tagged w/ FLDS
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Warren Jeffs, born & bred to be the leader of the FLDS church, ruled an isolated community where girls as young as 14 were forced to marry, wives were re-assigned to other men at Jeffs' instruction, boys were excommunicated to make more young women available as plural brides for men far older than they. Plus Texas has charged him with other scams, unrelated to polygamy.Warren Jeffs, born & bred to be the leader of the FLDS church, ruled an isolated... more
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TrishR
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added this
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10 months ago
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SAN ANGELO, Texas — Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints leader Warren Jeffs was arraigned in a Tom Green County District Court in San Angelo Wednesday morning. Jeffs, who is being held in the Reagan County Jail in Big Lake without bail, will appear for a pretrial on Dec. 8 at 9 a.m.
During the 15-minute arraignment, Judge Barbara Walther of the 51st District Court read Jeffs his rights, announced and explained the three charges he faces and showed him copies of the indictments. Walther asked Jeffs, who does not yet have an attorney, whether he wanted her to appoint one to him.
“I need more time,” Jeffs said.
Angela Goodwin, a prosecutor with the Texas Attorney General’s office, was present at the arraignment.
http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2010/dec/01/jeffs-moved-to-san-angelo-for-trial/SAN ANGELO, Texas — Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints leader Warren Jeffs was... more
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The appearance was brief, perhaps two or three minutes, but the presence of Warren Jeffs in a Salt Lake City area courtroom this week revealed a man who has changed in the four years since his arrest. The man who was once on the FBI's Most Wanted List looked thinner, his hair, now close-cropped, dusted with gray, and he wore a pair of frameless glasses that seemed to emphasize his most distinctive feature, his wide, compelling eyes. Jeffs has reportedly suffered from illness brought on by extended periods of prayer and fasting. But the brief courtroom hearing with its mundane talk of calendars and hearings also brought the sometime "prophet" of a Utah-based polygamist sect one step closer to a Texas courtroom to face allegations of sexual assault and bigamy — perhaps law enforcement's best avenue to keep him behind bars.
Jeffs and 11 members of his Fundamentalist Church of the Latter Day Saints (FLDS) were charged in 2008 by Texas authorities with a variety of felony charges, from bigamy to child abuse, following a raid on the group's Yearning for Zion Ranch in tiny Eldorado, Texas. Seven of the men have been convicted and have received sentences ranging from 7 to 75 years; another goes on trial this month. Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott told TIME: "Whenever Warren Jeffs is brought to Texas, we stand ready to try him on felony charges returned by a Schleicher County grand jury."
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2016785,00.html#ixzz0z2E1UygNThe appearance was brief, perhaps two or three minutes, but the presence of Warren... more
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Law enforcement officers from Utah and Arizona swept down on twin towns controlled by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Sheriff’s deputies moved in to Colorado City, Ariz. And Hildale, Utah on Tuesday, seeking evidence on suspected misuse of public funds and fraudulent schemes in connection with city government.
Officers served warrants at four fire stations and the private residences of the City Manager and Fire Chief in Colorado City, searching documents and computer records.
Similar records were subpoenaed months ago for the water system of the polygamous community.
Millions of dollars in expenditures were discovered, even through the water company was doing no construction and the records indicated more than $4 million was diverted to the family of a public official, to FLDS companies and to construction of the FLDS colony in Texas.
Bruce Wisan, a court-appointed fiduciary, says, “All the residents of the community are not members of the FLDS church and so you have some people that appear to be taking advantage of the religion and their access to money."
No arrests were made Tuesday.
Both communities are home to FLDS members that follow Warren Jeffs, a church leader serving prison time in Utah after being convicted of rape as an accomplice for his role in the marriage of a 14–year–old follower to her 19–year–old cousin.Law enforcement officers from Utah and Arizona swept down on twin towns controlled by... more
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Two leaders of a Canadian polygamist sect have been arrested. One of the men had 19 wives and the other had 5. Both are members of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints. Many of the 'brides' of the sect are 15 and 16-year-old Americans.Two leaders of a Canadian polygamist sect have been arrested. One of the men had 19... more
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Personally, I became interested in this story back in April when authorities raided the YFZ ranch in Texas. I was struck by the women and how strange they appeared in their pioneer dresses and heavily hairsprayed braids. This piqued my curiosity I did some Web surfing, read a few books like Carolyn Jessop's "Escape" and "When Men Become Gods" by Stephen Singular. What I learned is that these seemingly devout, modest sects are actually pretty scary and dangerous.
Kids are being denied proper education and are routinely put to work in various cult-owned businesses in violation of Child Labor Laws. Dozens, perhaps hundreds of young boys have been excommunicated from the sect, brought to big cities or simply left at the side of a road to fend for themselves while still in their mid 'teens, for minor infractions such as kissing a girl. These boys know nothing about life in the outside world and often end up in big trouble with drugs and prostitution. One of the underlying reasons for this happening is to eliminate some of the males in the community so the elite will have more females to take as plural wives.
Women have very little rights in these communities. Their husbands control every aspect of their lives, as they can only attain paradise through their husbands. They can work, but all their money is to be turned over to their husbands. They can drive, but often the registrations on their cars are expired or invalid so they cannot get far if they try to leave the community. Women seldom have any choice in who they must marry and can even be taken away from one husband and "reassigned" to another on the whim of church elders. The FLDS denies it, but clearly many young girls are forced into marriages at extremely young ages: there are many stories of girls having babies before even age 15.
We must remember that these are not some alienated college kids who have joined some whacked-out cult in the search for enlightenment. These groups have been around for over 150 years, and these folks are born into a generations-old tradition. They have been indoctrinated into this way of life since birth, and told over and over again that the path to salvation is through complete and unquestioning obedience to the sect. They are denied access to the outside world, television and radio are banned as well as all but a few books. When people believe that their spiritual salvation is at stake, they can be convinced to do almost anything.
The FLDS leadership has bred themselves their own little totally compliant army.
Cult doctrine openly despises the US government, yet cloaks itself in the First Ammendment whenever it is threatened. Plural marriages are not legally recognized, so most FLDS mothers are single parents in the eyes of the state, allowing them to collect millions of dollars in welfare benefits every year, which goes into the pockets of church leadership and into building big fancy houses on FLDS land. This policy is called "Bleeding the Beast" by the Church.
You and I are the Beast.
With so much going on in our country, many people really don't consider this situation important or worthy of our concern. But anyone who looks a little further into it will realize that these groups are not just a quirky, benign presence. The similarities between their tactics and those of the Taliban are striking and scary; and it is all happening right here inside the USA.
Finally, it seems, someone is trying to do something serious regarding this situation. Senator Harry Reid, the House Majority Leader, said Thursday that groups such as the FLDS are "a form of organized crime," largely unchecked by law enforcement. He is proposing a federal-state partnership aimed at policing such communities. Interesingly, the Senator's own state is one where the FLDS flourishes.
I urge all Americans to educate themselves on these groups. We must as a country decipher the truth behind the cloak of religion, and decide what is and what isn't right.
Personally, I became interested in this story back in April when authorities raided... more
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A report from msnbc.com/Associative Press-
"ELDORADO, Texas - A grand jury on Tuesday indicted polygamist leader Warren Jeffs and five other members of a sect raided in April.
Jeffs is accused of sexual assault. The charges and identities of the others were being withheld until authorities can arrest them, said Schleicher County Clerk Peggy Williams.
One indictment is a misdemeanor; the others are felonies.
The criminal charges came during the panel's second meeting on the case and followed the ill-fated child custody case in which more than 400 children were placed in foster care. The Texas Supreme Court ruled child welfare authorities had overstepped in taking all the children from their parents even though many were infants and toddlers.
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints leaders have consistently denied there was any abuse at the ranch and vowed not to sanction underage marriages.
Secret proceedings
Grand jury proceedings are supposed to be secret, but documents released as part of the separate child custody case involving the FLDS children have revealed some of the evidence collected by law enforcement during the weeklong raid of the ranch.
Among the hundreds of boxes of photos, documents and family Bibles, investigators found photos of Jeffs kissing and intimately embracing several apparently teenage girls.
A journal entry purportedly from Jeffs attached to a report by a child advocate indicates he married his daughter to a 34-year-old man the day after she turned 15. The girl turns 17 on Saturday and has denied being married, though the child advocate report indicates intimate notes between the girl and man were also found in the raid.
The girl, who playfully climbed a giant oak tree while waiting to be called to testify last month, left the community building frowning as she talked to her lawyer. The Associated Press is not identifying her because authorities believe she may be a sexual abuse victim.
Plural marriages
Under Texas law, a girl younger than 17 cannot generally consent to sex with an adult. Bigamy is also illegal in Texas, although FLDS members in plural marriages did not get Texas marriage licenses.
In addition to discussions of the girl’s marriage, the Jeffs journal entry also indicates he blessed marriages of two other underage sect members.
A call to a spokeswoman for Abbott was not immediately returned Tuesday.
The FLDS, which believes polygamy brings glory in heaven, is a breakaway sect of the mainstream Mormon church, which officially renounced polygamy more than a century ago.
Jeffs, who is revered as a prophet, is jailed in Arizona awaiting charges related to the marriages of young girls. He was convicted in Utah of rape as an accomplice for his role in the marriage of a 14-year-old last year."
A report from msnbc.com/Associative Press-
"ELDORADO, Texas - A grand jury on... more
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Removing 460 children from a polygamist sect compound and then reuniting them with their families will cost Texas $7 million, according to the state Department of Family and Protective Services.
The children were ordered returned to their families this week after the Texas Supreme Court found that the state did not have enough evidence to show that abuse was happening at the Yearning for Zion ranch near Eldorado.
The price tag includes costs from fighting a court battle to retain custody of the children, attempting to determine their parentage through DNA testing and reuniting the children with their parents.
The $7 million does not include more than $500,000 in estimated costs incurred by local governments whose law enforcement agencies were involved in the April 3 ranch raid, according to a budgetary presentation given to Texas lawmakers last month.
The raid was prompted by an anonymous caller who claimed that men at the ranch were involved in sexual relationships with young girls.
For comparison, $7 million would pay for 137 police officers in the city of Mesquite, Texas, at a salary of $51,060, according to a figure from a job posting. It would also pay for 180 new teachers at the average statewide salary of $38,857 given by the Texas State Board for Educator Certification and would more than double resources available for a state program aimed at children of incarcerated parents, according to the state's budget for fiscal 2008-09. In that budget, the program receives $5 million.
The removal of the children was thought to be the largest child protection case in the nation's history. If they had remained in state custody, Hawkins told lawmakers, the estimated monthly cost for their care would have been $1.3 million.
(story from CNN ... follow link for complete story) Removing 460 children from a polygamist sect compound and then reuniting them with... more
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Zion Ranch run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a breakaway sect of the Mormon church teachings pushed underage girls into marriage and sex. Members have said they are being persecuted for their religion, which believes polygamy brings glorification in heaven.
They say, "Future marriages would only involve sect members who were of legal age." "The church will counsel families that they neither request nor consent to any underage marriages," Willie Jessop said. That's wonderful. In the future they promise not to break the law.
Texas authorities last week collected DNA from jailed FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs as part of investigation into underage sex with girls, ages 12 to 15.
What a wonderful world.Zion Ranch run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a... more
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Vasqi
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added this
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3 years ago
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By STEPHANIE SIMON and ANN ZIMMERMAN// Wall Street Journal
Texas authorities prepared to return hundreds of children seized from a polygamist ranch after the state Supreme Court ruled that child-welfare authorities were wrong to have separated the children from their parents.
The Texas Supreme Court let stand an appellate ruling that the state acted illegally in taking custody last month of 468 children from the Yearning for Zion ranch in Eldorado.
"Removal of the children was not warranted," the justices wrote.
Texas Child Protective Services spokesman Patrick Crimmins said the agency would "prepare for the prompt and orderly reunification of these children with their families."
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Full story at link.By STEPHANIE SIMON and ANN ZIMMERMAN// Wall Street Journal
Texas authorities... more
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The court says that Texas had no right to remove the children because they were "Not in Immediate Danger".
They were only in a cult ran by a man under investigation for child molesting.The court says that Texas had no right to remove the children because they were... more
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From some Canadian consular officials monitoring the interim custody hearing, nobody has done anything. Perhaps it’s not surprising. Afterall, the Canadian government allowed the U.S. government to lock up a Canadian teen in Guantanamo Bay.
From some Canadian consular officials monitoring the interim custody hearing,... more
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Here is a photo of Sarah, the abused 16-year-old. Actually it's Rozita Swinton, there never was a Sarah. Great job Texas, can you now take all the children on my street as well. It seems I can hear a child crying next door.Here is a photo of Sarah, the abused 16-year-old. Actually it's Rozita Swinton,... more
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dabne
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added this
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4 years ago
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