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A west Texas grand jury investigating allegations that members of a polygamist sect sexually abused girls indicted three more people Tuesday, raising the number of defendants in the case to nine. Each of the sect members indicted Tuesday by the Schleicher County grand jury was charged with sexual assault of a child, and two face an additional charge of bigamy, state Attorney General Greg Abbott said in a statement. Abbott's office has taken over prosecution of the case from local authorities in the tiny county. The names of those charged were not immediately released, but none had been charged previously....

FOUKE, Ark.—Federal and state authorities, prompted by allegations of child pornography being produced on site, executed search warrants Saturday evening at Tony Alamo Christian Ministries. Shortly before 6 p.m., agents from the FBI, Arkansas State Police and the Arkansas Department of Human Services converged on the multiresidential compound, which sits on the equivalent of a half-mile square. For about an hour, search teams were seen entering the church and several neighboring buildings belonging to the Alamo Ministries. Allegations that children living at the Alamo facilities were being sexually and physically abused were central to the state investigation, said Bill Sadler,...

DEVIL'S GATEBrigham Young and the Great Mormon Handcart TragedyPeople do remarkable things and appalling things in the name of religion. Distinguishing between the two categories isn't always easy. In the mid-1850s, Brigham Young directed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to gather in Zion -- Utah Territory -- to enable the struggling Mormon colony to hold its ground against the encroachments of westering American gentiles. To save money and thereby maximize the number of Mormons able to make the trek, Young decided to forgo horse- and oxen-drawn wagons in favor of human-powered push carts. The...

Texas officials are mounting their first legal defense of a raid on a polygamous sect's ranch, saying the sect's claim of search and seizure violations are groundless. In a newly filed court document, the Texas Attorney General's Office sets out arguments it will make at a one-hour hearing set for Oct. 1 before 51st District Judge Barbara Walther. Lyle Jeffs, Merril Jessop and the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints filed motions challenging the state action days after the April 3 raid. Authorities removed 439 children from the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado based on allegations...

The court-appointed special fiduciary for the United Effort Plan Trust is engaging in a "sociological and psychological war" with its beneficiaries, lawyers for Fundamentalist LDS Church members claim in newly filed court documents. They note a November 2007 time entry for one of the fiduciary's attorneys about reviewing a DVD of a jailhouse conversation FLDS leader Warren Jeffs had in which he renounced being a prophet. UEP trust lawyer Jeffrey L. Shields' notation detailed a phone conversation with UEP fiduciary Bruce Wisan and a strategy session on "how to use the DVD in the sociological and psychological war with the...

ELDORADO, Texas — When a grand jury meets here later this month, criminal indictments could be handed down against more members of the Fundamentalist LDS Church. .... Some of that evidence has been used in child-custody cases over the hundreds of FLDS children taken into state protective custody during the raid. Texas Child Protective Services has said it has evidence of at least 10 underage marriages. A CPS caseworker testified during a court hearing last week that an investigation revealed "48 percent of the men at the ranch were involved in underage marriage practices." ..... "Sheriff Doran advised affiant that...

Texas officials say more than 440 children seized during an April raid on a polygamist ranch can safely live with their parents or guardians. Authorities feared some girls were being forced into underage marriages and boys were being raised to be perpetrators. The Texas Supreme Court later ruled the action was too broad and ordered the children back to their parents. The Associated Press has learned that so far the custody cases for 235 children have been dropped, and Texas Child Protective Services says more cases are likely to be dropped. Only one child - a girl allegedly married FLDS...

After years of silence, members of the Fundamentalist LDS Church are challenging the man appointed by the courts to oversee the polygamous sect's real estate holdings arm. A lawsuit was filed in Salt Lake City's 3rd District Court late Friday seeking to set aside an $8.8 million default judgment awarded to the court-appointed special fiduciary of the United Effort Plan Trust. The money was awarded in 2007 to Bruce Wisan after the UEP's former trustees, including FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, failed to respond to his lawsuit alleging they defrauded the trust. But now the church is fighting back, claiming the...

(KSL News) Texas child welfare officials have dropped supervision of an additional 54 children from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). That brings the number of FLDS children no longer being monitored by the state to more than 250, according to the Deseret News. All of the children have been removed from state supervision because welfare workers feel they are not in danger of abuse. They all are among the more than 460 taken off the FLDS compound in April, only to be returned six weeks later when a judge ruled Texas officials had overstepped...

The increasingly protracted battle between the FLDS community and the state of Texas has prompted a number of discussions about the Texas polygamous group and the Mormons. A MormonTimes.com reader identifying himself as Tom Jones sent a question to the site's "Mormon Q&A section," where answers and discussion on topics of interest are addressed by the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR). Jones' question reads: Since the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has much more in common with the mainline LDS Church than the LDS Church has in common with mainline Christianity, why is it...

DENVER - A Colorado Springs woman considered a person of interest in an investigation of phone calls that may have sparked a raid on a Texas polygamist group is on a list of possible witnesses to testify against the sect. .... An Oct. 1 hearing is scheduled challenging the search warrant on the sect.

When an FLDS mother called to tell her 14-year-old daughter a judge had ordered her back into state custody, the girl cried steadily for seven hours. "Just me? Only me?" she asked her mother before dissolving into tears. Barbara Jessop is breaking her silence to describe the traumatic Tuesday separation from her daughter. The teen - allegedly married to sect leader Warren S. Jeffs in 2006 - is the only FLDS child now in state care. A videotape of her transfer in a state building parking lot shows the girl crying and holding her mother as Child Protective Services workers...

A Schleicher County grand jury today handed down three new felony indictments in the state's polygamist sect investigation, a court clerk said. Schleicher County District Clerk Peggy Williams said the indictments involve three individuals. It's unclear whether those individuals are new defendants or suspects already charged in the probe. The identities of those individuals were not immediately available. Neither were the actual charges listed in the indictments. The grand jury last month indicted six members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Court hearings for those individuals is scheduled for Sept. 8, authorities said. The grand jury...

<p>Warren Jeffs and four followers were indicted in Texas in July and charged with sexual assault of a child.</p> <p>District Judge Barbara Walther said there was solid evidence that the girl -- who authorities allege was married to Jeffs at the age of 12 with the consent of her parents -- was an underage bride.</p>

A Texas judge has ordered a 14-year-old FLDS girl -- apparently married to the sect's leader at age 12 -- back into state custody, saying the girl's mother has been unable to provide assurances the girl would be safe in her care. .... Walther ordered Merril Jessop to have no contact with the children and to submit a DNA sample to the state. The parents were also ordred to pay $180 a month each in child support for the time their daughter remains in state care. .... State attorney Jeff Schmidt argued officials had shown the couple condones underage marriage...

To nearly every question she was asked, Barbara Jessop gave the same answer: "I stand on the Fifth." "Can you name the children you have given birth to?" Texas Child Protective Services attorney Jeff Schmidt asked her during a contentious custody hearing here on Monday. "I stand on the Fifth," she replied stoically. "What dates did you live at the YFZ Ranch?" "I stand on the Fifth." "Is it wrong for a girl under 17 to marry a man more than 21 years older than she is?" "I stand on the Fifth." Child Protective Services is seeking to remove seven...

State seeks to return eight children to foster care.

Dogs are not allowed and never have been on the FLDS compound. So most kids had never seen one and many have never even seen a picture of a dog. But when some of the children were housed at a San Antonio shelter they requested to finally see a four footed friend. The call for a dog went to Pasty Swendson, a former TV personality, now owner of Pennies from Heaven, a dog therapy service. The fragile meeting was arranged. After all, the kids didn’t know a dog from a gopher. Swendson says she brought her Golden Retriever, two smaller...

SAN ANGELO, Texas — Child welfare authorities have decided court supervision is no longer needed for 34 more children taken in the raid on the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch. Texas Child Protective Services filed papers here Thursday seeking to "non-suit" 10 cases involving 34 children, said agency spokesman Patrick Crimmins. That is in addition to 32 children non-suited earlier this month.

More than two months after being forced to return children from a polygamist sect to their parents, Texas child welfare authorities want eight youngsters put back in foster care.Individual hearings for the four mothers of the children, who range in age from 5 to 17, are set to begin Monday. Child Protective Services has asked a judge to return the children to foster care because their mothers have allegedly refused to limit their contact with men accused of being involved in underage marriages. "We continue to have concerns in particular for these eight children, which is why we have asked...

A spokesman for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was in state court Thursday to ask a judge if members can ultimately own their homes, now held by a state-managed church trust. ...... Judge Denise Lindberg on Thursday told Willie Jessop that under the newly revised trust managed by accountant Bruce Wisan, members can own their own homes, with some restrictions. She also sought to assure him there is no bias against the church in the management of the trust. ....... Until now the FLDS have operated on a directive from imprisoned church leader Warren Jeffs...

Texas Rangers are investigating 20 cases of sexual assault and about 50 bigamy charges involving members of the FLDS Church, the Deseret News has learned. Texas officials on Monday confirmed the number of open cases but would not say how many suspects were involved. "We are working with several other agencies on this investigation, and I do not know what ultimately the team will decide to do as far as possible charges filed," Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Tela Mange said. The investigation has already prompted five indictments, including one against the church's leader, Warren Jeffs. A Schleicher...

Published reports say the Texas Rangers are looking into at least 20 abuse cases and 50 bigamy cases involving the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and its Yearning for Zion Ranch. DPS Spokeswoman Tela Mange can’t confirm the exact number, but says "we have a number of cases that we are looking at and we are unable to be specific at this point." She says there is a lot of evidence to go through. "We confiscated a number of items including paperwork and photographs from the ranch and we are continuing to use those in our...

The last thing they wanted was to be the talk of the town. Lured by its scenic beauty and live-and-let-live reputation, a controversial polygamous sect decided Westcliffe, population 456, offered perfect seclusion for grandmothers in their last years. But after Lee Steed bought an abandoned home in the Bull Domingo Ranch subdivision, the chatter started: Who were the newcomers, why had they come, what were their plans?

Arizonans have no religious right to practice polygamy — at least not with minors — the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday. The judges rejected arguments by a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints that he was legally entitled to have sex with a 16-year-old girl because she was his "celestial wife'' as recognized by his religion. Judge Donn Kessler, writing for the unanimous court, said while the right of individuals to believe whatever they want is absolute, the right to act on it is not. Tuesday's decision in the case of Kelly Fischer is not likely...

Texas child welfare officials on Tuesday asked a court to order foster care for eight children at a polygamous compound, saying their mothers have refused to limit the children's contact with men suspected of being involved in underage marriages. ... "In the cases of the eight children listed in today's court filing, the mothers have refused to sign the safety plans," according to the statement, which said the cases include six girls and two boys who range in age from 5 to 17 years old. A hearing to determine whether to put the eight children in foster care was scheduled...

Indicting members of a polygamist sect on child sexual assault is one thing. But prosecuting anyone on child sexual assault charges is a much different, and tougher, thing to accomplish, according to legal experts. Even if Texas Child Protective Services comes back with a finding that sexual abuse happened at the sect's Yearning for Zion Ranch in West Texas, the standard for a child sexual assault conviction is much higher, said professor Ellen Marrus, who heads the University of Houston's Center for Children, Law and Policy. "The problem isn't so much proving the issue that there had been sexual contact,"...

Eldorado, Texas -- For those inside the fence on a West Texas ranch populated by members of a polygamous faith, Wednesday was a holy day. For those on the outside, it was a day that passed without a hint of the apocalyptic scenario forecast by people in and out of Texas, including some former members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. .... The ranch now includes 11 dormitory-style residences, several workshops, a chicken coop, a limestone-mining quarry, a cement plant, a garden and crop fields. It has its own ambulance, firetruck and garbage truck, as...

VANCOUVER — In an unprecedented cross-border initiative, a court-appointed official from the United States is trying to take over a private school in British Columbia run by the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Bruce Wisan, who was appointed by a U.S. court to protect the assets of the FLDS, has launched a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court seeking authority to gain control of the Bountiful Elementary-Secondary School located in a rural area outside Creston, B.C.

The Success has learned that William Sunderland Jessop, 29, died Thursday, July 31, 2008, of unknown causes at the YFZ Ranch. The official cause of death has not been released pending an autopsy but, authorities say they do not suspect foul play. Jessop was the son of YFZ overseer Merril F. Jessop. He is believed to be survived by two wives and at least six children, as well as his parents and numerous brothers and sisters.

There are new questions about the raid on a polygamist compound in Texas. What did authorities know, when did they know it, and why did they wait so long to go in if hundreds of women and girls were in fear of being abused? ... Considering the high emotions and tense situation, it's remarkable it didn't turn out worse. When Texas Rangers and state police surrounded the compound and started looking for children, it took days instead of hours. The parents didn't want them found. Capt. Barry Caver, with the Texas Rangers, said, "They were shuffled around houses as we...

A Utah entrepreneur who has waged a public campaign to assist teens who fled or were kicked out of a polygamous sect was an abusive father and husband who abandoned some of his own children, according to affidavits submitted Thursday to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The allegations against Dan Fischer, founder of South Jordan-based Ultradent Products Inc., are detailed in sworn statements from a former wife, three children, three siblings and others familiar with his family. Fischer testified before the committee July 24 in a hearing requested by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who is pushing for a federal...

A physician from a polygamous sect was released from the Schleicher County Jail on Tuesday after posting bail, but four other men have not yet been released. ... A Schleicher County grand jury on July 22 indicted six FLDS members, including jailed sect leader Warren S. Jeffs, on sexual assault and related charges. Those documents, unsealed Tuesday, show Jeffs, 52, is alleged to have sexually assaulted a minor on or about Jan. 14, 2005. According to a search warrant used to collect DNA evidence from Jeffs, a girl he married in 2004 gave birth in October 2005 when she was...

"Texas authorities on Tuesday indicted the leader of a polygamous sect ... on charges of felony sexual assault on a minor, the first criminal charges to stem from a massive raid on the group's West Texas compound," The Los Angeles Times reported last week (http://tinyurl.com/6oenlz). The Associated Press and other media used similar words: "indicted polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs ... charges of felony sexual assault of a child." Straightforward reporting? In my "20/20" special "Sex in America", polygamy activist Mark Henkel said no, it's an ignorant distortion. "The media kept saying, 'Polygamist leader, polygamist leader,'" Henkel told me. "But...

Five indicted members of a West Texas polygamist sect turned themselves in to authorities Monday to face charges related to allegations of child sexual abuse. The five men were indicted last week with Warren Jeffs, the already-jailed leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The charges stem from a state investigation into allegations that the sect forced underage girls into marriage and motherhood with much older men. State authorities raided the FLDS's Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado on April 3, eventually sweeping more than 400 children into foster care until the state Supreme Court...

Five indicted FLDS members have turned themselves in. The men, sought since they were indicted Tuesday on a series of charges relating to alleged sexual abuse at the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints' Schleicher County ranch, turned themselves in to the Schleicher County Sheriff's Office about noon today, said Texas Ranger Capt. L.C. Wilson. According to the Texas Attorney General's Office, the five men are: * Raymond Merril Jessop, 36, the alleged husband of a 16-year-old daughter of Warren Jeffs, is charged with one count of sexual assault of a child. * Allan Eugene Keate, 56, is...

David Williams met the modern world in a little town square shaded by pecan and oak trees in remote West Texas, and it was hard to know which found the other more bewildering. The 32-year-old welder wore his hair slicked in a bygone style and sometimes stammered as he spoke in a flat monotone about prophets and the trials sent by God to test him. His cryptic words were directed to a group of people holding television cameras and microphones and tape recorders, people whose impressions of Williams then flashed by satellite and digital relays to households around the world....

The Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) had basked in victory after the Texas Supreme Court ordered the return of the children taken from its ranch in Eldorado in April. ... After all, this was a wide-open land where good neighbors were neighborly but not nosy, where a man could turn a page and start anew with few questions raised about his past. "They thought they were safe behind those walls and that Texas would never mess with them," says Randy Mankin, the editor of the Eldorado Success, the small-town newspaper that has chronicled events at the nearby FLDS...

Even after the calls that triggered the military-style raid on the ranch were suspected to be a hoax, Texas child-welfare officials persisted in claiming that F.L.D.S. children were endangered by what they deemed to be a pattern of sexual and physical abuse at the ranch. Those claims have yet to be proved — the Texas Supreme Court ruled that officials had overstepped their authority, and in early June the children were ordered to be returned to their families — but child-welfare and state criminal investigations continue.

This is just me "talking". I am thinking that U.S. Senator Harry Reid - the anti-polygamy champion who wasted tons of our tax money on a congressional hearing on this matter last week - should go after John Edwards for polygamy!! Dirty Harry should further have all of John Edwards' children rounded up and dumped in foster homes. John Edwards is obviously - according to Harry Reid's high standards - a filthy polygamist. Harry Reid insulted the FLDS community by accusing them of high crime of polygamy. Reid is obsessed with polygamy. Polygamy polygamy polygamy. He even became a panelist...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Polygamous sects that have spread throughout the United States and beyond are "a form of organized crime," largely unchecked by law enforcement, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday. Sen. Harry Reid says polygamous sects have "wrongly cloaked themselves in the trappings of religion." He is proposing a federal-state partnership aimed at policing such communities. "The lawless conduct of polygamous communities in the United States deserves national attention and federal action," Reid said before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

ELDORADO - A Schleicher County grand jury issued indictments today against Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints leader Warren Jeffs and five other sect members, alleging sexual assault, bigamy and related charges. Jeffs was charged with sexually assaulting a child, a first-degree felony, and the four others were indicted on allegations of sexually assaulting girls younger than 17. Each of those four face one felony count of sexual assault, and one faces an additional charge of bigamy.Jeffs was identified because he was served with the indictment in jail. The other four remain unidentified until they are served....

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will introduce a measure Wednesday establishing a federal task force on polygamy and offering help to those trying to escape polygamous communities. The bill, if passed, would set the stage for likely the largest orchestrated crackdown on polygamy in a century. Ahead of the first congressional hearing focused on polygamy since the 1950s, Reid, a Mormon convert from Nevada, will introduce the Victims of Polygamy Assistance Act. It would set up a collaborative effort between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to combat "broad patterns" of polygamy-related crimes. The bill also would create grants...

EL DORADO, Texas -- FLDS spokesman Willy Jessop was pulled over and handed a subpoena early Tuesday morning to appear before a grand jury considering criminal charges against members of his polygamous sect. Jessop, who has become the public face for the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints since sect leader Warren Jeffs was convicted of being an accomplice to rape and jailed, later spoke briefly to reporters outside the Schleicher County Courthouse. "We'll see how it all turns out," was all he would say when questioned about the case. The grand jury, comprised of five men and seven women, on Tuesday...

Polygamist Leader Warren Jeffs says he never married his underage daughter to an adult, but officials say they have found evidence to the contrary. Photos, diaries, and a marriage record all suggest that Jeffs' daughter who was 15 at the time, married a 34-year-old man. The documents were filed in a report by the girl's guardian and given to a San Angelo court. Members of the FLDS sect said in past interviews that no marriage had existed. Jeffs' daughter, who is 16 and now in her mother's care, was one of the children who was taken from the Sects' ranch...

Warren Jeffs married his underage daughter to the 34-year-old son of his chief deputy, one day after she turned 15, according to pictures, diaries and a marriage record kept by Jeffs' polygamist sect obtained Friday by the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News. The documents were attached to a report filed Friday by Court-Appointed Special Advocates in San Angelo, the girl's guardian, in a battle over who represents her in court. The CASA report contradicts both interviews the girl and members of her church, The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, have given denying that she...

Court-appointed child advocates for a 16-year-old daughter of Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs allege she was married a day after her 15th birthday to a 34-year-old man, a court report obtained by the Deseret News said. . . . snip . . . It based its conclusions on photographs, marriage records, letters, cards and diary entries suggesting an "intimate relationship." CASA also said it had obtained a "dictation" prepared by Warren Jeffs, showing the two were married on July 27, 2006. FLDS leaders Wendell Nielson and Merril Jessop witnessed the ceremony, CASA claims. . . . snip . ....

A new fight has begun over a farm that for decades provided food, jobs and income for a besieged polygamous sect. Attorneys representing 16 FLDS members have filed an action in 5th District Court claiming the Harker Farm in Beryl was seized by a court-appointed fiduciary overseeing the United Effort Plan Trust without recognizing their lifetime right to work and live there. The lawsuit was filed July 10 in Iron County and has been assigned to Judge John T. Walton. The court filing claims the FLDS members contributed labor, built houses and improved the farm believing they would live and...

A new fight has begun over a farm that for decades provided food, jobs and income for a besieged polygamous sect. Attorneys representing 16 FLDS members have filed an action in 5th District Court claiming the Harker Farm in Beryl was seized by a court-appointed fiduciary overseeing the United Effort Plan Trust without recognizing their lifetime right to work and live there. The lawsuit was filed July 10 in Iron County and has been assigned to Judge John T. Walton. The court filing claims the FLDS members contributed labor, built houses and improved the farm believing they would live and...

The judge overseeing the Fundamentalist LDS Church's real-estate holdings arm has denied a temporary restraining order that sought to strip her court-appointed special fiduciary of his powers. Third District Court Judge Denise P. Lindberg denied the motion without hearing any arguments, suggesting that the attempt to oust Bruce Wisan was wrapped up in an emergency request to halt evictions in the polygamous border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. "At such time as any allegations regarding the special fiduciary's conduct are properly brought to this court, the court will address them after notice and opportunity for a hearing,"...