31 girls allegedly smuggled from Canada by FLDS
 
By Matthew Waller
San Angelo Standard-Times
 
SAN ANGELO, Texas — As many as 31 underage girls may have been smuggled between the United States and Canada in connection with illegal marriages by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, according to affidavits filed in a Canadian court by a Texas Ranger based in San Angelo.

The alleged marriages cover a period from 1990 to 2006, Ranger Nick Hanna stated in affidavits dated March 3 and March 31 of this year.

Warren Jeffs, the leader of the FLDS who is in jail in Big Lake awaiting trial, is alleged to have married five of the girls, both preteen and teenage minors. FLDS leaders have allegedly had dozens of wives.

The FLDS sanctions polygamy, calling the marriages "spiritual" or "celestial" marriages.

In Hanna's affidavit, the children from Canada were assigned letter names to protect their identities. The number of children exhausted the alphabet, with the final five being identified as children AA, BB, CC, DD and EE.

The affidavits were filed in connection with a British Columbia Supreme Court case in which the constitutionality of Canada's polygamy law is being tested. Polygamy in Canada is an indictable offense punishable by up to five years in prison.

Hanna cites recordings and documents attributed to Jeffs, the FLDS prophet and leader, seized in the raid on the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado in April 2008. In the affidavit, Hanna says Jeffs described his marriage in March 1, 2004, to two teenage girls, 13 and 14 years old, one of them 13-year-old Child A from Canada:

"These young girls have been given to me to be taught and trained how to come into the presence of God and help redeem Zion from their youngest years before they go through teenage doubting and fears and boy troubles. I will just be their boy trouble and guide them right, the Lord helping me," Jeffs is cited as saying. Jeffs also is accused of having married two 12-year-old girls from Canada.

An FLDS community of about 400 people resides in Lister, British Columbia, a community also known as Bountiful.

Several of the children were transported in secrecy, the affidavit states, with a special truck and trailer set up to bring in the girls, equipped with a bathroom so that they would not need to use the facilities of "gentiles." The men who brought in the girls were told to destroy their prepaid phones at the boarder, the affidavit says.

The testimony came as a result of a legal case in Canada that is looking to decide whether polygamy is protected by religious freedom laws in Canada.

"The reference case is in its final arguments," Dave Townsend, a spokesman for the British Columbia Attorney General's office, said. "The final arguments are ongoing."

The marriages were allegedly performed by top members and for top members of the FLDS, including the former president of the FLDS as a corporation, a former bishop of an FLDS community in Canada, and Jeffs' father, the previous "prophet" or leader of the FLDS.

The Office of the Attorney General of Texas said it could not comment on whether the information would be used to further charge Jeffs, who is in jail in Reagan County waiting trial on two counts of sexual assault of a child and one charge of bigamy. Jeffs' first trial is scheduled for July 25 in San Angelo. It is unclear whether any of the girls whom Jeffs is accused of having married in the Texas trial were among the Canadian girls allegedly smuggled into the U.S.

The documents came from a raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch in April 2008 that resulted from what has been believed to be a hoax call from a woman claiming abuse at the ranch. The evidence has been used to convict seven men on charges of sexual assault of a child and bigamy.
 
gosanangelo.com
Originally published April 1, 2011
 
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