Correspondent Notes: Telling the Prophet to Shove It

From Correspondent Carol McKinley: World Report HDNet

HDNet The town of Short Creek is the hub for the FLDS. Around 6000 FLDS live here underneath the shadow of these red cliffs.   HDNet FLDS women are busy preparing gardens to ready the community for the 'destructions.' Their prophet, Warren Jeffs, has predicted the 'end times' will happen soon.   HDNet Though visiting Short Creek is like going back in time in many ways, the FLDS are very techno savvy. The upper echelon of the priesthood have sophisticated cellphones, computer systems, and may even watch television. But the common people are banned from going on the internet or keeping up with outside news.   HDNet World Report photographer Jim Van Vranken gets footage of Short Creek from a high vantage point. Just minutes after this picture was taken, our crew got what the town prosecutor describes as a "bogus" citation for criminal trespassing. "The Prophet’s Defector" It only took a couple of blocks driving down the dirt roads of Short Creek before the God Squad pulled in behind our World Report crew. They reported our every move to each other from their cellphones as they slowly trolled behind us, stopping when we stopped. The God Squad is the professional security detail for Warren Jeffs, the self-proclaimed prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or FLDS. The God Squad got its nickname from oustiders who have left the faith. These people, called "apostates" by those still inside, say they are watched and harassed every day. The God Squad drives a fleet of brand new mega-trucks and SUV’s with tinted windows. Even when we tried to shake them by driving to another town to conduct interviews, they followed, keeping tabs on us from tinted windows. They were likely trying to intimidate one of their latest defectors as he spoke with World Report exclusively in a small park in Hurricane, Utah. Arnold Richter, a father of four with just one wife, told us about how he grew up in the FLDS, but was asked to leave the polygamous sect because he asked too many questions. Instead, Richter did something not many FLDS'ers have the courage to do: he refused the prophet. Today, instead of living alone in a far-away town as a broken and friendless cast-off, Richter is taking a stand, making the hard but necessary choice to stay in Short Creek with his family. Here, in a house he built himself, life the last few months has been strange. The Richters are now considered "apostates" in the only community they’ve ever known. The priesthood sent his own father to tell him he was not worthy, and to leave his family by sundown. He is now known as the "wickedest man since the days of Joseph Smith." Short Creek is a town which straddles the Utah/Arizona border, inhabited by 6000 or so members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or FLDS. Their leader, Warren Jeffs, will face charges of sexual assault on a child and bigamy July 25th in a Texas trial which is expected to last two weeks. I’m told by law enforcement the world will be shocked when the trial reveals details of sexual rituals led by Jeffs behind the walls of his monstrous temple on the Yearning For Zion ranch. The plan, by state prosecutors, is to play the audio tapes from those incidents in the courtroom. But Jeffs' followers may not hear about it. They’ve been banned from using the internet, and they don’t watch television news. World Report brings you the topsy-turvy lifestyle of the FLDS as their prophet faces life in prison, as told by a man recently on the inside in an interview you’ll only hear on HDNet.

HDNet.com Originally published June 24, 2011

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