Sex-assault case involving West Texas sect member could go to jury today
 
The Associated Press
Dallas Morning News
 
ELDORADO, Texas — Closing arguments are expected today in the sexual assault trial of a member of a polygamist sect in West Texas.

The case against 38-year-old Raymond Jessop would then go to the jury for deliberations.

Jessop, facing a charge of sexual assault of a child, could be sentenced to 20 years in prison if convicted. He is the first member of the sect to be tried since authorities raided the Yearning For Zion Ranch last year.

Prosecutors planned to finish calling witnesses this morning. Defense attorneys were then expected to argue to state District Judge Barbara Walther -- without calling any witnesses -- that the case should be dismissed because the state failed to prove its case.

Assistant Attorney General Eric Nichols used the testimony of Texas Rangers and a former member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to introduce church marriage records, family photos and dictation by jailed sect leader Warren Jeffs as evidence in Jessop's trial.

One dictation by Jeffs indicated that he advised Jessop and others in August 2005 not to take the girl who is the alleged victim in the case to the hospital, even though she had been struggling in child labor for days.

"I knew that the girl being 16 years old, if she went to the hospital, they could put Raymond Jessop in jeopardy of prosecution as the government is looking for any reason to come against us there," Jeffs said, according to seized church records.

Many documents presented to jurors were heavily redacted to remove references to multiple marriages.

Jessop reportedly has nine wives. He faces a bigamy charge, but that case is to be tried later.

The alleged victim in the assault case, now 21, was previously in a so-called "spiritual marriage" with Jessop's brother before being "reassigned" to Jessop when she was 15, according to documents seized at the ranch.

Forensic experts testified that DNA tests point to Jessop as the father of a girl born to the alleged victim in 2005.

Under Texas law, generally, no one under 17 can consent to sex with an adult.

Defense attorney Mark Stevens has argued that prosecutors can't show that any crime happened in Texas — an element necessary to establish that a state district court has jurisdiction to try Jessop.

Nichols, the prosecutor, earlier showed jurors a photo album that placed the girl and Jessop at the West Texas ranch in 2004 and early 2005. It did not, however, include photos from November 2004, the time of the alleged sexual assault.

Since the raid on the ranch in April 2008, 12 men from the sect have been indicted on charges ranging from failure to report child abuse to sexual assault.

The 439 children taken from the ranch and placed in foster care following the raid have all been returned to their parents or other relatives.

Jeffs, revered by group as a prophet, was convicted in Utah as an accomplice to rape. He awaits trial in Arizona on charges related to marriages to underage girls. Then, he'll face separate sexual assault and bigamy charges in Texas.

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is a breakaway faction of the Mormon church, which officially renounced polygamy more than a century ago.

Historically based near the Arizona-Utah state line, the group bought a ranch in Eldorado, about 150 miles northwest of San Antonio, six years ago and began building massive homes and a towering temple.

The raid by Texas authorities made national headlines, as women in prairie dresses and braids were moved off the ranch, and child welfare officials took custody of their children.
 
DallasNews.com
Originally published November 5, 2009
 
Back