| Jeffs' arrest was 'disturbing' to elder |
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By Matt Phinney San Angelo Standard-Times |
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ELDORADO - One of the first things Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran did when he learned the leader of a church that practices polygamy had been arrested in Nevada was to call the YFZ Ranch.
It's impossible to know how much national news infiltrates the ranch three miles northeast of Eldorado. So Doran wanted to make sure group elders heard the news that their leader, Warren Jeffs, one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted fugitives, had been arrested. Doran has spent about 2-1/2 years building a working relationship with Merrill Jessop, a church elder in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Residents there do not talk to the media. "It was disturbing to him, but he appreciated the news," Doran said. "I don't think anything out there will change. But we will be cautious and continue to monitor the ranch." Jeffs, 50, was arrested without incident, when he and two others were pulled over for a traffic stop late Monday. The leader of the polygamist sect was on the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted List. A Nevada Highway Patrol trooper found Jeffs, who faces sexual misconduct charges, in a new Cadillac Escalade with cell phones, laptop computers, wigs and more than $50,000 in cash, authorities said Tuesday. Jeffs has led the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 2002 and is said to have at least 40 wives and nearly 60 children. Church dissidents say that underage marriages - some involving girls as young as 13 - escalated into the hundreds under his leadership, and that he broke apart families by casting out married men and reassigning their women and children to others. Most of the church's members live in Hildale, Utah, and the adjoining Colorado City, Ariz., but authorities have said they believe Jeffs had "safe houses" in four other states - including Nevada - and Canada. The YFZ Ranch near Eldorado was quiet Tuesday. The large white building people call the temple is clearly visible from the road that borders the southern edge of the ranch. Several large cranes used for construction sat idle. While 24-hour news networks buzzed Tuesday with the news of Jeffs' arrest during the routine traffic stop, the reaction in Eldorado was more subdued. Many in the town of about 1,930 simply didn't want to talk about the religious group or its reclusive leader. Those who did said they were relieved that a Top 10 Most Wanted fugitive was apprehended, but that it has little to do with their day-to-day lives. People in Eldorado seem to have gotten used to their reticent neighbors. "I haven't concerned myself with it," said Ann Schooley while delivering meals around lunchtime. "If he did what they say, he should be arrested. But someone asked me if I was scared of them. I said, 'Why on Earth would I be scared of them? All those people want from us is to leave them alone.'" Jim Bob Brame said he's glad the arrest was made in Nevada and not in Schleicher County. He said he doesn't want Texas - and especially Schleicher County - associated with Jeffs and the allegations against him that are so "abhorrent, it's difficult for people to understand." "Other than the illegal stuff, some of the people are just families with a different belief," he said. "I'm not any more compassionate than anyone else about it, but I worry about the families, the mothers and their babies out there. They put family first and state second, and who can throw stones at that?" Doran, the county's sheriff, visited the ranch Monday with the local school district superintendent to talk with ranch leaders about proper Texas curriculum for home school students. Doran has long maintained there has never been credible evidence Jeffs had been in Eldorado or on the ranch. But some elected officials in Utah and Arizona had suggested Doran's department wasn't doing enough to find Jeffs. "We knew what was going on in Texas," Doran said. "It was national speculation that had him here. All the credible tips and sightings came from Utah, Arizona, Nevada and Canada. We certainly never had enough to go onto the ranch." The Associated Press contributed to this report. Who is Warren Steed Jeffs? Age: 50 Occupation: Leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints since 2002, taking over from his late father, Rulon Jeffs. Family: Is said to have 40 wives and nearly 60 children. West Texas connection: The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado, with an estimated 70 residents. Abilene is about 130 miles north of Eldorado. Charges he faces: Jeffs is wanted in Utah and Arizona on charges of arranging two marriages between underage girls and older men. The charges include two counts of rape as an accomplice in Utah, with each count punishable by up to life in prison. Source: Associated Press What they're saying about Warren Jeffs: Just before a scheduled meeting in the 1990s with Jeffs' father Rulon Jeffs, "out came the man that I later recognized as Warren Jeffs with two or three other men saying the appointment been canceled. In this interchange with me, it was very obvious to me that he had canceled his father's plans and he was there to enforce that." "He's broken up so many families ... . It makes me all the more grateful that I am an independent fundamentalist Mormon and that I don't have a leader telling me what to do. With Warren Jeffs it's such a controlled community because of his controlling nature." "We're excited (about the arrest) for the people down there, but we're very concerned about who might step up and take the leadership role."Source: Associated Press |
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reporter-news.com Originally published August 30, 2006 |
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