| To defend prophet, Jeffs' followers offer rare intimate testimony about their marriages, beliefs | |
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By Emanuella Grinberg Court TV | |
ST. GEORGE, Utah — Followers of polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs made a rare public appearance in a Utah courtroom Tuesday to help defend their "prophet" from allegations that he used his authority to force a teen to marry her cousin and have sex with him. In a sea of pastel prairie dresses, seven teen brides in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints took the witness stand to describe their own experiences with arranged marriages under Jeffs' guidance. Lawyers for Jeffs also called two male followers, or "priesthood heads" as they are called in the FLDS, in an effort to convince jurors that women in their faith choose whether to submit to their husbands. The testimony stood in marked contrast to claims from the woman at the heart of the case, who says that she felt the culture trapped her in an unwanted marriage from which Jeffs refused to "release" her. Jeffs, 51, faces five years to life in prison if convicted of two counts of rape as an accomplice. Washington County prosecutors rested their case Tuesday after three days of testimony from the alleged victim and her two sisters about growing up in the insular community of the FLDS, which Jeffs took over in 2004, after his father's death. The three women, all of whom have since left the church, described a culture that demanded from them absolute obedience to their husbands or the forfeiture of their eternal salvation. But nine FLDS members who testified Tuesday presented a different picture of life in the secluded polygamist communities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., where Jeffs is facing charges stemming from the arranged marriages. Jennie Pipkin, 26, testified that her faith had taught her that a woman always chooses whether to have sex with her husband and that God does not condone the use of force in marital relations. Wearing a long-sleeved, floor-length dress typical of FLDS women, Pipkin testified that she resisted sexual advances from her husband more than once after her third child was born. When he continued to "nag" her, she said, she referred him to one of the prophet's teachings: "A man should only have those marital relations with a wife if she invites it." "I realized I was supposed to be in charge. It was my invitation," Pipkin said, as Jeffs' accuser sat in the courtroom gallery, taking notes. Pipkin, who owns a small business as a Webmaster, also showed jurors the iPod on which she keeps hundreds of Jeffs' sermons and lessons on family training. When her husband continued to make unwanted sexual advances, she said, she informed Jeffs, who released her from the marriage. Unlike the alleged victim, who says she told Jeffs that she was too young to marry, Pipkin and the other women testified that they willingly "turned" themselves over to the prophet for their "placement" in marriage. Members of the faith believe God speaks through the prophet, who receives revelations from God about who marries who. Charlotte Anna Jessop testified that, when she told her father she wanted to be married, he made her wait a few months before going to Jeffs' father, Rulon Jeffs, who was the prophet at the time. Eventually, according to the witness, God revealed to Rulon Jeffs that she was to marry Paul Stanley Jessop, who was 47 when he took the 17-year-old as his third wife. The witness, a pharmaceutical technician at the local drug store in Hildale, said she waited more than two months until she was ready to have sex with her husband. Several of the women said they did not know their husbands before they married, unlike Jeffs' accuser, who testified that she knew her cousin well enough to know that she did not care for him. Joanna Keate testified that she had seen her husband once before their marriage, during a school trip to the machine shop where he worked, but never imagined he would one day be her husband. Keate, 25, giggled nervously as she described her initial difficulty adjusting to her husband, whom she married two weeks after turning herself over to the prophet. "I had a barrier around me. I was stubborn. I didn't make the effort and I knew it was my wrong, and I'm very sorry," Keate said, casting an apologetic glance toward Jeffs, who listened from the defense table. "How did the story end up?" defense lawyer Richard Wright asked the witness. "I changed. He became my Prince Charming. I can go to him for anything," the woman testified, her voice quivering as tears filled her eyes. "I love him." Keate acknowledged that the circumstances of her placement marriage were different from those for the alleged victim, whom she said she knew from childhood. During a recess, the two women quietly embraced in the courtroom before joining their respective supporters in the courthouse lobby, where the FLDS members huddled away from staring members of the public. Keate and her husband, who also testified Tuesday, attributed the success of their marriage to Jeffs, who encouraged them to hold hands more often and do things together. According to the couple, when they told Jeffs they had not consummated their relationship after six months of marriage, his words to them were that "it would come with time." The soft, caring image of Jeffs contrasted with his accuser's depiction of him as someone who ordered her to "go home and repent" when she told him that her husband's sexual advances made her "uncomfortable." Lawyers for Jeffs claim that he counseled her in a manner consistent with the beliefs of his faith, just as he did with all his followers. They claim the alleged victim was merely unhappy in her marriage and is now fabricating the claims for financial gain. Without equivocation, each of his followers claimed that force was not tolerated in the celestial kingdom, nor was it acceptable in the relationship between a man and his wife. Keate's husband, John Keate, testified that he occasionally touched his wife to help her adjust to the idea of marital relations, but ceased contact after she indicated her discomfort. "My understanding was that they were to happen when she was ready," John Keate told the jury of seven women and five men. "My job was to love her and help her feel comfortable with me." Keate's testimony echoed that of Keneth Thomas, who also faced a period of turbulence at the start of his marriage to his wife of 11 years. "It took about a year before she wanted to be married to me," Thomas said. "She didn't love me at the time." "She learned to love you, didn't she?" prosecutor Ryan Shaum asked. "Yes," Thomas said. Thomas said he had come to view his wife as a partner in their efforts to live in the spirit of righteousness demanded by God. His wife, Margaret Thomas, conceded that, in the patriarchal society of the FLDS, it was a woman's duty to be obedient to her husband, who had the final say. Even so, the mother of three insisted that God did not expect her to follow her husband in ways of wickedness. "We have the right to the spirit of God. That leads us to know right from wrong," the witness testified. "We choose to obey our husband as he chooses to obey the spirit of the law." The defense is expected to call more of Jeffs' followers on Wednesday. | |
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CourtTV.com Originally published September 19, 2007 | |
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