Polygamist ranch leader indicted

This is big, exciting, great news!!!!!


SAN ANTONIO — A 72-year-old elder of a breakaway polygamist Mormon sect and two other church members surrendered to authorities Monday to face felony charges relating to the underage marriage of girls to older men.

Fredrick "Merril" Jessop, a leader in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who oversaw the sect's West Texas ranch, faces one count of conducting an unlawful marriage ceremony involving a minor on July 27, 2006 — the same day one of his daughters was allegedly married to jailed FLDS leader Warren Jeffs. She was 12 at the time and is now the only child from the Yearning For Zion Ranch in foster care after her mother refused to cooperate with child welfare authorities.


Merril and his first six wives, from left, Cathleen, Ruth, Faunita, Tammy, Barbara and Carolyn

A grand jury in Eldorado, Texas, indicted Jessop, Jeffs and two other members of FLDS on Nov. 12. Jeffs, convicted in Utah and awaiting trial in Arizona on charges related to underage marriages of sect girls, faces charges in Texas of sexual assault of a child and bigamy.

The two other men who turned themselves in Monday are:

Wendell Loy Nielsen, 68, charged with three counts of bigamy. The indictment includes few details, but church records released as part of a separate child custody case list 21 women married to Nielsen in August 2007.





Leroy Johnson Steed, 42, who is charged with sexual assault of a child, bigamy and tampering with evidence. Church records show Steed married to a 16-year-old girl in March 2007.


All three men were booked Monday and then released after posting bond.

"We've said all along we're not running. We're going to take it head on," said FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop. "The allegations they're making and what they're trying to do is nothing more than harassment."

Church records and journal entries released in the custody case indicate several of Merril Jessop's daughters were married to men in the church when they were 16 or younger.

One of Merril Jessop's wives, Carolyn, fled the FLDS community on the Arizona-Utah line with her children in 2003 and wrote a best-selling book, "Escape."

In all, 12 FLDS men have been indicted since Texas authorities raided the ranch in April looking for evidence of underage girls forced into marriages and sex with older men.

Generally, teens younger than 17 cannot consent to sex with an adult under Texas law. Bigamy is also illegal. While the FLDS plural marriages are not legal marriages, Texas law forbids even purporting to marry.

Nother pic of Merril with wives:

FLDS mom drops action against Texas CPS

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,705264178,00.html

Excerpt

Naomi Johnson sought financial damages against Texas Child Protective Services, claiming the agency failed to show it had evidence of abuse involving her daughter, Rebecca, and made sweeping abuse allegations against the entire FLDS community.

A hearing on sanctions was scheduled in San Angelo, Texas, Wednesday. But the hearing was canceled after the toddler was "nonsuited" on Oct. 28.

"We basically swapped nonsuits," Johnson's attorney, Robert Gibson Jr., told the Deseret News on Monday. "They dismissed, we dismissed."

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To date, only 37 children remain a part of the ongoing child custody case. The rest have been "nonsuited," or dropped from court oversight after CPS said its investigators either found no evidence of abuse or their parents had taken appropriate steps to protect the children.

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Hearings are also scheduled in Texas Wednesday to review the status of six children that CPS sought to place back in foster care. Their parents struck deals with the agency to keep them in their homes.

The Diversity Foundation

http://www.smilesfordiversity.org/index.php

I know its taken me forever to post something like this, but I am finally getting around to it! This is a place that takes in people who wish to leave the FLDS. There is a link to donate to them on their homepage:

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The Diversity Foundation is currently assisting the young men (aka “Lost Boys”) and women who are former members of the polygamist community in southern Utah known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (“FLDS”)

Beginning in 2002 the FLDS church began exiling young men between the ages of 14 and 23 for infractions that were in violation of church tenets. These infractions could be talking to a girl, wearing a short sleeved t-shirt, listening to music or watching television. Young women who have exited the FLDS community are doing so because they seek to live in a monogamous society. Both men and women lack an education that is chronologically correct. While living in the FLDS community they might receive an education until the eighth grade at which time they begin to work for wages that are given as tithe to the FLDS church.

The Foundation is helping these young men and women with obtaining a quality education: high school, GED and an undergraduate college degree. Assistance is also available for medical and dental expenses, psychological counseling and general living expenses.

We support social networks through activities: football in the park, bi-monthly discussion groups, mentoring program, life-skills training, advisory counsel, as well as other various interests.

Many of these young people have excelled scholastically. They continue to receive high marks of achievement in high school and college. They are enthusiastic about their education and have pursued college degrees in areas of engineering, medical, accounting, business, law, psychology, et al. With your support and the Foundation's assistance these children have the opportunity to be self-determined and contributing adults.

Judge Halts Land Sale Proceedings

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_10984091

Excerpts

Third District Judge Denise Lindberg postponed a hearing Friday to allow attorneys to work out a "global resolution" of litigation involving the United Effort Plan Trust and a plan for its future management.

The surprise move halted the proposed sale of the 711-acre Berry Knoll Farm - which FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop called "a huge victory."

An estimated 2,500 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints showed up at the 5th District courthouse to show their disapproval of court-appointed fiduciary Bruce R. Wisan and his plan to sell the property.

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The judge took the action at the request of the Utah Attorney General's Office, which had pursued the state's initial takeover of the trust in 2005, alleging mismanagement.

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The UEP Trust holds virtually all property in the twin communities of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Ariz. Most residents are FLDS members.

The trust was set up 66 years ago to foster a communal way of life organized around religious principles. Lindberg rewrote the trust in 2006 to remove its religious underpinnings.

Sect members argued in a federal lawsuit that the overhaul, coupled with the trust's subsequent management, violated constitutionally protected religious rights.

Attorneys said any settlement will have to resolve that and other lawsuits targeting the trust, arrange payment of $2 million in trust expenses, create new trust management and devise ways to accommodate property claims of all beneficiaries, including people who have left the church.

The sect will require that any deal includes Wisan's removal, Jessop said.

Jeff Shields, one of the attorneys representing Wisan, called the sect's willingness to work out a compromise "a major" development.

"We are delighted that people are going to come and talk to us," Shields said. "When people talk, resolutions can happen."

Wisan's goal, Shields said, would still be to have the community subdivided and give deeds to residents to "do what they want with them."

Four more FLDS members indicted in Texas

http://www.sltrib.com/faith/ci_10966236

Excerpt

A Texas grand jury indicted four members of a polygamous sect on Wednesday, including the group's leader Warren S. Jeffs.

Jeffs was the only person identified by the Texas Attorney General's Office in a press release outlining the new felony charges. It said one person was indicted for conducting an unlawful marriage, while two others face multiple bigamy charges. One of the bigamy defendants also faces a charge of tampering with physical evidence.

Jeffs was indicted on a first-degree felony charge of aggravated sexual assault. He has been named in two previous indictments.

Names of the other defendants will not be released until they surrender to authorities or are arrested.

The Schleicher County Grand Jury, which met Wednesday in Eldorado, has so far indicted 12 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on charges related to underage marriages. Of those, 11 men faces charges that include sexual assault and bigamy; one man was indicted on a misdemeanor charge of failure to report child abuse.

Polygamist Group Seeks Safe Haven In Colorado

http://cbs4denver.com/local/FLDS.polygamy.colorado.2.861281.html

Excerpt

SEE THE VIDEO

WESTCLIFFE, Colo. (CBS4) ― They have been in the news for bigamy, accusations of forced marriages, mistreatment of women and young boys. Now the polygamist group the FLDS or Church of Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints has quietly purchased at least eight properties in Colorado.

Two of the properties are near Mancos in Montezuma County in southwest Colorado, another near Crawford in Delta County and five near Westcliffe in Custer and Fremont counties.

CBS4's Rick Sallinger has become the first TV reporter allowed inside one of their compounds to see how they live and what they are doing. He reports going through their gate is like leaving one world and passing into another.

It is a place where some of man's laws are at odds with what they see as God's laws; a collision of values that has led to raids, arrests and seizure of children in other locations.

Beneath the soaring peaks of the Sangre de Cristos and the Wet Mountain Range -- they have come here in search of a safe haven.

"I think we just came here for a place of safety while this goes on, we're not going to settle here," FLDS Member Margaret Jessop told CBS4.

These FLDS members moved to Colorado after law enforcement actions involving their church in Utah and Arizona, what they refer to as Short Creek.

Lee Steed is the man who bought the properties in this Colorado area. He agreed to speak on camera if we would not show his face.

"Why did you buy up all this property?" Sallinger asked.

"It's been my privilege to help these people and to find places to live for people to remove from the persecution at Short Creek," Steed, an FLDS member, replied.

The location, he insists, is only intended for church widows and grandmothers who came to Colorado 2 to 3 years ago from their traditional base.

"We enjoyed it there until persecution ... they just moved in," Jessop sighed.

That persecution, they say, continued this year when the FLDS compound in El Dorado, Texas, was raided. More than 400 children were removed then later returned to their mothers. That included Jessop's grandchildren.

"They were taken away from their parents and kept two nights without a mother," she said.

On the walls above her here in Colorado are pictures of Warren Steed Jeffs, the man they call their prophet. But he now is behind bars convicted as an accomplice in the rape of a teenage girl.

FLDS Lost Boy Home in Trouble

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_10916634


New Frontiers for Families will resign Friday as the overseer of a home in St. George that housed teenagers who've left the FLDS community.

Bonnie Peters, executive director of the Family Support Center in Midvale, said her agency is negotiating with the state to step in as interim manager of the program, known as the House Just Off Bluff. Peters announced the change Thursday at a Safety Net Committee meeting in Salt Lake City.

Peters said the nine or so boys living in the home have been moved to other living quarters and she is awaiting word on whether the owner of the home will allow it to continue to be used for the program.

"If he closes the house down we'll have to see about finding another house," Peters said.

Tracy Johnson, director of New Frontiers, said the program is needed, but "it didn't really fit our mission. That was our main reason."

"I hope they work it out because it's certainly a worthy cause," she said.

Last month, the Five County Association of Governments gave New Frontiers 10 days to get a business license for the home, which opened last year and had operated with proper city approvals. Five County also told New Frontiers the home needed to operate as a drop-in center, as specified in its state grant, and hire properly trained staff to work with the teens. As part of the shake-up, New Frontiers fired its clinical director.

New Frontiers, a Garfield County-based nonprofit, opened the home last summer after receiving a $95,000 grant to create a drop-in center for youth from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. As approved by the department, the non-profit was to help youth connect with services, such as counseling, schooling and medical care.

Instead, youth were allowed to live at the home, which had no licensed clinical staff nor the proper permits.

Peters said the program's current grant of $106,000 runs through June.

"We're hoping there would be an entity that would come forward and make that program functions as it should," said Peters, adding that her center would maintain oversight.

The Family Support Center also oversees the state's Safety Net Committee, which provides services to polygamous communities and facilitates communication with government agencies.

Beth Cottam of Five County said there is a need for homeless youth services in southern Utah beyond teenagers from the polygamous community.

New Frontiers' annual report said it provided services to 114 teenagers and young adults. More than half were older than 18 years of age, according to the report.

The youth say they left or were asked to leave their families because of delinquent behavior or disagreement with the sect's stringent religious standards.

Peters said Thursday her goal is to ensure the program is properly set up to protect the teenagers and provide the services they need. And helping them stay connected with their families is "vital."

"I have found so many of the parents are worried about them and a lot of it's teenage stuff," she said.