Jury seated, proceedings to start in trial of polygamous sect member
 
By Matthew Waller
San Angelo Standard-Times
 
SAN ANGELO, Texas — ELDORADO — A jury has been seated and proceedings will start today in the trial of polygamous sect member Raymond Merril Jessop.

Judge Barbara Walther this morning dismissed another 44 prospective jurors and told another group of them who had been summoned for a 10:30 a.m. appearance today at the Memorial Building in Eldorado to return at noon.

At noon, she announced the jury had been seated, released all others summonsed for jury duty, and said the trail proceedings will begin at 3:30 p.m. in the Memorial Building, a community center in downtown Eldorado where the jury vetting took place.

Jessop’s trial began Monday with jury selection from a pool of 153 prospects. The 38-year-old man is charged with sexual assault of a minor, a second degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison and a fine up to $10,000.

Jessop’s attorney, Mark Stevens of San Antonio, has elected to have Jessop sentenced by the jury rather than the judge in the event he is found guilty.

Jessop is the first of a dozen men from the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado to go to trial on criminal charges based largely on evidence seized in the state’s raid of the ranch in April 2008. Material taken away from the ranch, owned and occupied by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, included computers, data files, marriage records, photographs and other documents.

Walther determined earlier this year to hold the trial in Eldorado and summoned a massive pool of 300 potential jurors, of whom nearly half were excused or exempted before jury selection began on Monday.

The charge against Jessop is related to allegations that he engaged in a form of marriage with an underage girl. Men in the FLDS practice taking multiple "spiritual" wives as part of their beliefs.

The April 2008 raid, originally triggered by a hoax call from a woman pretending to be a teenage girl residing at the ranch, resulted in the removal of 439 children whom Child Protective Services deemed to be at risk of abuse. Walther presided over mass custody hearings held in 51st District Court in San Angelo during the summer of 2008, issuing decisions that ultimately were overturned by the Texas Third Court of Appeals.

Walther has continued to preside over the criminal cases that grew out of the raid, including a bid in May by defense attorneys to have a hearing to determine whether the evidence seized by the state at the ranch is admissible at trial.

Walther ruled earlier this month that the defense had not made a case to have the hearing, but at a pre-trial hearing Oct. 1, she did limit the prosecution’s ability to bring up some matters during the trial.

This is a breaking news story. Further developments will be added as information becomes available.
 
gosanangelo.com
Originally published October 28, 2009
 
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