a secret." He says it happened to many other young boys, including Brent's two brothers, who were either students of Warren Jeffs or who lived inside his compound. That's why Brent Jeffs has come from his home in Salt Lake City to Texas to testify against the leaders of the El Dorado compound. Read more | |||
| Sect's troubled history includes 'Lost Boys' | |||
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By Jack Douglas Jr. Fort Worth Star-Telegram Originally published April 19, 2008 | |||
| Forced marriages. Underage sex. Teenaged mothers. That is the portrait emerging for the hundreds of girls who have been removed by the state from a polygamist sect’s compound in West Texas that is now the center of one of the largest child welfare investigations in American history. But what about the boys who are among the 416 children taken from the YFZ (Yearn For Zion) Ranch? The numbers of boys among the 416 children is believed to be far exceeded by the number of girls in custody. And the Texas boys are thought to have escaped the hardships felt by other boys — the "Lost Boys" — routinely expelled by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) elsewhere in country, primarily in its long-established communities in Utah and Arizona. On Friday, during a chaotic child custody hearing in San Angelo, a lawyer for the children claimed two dozen boys had been taken from the Eldorado compound owned and occupied by the FLDS. State child welfare officials disputed that number, saying the population of boys was "substantially higher," without giving an exact figure. "We don’t have a solid breakdown on that right now ... I’m sure we have estimates, but I don’t have anything reliable," said Greg Cunningham, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Observers say the boys at the West Texas compound are believed to be favorites of Warren Jeffs, the so-called prophet of the FLDS even as he serves time in prison for arranging the marriage of a 14-year-old girl to her 19-year-old cousin. But in the sect’s much older communities near Salt Lake City, Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City,. Ariz., welfare workers have long known about boys separated from their families, put out on the streets and considered "dead" by their loved ones after drawing the ire of church leaders. Or simply making them worry that the younger, better looking boys will garner the attention from girls meant to marry older men. Read more | |||
| Testimony on Under-Age Pregnancies in Sect | |||
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By JOHN DOUGHERTY and JOHN HOLUSHA The New York Times Originally published April 19, 2008 | |||
| SAN ANGELO, Tex. — Testifying Friday in the case of 416 children taken from a polygamous compound, an investigator from the state’s child protection agency said there was evidence that 20 or more under-age girls had given birth as a result of sexual contact with older men. Angie Voss, who is with the state’s Division of Child Protection Services, said that "more than 20 girls, some of whom are now adults, have conceived or given birth under the age of 16 or 17. There is a culture of young girls being pregnant by old men." Ms. Voss’s testimony came on the second day of a hearing before Tom Green County Judge Barbara Walther on whether the children should continue to be held by the state or returned to their homes near Eldorado, about 45 miles from here. In contrast to Thursday’s 11 hour session, Judge Walther said testimony would be cut off at 4 p.m. She gave the state two hours to make its presentation, followed by cross-examination by lawyers representing the children and their families. She gave no indication of when she would rule on custody. When a lawyer for one mother complained that she has not been served with a legal notice regarding the seizure of the children, Judge Walther responded that it was difficult for constables "to serve or give notice to a parent when the parent will not give the officers their names or any kind of identification." Read more | |||
| Short Creek redux? Colorado City historian Ben Bistline on the FLDS, Warren Jeffs, and Yearning for Zion. | |||
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By Stephen Lemons Phoenix New Times Originally published Monday, April 21, 2008 | |||
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Yearning for Zion? Yearning for the light of day is more like it...
With shades of Roman Grant's nefarious Juniper Creek Compound on HBO's Big Love and echoes of Arizona Governor Howard Pyle's disastrous 1953 raid on Short Creek, Arizona -- the community that became polygamist haven Colorado City -- chaotic hearings continue today in the seizure of more than 400 kids from the FLDS' Yearning for Zion compound in Texas. Like everyone, I've been fascinated by the morbid Twilight Zone-like tours of YFZ by sometimes unibrowed FLDS moms. And I've been torn by the competing rights of mothers seeking to be reunited with their children and children who may need protection from the FLDS' perverse religious dictums. Plural marriages and child brides were subjects former New Times staffer John Dougherty continually addressed in a series of articles about the FLDS for our paper. (You can read Dougherty's whole series on polygamy in Arizona, here.) Currently, Dougherty is reporting on the Texas situation for the New York Times, but in 2005 he was already warning the world about the massive white stone edifice being built on a 1,700-acre compound just outside Eldorado, Texas. The compound was to be the new home for FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs' polygamist sect. The cult was relocating to escape the scrutiny it had come under in Colorado City. Behind guarded gates, they hoped to practice their religion in secret. The raid on that compound by Texas Rangers and other law enforcement has ripped the scab off the FLDS sore. Now we're all spellbound by the aftermath of the raid and the bizarre living arrangements of the cult itself. Read more | |||
| Polygamists should obey law | |||
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Opinion The Spectrum Originally published April 23, 2008 | |||
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For a long time I have wanted to invite polygamists to renounce plural marriage, obey the laws of the land and return to fellowship in the Church from which they were excommunicated. I had heard and read many times that the members followed the Prophet Joseph Smith, so it continues to puzzle me how they can so easily break the laws that govern this nation. The prophet wrote the 13 Articles of Faith that the "faithful" members of the LDS Church live by.
Article 12 reads: "We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring and sustaining the law." Article 12 is one of the main reasons thousands of missionaries are allowed to proselyte in over 60 nations! We believe in honoring and sustaining the laws of whatever nation we live in or are visiting. And the leaders make a mockery of Article 13 "If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things." Why discard over 400 uneducated young boys? Competition? Mary Louise Mortensen Washington City | |||
| Life in the real world | |||
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By Pete Vere The Washington Times Originally published Friday, April 25, 2008 | |||
| The raid this month on a polygamist sect's Texas ranch left more than 400 children from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in state custody. Under any circumstances, children have trouble adjusting to a world in which their parents suddenly are gone. But in this case, these children likely will be put in an outside world that they have been raised to see as evil. To better understand their plight, The Washington Times spoke with three former members of the FLDS as well as Rowenna Erickson, a founding member of Tapestry Against Polygamy (Polygamy.org). The Utah-based organization supports children and vulnerable adults seeking to leave the polygamous lifestyle. "Polygamy is one big male excuse" for sex, Mrs. Erickson told The Times, using graphic language. She grew up in the Latter-day Church of Christ, a polygamous Mormon sect also known as the Kingston family. At age 20, she became the second wife of her older sister's husband; the couple bore eight children together. "My children and I lived in dire poverty in a two-and-a-half bedroom house," Mrs. Erickson said. Her husband lived separately from the family, and she was prohibited from disclosing their true relationship to others — including to the couple's own children — so as not to raise the suspicion of the civil authorities. "My children didn't have a father," Mrs. Erickson said. "They had to grow up with my sister's children calling him 'dad,' while my children could never call him by anything other than his name. My children never had an identity of a father." Nevertheless, Mrs. Erickson thinks that her children are more fortunate than FLDS children who are raised as a group, because many FLDS children also do not know their mother's identity. "These children have difficulty bonding or relating to others," she said. Former FLDS member Rena Mackert agrees. Born and raised in the FLDS, her earliest memories are those of being severely beaten and "sexually abused by my father from the time I was three-and-a-half years old." Read more | |||
| No freedom in polygamy | |||
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Opinion Deseret News Originally published Sunday, April 27, 2008 | |||
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In accepting the concept of being governed, we cede a portion of our personal freedom in exchange for the advantages provided by societal law. No freedom is absolute. Although nudists may wish to expose themselves and religious extremists would kill those of other faiths, the law trumps their behavioral and religious freedoms.
Polygamy lends itself to abuse and contradicts nature. FLDS teenage boys are expelled from their homes in order to maintain harem numbers; women are arbitrarily re-assigned new husbands; teenage girls are essentially robbed of free will; and the expenses entailed in raising 30-children families encourages welfare fraud. Stop kidding yourself. The argument that the young people raised in polygamy are given a "choice" is like saying that a Russian who voted for Stalin was exercising democracy. The choices presented in polygamy are those (and only those) of a few authoritative adult males. Utah law needs to do more to discourage the practice of polygamy, and the leadership of the Mormon faith needs to reassert and clarify its anti-polygamist stance. Lillian Gardiner Provo | |||
| Mom Escapes Polygamy | |||
| An inside look at life in an abusive cult. | |||
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momlogic Originally published Monday, April 28, 2008 | |||
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The polygamous sect story has captivated the country, leaving us with questions like what will happen to the kids and whether or not the Moms are to blame. Kathy, a 37-year-old mother and polygamous sect escapee turned to
momlogic to share her experience in the secret world behind closed doors.
Momlogic: What's up with women's clothes, hair, and lack of makeup? Kathy: The women are required to wear long clothing that covers them from head to toe. It's a matter of modesty, plus it strips everybody of their individuality. When I was growing up, we were able to wear patterns, which are now banned. They purchase or weave huge bolts of fabric and make multiple dresses from the same cloth. They consider hair to be a woman's crowning glory, and you're not allowed to cut it. That stemmed back from the story of Mary washing Jesus' feet with her hair. In my opinion, it's just taking away the personal uniqueness. They take away your individuality and they break down your spirit. Read more | |||
| FLDS polygamy sect gets a closer look - and it's chilling | |||
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By Maureen Ryan The Watcher - All TV. All the time. Chicago Tribune Originally published April 28, 2008 | |||
| With their long braids and old-fashioned dresses, the women of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints compound in Texas project an image of clean-scrubbed, prairie wholesomeness. Given that these women and their children look like they’ve stepped out of etchings from "Little House on the Prairie," you have to wonder, could what went on at the FLDS’ Yearning for Zion compound really have been that bad? The answer is yes, if several former FLDS women interviewed for a Tuesday documentary on WE are to be believed. This week’s episode of the WE documentary series "The Secret Lives of Women," which airs at 9 p.m. Tuesday on the cable channel, examines the world of the breakaway polygamist cult. And this documentary does make the case that the FLDS group is a cult, complete with a prophet who has made doom-laden pronouncements about the necessity of "blood sacrifice" by his followers. The chaos created by Texas authorities, who recently stepped in and removed hundreds of children from the Yearning for Zion Ranch after an abuse complaint was called in to the state’s child protective services hotline, is unfortunate, but the documentary also makes the case that the children of this secretive, controlling sect especially the young girls, are and were at risk for many different kinds of abuse. Read more | |||
| Official says boys in polygamist sect might be sex-abuse victims | |||
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By JOHN MORITZ Fort Worth Star-Telegram Originally published Thursday, May 1, 2008 | |||
| AUSTIN -- The chief of Texas Child Protective Services told a legislative panel Wednesday that at least 41 of the youngsters seized last month from the polygamist camp near San Angelo have suffered broken bones and that evidence gathered by investigators suggests that some of the young boys now in state custody had been victims of sexual abuse. The revelations from Carey Cockerell, commissioner of the agency that provides emergency care for endangered youngsters, was presented to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee with little or no elaboration because lawmakers had agreed to withhold their questions so as not to jeopardize the investigation into allegations of widespread abuse at the camp. "This is the largest removal of children in Texas history by Child Protective Services," Cockerell told the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services in his first public appearance since more than 463 children were removed by the state from the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado. The count of children in state custody from the breakaway Mormon sect called the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints reached 464 on Tuesday when a teenage girl gave birth in a San Marcos hospital. Rod Parker, a spokesman for the sect, dismissed Cockerell's testimony as "a deliberate effort to mislead the public." Parker told The Associated Press that, although the ranch has a small medical facility, any broken bones would have been treated away from the ranch. He noted that doctors are required to report suspected abuse. Parker said state officials were "trying to politically inoculate themselves from the consequences of this horrible tragedy." Read more | |||
| Former FLDS member claims physical abuse is a reality | |||
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Carole Mikita and AP reporting KSL 5 TV Originally broadcast May 1, 2008 | |||
| The news that Texas authorities have evidence of physical abuse, broken bones, of Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) children comes as no surprise to one former member of that community. Brent Jeffs says he knows because his uncle is the one who abused him. "I left the religion when I was 15. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life," he said. Not only did he leave, but he sued his Uncle Warren Jeffs for sexual abuse. He says Warren preyed on him and his two brothers, Brandon and Clayne. Clayne later committed suicide. Brent says he knows of children whose bones were intentionally broken by their fathers as a form of discipline. "I know it exists. It's sad to see and hear all these stories of these kids getting their arms broken. I can't imagine what they're doing to these kids," he said. "These little boys, just like me, it's happening to them right within their own families. They're getting ruined. I mean, it's ruining these kids." Brent also said, "When warren took over it was every week, every day. All these young 13-, 14-year-old girls getting married to these older men in church who have the power, you know, were close to Warren. It's kind of like their reward or something for obeying Warren." Read more | |||
| Life in a sect | |||
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By David Perlmutt McClatchy Newspapers Grand Forks Herald - Grand Forks, North Dakota Originally published Saturday, May 3, 2008 | |||
| CHARLOTTE, N.C. — She was raised by her father and his three wives, surrounded by 12 siblings. There was no TV, no radio. At school, she was taught that man never landed on the moon. She and other girls in the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints were required to "keep sweet," free of jealousy or anger, or risk beatings or humiliation. And by the time Kathy Jo Nicholson turned 14, she was sewing her wedding dress, knowing that any day she could be thrown into marriage with a man three times her age. Nicholson never finished that dress. Instead, she began to question her faith and, at 18, walked out on it. All those memories flooded back after authorities removed more than 500 women and children — she knows many — from a Texas compound run by the men who once controlled her life. "I am happy for the children, though I know they’re terrified," said Nicholson, 37, who has lived in Charlotte with her husband and two sons since 2004. "But now, they have a chance." "Their mothers, too, have a chance if they’ll just grab onto the hands that are reaching out. I know they’re conflicted. I know the mind control." Read more | |||
| When Church Autonomy is Tyranny | |||
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By Marci Hamilton ArticlesBase Originally published May 8, 2008 | |||
| Ignorance is the enemy of liberty. That truth has never been so forcefully made as it has been with the rescue of the hundreds of children from the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints compound in Eldorado, Texas. As the clergy abuse crisis within the Roman Catholic Church has proved, Americans are all too willing to ignore evidence of child abuse when it occurs in the context of religious organizations. Until very recently, willed denial was the primary response to this devastating and systemic set of issues. Parents punished children who told them they had been sexually abused by priests, prosecutors declined to investigate, and newspapers failed to cover. Why? Because we as Americans just do not want to believe that religious groups are capable of such base behavior. As we succumb to the romanticism of religious liberty, we leave the vulnerable in desperate straits. That is why the Supreme Court’s 1990 decision in Employment Div. v. Smith is both wise and necessary. In that case, the Court held that Native American Church members could not receive unemployment benefits if they used the illegal drug peyote, even if the drug was used during a church service. Why? Because "[o]ur cases do not, at their farthest reach, support the proposition that a stance of conscientious opposition relieves an objector from any colliding duty fixed by a democratic government." Read more | |||
| Trapped in a cult | |||
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Opinion The Arizona Republic Originally published Sunday, May 11, 2008 | |||
| Carolyn Jessop's book is called Escape. If you wonder whether the title is justified, just read her story on the front of today's Viewpoints. The psychological chains, emotional isolation, financial need and bone-chilling fear she talks about are familiar themes to those who help victims of domestic violence. Add the belief that your eternal salvation depends on enduring a life so brutal that mothers cannot kiss their children and you get an idea of what it's like to live in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. One observer called it "a quasi-religious harem for a few select old men." We call it a cult. Its leader Warren Jeffs was convicted in a Utah court as an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl. He will stand trial in Arizona this summer on similar charges. Jessop's remarkable story of escaping the cult with her children offers a jaw-dropping look into the world Jeffs created. That world has been in the news a lot lately. Following a dramatic raid on the cult's Texas compound, some have tried to portray polygamy as a legitimate lifestyle choice. They say the government should butt out because women choose to stay. But victims of domestic violence often cannot "just leave." There is no easy exit for women trapped in polygamous cults, particularly if they want to save their children. A society built on respect for human liberty - our society - has a responsibility to prosecute criminal activity by cults and to help the victims. Jessop tells how the cult uses physical abuse and mind-control even on small children. Girls are raised to be child brides. This is no lifestyle choice by consenting adults. This is bondage. It should not be tolerated. Yet an estimated 37,000 people live in polygamy across the intermountain West because it has been tolerated. Read more | |||
| Ex-Polygamist Questions Brother's Death | |||
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By Tammy Leitner KPHO News 5 - Phoenix Originally published May 16, 2008 | |||
| COLORADO CITY, Ariz. -- A woman who escaped a life of polygamy in Colorado City wants answers about her brother's death. Kathy Jo Nicholson said to find those answers she feels like she has to search the community and people that she worked so hard to break free from. Nicholson said she may never find truth in Colorado City. Beyond the dirt roads and privacy walls are tightly-kept secrets -- religious practices well guarded from outsiders. But Kathy Jo has not always been an outsider. "Warren Jeffs was the headmaster principal at Alta Academy for all the years I went there and I had a relationship with him in the sense that I saw him probably 365 days a year for many years," she said. Warren Jeffs, the self proclaimed prophet, demanded unquestioning obedience from his FLDS followers. And he usually got it. "He did humiliating things like you know we wore dresses and he would have us get up on our desks and flex our muscles," Nicholson said. "He was just very good at gaining control in that way." Nicholson said she rebelled against the strict FLDS ways and eventually escaped. But has never been able to completely severe the ties. "After my brother died, I came back to Colorado City and started asking questions," she said. Read more | |||
| Editorial: Sect's 'Lost Boys' deserve attention | |||
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Dallas Morning News Originally published Wednesday, May 21, 2008 | |||
| The buzz in San Angelo's courthouse this week is about the women and children of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Judges are working to determine where the mothers and their young ones from the offshoot Mormon sect should go. What hasn't received as much attention is the plight of boys from the West Texas ranch. The mystery surrounding them is one more reason the state should examine the sect's practices. According to Child Protective Services, the number of boys and girls under age 13 under CPS' watch are almost exactly even. But the 1-to-1 ratio drops off precipitously for children 14 and older – with 53 girls and 17 boys. The way we look at it, either there was an unprecedented quirk in boy-girl birth rates more than 14 years ago, or some young males risk becoming part of the sect's "lost boys." We worry more about the latter, given what's known about the sect's practices around the country. By various accounts, 400 to 1,400 boys have been shunted aside nationally so older men can have first dibs on younger girls. The Diversity Foundation in Utah has been studying the problem for some time, and the picture's not pretty. According to the foundation's Web site, some boys may be moved out of a compound for something as simple as talking to a girl. Others may be kicked out for standing in the way of older men getting young girls. Whatever the reason, it's not unusual for them to end up on the streets. And they can land there with no more than an eighth-grade education. Read more | |||
| Keep sweet or keep quiet? | |||
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By Joe Amarante New Haven Register, Conn. Originally published June 20, 2008 | |||
| In April, officials in Texas invaded a polygamist religious compounds and took custody of 462 children over concerns about sexual abuse of girls. Two months later, the legality of the raid was overturned. But the questions and concerns remain. MSNBC explores the issue in a compelling hour documentary called "Religion or Mind Control?" at 10 p.m. Sunday. The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints split off from the rest of the Mormons over the issue of polygamy a century ago, and its adherents now live in isolated compounds in Arizona and Utah. Outsiders are locked out and members are virtually locked in. Girls are told continually to "keep sweet" no matter what, and be submissive to their husband (singular; only the guys get multiple spouses). To many, it sounds like Cult 101: isolation, control and demonizing those who leave. Says one woman who left the FLDS and who works to save girls from it, "I do believe that it's terrorism hiding behind the skirt of religion. I also believe that it's a criminal organization, and it's founded on the exploitation and abuse of children." Defenders of the group say that it's just nontraditional, pious and voluntary. And yet others close to the group say it's not about religion but about the systematic abuse of females. One guy who made a film about the Colorado City, Ariz., branch, termed the FLDS "America's Taliban." Read more | |||
| Polygamy refugee steps into storm over church | |||
| Henderson woman tells of abuse, becomes vocal critic of the sect | |||
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By Abigail Goldman Las Vegas Sun Originally published Sunday, July 13, 2008 | |||
| Clyde Mackert and his wives must have put on their best faces for the flashbulb. This was Life magazine, after all, coming to photograph them canning corn, and singing hymns, and scrambling eggs for breakfast, and all they had to do was show the world polygamy isn’t bad. Show the world, in five thin pages of the September 1953 magazine, that Arizona Gov. Howard Pyle was wrong to raid the homes of FLDS faithful in Short Creek, Ariz., wrong to take women and children by the busload, wrong to say the polygamist sect was "dedicated to the wicked theory that every maturing girl child ... should be forced into multiple wifehood with men of all ages." For this small act of public relations, for baring his family’s fundamentalist teeth to the magazine-reading world some 55 years ago, the husband to three and father of 27 was knighted a hero, one of Clyde Mackert’s daughters says. Two months ago, that hero’s sacrifice came full circle and collapsed. That same daughter, Kathleen Mackert, not even born when Life magazine photographed her family, suddenly found herself on the national news, a bobbing head in box, talking about how polygamy and the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were everything Pyle alleged and more. Tuesday, an architect of the misery that Mackert says FLDS children suffer was holed up in a Las Vegas hospital, with guards outside his room and the world trying to look in. The latest development in the calamity of press that has hounded the polygamist church since its leader, Warren Jeffs, was caught just north of Las Vegas two years ago. The fact that he was nabbed outside the city Mackert fled to — and later brought right back to a local hospital when he got sick — served as reminders to Mackert that there’s no hiding from what happened to her. So, she’s hiding no more. After years of silence, she’s talking. Read more | |||
| Tax dollars help FLDS 'lifestyle' | |||
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By Lise Lieder Miller Special to the Current West Kerr Current - Ingram, Texas Originally published Thursday, July 17, 2008 | |||
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EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second of a two-part account of the Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado, less than 125 miles from Ingram. It was the site of an extraordinary raid by Texas authorities in early April in the wake of complaints about sexual and physical abuse of children.
The polygamist communities are pros at working the system. Colorado City, Ariz., the stronghold of Warren Jeffs' Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), got $2 million from the federal government to pave streets and $2.8 million to build an airport that only Jeffs and his members can afford to use. Throw in another million dollars from Block Grants (Community Development /Homeland Security) and you see how taxes are actually supporting their "lifestyle" or improving their polygamist communities. In a 1998 article, Dan Barlow, the ex-mayor of Colorado City, "conceded that government aid has made a better lifestyle possible for many polygamous families." He thinks taking food stamps or WIC is "simply the American thing to do." The practice of getting government assistance is referred to as Bleeding the Beast. FLDS broke way from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), based in Salt Lake City, Utah. FLDS members practice plural marriage, which LDS abandoned in 1890. The Yearning For Zion families were not on welfare; they lived off the labor of Colorado City and Hildale members, plus the $1,000 per month per man tithes convicted pedophile Jeffs (self-proclaimed FLDS prophet) ordered as they admirably tried to make the ranch self-sufficient. The FLDS twin cities (Colorado City and Hildale) had a 70 percent food stamp rate in 2005 and 40 percent welfare rate compared to 2 percent for similar-sized towns in Arizona. Some polygamist men duped the system by having "single" mothers of their offspring claim ignorance of parentage. A father is financially responsible by law for all offspring. Would million dollar homes remain affordable if each man paid child support for all his children? The Bishop's List of YFZ shows one man fathered 36 children. Read more | |||
| Senator: Polygamous sects are 'form of organized crime' | |||
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CNN Originally published Thursday, July 24, 2008 | |||
| WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Polygamous sects that have spread throughout the United States and beyond are "a form of organized crime," largely unchecked by law enforcement, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday. He is proposing a federal-state partnership aimed at policing such communities. "The lawless conduct of polygamous communities in the United States deserves national attention and federal action," Reid said before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sects such as the Fundamental Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have "wrongfully cloaked themselves in the trappings of religion" to conceal crimes such as bigamy, child abuse and statutory rape, the Nevada Democrat said. In such communities, teenage or preteen girls are forced to marry older men and bear their children, he said. Although those offenses are the most obvious, Reid said, other criminal conduct occurs: "welfare fraud, tax evasion, massive corruption and strong-arm tactics to maintain what they think is the status quo." Although witnesses acknowledged that other polygamous sects exist, the testimony focused on the FLDS, which practices polygamy in two towns straddling the Utah-Arizona border -- Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona -- and maintains the Yearning For Zion (YFZ) Ranch near Eldorado, Texas. The FLDS also has a smaller presence in other states, as well as in Canada and Mexico. Witnesses' testimony painted a picture of FLDS life, which they said is ruled by church leaders and punctuated by oppression and emotional abuse. Unpaid child labor is common, they alleged, and children are subjected to a woefully inadequate education while adults disregard state and federal laws. Read more | |||
| Senate committee meets to discuss federal investigation of FLDS sect | |||
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By John Daley and Nicole Gonzales KSL 5 TV Originally broadcast July 24, 2008 | |||
| It's been decades since the issue of polygamy got this type of attention from Congress. But at Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's request, the Senate Judiciary Committee met today to discuss the possibility of a federal investigation of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Reid is proposing a task force, a federal-state partnership aimed at policing what he called the "lawless conduct of polygamous communities in the U.S." He says members of the FLDS group have "wrongfully cloaked themselves in the trappings of religion" to hide crimes like bigamy, child abuse and statutory rape. "Witnesses at this hearing will describe a web of criminal conduct that includes welfare fraud, tax evasion, massive corruption and strong-arm tactics to maintain what they think is the status quo. These crimes are systematic, sophisticated and are frequently carried out across state lines," Reid said. Members of the panel who testified before the Senate committee included a group of former polygamists, law enforcement officials, attorneys and authors. Former polygamist Carolyn Jessop criticized the FLDS church for child abuse, control over law enforcement and welfare fraud. She said "bleeding the beast" means two things: FLDS members should avoid paying taxes at all costs and should also apply for every possible type of government assistance that is available. Read more | |||
| JOHN L. SMITH: Families torn apart, forced marriages, 'lost boys' don't seem like America | |||
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Las Vegas Review-Journal Originally published July 27, 2008 | |||
| Carolyn Jessop is the one who got away. Jessop sat before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday and gave her heart-wrenching testimony about her life inside a polygamous sect. A mother of eight married to a polygamist as a teenager, she offered an eyewitness account of institutional abuse and criminal behavior cloaked in the cheap religious cloth of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. As she spoke, a simple refrain tumbled over and over in my mind. This happened in America. Dan Fischer is one of many who were pushed away. Born and raised in a polygamist community, he considered himself a faithful believer until his eyes were opened when he saw his family torn apart by a single decision from FLDS false prophet Warren Jeffs. Fischer's testimony gave a glimpse of the plight of the "lost boys" of Southern Utah, young male members of the church who are kicked "out of town" when they commit the sins of questioning the prophet and showing an interest in members of the opposite sex. Fischer has devoted recent years to providing a safe haven for the troubled young men. This happened in America. On Thursday, attorneys general from Arizona, Utah, and Texas told the committee of Jeffs' complex criminal network, one that crosses state lines and international borders, and practices everything from child and spousal abuse to money laundering and welfare fraud. "Bleeding the beast," as cheating the government is known in polygamist country, is big business in intensely insular FLDS communities. This happened in America. Not 100 years ago, or even 50. Despite increasing prosecution and a more coordinated interstate law enforcement effort, it's happening today. Read more | |||
| Behind the Cloak of Polygamy | |||
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By Andrea Moore-Emmett, Ms. Magazine AlterNet - San Francisco, CA Originally published August 24, 2008 | |||
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The full text of this article appears in the Summer issue of Ms. magazine, available on newsstands and by subscription from store.msmagazine.com.
In 1953, Gov. John Howard Pyle of Arizona tried to rescue 263 children living in the fundamentalist Mormon polygamist community of Short Creek, near the Utah border of Arizona. His effort failed, as the press and public sentiment turned against him. Children who had been removed from their families were returned, and the governor's political career effectively ended. In the 55 years since the abortive Short Creek incident, politicians in Arizona and Utah have been reluctant to challenge the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), a polygamy-practicing group that broke away from the Mormon Church (formally, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints). But in early April, a similar sort of child-rescue effort took place, this time at the Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado, Texas -- reportedly the new headquarters of the FLDS. Texas child-welfare authorities, acting on an abuse complaint from an anonymous caller, eventually removed more than 450 children from the property and put them in foster care. Read more | |||
| Former FLDS Member Talks About Being Kicked Out | |||
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Written by Rick Sallinger CBS 4 - Denver Originally broadcast November 25, 2008 | |||
| DENVER (CBS4) -- A Denver area man claims he was thrown out of the polygamist group the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). It separated him from his wife and children including two who are severely handicapped. Shelly Cooke spent most of his life in the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, but when a dispute came up, he was kicked out. He say his family was reassigned. Cooke came to Denver to find a new life. He says he grew up in Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah, the twin cities called "Short Creek." "Short Creek" is the longtime polygamist community controlled by the FLDS whose prophet Warren Jeffs is now behind bars. CBS4 asked Cooke if he thinks polygamy is bad? "That's a very hard thing for me to answer," he said. "I'm the son of a second wife. If polygamy wasn't there I don't know if I would be." "I was forced out I was suddenly, no warning at all, I was told I was done," Cooke said. He claims Warren Jeffs ordered him out of the FLDS in a dispute over the care of his severely handicapped daughter who later died. "I had children there," Cooke said. "I was no longer allowed to see. I had handicapped children that needed medication and needed care." Read more | |||
| Texas Report Says 12 Girls at Sect Ranch Were Married | |||
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By DAN FROSCH New York Times Originally published December 24, 2008 | |||
| Texas child welfare officials have concluded that a dozen under-age girls living at the ranch of a polygamist sect that was raided in April were involved in "spiritual" marriages to older men. It also said that hundreds of children at the ranch had suffered neglect through their exposure to such improper relationships. The findings were released Tuesday in a report by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services that focused on the sect living at the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado. "The Yearning for Zion case is about sexual abuse of girls and children who were taught that under-age marriages are a way of life," the report said. "It is about parents who condoned illegal under-age marriages and adults who failed to protect young girls - it has never been about religion." According to the report, sexual abuse of children at the ranch was common, with 12 girls, ages 12 to 15, "spiritually" married to older men. Seven of those girls had given birth to one or more children, the report found. But a spokesman for the families at the ranch, who belong to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or F.L.D.S., rejected the report's conclusions and questioned its authors' motives. The spokesman, Willie Jessop, called the report "a desperate attempt by the officials of the Family and Protective Services Department to try and justify their barbaric actions of April 3." Pointing out that the courts had ordered the return of the children who had been removed from the ranch, he added, "Now they are trying to put out a report and justify it, and it doesn't hold up." The sect broke from the mainstream Mormon Church after it rejected polygamy in 1890 and has since found itself in public legal battles over the practice. The report, requested by the executive commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, detailed the controversial raid on the ranch. Read more | |||
| 'I WAS 17 AND HE WAS 50' | |||
| Woman who left polygamous sect offers refuge to those who want out | |||
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Bill Morlin The Spokesman-Review The News Tribune - Tacoma, WA Originally published Sunday, February 22, 2009 | |||
| When she was just 17, Mary Mackert was forced to marry a man who was 50. She'd been taught there was nothing else she could do. So the teenager dropped out of high school and became the sixth of Wilford Alvin Draper's seven wives - carrying out the polygamous doctrine of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. At the time of her arranged marriage in Utah in 1969, Mackert was younger than some of her husband's children. By the time she was 30, she had given birth to five of Draper's 35 children. She left the polygamous sect in 1984 after she was threatened with a "blood atonement" - having her throat slit - for being a disobedient wife. But instead of completely distancing herself from the estimated 10,000 members of the FLDS, the 57-year-old woman is now living in their midst in North Idaho. Mackert leads a quiet, one-woman, nonprofit crusade - hoping to coax FLDS followers away from their polygamist religious beliefs. Not a day goes by, she says, that she doesn't think of her former religion, which preaches a man must live with multiple wives for any of them to get to heaven. She raises goats - guarded by her two Great Pyrenees dogs - on a modest 20-acre ranch just north of Bonners Ferry, not far from the U.S.-Canadian border. Just across that border, an estimated 1,000 FLDS followers live in a community called Bountiful. The group's Canadian leaders, Winston Blackmore and James Oler, face felony charges accusing them of violating that country's polygamy laws by having conjugal relations with multiple women. The accused leaders aren't talking, while their attorneys say the case will be a challenge of Canada's religious freedoms. Already, there are indicators that the case is jarring the 60-year-old FLDS legacy in the southeastern corner of British Columbia and the more-recent migration of followers to adjoining Boundary County, Idaho. The group's North Idaho leader, general contractor Shem Johnson, of Bonners Ferry, has declined interview requests. Mackert, now a born-again Christian, hopes the polygamy case in Canada rips open the secrecy shrouding the group, in which teenage girls just beyond puberty are forced to marry and have sex with men old enough to be their grandfathers. Read more | |||
| Legislator: Abuse still rampant in Arizona’s polygamist communities | |||
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By Melanie Kiser Arizona State University Web Devil - Tempe, Arizona Originally published Wednesday, April 15, 2009 | |||
| On the border of Arizona and Utah, in a remote part of the state where jurisdictional lines are blurred, lies the polygamous town of Colorado City, home of Warren Jeffs’ Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Among the peculiarities of the town are birth defects unheard of anywhere else in the world, a female life expectancy of 32 years, black trucks that follow outsiders around everywhere and a baby cemetery, said Rep. David Lujan, D-15, in a lecture on Monday night at ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. "Colorado City is a town with a population of less than 10,000, yet they have a baby cemetery that extends over two acres," Lujan said. "Just an inordinate number of baby graves for a town that size. But that’s not even the most stunning thing. You see a lot of graves that are either dug up or unmarked, and so many where the headstone indicated they died years ago, in 1997 or something, yet there is fresh dirt on the grave." Lujan is the Arizona House of Representatives Minority Leader, and a possible contender for Attorney General in 2010. Additionally, he serves as the staff attorney for Defenders of Children, the first nonprofit organization to open an office in Colorado City. "Driving into Colorado City, it’s just a beautiful setting," similar to Sedona, Lujan said. "But then you see immediately upon entering that it is unlike any other town you’ve ever been to. There are no people out walking around, and when you do see the children, they run into the house, because they are taught their entire lives that the ‘outside’ world is evil and you stay away from it." Read more | |||
| Former FLDS member to describe polygamy, abuse | |||
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By Brian Bethel Abilene Reporter - Abilene, Texas Originally published Monday, June 8, 2009 | |||
| Growing up in a polygamist household, said Flora Jessop, was "chaos and pain and abuse." When the children get to the point where they want to leave or have to leave, they have reached the point where they are willing to damn themselves for eternity," she said. "You're taught that you go to hell if you leave the group." But eventually, Jessop, who will speak Wednesday in Abilene at Hastings Books, Music & Video and is a former member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, did leave the sect's Colorado City, Ariz., location. She escaped in 1986, long before Warren Jeffs -- the group's most recent president, prophet, seer and revelator -- came to power in 2002. But the group is the same one that made Texas headlines when its Yearning For Zion Ranch outside of Eldorado was raided in April 2008. The FLDS, which believes polygamy brings glorification in heaven, is a breakaway sect of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago, according to The Associated Press. Speaking via telephone from her Arizona home, Jessop said her entire childhood was spent in training to be servile. "As a female, you are trained to be a good wife -- to know how to cook, to know how to sew, to know how to take care of babies," she said. "I was raising my brothers and sisters from the time I was eight years old. Everything in your life is geared toward becoming a mother." That is also the time her father began sexually abusing her, she said, something she recalls being common. Read more | |||
| FLDS woman keeping focus on events | |||
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By Walt Nett | A-J LOCAL NEWS EDITOR The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal Originally published Saturday, June 13, 2009 | |||
| Flora Jessop is roaming the West Texas highways this week, going from book signing to book signing, and trying to keep a story of a fundamentalist breakaway group from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its Texas compound alive in the public's consciousness. "It's not so much to promote the book as an excuse to talk to Texas people and explain what happened when the raid occurred," said Jessop, who grew up in an Arizona town controlled by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints but ran away as twice as a teenager because of sexual abuse and molestation. She was in Lubbock Friday for a signing event at Barnes and Noble of her book, "Church of Lies," an autobiographical look at her family life, her decision to leave,and her efforts to bring other women away from the FLDS. Last weekend, she was in Dallas. Since then, the stops have included Abilene and Midland, and from Lubbock the road leads to Amarillo and Denton. The raid was the arrival in early April 2008 of Texas Rangers, Child Protective Services and other law enforcement officers at the YFZ Ranch, a compound built by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. More than 450 children were taken into state custody. In late May, the Texas Supreme Court ruled there was no reason for seizing the children and ordered them returned to their parents. Jessop said she's felt very welcomed in her public appearances so far. "It seems like people are really thankful to hear the truth," she said in an interview before the book signing. "Everybody has expressed to me that they feel like the media just quit. A lot of people didn't know the children had been sent back." Read more | |||
| Woman says FLDS leaders banned laughter | |||
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By Angela Shaffer Special to the Standard-Times San Angelo Standard-Times Originally published June 29, 2009 | |||
| Flora Jessop and Kathy Nicholson know firsthand what it’s like growing up in a polygamist family. The two women escaped a sect compound in Colorado City, Ariz., as teenagers but say they will forever carry the scars of a traumatic childhood with them. At what was termed a "friends and survivors" picnic Saturday, Jessop and Nicholson joined K. Dee Ignatin, executive director of Americans Against Abuses of Polygamy (AAAP), at Glenmore Park. The event was held to invite the public to discuss polygamy with women who have experienced it firsthand. Jessop has written a book on her life with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the same sect that owns the now-famous YFZ Ranch in Schleicher County. The FLDS, which believes polygamy brings glorification in heaven, is a breakaway sect of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago. Ignatin said Americans should not be fooled by what she says is the media’s incorrectly favorable portrayal of the polygamist lifestyle. The women’s tour was prompted in part by featured treatment of the YFZ Ranch group on the Oprah Winfrey Show. "It’s true of the Taliban and it’s true of the FLDS," Ignatin said. "Every instance of polygamy in any culture always forces women and children into poverty, restricts women’s choices, travel, and education, leads to the molestation of both boys and girls, and results in child brides." Ignatin said she sees no difference between a burqa — the body-covering garment worn by Muslim women in Afghanistan — and a prairie dress, the trademark garb of the FLDS women. She said she hopes that through AAAP — the organization’s Web site is tripleap.org — she will be able to bring awareness, influence action and help to expose what she says is governmental corruption at both the state and federal level. Complaints and evidence have pointed to abuse of children in the sect, but "no one has done anything about it," Ignatin said. "We’re basically telling those children that, yeah, we know you’re being abused, but we don’t care. Go back and endure." Read more | |||
| The Two P's of Gender Inequality: Prostitution and Polygamy – How the Laws Against Both Are Underenforced to Protect Men and Subjugate Women | |||
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By MARCI A. HAMILTON FindLaw - Mountain View, California Originally published Thursday, July 9, 2009 | |||
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Last week, the Dean of Villanova University School of Law, Mark Sargent, tendered his letter of resignation, and the University accepted it. He will not be returning even as a faculty member. According to a number of Philadelphia news sources, a Pennsylvania State Police report states that Sargent was a customer at a brothel when it was raided last November. The owner of the home where the brothel operated was sentenced to 5 to 23 months in jail; Sargent, however, was not charged, apparently because he cooperated with the authorities.
Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer experienced the same fate when it was publicly disclosed that he had frequented a high-priced call-girl ring, spending approximately $80,000. He lost his public job, but he was not charged with any crime. It appears that those who administer our justice system believe that when a successful man has lost his job because his liaisons with prostitutes became public knowledge, he has suffered enough. Even though what Sargent and Spitzer were doing was illegal, and even though both played prominent roles in the world of the law (with Spitzer even backing an anti-prostitution statute), they were not even given a slap on the wrist. Just a walk. Read more | |||
| Why Warren Jeff should have been tried for treason? | |||
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By Soheil Rezaee San Jose Independent Examiner Originally published August 6, 2009 | |||
| The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints has been in the news in resent days with Texas prosecutors wanting to bring up criminal charges against the cult while leader Warren Jeff has gone on a hunger strike. One has to wonder, with all the crimes against humanity that Warren Jeff has been responsible for, why has he not been charged with treason. Warren Jeff was #1 on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List from May to August 2006 for arranging marriages for minors to older men. But this is nothing compared to his other deeds. The FLDS is not a religious faith but an illegal political entity that has stripped the basic human rights of its members in Hildale, Utah and Colorado City Arizona while attempting to fight the State and Federal Government. The quisling government in these towns suppress the Constitution of its residents and strip them of their basic human rights. Their is no democracy in these towns and those who speak up against the oppression are tortured before sent into exile. Residents are subject to one of the most brutal oppression in North America (worse then Cuba) and its all happening on American soil. The constitution of the United States clearly dose not protect the right of a political entity that denies individuals the basic rights that this nation provides. To top it of, outsiders who enter the towns are forced to leave at gun point by the secret police, including the Attorney General of Utah. Hence this an obvious example of how their whiling to wage war against the government of the United States. Read more | |||
| Polygamy often leads to mind control and abuse | |||
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By Sarah Foster Special to OnMilwaukee.com In Living Commentary OnMilwaukee.com - Milwaukee's Daily Magazine Originally published Friday, Sept. 25, 2009 | |||
| I recently received a Talkback about a previous column on polyamory, the act of having multiple lovers. The writer wanted to know my thoughts on polygamy; which, in case you didn't know, is a Greek word meaning multiple marriages. Many people confuse polygamy with bigamy, which also means multiple marriages. The difference between the two is that in polygamy, all the involved parties know about one another, which is often not the case in bigamy. In this country, you cannot legally be married to more than one person at one time whether they know about one another or not. Bigamy is considered a misdemeanor and polygamy a felony (check out United States Penal Code (section 230.1). The opinions and confusion over polygamy stretch far and wide and have been thrust into the spotlight more and more due to recent court cases over the matter as well as popular television shows like "Big Love," which portray the ins and outs of polygamist families in a fictional setting. One popular misconception is that polygamists are all of Mormon faith or of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In reality, both of these closely-related religions claimed to have turned away from multiple marriages some time ago and currently openly denounce polygamist groups claiming to be of their faith. Polygamists should be called polygynists, which means one man having multiple wives. The opposite, polyandry is when a woman has multiple husbands, but you'd better believe that isn't the way it works out in Utah, which is a religious hub for both Mormons and Latter-day Saints and the polygamist groups that claim to stem from them. Read more | |||
| Secret Lives of Women | |||
| Polygamy Cult Tuesday, September 29 at 9pm | 8c | |||
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WE TV - New York, NY Originally published September 25, 2009 | |||
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Polygamy has become a hot button issue all over America. In this episode, we profile three women, all of whom have exclusive stories to tell about their involvement in the Polygamist lifestyle.
Flora escaped from the infamous Polygamous cult known as the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints) run until recently by Warren Jeffs. She now helps women and children living in Polygamy find safe passage out of it when they decide to leave, or worse, are kicked out by its leadership. Michelle runs a safe house for Polygamy’s forgotten young men, known as the 'Lost Boys'. Kicked out of their homes for things like watching movies or talking to girls, these boys are literally left on the streets to fend for themselves. Michelle helps them get back on their feet to attend school, get jobs and carve out a life for themselves. Carolyn escaped from the FLDS three years ago and has recently written a bestselling book called Escape. In a house with 4 other wives, she was a virtual slave to her husband and his first wife who terrorized everyone in their home. With 8 kids, one of whom is severely disabled, Carolyn saw an opening to save her family and one night escaped from the community with her children. After some tense moments of being on the run and despite her own objections, having her oldest daughter return to the FLDS, Carolyn is trying to find her footing along with help from caring individuals who are working together to help her and her kids find a life for themselves. Upcoming Air Dates: Tuesday, September 29 at 9pm | 8c Wednesday, September 30 at 12am | 11c Wednesday, September 30 at 3am | 2c See photo | |||
| DOC Investigates Warren Jeffs Cult | |||
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By Kristin Brzoznowski World Screen News - New York, NY Originally published November 2, 2009 | |||
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NASHVILLE: The Documentary Channel (DOC) is to present two exclusive U.S. premieres that explore issues of polygamy, abuse and under-age marriage practiced by the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS) cult, led by Warren Jeffs.
On November 20 at 8 p.m., Damned to Heaven debuts. The program provides intimate interviews with former FLDS members to paint a portrait of a society where men believed that participating in plural marriage was a requirement to get accepted into heaven. The documentary short Banished: The Lost Boys of Polygamy follows at 9:45 p.m. The doc explores the personal lives of young males, ages 13 to 21, who have been barred from FLDS by the religious sect's adult men in order to reduce competition for wives. DOC is making both films available beginning November 20 online in their entirety on the network’s Sling.com channel. "Two years ago to the day, on November 20, 2007, Warren Jeffs was sent to prison," said Kate Pearson, The Documentary Channel's senior VP of programming. "Damned to Heaven documents in great detail the harrowing lives of those whom he affected. So many tragedies were inflicted on young lives and families. It’s a fascinating story that needs to be taken out of the dark and exposed to a mass audience." | |||
| Judge resentences ex-FLDS man convicted of threatening IRS | |||
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By Emiley Morgan Deseret News Originally published Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009 | |||
| A southern Utah man who already served prison time on a 2007 conviction for mailing threatening letters to the Internal Revenue Service and other government officials was resentenced in federal court Thursday. Thomas Vaughn Barlow will become an entirely free man in February after U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart imposed a prison sentence of 18 months and one year of supervised release. Barlow had previously served 21 months in prison (satisfying the jail requirement of the new sentence) and was presently serving three years of supervised release, which will now be terminated in February. The resentencing in the case of Barlow, 49, was ordered by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, which agreed with Barlow's contention that the sentencing guidelines had been miscalculated in his case, said Barlow's attorney Bob Steele. Barlow was indicted in August 2007 for mailing threatening letters to the IRS, as well as sending copies of those letters to then-Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. He also was charged with interfering with the administration of IRS laws. Federal prosecutors said some of the letters dealt with Barlow's history with the Fundamentalist LDS Church, while others threatened to kill IRS agents. Court documents say Barlow began writing the letters after he was expelled from the FLDS Church in 2003. Barlow was "seeking the recovery of his family and property" in the letters, which "became increasingly violent," according to court documents. Read more | |||
| Documentary Channel airs 2 polygamy programs | |||
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By Scott D. Pierce Deseret News Originally published Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009 | |||
| On the second anniversary of FLDS leader Warren Jeffs being sentenced to prison, the Documentary Channel is airing a pair of programs about members of the Fundamentalist LDS Church. (Neither is new, but neither has been seen in wide release.) "Damned to Heaven" (Friday, 8 and 10 p.m.) is a 2007 documentary that's full of interviews with former members of the church, who have a variety of heartbreaking things to say. "Banished: The Lost Boys of Polygamy" — directed by former KSL reporter Stacey Butler — follows at 7:45 p.m. and 10:45 p.m. It is, as you might expect, a look at the lives of the teenage boys and young men who were tossed out of the FLDS Church. Local viewers aren't going to learn much they didn't already know. (Unless, maybe, they were living under a rock.) But both documentaries are more powerful because they are, in a way, smaller. They focus on individuals and individual stories. And both "Damned to Heaven" and "Banished" do a decent job of distinguishing between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the polygamist FLDS Church. As always, there are moments that could be better. But it's decent. If you don't have the Documentary Channel — and, unless you subscribe to Dish Network (Ch. 197), chances are you don't — you can still watch the documentaries online. Beginning Friday, they can be viewed in their entirety on the network's Sling.com channel (www.sling.com/network/189/The-Documentary-Channel). | |||
| Watch the documentary Damned to Heaven | |||
| Watch the documentary Banished: The Lost Boys of Polygamy | |||
| Of Sacred and Secular | |||
| New documentary explores abuse in polygamist sect | |||
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By Joshunda Sanders Austin American-Statesman - Austin, Texas Originally published Thursday, November 19, 2009 | |||
| After the convictions of Raymond Jessop and Arkansas evangelist Tony Alamo on child sex abuse charges earlier this month, it was chilling to view "Damned to Heaven," a documentary about the long-term emotional and psychological damage faced by women forced into polygamist marriages. The film features interviews with former wives who were part of the Colorado City, Ariz.-based polygamist sect known as the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, which has about 10,000 followers in Arizona and Utah. The FLDS is a breakaway sect of the mainstream Mormon church, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago and does not recognize the FLDS. "Damned to Heaven" begins airing on the The Documentary Channel this week and explores the society that shaped Warren Jeffs, another sect leader. He promoted the idea that participating in plural marriage was a requirement to get into heaven. "We don’t have branches on our family trees, we have trunks and leaves," a woman in the movie said. As one woman puts it, "if that’s what heaven is, I’ll accept hell. Heaven ain’t nothin’ nice for babies, if that’s what heaven is." It’s one thing to think about the long-term consequences of child sex abuse perpetrated by members claiming to be sanctioned by God. The documentary interviews former men who were banished from the sect because they refused to marry multiple wives, as well as adults who remember growing up with 74 siblings and 19 mothers. "My 19 mothers didn’t have a relationship with my father," the adult daughter of a woman who had been one of many wives in the sect said. "They were objects to him, not women." | |||
| Professor discusses violence in sects | |||
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Joseph Serna Education Daily Pilot - Newport Beach and Costa Mesa, California Originally published Tuesday, January 12, 2010 | |||
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The public on Thursday night can hear about the increasing violence against women in polygamous, religious sects when UC Irvine begins its David and Sylvia Easton Lecture program.
From 7 to 8:30 p.m., Rose McDermott, a Brown University professor, will discuss her research on the ties between polygamy and various kinds of violence against women. McDermott’s talk will take place in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Gateway and is hosted by the school’s Interdisciplinary Center for the Scientific Study of Ethics and Morality. The talk is free and open to the public. Parking is available for $8 in the social sciences parking structure. For more information call the center at (949) 824-3344. | |||
| The Polygamists | |||
| A sect that split from the Mormons allows multiple wives, expels | |||
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By Scott Anderson National Geographic Magazine Published: February 2010 | |||
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The first church members arrive at the Leroy S. Johnson Meeting House in Colorado City, Arizona, at about 6 p.m. Within a half hour the line extends out the front doors, down the side of the building, and out into the parking lot. By seven, it stretches hundreds of yards and has grown to several thousand people—the men and boys dressed in suits, the women and girls in Easter egg–hued prairie dresses.
The mourners have come for a viewing of 68-year-old Foneta Jessop, who died of a heart attack a few days ago. In the cavernous hall Foneta's sons form a receiving line at the foot of her open casket, while her husband, Merril, stands directly alongside. To the other side stand Merril's numerous other wives, all wearing matching white dresses. Foneta was the first wife. Colorado City is a town with special significance for those of Foneta's faith. Together with its sister community of Hildale, Utah, it is the birthplace of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), a polygamous offshoot of the Mormon Church, or LDS. Here in the 1920s and '30s, a handful of polygamous families settled astride the Utah-Arizona border after the leadership of the Mormon Church became increasingly determined to shed its polygamous past and be accepted by the American mainstream. In 1935 the church gave settlement residents an ultimatum: renounce plural marriage or be excommunicated. Practically everyone refused and was cast out of the LDS. At the memorial service for Foneta, her husband and three sons give testimonials praising her commitment to the covenant of plural marriage, but there is an undertone of family disharmony, with vague references by Merril Jessop to his troubled relationship with Foneta. No one need mention that one of Merril's wives is missing. Carolyn Jessop, his fourth wife, left the household in 2003 with her eight children and went on to write a best-selling book on her life as an FLDS member. She describes a cloistered environment and tells of a deeply unhappy Foneta, an overweight recluse who fell out of favor with her husband and slept her days away, coming out of her room only at night to eat, do laundry, and watch old Shirley Temple movies on television. Read more | |||
| Colorado City Makes Cover of National Geographic; Magazine Portrays FLDS as Over-Sexed Amish-Types | |||
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By Ray Stern in Those Wacky Mormons Phoenix New Times Originally published Fri., Jan. 22 2010 | |||
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With fewer half-naked aborigines in the world to hang out with, National Geographic decided to spend some time last year with the polygamist clan north of the Grand Canyon.
The magazine received "exclusive" access to members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Colorado City, Arizona and adjacent Hildale, Utah, resulting in the cover story by Scott Anderson -- with photos by Stephanie Sinclair -- for the February issue. The writer and photographer attended an FLDS funeral, talked to kids doing their farm chores and chatted with polygamist wives about sharing their husbands. Town leaders sought and received the approval of Warren Jeffs, the cult's imprisoned leader, before letting National Geographic in, Anderson states. The article mentions the cult's higher-than-usual prevalence of fumarase deficiency, a disease that often results in severe mental retardation and is caused by too much inbreeding. Perhaps the second-ugliest aspect of polygamist life (the first being institutionalized child rape), is the "reassignment" of wives from one husband to another by the FLDS' leader, and Anderson asked about that: After hearing Melinda's stout defense of [Warren] Jeffs, I ask what she would do if she were reassigned. "I'm confident that wouldn't happen," she replies uneasily. "But what if it did?" I ask "Would you obey?" For the only time during our interview, Melinda grows wary. Sitting back in her chair, she gives her head a quarter turn to stare at me out of the corner of one eye. Despite some tough questions, the exclusive access seems to have mainly gotten the magazine a heavy dose of FLDS spin. Read more | |||
| FLDS Mental Burqa: National Geographic & Every Woman’s Right to Be Slave | |||
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By Jeanette Pryor David Horowitz's NewsReal Blog - David Horowitz Freedom Center Originally published 2010 January 29 | |||
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If Elissa could change anything, she wouldn’t have made that special meal for her ten brothers and sisters, and her three mothers. Trying to brighten the Polygamous house with flowers on the table had the catastrophic effect of drawing her step-father’s notice. Such domesticity told him the girl was ready to wed, ready to birth the babies that would populate her husband’s future planet. At fourteen, Elissa, threatened with damnation, had to submit to the Prophet’s command and marry her repulsive 19 year-old first cousin.
Abandoned by her parents to rape and abuse, Elissa survived four miscarriages and an attempted suicide. She fled the Mormon paradise and helped convict Fundamentalist Prophet, Warren Jeffs, as an accessory to rape. I would love to ask her what she thinks of the February 2010, National Geographic feature which claims: "Members of the faith describe the life...idyllic, one in which old-fashioned devotion and neighborly cooperation are emphasized and children are raised in a wholesome environment...Critics, on the other hand, see the FLDS as an isolated cult (of) rigid social control. To spend time in Hildale and Colorado City is to come away with a more nuanced view."Read more | |||
| These Days | |||
| Polygamy in America | |||
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By Maureen Cavanaugh KPBS San Diego Originally broadcast February 8, 2010 | |||
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As San Diegans prepare to celebrate Valentine's Day with their "one and only," there are towns in America where Valentine's
Day is a lot more complicated. We'll explore the phenomenon of POLYGAMY IN AMERICA, the feature story in this month's National Geographic magazine.
MAUREEN CAVANAUGH (Host): It's an odd sort of Valentine that the National Geographic magazine and channel have given us this month. The magazine's February issue features an in-depth article on polygamy, that is, "Polygamy in America." And their TV channel will premiere a documentary this week called "Inside Polygamy." There seems to be a fascination with this lifestyle, as evidenced by the success of the HBO series "Big Love." Even as polygamist compounds are raided and their leaders put on trial, the questions linger about why such cults still exist in the United States, why child welfare authorities have turned a blind eye for so long, and why some women still put up with it. I'd like to welcome my guest, Scott Anderson. He's a war correspondent and novelist, and he wrote the feature article "Polygamy in America" in this month's National Geographic. And welcome, Scott, to These Days. SCOTT ANDERSON (Author): Thank you, Maureen, nice to be here. CAVANAUGH: If you could start out by telling us about the town of Colorado City, Arizona, where your report starts out. That’s sort of really polygamy central in the United States, isn’t it? ANDERSON: That’s right. It’s actually twin communities. It’s Colorado City and Hilldale, and it’s right on the Utah, Arizona border. And the placement is actually rather important because when it became a center for polygamy back in the 1920s, 1930s, it was – the situation right on the border was so that if there were raids carried out by one state or the other, members could just slip across the state line to the other side. But it has been a center of polygamy for a very, very long time. CAVANAUGH: And about how big is the polygamy group in Colorado City and Hilldale? ANDERSON: Well, there’s several different groups. The FLDS, the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, which is the group that I focused on and that’s the group that their prophet is Warren Jeffs, who’s now in prison. There’s about 6000 members in the Colorado City area, and about 10,000 nationwide. There’s several smaller groups and not groups at all, just individuals who practice polygamy in the Colorado City area. Read more | |||
| Listen to the interview | |||
| Reporter Explores FLDS Communities for National Geographic | |||
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By Jeff Robinson KCPW News - Salt Lake City Originally broadcast February 9, 2010 | |||
| (KCPW News) A new article for National Geographic Magazine explores the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints up close through interviews and photographs. Scott Anderson traveled to their communities in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, to report the cover story, "The Polygamists," for this month’s issue. KCPW’s Jeff Robinson spoke with him to learn what he found out. Tomorrow night, the National Geographic Channel will premiere "Inside Polygamy," spotlighting a polygamist community in Bountiful, British Columbia. That begins at 7 p.m. | |||
| Listen to the interview | |||
| Accident on FLDS property injures 5 girls | |||
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BY NUR KAUSAR The Spectrum Originally published April 18, 2010 | |||
| CEDAR CITY - A four-wheeler accident on Wednesday involving five girls ages 9 and under left one girl in guarded condition at Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City. The girls were transported by ambulance to Valley View Medical Center, and one was airlifted to Primary Children's after being revived and in serious condition, according to the Iron County Sheriff's Office. A public relations official from Primary Children's said Saturday afternoon that the child remained under guarded condition, meaning she was not critical but also not yet stable. According to an ICSO incident report, the five children were riding on a Yamaha Rhino near their Beryl homes when the driver, age 9, crashed into a tree. Deputies said in the report that on arrival, all the victims were not found at the scene of the incident, and had to be located to be treated at the hospital. Deputies also noted that a crowd of at least 30 people surrounded the incident on arrival, with some bystanders taking pictures. A description of the Rhino noted the driver's seat was no longer attached to the frame, and large impact dents were present in the vehicle bed and roll bar. The incident occurred on the property of the Harker Compound, residence of members of the Fundamental Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, according to deputies. Two witnesses contacted public safety officials upon seeing the incident, according to the report. The owner of the Rhino was not in Beryl when the incident occurred and resides in Hildale, according to the report, and deputies spoke to the mother of the child driver who said she had been watching the children. Sheriff Mark Gower said he responded to VVMC to see the victim and mother, and at the time did not think the injured girl who was airlifted would live. Gower said the County Attorney has requested to review the case, but no charges have yet been filed. "I believe there is negligence involved," Gower said. | |||
| Head-on collision kills 1, injures one | |||
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The Spectrum Originally published April 18, 2010 | |||
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COLORADO CITY - A head-on collision in Colorado City Saturday afternoon claimed one life and left a child critically injured. The Arizona Department of Public Safety, which responded to the accident on State route 389 at 2:25 p.m., said a total of three injured people were taken to the hospital. Following the accident traffic was blocked in both directions for several hours. The names of the dead and injured were not released. Colorado City Police have taken over investigation of the accident.
FOR THE SPECTRUM & DAILY NEWS | |||
| Forget Big Love's fiction: Follow the Prophet reveals polygamy truths | |||
| SEE IT AT THE ANGELIKA | |||
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By Joe Leydon CultureMap - Houston Originally published April 30, 2010 | |||
| Back when producer Joan Sweeny and writer-actor Robert Chimento were seeking funding for Follow the Prophet — their ambitious indie production about a teenage girl who escapes from a polygamist sect, and an Army colonel who becomes her savior and protector — they repeatedly were rebuffed by people who couldn’t, or wouldn’t, believe that many events described in Chimento’s screenplay are based on real-life events. Indeed, Sweeny and Chimento feel it’s almost a minor miracle they actually were able to make their movie, which will have a special premiere screening at the Angelika Film Center at 7:15 tonight to benefit the Texas Center for the Missing, coordinator of the Houston Regional Amber Alert. "To be honest," Sweeny says, "when Robert first approached me with the script, I wasn’t interested in the subject matter, because it was very scary to me. "And then, while were shopping it around, when people read the script, their response would be, ‘Are you kidding? This is real?’ I guess, well, we looked a little nutty." Follow the Prophet focuses on the systematic abuses of women and children in a Utah-based cult that promotes ritualistic underage marriages, demands total fealty to an authoritative Prophet — and dictates that every man be acknowledged as lord and master in his household, with unfettered license to have sexual congress with his offspring. Read more | |||
| Follow the Prophet Movie Hits Video-on-Demand Across North America to Great Response | |||
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Red Road Productions PR.com Originally published May 6, 2010 | |||
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Award winning independent feature film with polygamy theme can now be seen on Video on Demand on over 100 cable, satellite, telco operator and online outlets including: Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox, Charter, Verizon, Cablevision, DIRECTV VOD, and DISH IPVOD.
Los Angeles, CA, May 06, 2010 --(PR.com)-- Following its April 30th theatrical premiere at the Angelika Film Center in Houston, "Follow the Prophet," an award winning independent feature film can now be seen on Video on Demand on over 100 cable, satellite, telco operator and online outlets including: Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox, Charter, Verizon, Cablevision, DIRECTV VOD, and DISH IPVOD. Based on shocking current events, Follow the Prophet is a thriller that critics have called "a must see" and "the dark underbelly of Big Love." Award winning Cast includes: Robert Chimento (Milk) , Tom Noonan (House of the Devil) David Conrad (Ghost Whisperer), Diane Venora (Heat, Insider & New York film critic award for Clint Eastwood’s "Bird"), Steve Railsback (Charlie Manson in Helter Skelter R.D. Call (Babel, Into the Wild), John Diehl and ingénue Annie Burgstede. Read more | |||
| A tough six months for polygamists: prosecutions, raids and revelations | |||
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By Eric Yiskis Las Vegas Atheism Examiner Originally published May 7, 2010 | |||
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Ever since the arrest of Warren Jeffs in August of 2008, the fundamentalist Mormons (FLDS) have been under fire, but the last six months have been especially bad for the sect.
Prosecutions On April 3, 2008 Texas authorities raided an FLDS compound called "Yearning For Zion" to investigate a report of physical abuse and neglect. They had to cut through locked gates and a pass a guard tower. A dozen men have since been indicted, with the first sentences handed down November 5th of last year. Raymond Merril Jessop, Allan Keate, Michael Emack, Merril Leroy Jessop, and Lehi Jeffs have received prison sentences between eight and seventy five years for bigamy and sexual assault of minors. The trial of Abram Jeffs is scheduled to begin on June 7th. The rest are awaiting trial. Raids On April 6th, law enforcement from Arizona and Utah served five search warrants at fire stations and shutdown the Hildale public safety department. The warrants alleged "misuse of public funds and fraudulent schemes at the Fire Department and possibly the city government." Investigators are also looking into fraud at the FLDS controlled Twin City Water Works, which has made many questionable payments to construction companies, for example, cabinets at a non-existent office. It's alleged that over a ten year period, $3.2 million went to FLDS leaders instead of water supplying infrastructure. Read more | |||
| Missing man found dead in pickup truck | |||
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By The Daily News staff Mohave Daily News Originally published Sunday, September 5, 2010 | |||
| COLORADO CITY — The body of a missing Colorado City man was recovered Thursday night by Mohave County Search and Rescue teams. Around 7:30 p.m., officers found the body of 58-year-old Clark Cooke. Cooke had been reported missing earlier Thursday but had not been seen since Aug. 28, said Trish Carter, spokeswoman for the MCSO. The reporting party said Cooke did not report for work Monday and said they believed Cooke was going to the Black Rock area. Cooke’s body was found in a white Dodge truck about 14 miles west of Colorado City. Carter said it appears Cooke died from natural causes, although autopsy results are pending. | |||
| Dump truck falls on van in Cedar City, killing a child | |||
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By ksl.com KSL 5 TV Originally broadcast December 6, 2010 | |||
| CEDAR CITY - A dump truck and a van collided in Cedar City Monday afternoon, killing one child. Dispatchers say the child was riding in the van with its mother and two other children on State Route 130 at 3000 North when it collided with the dump truck. The dump truck rolled onto the van and killed a young child. The child's mother and two siblings were transported to a local hospital and then were later flown to Salt Lake-area hospitals. See photos | |||
Video Courtesy of KSL.com | |||
| Infant dies in crash | |||
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Nur Kausar The Spectrum Originally published December 7, 2010 | |||
| CEDAR CITY - A 9-month-old died Monday afternoon after a garbage truck fell on top of the van she was traveling in at the intersection of Minersville Highway and 3000 North. The driver, Violet Jessop, and four children ranging in age from infancy to 11 years old were traveling south on Minersville Highway at 12:35 p.m. when the truck entered the intersection traveling west and could not avoid the woman's van, said Cedar City Police Public Information Officer Sgt. JR Robinson. Nine-month-old Angelee Stubbs died and an 11-year-old boy and twin 2-year-old boys, who police did not identify, were transported with Jessop to Valley View Medical Center. VVMC Communications Director Scott Monroe said Jessop and one other child, whose name was not released, were flown to Intermountain Medical Center in Murray. Two other children were still hospitalized at VVMC as of 5 p.m. Monday. Robinson said the father was notified of the accident. The driver and passenger of the garbage truck did not suffer major injuries. Robinson said there is evidence one of the vehicle's may have jumped a red light. He said investigators are still examining several witness statements. Witness Preston Cluett said he was driving behind the garbage truck and saw the accident occur. Cluett said he ran out of his vehicle to help those he saw injured in the van. "I had to hold the lady's neck and my arms were covered up to here in blood," Cluett said, looking below his elbow. He added first responders reached the accident within five minutes. See photos | |||
| Infant killed in Cedar City crash identified | |||
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By ksl.com KSL 5 TV Originally broadcast December 7, 2010 | |||
| CEDAR CITY -- Police have released the name of the infant killed when a garbage truck rolled onto a passenger van in Cedar City Monday afternoon. Police say evidence collected at the scene coupled with witness statements indicate the garbage truck was traveling west through the 3000 N. Main intersection about 12:30 p.m. when it struck the van, which was southbound on State Route 130 at North Main Street. The truck rolled onto its side. Police say 9-month-old Angellee Stubbs, who was in the van, died of injuries sustained in the accident. The van's driver, an 11-year-old boy and two 2-year-old boys also riding in the van were critically injured. The driver and the 11-year-old are now listed in critical but stable condition at Valley View Medical Center. The two 2-year-old boys are in stable condition. Both men in the garbage truck also were injured and transported to the hospital, but have since been released. See photo | |||
| Van driver still critical | |||
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Nur Kausar The Spectrum Originally published December 7, 2010 | |||
| CEDAR CITY – The driver of a van that was crushed beneath a garbage truck Monday afternoon remains in critical condition with multiple trauma injuries, said Murray’s Intermountain Medical Center Public Relations Director Jess Gomez. Gomez reported Violet Jessop’s condition just after 1 p.m. today. Jessop was flown to IMC from Cedar City Monday afternoon, following an accident in which she and four children were pinned beneath an M&C Logistics truck at the intersection of Minersville Highway and 3000 North. A second victim was also transported with Jessop, but the name and age of that victim, also in critical condition Monday, was not released. Nine-month-old Angellee Stubbs died as a result of the accident. The other children were three boys – an 11-year-old and two 2-year-olds. Valley View Medical Center Communications Director Scott Monroe said two victims transported to VVMC Monday were still hospitalized but in good condition as of Tuesday morning. Their ages and names were also not released. Check back to www.thespectrum.com and follow us on Twitter @SpectrumNews for more breaking news on this story. See photo | |||
| Crash victims still in critical condition | |||
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Nur Kausar The Spectrum Originally published December 8, 2010 | |||
| CEDAR CITY - The driver of a van that was crushed beneath a garbage truck Monday afternoon remains in critical condition in a Murray hospital with multiple trauma injuries, said Intermountain Medical Center Public Relations Director Jess Gomez. Violet Jessop was transported to IMC from Cedar City on Monday afternoon following an accident in which she and four children were pinned beneath an M&C Logistics truck at the intersection of Minersville Highway and 3000 North. An 11-year-old boy was transported to Primary Children's Medical Center and was reported in critical condition Tuesday. Nine-month-old Angellee Stubbs died as a result of injuries suffered in the accident. Two 2-year-old boys were also injured in the collision. Valley View Medical Center Communications Director Scott Monroe said two victims transported to VVMC Monday were in good condition and released Tuesday afternoon. According to a Cedar City Police press release, the VVMC patients were the 2-year-olds. According to a Cedar City Police press release, witnesses assisted in extricating and stabilizing the accident victims until emergency personnel arrived. The accident occurred at 12:35 p.m. Monday and the intersection was cleared and roads fully opened at 5 p.m. Jessop had been at Gateway Preparatory Academy near that intersection to pick up a child during lunch. The accident occurred just minutes later. A GPA representative said information about a family member or child could not be released without family consent. CCPD is investigating the accident. Public Information Officer Sgt. JR Robinson said he had several witness statements to read to help determine a possible cause of the accident. Robinson speculated that one of the vehicles could have jumped a red light, but legal action is not an option currently because of the tragic results. Read more | |||
| Accident victims still hospitalized | |||
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Nur Kausar The Spectrum Originally published December 11, 2010 | |||
| CEDAR CITY - Two victims are still in the hospital after an accident between their van and a garbage truck Monday at the intersection of 3000 North and Minersville Highway killed one and injured four. Van driver Violet Jessop is in serious condition, moved up from critical condition, said Jennifer Barrett with Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, where Jessop was transported after the accident. Sunderlee Stubbs, 11, is still in critical condition after being airlifted to Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City on Monday, said Kate Crawford with the children's hospital on Friday. Nine-month-old Angelee Stubbs died in the accident. Two boys, both two-years-old, were released from Valley View Medical Center in Cedar City on Tuesday after treatment. Their names have not been released. Cedar City Police Public Information Officer, Sgt. JR Robinson, said investigators are going to reconstruct the accident to determine how it happened. Robinson said he has read through witness statements and has an idea of why the accident occurred, but won't confirm it until after the reconstruction. Gateway Preparatory Academy, the school Stubbs attends in Enoch, has set up an account at Wells Fargo named the Stubbs Family Donation Account, where the public can donate to the help the family with expenses, according to a letter from GPA Principal Rob Lee. The GPA staff also sent a list of items the Stubbs family needs while staying with another student's family. Read more | |||
| Mom, son heal after accident | |||
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Nur Kausar The Spectrum Originally published December 24, 2010 | |||
| CEDAR CITY - The mother who suffered severe injuries in an accident involving her vehicle and a garbage truck Dec. 6 is doing well at Kolob Rehabilitation Center, said her husband, LeRoy Stubbs. Violet Jessop moved to Kolob on Monday from Intermountain Medical Center and has been able to regularly see her children, who are staying with family friend Pam Langford. "She's a trooper," Stubbs said. "She really dug deep. I think she's on the road to progression." Jessop had four children in her van when the accident occurred at the intersection of state Route 130 and 3000 North. AngelLee Stubbs, who was nine months old, died in the accident. SunderLee Stubbs, 11, was airlifted to Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City and is still hospitalized. The two-year-old twins also in the van were treated and released from Valley View Medical Center the day of the accident. Stubbs said SunderLee is still at Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City, but he is also making some progress. "He had serious head injuries and was in what you'd call a comatose state," Stubbs said, noting SunderLee now responds to yes and no questions by blinking and knows pain when physicians poke him. Stubbs said physicians did not think Jessop would be able to leave the ICU as soon as she did, though she will remain at Kolob for an indeterminate amount of time. "She looks really well," Langford said, noting Jessop is able to get herself to the bathroom without help but is still having trouble walking because of her injuries. "I was surprised." The Langford family has been taking care of the twins and Stubbs' two older daughters, who were in school the day of the accident. "From the family, thank you, thank you to the community and Gateway (Preparatory Academy) for all their help," Stubbs said, who just returned to Cedar City Wednesday night after making the trip to see his son. Read more | |||
| FLDS accused of disrupting graveside service for baby | |||
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Reported by: Brent Hunsaker ABC 4 News Originally broadcast January 6, 2011 | |||
| Colorado City, AZ (ABC 4 News) - For years there has been friction in this polygamist community on the Utah – Arizona border. Who is to blame for that friction is a continuing debate, but it is almost always between the followers of FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs and the small but growing group of "apostates." The Civil Rights Division of the Arizona Attorney General’s Office is already investigating a number of discrimination claims against the FLDS. This week a new complaint was added that some say shows a new depth of animosity and just plain meanness. Violet Jessop and Leroy Stubbs have lived in the community all their lives. Their family ties to Colorado City go back generations. They asked to bury their infant girl, Angellee, in the Stubbs family’s section of the town cemetery. About a month ago, the baby was killed in the same car accident that severely injured her mother. The funeral for the 10-month old baby was delayed until last Sunday so her mother could attend in a wheelchair. Violet said, "I knew that if I didn’t see her and hold her one last time I’d regret it." The Stubbs got permission from the court-appointed administrator over the town’s properties, but could find no one to help prepare the grave. So, the day before the graveside service, Ross Chatwin, a family friend, took a shovel and dug it himself. But when family arrived at the cemetery the next day, they discovered the grave had been filled in and another small grave opened in a corner on the other side of the cemetery. Orders went out to gather more shovels and the grave in the family’s section was dug a second time. Isaac Wyler, remembers, "I told Ross, ‘why don’t you take your shovel and start re-digging that grave and I’ll run home and get some more shovels.’ And by then there was enough people here that we dug the grave back out." The family was determined that their wishes be fulfilled, but the harassment was not over. Witnesses say two FLDS men threatened to stop the burial by force. Those witnesses say only the intervention of town marshals prevented it. Read more | |||
| Funeral fuels flames of religious divide in Colorado City | |||
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By Jennifer Stagg KSL 5 TV Originally broadcast January 7, 2011 | |||
| COLORADO CITY, Ariz. -- The small Arizona border town of Colorado City is known for the polygamists who live and worship there. But what isn't as well known is that the town is essentially divided down the middle. Half of the town remains faithful to former FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, and the other half -- the so-called "apostates" -- have formed their own religious sect. Friction between the two groups boiled over in an ugly incident this week during a little girl's funeral. It was a terrible accident: A garbage truck crushed a van in Cedar City a few weeks before Christmas, critically injuring Violet Stubbs. Her youngest child, 10-month-old Angel Lee, was killed instantly. But when it came time to bury Angel Lee, a terrible task was made even more difficult by their neighbors and religious rivals in Colorado City, the followers of Warren Jeffs. The Stubbs family says the Colorado City Cemetery managers refused to respond to their requests for funeral arrangements even though they owned a burial plot. Finally, a family friend dug the grave himself by hand. But a short time later, followers of the FLDS Church allegedly filled the grave back up with dirt and insisted Angel Lee be buried in another spot of the cemetery. Violet Stubbs says there was a message in that action. "We'll segregate you and put you over here because you're not good enough,'" Stubbs said. "We are still entitled to be buried in our family's spot." The day of the funeral, family and friends dug another grave. Then during the service, heckling began. Warren Jeffs' followers also got in the mourners' faces and took pictures of them. Read more | |||
Video Courtesy of KSL.com | |||
| Family hopes cemetery dispute will heal divides between FLDS and non-FLDS | |||
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By Jared Page Deseret News Originally published Sunday, Jan. 9, 2011 | |||
| COLORADO CITY, Ariz. — Melting snow and footprints form in mud frame the small mound of freshly dug dirt on the east side of Isaac Carling Memorial Cemetery. Atop the mound rests a multicolored plush rattle and a few dozen purple and white flowers. At its base, a temporary nameplate in the shape of an angel identifies the spot as the grave of AngelLee Heart Stubbs. Her death was tragic. Just 10 months into her young life, AngelLee was killed when a van being driven by her mother collided with and was crushed by a loaded garbage truck. Her burial was contentious. As a member of a non-FLDS family living in the traditionally FLDS border towns of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, she was deemed by some to be not worthy of burial next to her grandfather. Today, as tensions build between many faithful followers of Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs and those who've chosen to leave the religion but not the community, AngelLee's parents are hoping their daughter can become a symbol of peace and healing. "She was an absolute angel. We totally picked a perfect name for her," AngelLee's mother, Violet Jessop, said from her hospital bed at Kolob Regional Care and Rehabilitation in Cedar City. "She was just a real special spirt." A poster decorated with photos of AngelLee and handwritten messages to the girl hangs on one wall of the recovery room Jessop temporarily calls home while physically and emotionally healing from the Dec. 6 accident and the events that followed. "She loved everybody, and she always had a smile for everybody," Jessop told the Deseret News. Love, the girl's parents say, is what's missing from their community. Too often neighbors and family members are made to feel like outsiders in a town where many of them were raised. The so-called "apostates" who no longer consider themselves members of the FLDS religion say they often are shunned by their FLDS neighbors despite church teachings to love one another. Members of the community say it's a schism that has been around for decades but has gotten much wider since 2002, when Jeffs took over as church leader. And as that divide continues to grow, non-FLDS residents fear that what so far has been akin to schoolyard bullying could soon become violent. Read more | |||
| Number of U.S. hate groups on the rise, report says | |||
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By Elizabeth Stuart Deseret News Originally published Tuesday, March 1, 2011 | |||
| The number of hate groups in America is on the rise, according to a much-debated report by an Alabama-based civil rights organization. During 2010, the number of hate groups topped 1,000 for the first time since the 1980s, when the Southern Poverty Law Center first started counting. In the past decade, the number of hate groups has nearly doubled. Including hate, anti-immigrant and anti-government groups, the organization counted 2,145 active organizations. This "explosive" expansion is "driven by resentment over the changing racial demographics of the country, frustration over the government's handling of the economy, and the mainstreaming of conspiracy theories and other demonizing propaganda aimed at various minorities," the report declares. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights group that gained notoriety for weakening the Klu Klux Klan with civil lawsuits, labels Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce a "nativist" and his push to deny the American-born children of illegal immigrants citizenship an "extremist idea." "We're not in any way suggesting that these groups should be outlawed or free speech should be suppressed," said Mark Potok, who edited the Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Report. "It's kind of calling out the liars, the demonizers, the propagandists." On its web site Southern Poverty Law Center displays an interactive map that illustrates where hate groups are located. In Utah, the map indicates, there are two Neo-Nazi groups, two Ku Klux Klan groups and one anti-gay group. The Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints in Hildale are labeled as a "general hate group." Read more | |||
| Woman to Describe Her Escape From Polygamy at MSU | |||
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Written by Chasity Mayes KSMU Ozarks Public Radio - Missouri State University Originally broadcast Friday, 18 March 2011 | |||
| Carolyn Jessop is known as the first woman to escape and gain full custody of all of her children from a well known polygamist group, and she’s coming to the Ozarks. KSMU’s Chasity Mayes tells us her triumphant story. It was April 22, 2003 when Carolyn Jessop realized her window of opportunity was finally open. For the previous year and a half Jessop had known she needed to leave her abusive polygamist community and take all eight of her children with her. "I was looking for a window of opportunity to get out. That was my biggest thing. I needed all of my children at home and I needed Merril out of town. My oldest son Arthur, he had been taken out of school when he was 12 years old. So, he was working outside of the community doing construction. And what happened is that my son was home for a dentist appointment Monday. Monday night at 10 I found out Merril had already left to Salt Lake. I mean I found out at 10 o’ clock that night that that was my window. I had to get out that night," says Jessop. Jessop is a sixth generation polygamist. She was forced to marry a stranger at 18. Her then-husband, Merril, was a prominent leader in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or FLDS. He was also 32 years older than Jessop with three other wives. Although each man is only legally married to one woman, they’re spiritually married to the rest. By the time Jessop was ready to make her escape, her husband had seven wives and 54 children living under a 17,000 square foot roof. Jessop says she felt there was no one she could trust, but she was finally forced to get help from her own siblings. "I actually went to my sister’s house and she helped me contact a brother who had left years before. He agreed to drive all night to come and get me but my problem was my van was out of gas. The van I could take was out of gas and I had to find a way to get my kids to cooperate and come with me. And there’s no way they would’ve agreed to come if they would’ve known what I was doing because the mind control in this group was pretty intense," says Jessop. Read more | |||
| Listen to Carolyn Jessop's interview on KSMU | |||
| Polygamy: More Common Than You Think | |||
| Data show that plural marriage is a disaster for women's rights. | |||
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By ROSE MCDERMOTT Wall Street Journal - New York, NY Originally published April 1, 2011 | |||
| Polygamy is a popular punchline these days, from HBO's drama "Big Love" to TLC's documentary "Sister Wives" and the Broadway musical "The Book of Mormon," written by the creators of "South Park." Yet plural marriage is as serious an issue as it's ever been—and is even on the rise in the West. Warren Jeffs, the infamous leader of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints sect, is in an Arizona jail awaiting trial on charges of bigamy and sexual assault. North of the border, Canadian authorities have been trying to nab his co-religionists. In 2009, prosecutors charged Winston Blackmore and James Oler, two leaders of the fundamentalist community in Bountiful, British Columbia, with polygamy. The case was thrown out on a technicality, but now Canada's anti-polygamy statute, which dates to 1890, is being put to the test in a so-called "reference case." In effect, the government is seeking an opinion from the court on whether the statute is valid. Opponents say that it violates the country's commitment to religious freedom. "Consenting adults have the right — the Charter protected right — to form the families that they want to form," Monique Pongracic-Speier of the Civil Liberties Association has said. Supporters of the statute say that it's not about persecuting religious outliers or maintaining a traditional definition of family for its own sake. Rather, it is about protecting human rights. The case has begun to inflame passions far from the rural communities of small Mormon breakaway groups. Read more | |||
| Piles of books burned in FLDS border town; would-be president cited in separate incident | |||
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By Emiley Morgan Deseret News Originally published Monday, April 18, 2011 | |||
| COLORADO CITY, Ariz. — Piles of books — perhaps thousands — intended to be used for a new library were burned over the weekend in the polygamous community that borders Utah. In a separate incident, an elder in the Fundamentalist LDS Church who has challenged Warren Jeffs for the presidency of the sect was cited for trespassing last week. The large number of books being stored for a library were reportedly set fire on Saturday. Isaac Wyler, a member of the Colorado City, Ariz. community, said he went to survey the damage on Monday and discovered warm ashes and book fragments. "There is a bonfire outside that clearly has books that have burned in it," Wyler said. "I can't say every book has been burned, because I haven't seen the inside. I can't get in there to see." Bruce Wisan, who has been appointed by the state to oversee management of an FLDS trust, said the books were being housed in a old schoolhouse. "It was supposed to be a library," he said. "The trust wanted to deed it to the county, but (one man) went to the county supervisors and told them that we shouldn't be taking church property and there would be lawsuit." It is believed that there were thousands of books in the building, including some which had been donated by Barnes and Noble Booksellers. Wyler said he is not sure how many books were destroyed as he could not gain access to the schoolhouse. "My keys no longer fit the door anymore," he said. "They've blocked all the windows, you can't look in and see. My guess is there's not a book in this building." Read more | |||
| Despite book burning, organizers resolve to create library for FLDS communities | |||
| Arizona incident compared to Hitler, called a 'hate crime' | |||
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By Emiley Morgan Deseret News Originally published Tuesday, April 19, 2011 | |||
| COLORADO CITY, Ariz. — Days after "tens of thousands" of books were reportedly burned in a polygamous border town, those who spent years gathering the books have voiced their resolve to carry on. For Stefanie Colgrove, the woman who started gathering the books in an effort to open a library for the Fundamentalist LDS Church towns of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Washington County, there is no question of what will become of the planned library. "I have one of those natures that if you ask me nicely, I'm more than willing to do anything, but you strong-arm me, you just sit back and see what happens," she said Tuesday. "I'm more determined than ever." The books, which Colgrove and others had been collecting since 2007, were being housed in an old schoolhouse they were hoping to convert into a community library. Elaine Tyler, a volunteer for The HOPE organization, said she had personally received over $15,000 worth of books, including $10,000 worth from Barnes and Noble Booksellers. Colgrove said books she had were worth at least another $6,000. "There were tens of thousands of books," Tyler said. "Barnes and Noble donated ... a lot of nursery rhymes and Nancy Drew, fun children's books so these kids can fantasize and have a little bit of a childhood," she said. "And it's gone now. Up in smoke." She called the incident "evil" and "cruel" and said she couldn't believe those who burned the books did so just after a federal judge made efforts to return property from a state-run FLDS trust back to control of the FLDS Church. "The only thing I can compare their actions to is Adolf Hitler's when he piled up books and burned them decades ago," she said. Read more | |||
| Boxes of books feared burned in FLDS town recovered in Cedar City | |||
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By Emiley Morgan Deseret News Originally published Wednesday, April 20, 2011 | |||
| CEDAR CITY — A large number of books feared burned in a southern Utah polygamous town were recovered from a Deseret Industries in Cedar City Tuesday. Elaine Tyler, who was one of the major gatherers of the books that were donated for a community library, said 10 pallets full of books were recovered. "I don't know how much that accounts for," she said. The books were being stored at an old schoolhouse in the polygamous twin border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. — both enclaves of the Fundamental LDS Church. Over the weekend, a bonfire was set and area residents said it was apparent that books were among the ashes. The schoolhouse had been locked and boarded, leading many to believe all the donated books had been burned. Isaac Wyler, a Colorado City resident, said a first-hand witness told him there "wasn't a book left in (the schoolhouse)," further leading Wyler and Tyler to believe thousands of books had been destroyed. "I've seen the pile of ashes and there are books in there for sure," Wyler said. "One book was four inches thick and there were tons of books like that." It is believed that some members of the community don't want a library and resent efforts being taken by a state-run management team to sell the schoolhouse for that purpose. "They don't want any outside influence," Wyler said. "I personally don't think they looked at any of the books." Tyler, who estimated that upwards of $15,000 in books were missing from the schoolhouse, said she had already called Barnes and Noble Booksellers to report that the books had been removed and was told they were committed to donating again. Tyler said Stefanie Colgrove, the woman who had the idea for the library, was able to confirm those found at the Deseret Industries are the same books missing from the schoolhouse. Read more | |||
| Burning hinders library's progress | |||
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Tiffany De Masters The Spectrum Originally published April 21, 2011 | |||
| ST. GEORGE - Efforts to start a library in Colorado City, were hampered Saturday when thousands of books were burned. President of the HOPE Organization Elaine Tyler has been part of the process of collecting books to start the library, with collection getting under way in 2007. "I'm just sick over what's happened to our books," she said. "Thousands of dollars worth of books just gone up in smoke." HOPE is a nonprofit organization that helps polygamous individuals or families safely integrate into mainstream society. Stefanie Colgrove, of Centennial Park, Ariz., had the vision to start the library. With grandparents who were educators, she started the library with her family's personal collection. "It's (putting together the library) been a long road already and now we hit a big old bump," she said. The books were being stored in an old schoolhouse that hadn't been used for several years. Bruce Wisan, special fiduciary of United Effort Plan Trust, said he gave Colgrove an occupancy agreement to use the schoolhouse as a library. Before the books were burned, U.S. Judge Dee Benson and 3rd District Judge Denise Lindberg were in the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals because of conflicting orders regarding the UEP Trust and the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Wisan said Benson ordered him to turn everything over to the FLDS Church, while Lindberg has ordered him not to hand over control of the UEP Trust. "I'm still under Judge Lindberg's orders and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals," Wisan said. UEP Trust was handed over to the state, Tyler said, because of alleged embezzlement and other issues within the church in 2005. The schoolhouse, Wisan said, is UEP property. "They (suspects) chose to enter the building illegally and empty it," he said. "The local police said it's a civil matter, they're not going to get into it." Read more | |||
| Video released of book burning at FLDS library | |||
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Ben Winslow Reporter Fox13Now.com KSTU-TV Originally broadcast April 22, 2011 | |||
| HILDALE, Utah and COLORADO CITY, Ariz. — A new video has emerged of a book burning in the polygamous border towns of Hildale and Colorado City. The books were part of a library that volunteers are putting together in the towns. It is replacing the old library and rumor has it was ordered closed by FLDS leader Warren Jeffs. Volunteers from all over Utah donated thousands of books to build a new one. A lawyer for FLDS members in the community tells FOX 13 this is not what people are making it out to be. FOX 13 has obtained this video of the alleged book burning. In the video it shows the burning pile of books and a group of men in a pickup truck watching. Organizers of the library effort say someone broke into the building, took some of the books out and burned some of them. The huge pallets of books believed to have come from the library wound up at a Cedar City Deseret Industries. Colorado City town marshals and the Mohave County Sheriff's office are now investigating. The Utah Attorney General's Office tells FOX 13 it has also offered the services of its investigators to authorities in Southern Utah to assist in the probe. A spokesman for the office, who assisted in the donation drive, is outraged. He has called the burning of books a "hate crime." Rod Parker, a lawyer for some of the FLDS members, tells FOX 13 this is not what it appears to be. Read more | |||
| New developments in alleged book burning in FLDS towns | |||
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Ben Winslow Fox13Now.com KSTU-TV Originally broadcast April 22, 2011 | |||
| COLORADO CITY, Arizona — Fox 13 has obtained video of an alleged book burning outside a library being built in this polygamous border town. But a lawyer for members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints insists things are not what they appear. "There was tens of thousands of dollars in there," ex-FLDS member Isaac Wyler told a Colorado City Town Marshal on the video obtained by Fox 13. "There was thousands of books!" Boxes of books intended for a new library were discovered missing from the building last week. Outside, a pile of trash and some books are still burning. "We all know who did it!" Wyler told the police officer. Some in the community said they suspect FLDS members, who may have been acting under orders from jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs. Colorado City Town Marshals and the Mohave County Sheriff's Office are investigating, after criminal complaints were filed by ex-FLDS members and the southern Utah-based Hope Organization, which conducted a book drive to build the library. "They were not their books. They didn't have a right to burn them," said Wanda Huffaker with the Utah Library Association. Huffaker said she was outraged to learn of the alleged book burning, calling it a theft of the basic freedoms of Americans. "There's five rights guaranteed in the First Amendment and religion does not trump freedom of speech, freedom of press," Huffaker said. "So don't pull the religion card on me on this one!" Read more | |||
| Stolen books for Colorado City library recovered in Cedar City | |||
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By Jennifer Weaver The Spectrum Originally published April 22, 2011 | |||
| CEDAR CITY — Tens of thousands of books stolen from a vacant schoolhouse in Colorado City may not have all gone up in flames from book burning that occurred Saturday. The books were designated for a library in the polygamist community that had been collected from the individual efforts of Stephanie Colgrove, of Centennial Park, Ariz., and assistance from the HOPE Organization, a nonprofit organization that helps polygamous individuals or families safely integrate into mainstream society. Since 2007, together they have been collecting books to start the library that has included donations from Hurricane Middle School and SkyWest Airlines. The HOPE Organization’s book donations were valued at more than $15,000. Barnes & Nobel donated $9,800 in books, and a private individual donated $1,500 worth of books that came in sets of four and five, and were composed of classics by authors such as Charles Dickens. Colgrove’s family collection she donated for the cause had not been appraised but it is estimated to have also been worth thousands of dollars. Cedar City Police Department Sgt. Jerry Womack said Thursday a call was received from an employee at the Cedar City library who had read an article in The Spectrum & Daily News about the book burning and anonymous donation of books to the Deseret Industries in Cedar City over the same weekend by a group of young men in dress associated with the polygamous community. The books given to the DI were put onto 10 different pallets about four feet high. "Somebody said last week, April 15, a person called and asked if the library accepted book donations, and the library employee said they did," Womack said. "Later, that same afternoon, some subjects pulled up in a U-Haul truck to deliver books, and there were boxes of them, like cases that filled the whole U-Haul ... The employee thought about how suspicious the book donation was and decided to report it to the police." Read more | |||
| Stolen books | |||
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Opinion The Spectrum Originally published April 26, 2011 | |||
| The written word represents knowledge. These days, those words can be found in many places - newspapers, on the Internet and in the many volumes of books found in libraries. Unfortunately, an assault on a planned library in the Colorado City, Ariz., area is making the opening of such a facility more difficult than it already was. About 10 days ago, authorities believe a group of people broke into a former school that had been set aside to serve as a library in the area along the Utah-Arizona border that is inhabited mostly by members of The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which teaches polygamy among its tenets. Thousands upon thousands of books were removed. The initial fear was that many of the books were burned. While there was a fire and some materials were burned, it's now clear that many other books were saved. Large donations of books were made at Deseret Industries in Cedar City - enough to fill 10 pallets about four feet high - and at the Cedar City Library. In both cases, young men were reported to have dropped off the books, but alert workers who had heard about the incident in Colorado City via news stories called authorities. As a result, the idea of creating a library in the Colorado City area is still alive and well. And that's a positive result given the amount of work that already has gone into the project. Centennial Park, Ariz., resident Stefanie Colgrove helped get the movement started and received assistance in the effort from the HOPE Organization, a nonprofit group that helps people safely leave the polygamous lifestyle and integrate into mainstream society. Along the way, the efforts to build an inventory for the library were helped with individual donations and $9,800 worth of books from Barnes Noble. Read more | |||
| Read The HOPE Organizations's Request for Public Record to receive the evidence collected by the Colorado City Police Department regarding the arson and theft of thousand of donated library books, mailed to the Town of Colorado City April 28, 2011 | |||
| Library books burned in polygamist community | |||
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Reported by: Brent Hunsaker ABC 4 News Originally broadcast May 3, 2011 | |||
| COLORADO CITY, AZ (ABC 4 News) - A book burning has once again focused outrage on the FLDS polygamist community along the Utah - Arizona border. A small building designated for a library was broken into recently and thousands of donated books were stolen. Most books were taken to other communities. A few were burned. And the FLDS controlled town marshals are doing little to find and punish those responsible. Roman Bateman took video of the bonfire as the flames died down. It was Saturday afternoon, April 16th. The bonfire was lit that morning. What was burning? New doors that had been taken from inside the library – what was once known as the Johnson School before Warren Jeffs ordered all FLDS children taken out of schools. Some books were also thrown into the fire. From what he saw, Bateman says they were mostly medical textbooks and histories of some of the families of Colorado City. Isacc Wyler, an agent for the trust that owns all the land in town, called the Colorado City town marshals to the scene as asked for a criminal investigation of the ransacking of the library. Deputy Sam Johnson said it was a "civil matter." "If it had been a non-FLDS person who’d done something like that, they would have been cuffed and taken to the Purgatory Jail," said Wyler. Wyler said he has no doubt who ordered what the FLDS are calling the "spring-cleaning" of the library. He said it was a Saturday work project under the direction of FLDS leaders. As a lifelong member of the community, Wyler said he was foreman on many such projects. That is, before Warren Jeffs kicked him out. Stefanie Colgrove, born into one of the founding families of the community, had headed up the library project. For two years Colgrove gathered book donations and raised money to open the library. The books numbered in the thousands and included new editions from Barnes and Noble as well as beautifully bound volumes of the classics. She said the value of the books easily ran in the tens of thousands of dollars, although there were so many she had not yet catalogued them all. Read more | |||
| Warren Jeffs' Appalling Abuse of Religion | |||
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Danielle Tumminio Author, "God and Harry Potter at Yale" Huffington Post Originally published August 6, 2011 | |||
| Warren Jeffs's trial was nothing if not disturbing: First, Jeffs dismissed his lawyers. Then jurors listened to a religious tirade that masked as an opening statement. And that's before the trial really got going. This past week, those in the courtroom heard a recording of Jeffs instructing girls to shave their intimate parts before presenting themselves to him. Later, they heard an audio recording of a sexual incident between the FLDS leader and a twelve-year old girl, culminating in both of them saying, "Amen." With such graphic evidence, it's unsurprising that jurors convicted Jeffs of all charges after deliberating for less than four hours. Even though it goes without saying, let me explicitly state that Jeffs's behavior is reprehensible, from his disrespect for his country's justice system to his repeated sexual engagements with minors. No twelve-year old girl should be wed to a man two to three times her age; no fifteen year old should be bearing his child. Jeffs needed to be held accountable for these heinous acts, and held accountable he finally was. But as a religious leader myself, there is another aspect to the Warren Jeffs trial that I find particularly disturbing, one which has not received much media attention, overshadowed as it has been by Jeffs's horrendous sexual exploitations. That issue is the way in which Jeffs manipulated power -- specifically religious power -- in order to harm those entrusted to his care. One might term this kind of mistreatment religious abuse. Read more | |||
| Warren Jeffs' Conviction Exposes the Coercion of Polygamy | |||
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by Zoe Murdock Ms. Magazine blog - Arlington, Virginia Originally published August 8, 2011 | |||
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Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs was found guilty on August 4 of sexual assault on two girls–a 12-year-old and a 15-year-old who he considered his "spiritual wives." On August 9 he was sentenced to life in prison for his crimes; the 55-year-old Jeffs will be eligible for parole when he's 90.
In a courtroom in San Angelo, Texas, in August 2011, Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) leader Warren Jeffs defended himself against the charge of sexual assault on the basis of religious freedom. It was an outrageous defense given that the women and children of his FLDS have no freedom whatsoever, religious or otherwise. Their minds have been coerced, cajoled and controlled since the moment of birth. I grew up in the little town of Granite, Utah, just down the road from the Jeffs compound in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Warren Jeffs went to my high school. We were LDS, and they were FLDS, the polygamists in town. We saw them as outcasts, the sinners behind the wall. As I listened to his droning voice on YouTube giving instructions to the young girls in his sect about "keeping sweet" and "clean" and how "a thought is as bad as an action," my body reacted viscerally, as if he was speaking to me. I realized those were the same words I heard as a child in my LDS Sunday school, the same words my mother heard. But then the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS–commonly known as the Mormon Church) came from the same roots. Both trace their teachings back to Joseph Smith. They read the same religious texts and follow the same basic doctrine, except for the doctrine of polygamy – the LDS Church is against polygamy now, at least until the afterlife. Read more | |||
| The true victims of religious extremism | |||
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By Dr. Manzur Ejaz DAWN.COM - Karachi, Pakistan Originally published August 26, 2011 | |||
| He is a polygamist religious leader who married many women, including underage girls, and raped a minor. He banned parades, dances and magazines like the Sports Illustrated and Car and Driver and yet revelled in the company of multiple wives. If this description brings to mind an Arab sheikh or a Taliban leader, you are way off the mark. The man is neither an Asian Muslim of Arab or Afghan descent nor is he from a primitive society. Rather, he is Warren Jeffs, 55, a Caucasian who was heading the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) in America. The Christian sect, with a membership of 10,000, preaches that "polygamy brings exaltation in heaven." But Mr Jeffs' idea of reaching to the heaven was pretty botched up, with him marrying and raping underage girls. Testifying against Mr. Jeff, one of his former followers, Mr. Ezra Draper said the leader set such a trend that "... FLDS men began taking brides younger and younger after Jeffs took over the polygamous group in 2002." But in his controlling and dominating attitude towards women, Jeffs is not alone. A few days ago, the Indian press reported that Maoist guerillas are sexually abusing their female comrades in arms. An ex-female commander of Maoist group, who had surrendered to the government, narrated her ordeal of how she was sexually abused over the years. Read more | |||
| 11-year old boy killed in auto-pedestrian accident | |||
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By Bruce Mehew KMTI Mid-Utah Radio - Richfield, Utah Originally published October 4, 2011 | |||
| (CEDAR CITY) – A Denver man has not been cited for killing an 11-year old boy in an auto-pedestrian accident west of Cedar City Saturday night. Utah Highway Patrol said Zedekiah Steed was riding with other youths in a 2006 Ford Super Duty, when the driver pulled over at a rest stop on SR-56 at about 7pm and the boy walked in front of a 2004 Nissan Titan pickup, driven by 41-year old Manuel Rucovo of Denver. UHP said the boy was killed on impact. Officials also said Rucovo was neither speeding nor impaired when he struck the boy. Rucovo was not injured in the accident. | |||
| 11-year-old boy killed after being hit by a vehicle | |||
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Jennifer Weaver The Spectrum Originally published October 5, 2011 | |||
| CEDAR CITY - Zedekiah Black Steed, 11, was killed Saturday evening after being struck by a car on state Route 56 at mile post 46. Utah Highway Patrol reported that the accident occurred at 7:05 p.m. A bus full of young men pulled over to make a rest stop, and several of the young men went off to the south side of the roadway. Steed chose to cross in front of the bus and attempted to cross the road, the report said. As Steed began to walk on the roadway, the Nissan with a driver and two passengers traveling east struck him. He was killed on impact, the report stated. UHP did not have information as to the destination of the bus, in what city Steed resided or the identification of the group of young men. The driver of the Nissan that hit Steed, Manuel Rucobo, 41, of Denver, was not cited in the incident. Excessive speed was not a factor in the incident, and the road conditions were clear and free from debris, UHP reported. The two passengers of the Nissan were not injured in the accident, the report also said. | |||
| Jeff's polygamist wife bolts FLDS community | |||
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Reported by: Brent Hunsaker Written by: Dan Metcalf Jr. ABC 4 News Originally broadcast October 11, 2011 | |||
| HILDALE, Utah (ABC 4 News) - One of Warren Jeff's polygamist wives has sought the help of Washington County authorities in order to leave the FLDS clan in Hildale/Colorado City. ABC 4 has learned that it happened Monday in Hildale, Utah, a polygamist town along the Arizona border. The incident originally triggered a major manhunt and then a standoff, according to sources. Sources also told ABC 4 News that local town marshals and FLDS security surrounded the business of Willie Jessop, where the young woman had sought refuge. Willie Jessop is a former FLDS spokesman who was kicked out of the religious group by Jeffs. Washington County Sheriff's deputies were called in, and took the woman to a shelter in St. George. The Washington County Sheriff's Office told ABC 4 News that the woman left her residence in Colorado City, Arizona and fled to Jessop's property in Hildale. ABC 4 does not reveal the identity of women who may have been victims of abuse, but a sheriff's spokesman did say she's 25-years old. ABC 4's sources say this is not the first time the woman has tried to escape the FLDS group. The Washington County Attorney is looking into allegations that the 25-year-old woman was held against her will and even drugged. Stay tuned to ABC 4 News and ABC4.com for more on this story. | |||
| One of Warren Jeffs' wives leaves, is sheltered by law enforcement | |||
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Ben Winslow FOX 13 News KSTU-TV Originally broadcast October 11, 2011 | |||
| ST. GEORGE -- One of the wives of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs has left him and the FLDS Church and is being sheltered by law enforcement, FOX 13 News has learned. Washington County Sheriff's deputies said they responded to the Fundamentalist LDS enclave of Hildale, Utah, Monday on a "keep the peace" report. A 25-year-old woman left her home in Colorado City, Ariz., and went to another home in Hildale. Sources tell FOX 13 the woman is one of Jeffs' many wives, who has tried to leave the community before. She sought refuge on Monday at the home of ex-FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop. Law enforcement was then contacted. "She asked for assistance in leaving the community," sheriff's spokesman Nate Abbott told FOX 13 on Tuesday. "We facilitated her request." The woman was believed to be in a shelter. Abbott referred questions about the woman's condition and whether or not she was the victim of a crime to the Washington County Attorney, who was unavailable for comment late Tuesday. Jessop did not return a call seeking comment on the situation. Jeffs, the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints based in Hildale, is believed to have as many as 80 wives. He was recently convicted in Texas of child sex assault charges and sentenced to life in prison, plus 20 years. Jeffs is accused of performing and participating in so-called "child bride marriages." See photo | |||
| Warren Jeff's Polygomist Wife Seeks Refuge From FLDS Group | |||
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by Morgan Skinner KCSG News KCSG Television - St. George, Utah Originally published October 11, 2011 | |||
| (Hildale, UT) - Washington County Sheriff's deputies were called Monday evening to assist a 25-year old polygamist wive of Warren Jeffs, according to Salt Lake television station ABC4. Public information officer Detective Nate Abott of the Washington County Sheriff's Office said in news release Tuesday that on October 10, 2011, Washington County Sheriff's deputies responded to keep the peace in Hildale, Utah when a 25-year old female reportedly left her residence in Colorado City, Arizona and arrived at another residence in Hildale, Utah where she asked for assistance in leaving the community which deputies facilitated without incident. Law enforcement doesn't identify women suspected of being abused as matter of policy. ABC4 said the incident triggered a manhunt followed by a standoff. Local town marshals and FLDS security surrounded the property of Willie Jessop in Hildale where the woman had sought refuge. Jessop is a former FLDS spokesman who was expelled by Warren Jeffs from the FLDS religious group. Allegations of the 25-year-old woman being held against her will are under investigation by the Washington County Attorney. See photo | |||
| One of Warren Jeffs' wives leaves, is sheltered by law enforcement | |||
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Ben Winslow FOX 13 News KSTU-TV Originally broadcast October 12, 2011 | |||
| ST. GEORGE, Utah — One of the wives of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs has left him and the FLDS Church and is being sheltered by law enforcement, FOX 13 News has learned. Washington County Sheriff's deputies said they responded to the Fundamentalist LDS enclave of Hildale, Utah, Monday on a "keep the peace" report. A 25-year-old woman left her home in Colorado City, Ariz., and went to another home in Hildale. Sources tell FOX 13 the woman is one of Jeffs' many wives, who has tried to leave the community before. She sought refuge on Monday at the home of ex-FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop. Law enforcement was then contacted. "She asked for assistance in leaving the community," sheriff's spokesman Nate Abbott told FOX 13 on Tuesday. "We facilitated her request." The woman was believed to be in a shelter. Abbott referred questions about the woman's condition and whether or not she was the victim of a crime to the Washington County Attorney, who was unavailable for comment late Tuesday. Jessop did not return a call seeking comment on the situation. Read more | |||
| Sheriff's Office helps woman leave polygamous community | |||
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Nur Kausar The Spectrum Originally published October 12, 2011 | |||
| ST. GEORGE – The Washington County Sheriff's Office helped a woman leave a polygamous community in Colorado City on Tuesday that is run by jailed fundamentalist sect leader Warren Jeffs. WCSO Det. Nate Abbott said the 25-year-old woman asked for help in leaving a residence in Colorado City to go to Hildale. "Sheriff's deputies facilitated her request and she peacefully left the area," Abbott said. He said no standoff took place and WCSO worked well with Colorado City Marshal's Office when assisting with the move. Abbott said he could not release where the woman was taken for reasons concerning her safety. Media outlets reported the woman was one of Jeffs' nearly 70 wives, but The Associated Press could not confirm this. Washington County Attorney Brock Belnap said he had heard this report, but he also could not confirm the woman's identity or any relation to Jeffs at this time. "We are following up, but it's too early to tell what, if anything, will come of this investigation," Belnap said. Read more | |||
| One of Warren Jeffs' dozens of wives escapes the FLDS after 'being drugged during her first attempt to leave' | |||
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By Rachel Quigley Daily Mail - London, England Originally published 12th October 2011 | |||
| One of the dozens of wives of polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs enlisted the help of the authorities to escape the sect's home-base in Arizona. Washington county sheriff's deputies helped the 25-year-old woman leave the base and flee to another home in Utah. Detective Nate Abbott said deputies arrived on a 'keep the peace' call at about 3pm. 'She asked for assistance in leaving the community, and a deputy responded and facilitated that request,' he said. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the woman had been living with her parents and then fled to the home of Willie Jessop, who is the former spokesman for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Isaac Wyler, a former sect member who still lives in the community, said the sheriff's deputies helped diffuse what had become a stand-off with FLDS men outside Mr Jessop's office after a manhunt was launched. Sources also told ABC 4 News that local town marshals and FLDS security surrounded the business of Willie Jessop, where the young woman had sought refuge. The woman was then taken to a shelter. Read more | |||
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