Ex-sect member wants long sentences for FLDS men
 
By Gary Scharrer
San Antonio Express-News
 
AUSTIN — A woman who fled the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints after years of sexual abuse is hopeful — but not that optimistic — that men from the Eldorado compound will get convicted and receive long sentences after they go on trial later this year.

Flora Jessop will be in San Antonio today talking about child abuse inside the secretive society that she doesn't think gets enough attention from the outside world.

She also is promoting her new book, "Church of Lies," co-written by Paul T. Brown.

The book chronicles Jessop's life inside the FLDS, the sexual abuse against her that began when she was 8 and the impact of such abuse on children. She also discusses her rescue efforts of children still inside the group and difficulties trying to protect those children.

"I am hoping against hope that Texas will, upon prosecuting these guys, give them longer sentences that we have seen in Arizona and Utah — 13 days, 45 days and nine months, which is the longest sentence we have seen for one of these guys that has molested children," she said. "Will Texas have the guts to give them more?"

A raid at the Eldorado-based community near San Angelo in April 2008 resulted in 439 children being temporarily removed from the compound. An investigation by Child Protective Services resulted in charges against 12 men for their roles in performing underage marriages.

All but one of the children were returned to the compound, which Jessop harshly criticizes.

"That still leaves the children hung out to dry because these children are still left inside a culture that is abusive and violent and deadly to children," she said.

She does not expect any of the children to testify. The prosecution's case largely will hinge on detailed records and documents seized during the raid.

"After spending the victim back to the abuser, do you honestly believe the victim would testify against the abuser because the state has already said, ‘honey we know that you are being hurt but we are not going to protect you. So go home and enjoy it," Jessop said.

She predicted the children will write letters supporting "the predators because if they don't they won't get to eat for a month, or they'll have their babies taken away and beaten and abused by the other wife. They'll be locked in rooms until they get rid of their evil spirits because they are now possessed by demons," Jessop said.

She is a cousin to Merril Jessop, chief deputy to Warren Jeffs, the imprisoned leader of the nation's largest polygamist sect. Jeffs is serving two prison terms of 5 years to life for his role in the 2001 marriage of a 14-year-old girl.

Residents of the Eldorado compound have told state officials they now understand that "spiritual marriages" involving underage girls to older men is sexual abuse.

But the practice will continue, Jessop said, just as it did after the state of Arizona raided a polyigamist community in 1953 when some 200 children were removed at Short Creek.

"We were taught to lie to the Gentiles because our laws — God's laws — were above anything man can say," she said. "So we don[t have to abide by man's laws."

Jessop said she knew something wasn't right with her community at age 8 when a biker broke down in the small Colorado City, Ariz., town and one of the sect's leaders pointed a double-barrel shotgun at the stranger, telling him he had 10 minutes to get back on the highway.

"I couldn't process what he had done to deserve that," she said, because it didn't comport with teachings "to do unto others what you would have them do unto you... It changed my world. It got the questions rolling, and they never quit. Questions are forbidden. Obedience without question is the only way to God.

"I have this really bad problem with blind obedience. I did not make a good, submissive wife," she said.'

She fled after three weeks in a forced marriage at age 16. Earlier, she said she was locked up in an uncle's house after trying to press charges against her father for sexual abuse against her.

"I honestly didn't care if I lived or died," she said. "I consciously chose to damn myself to hell for eternity rather than stay in heaven."

Texans should not blame law enforcement agencies for the raid and removal of the children, she said.

"I want the citizens of this state to stand up and demand accountability of their government because of they don't, Texas children will be the next ones betrayed and hung out to dry," Jessop said.

She encourages people to check out a new Texas-based organization called Americans Against the Abuses of Polygamy: www.TripleAP.org
 
MySanAntonio.com
Originally published June 22, 2009
 
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