FLDS Spokesperson and Utah Attorney General Blast Each Other On Live Television
 
KUTV 2News
FLDS woman

KUTV airwaves turned into a verbal boxing ring, Thursday night, when FLDS Spokesperson Willie Jessop and Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff exchanged heated words.

Thursday’s quarrel was not the first confrontation between the two public figures. In a letter -- written by Jessop and sent to President Bush -- Jessop accuses Shurtleff of furthering "efforts to exterminate the FLDS and boasting that he has driven them out of Utah." (Click here to read the FLDS Letter To Pres. Bush)

In a live 2NEWS interview at 5 p.m., Shurtleff called Jessop a "liar" and threatened him saying, "we put Warren Jeffs in prison here, and as for the rest of them, we will too."

"I’ve got a word for Willie Jessop, that lives in Utah, and is defending this, and says that it isn’t going on. He’s a liar," said Shurtleff. "If you come here to Utah and think you can wed underage girls; you’ve got to think again."

Later, during the 10 p.m. 2NEWS broadcast, Willie Jessop compared Mark Shurtleff -- who is a Mormon -- to an Illinois Governor that ordered the extermination of Mormons during the L.D.S. Church’s founding years.

"When you empower people in the government, with the power that he has, it sounded an awful lot like Governor Boggs in Illinois when he declared a declaration against the Mormon faith," Jessop said in the live interview.

Jessop is referring to the Mormon War. On October 27, 1838, Governor Liburn W. Boggs ordered an extermination on L.D.S. Church members stating:

...the Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the state, if necessary, for the public peace. Their outrages are beyond all description. (Click here for a Napa County Biography on Boggs)

"I’ve never heard the voice of Governor Boggs," said Jessop. "But I believe I heard it in his (Shurtleff’s) tone tonight."

The Texas Supreme Court announced that the FLDS children will be reunited with their families, Monday. The court ruled that Texas officials did not have sufficient evidence to take the children and place them into foster homes.

"Clearly the nation spoke tonight," said Jessop. "This county is not owned by Mark Shurtleff, it’s owned by a constitution. He tried to declare that he owns the state of Utah. That comment he said is concerning and I hope that the people of Utah remember that when he tries to run for government office again."
 
connect2utah.com
Originally broadcast Friday, May 30, 2008
 
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