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San Angelo, Texas » Jurors heard more from a former member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on Monday in the trial of Allan Keate, who faces charges of sexually assaulting a child. Rebecca Musser explained why she moved away from her FLDS community. Having been married to FLDS prophet Rulon Jeffs in her late teens, she was pressured along with younger wives to marry the new prophet, Rulon Jeffs' son Warren Jeffs, and she refused, Musser said. Musser said Warren Jeffs told her, "I will break you. I will make you a good wife....

SAN ANGELO, Texas — ELDORADO — Guilty. The jury in the trial of Raymond Merril Jessop issued its verdict at 6:25 p.m. Thursday in the Memorial Building in Eldorado after deliberating less than three hours. Jessop, a 38-year-old member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was led away in handcuffs to the Schleicher County Jail. A half smile played on his face as he nodded to FLDS men in the makeshift courtroom. His attorney Brandon Hudson patted him on shoulder as he went by. Jessop will remain in jail until 10 a.m. Monday, when...

The first polygamist sect member to face criminal trial following last year's raid at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in West Texas was convicted Thursday of sexually assaulting an underage girl with whom he had a so-called "spiritual marriage." Raymond Jessop, 38, didn't visibly react when the verdict was read after just more than two hours of jury deliberations. Free on bond during trial, he was immediately handcuffed and led to jail. Jurors were expected to return to court Monday to begin deciding his sentence on the child sexual assault conviction. He faces up to 20 years in prison. Lawyers...

Eldorado, Texas » Attorneys will hear closing arguments Thursday in the trial of a polygamous sect member whom the state alleges sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl in 2004. Fifty-first District Judge Barbara Walther told jurors Wednesday that "we are getting very close" to the final stage of Raymond Merril Jessop's trial and asked them to bring a packed suitcase in case lengthy deliberations require them to be sequestered. The state is expected to recall at least one witness -- a Texas Ranger who was the lead investigator in April 2008 when authorities raided the Yearning For Zion Ranch and uncovered...

The son of one of the most powerful families within a polygamist Mormon sect goes to trial for sexual assault Monday, a case in which Texas prosecutors will provide their first public evidence that Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints men engaged in sex with underage girls. Raymond Merril Jessop, 38, is the first to face trial among 12 defendants who live at the sect's Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado and are accused of arranging or participating in underage marriages. His father, Frederick Merril Jessop is the senior leader of the FLDS because the group's prophet, Warren Jeffs,...

Unpaid property taxes have put control of more than 150 homes in a polygamous community in jeopardy and more may soon be at risk -- part of a growing financial crisis that has reignited a rift between sect members and a court-appointed overseer. Investment interests in 35 large, communal properties that are part of the United Effort Plan Trust were auctioned in a Mohave County tax lien certificate sale in February. The sale was triggered after about $124,000 of the $1.2 million total tax bill in Colorado City went unpaid in 2007. The move means those who picked up the...

Are Mormons Christians? That's one of the biggest issues members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints say they encounter in today's society. "To us, to be Christians is to be followers and disciples of Christ," said Steve Stanfill, president of the church's Evansville stake, a group of 12 congregations in Southwestern Indiana, southeastern Illinois and Western Kentucky. Some groups insist Mormons are not Christians. One reason is differences over the nature of God, Christ and the Holy Spirit. As "Christianity Today" once explained it, Mormons teach that God began as a finite being who achieved his exalted...

SAN ANGELO, Texas — A Texas judge ruled Friday that prosecutors could use thousands of documents seized during a weeklong raid of a polygamist sect's West Texas ranch in upcoming criminal trials snip- Texas District Judge Barbara Walther heard four days of testimony on the issue in May but didn't issue a ruling until Friday. snip- first sect man to face trial, Raymond Jessop. snip- The 38-year-old pleaded not guilty to sexual assault of a child during a pre-trial hearing on Friday. snip- Prosecutors accuse him of sexually assaulting a teen who was allegedly one of nine wives. In 2004,...

Best-selling author Carolyn Jessop will receive support to care for her disabled son for the rest of his life in a settlement reached Tuesday with her former husband, who oversees a polygamous sect's enclave in Texas. Merril Jessop, 73, agreed to pay $2,350 monthly to his former spiritual wife to support the seven children in her care, with a dollar-for-dollar credit for his Social Security benefit that is currently diverted to her.-SNIP-They had eight children together before Carolyn Jessop left the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in April 2003. Their oldest daughter Betty, now 20,...

An informal survey shows there are 38,000 fundamentalist Mormons in the U.S., Canada and Mexico -- up by 1,000. "It is a conservative figure but that's the approximate figure for now," said Anne Wilde, a co-founder of the advocacy group Principle Voices, which conducts the periodic survey. Estimates for organized groups are provided by group leaders or council members. The count includes children and adults, living in both monogamous and polygamous families. Wilde said about half are in plural families. "It's been kind of generally increasing but not in thousands, maybe in 50s or 100s," Wilde said. "There is the...

Those curious about the polygamous community that has thrived on the Utah/Arizona state line for nearly 75 years may now take a guided tour through what promoters bill as "the largest and most secluded polygamist colony" in America. "Why the prairie dresses and long braids? No makeup? More than one wife?" -- all questions to be answered during "The Polygamy Experience: A Guided Tour of Colorado City." The four-hour excursion promises accounts from guides "who have actually lived and loved 'The Creek,'" the historic name for Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., home to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ...

An appeal filed with the Utah Supreme Court says a district judge went too far when she stripped a polygamous sect's charitable trust of its religious purpose and denied church members "an effective voice" in court proceedings. In rulings in the United Effort Plan Trust case, 3rd District Judge Denise Lindberg has sanctioned "continued violations" of constitutional rights of thousands who belong to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the appeal claims. The appeal was filed Aug. 26 by attorneys representing five FLDS members, including sect bishops Lyle Jeffs and James Oler. Lindberg refused to allow...

BEAVER, Utah (AP) -- Polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs is being force-fed in jail for the second time in less than a week after again refusing to eat, Arizona officials said Tuesday. Mohave County sheriff's spokeswoman Trish Carter said force feeding of Jeffs started Friday...

SALT LAKE CITY -- Hundreds of members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) showed up at the Matheson Courthouse Wednesday to show their opposition to the sale of land they believe is sacred. A hearing was held in 3rd District Court, where a judge was considering the sale of several hundred acres of land known as "Berry Knoll." After several hours of testimony and arguments, Judge Denise Lindberg declined to issue a ruling. However, she indicated she was open to the idea of opening the sale of the Colorado City, Ariz., farmland to the...

Texas authorities used a hoax call about abuse at a polygamous sect's Texas ranch as a pretext for an "unlimited, general search" in April 2008 -- a search law officers "had wanted for years to conduct," an attorney contends in a new court filing. The size and scope of the investigation showed from the outset it was not about checking the well-being of a single abuse victim and her child, and authorities failed to make even basic attempts to corroborate claims made in the hoax calls, the 100-plus-page brief filed Monday by attorney Gerald Goldstein on behalf of Frederick Merril...

The heifers are gone -- and that has put a snag in a key element of a proposal aimed at settling disputes involving a property trust once controlled by a polygamous sect. The Utah Attorney General's Office and attorneys for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints learned Monday via a footnote in a court filing that the fiduciary managing the trust had sold young cows at Harker Farm. The footnote, in a document filed by attorney Jeff Shields on behalf of Bruce R. Wisan, noted that the trust's cash crunch had been eased "slightly" by the...

At one point four years ago, Bruce Wisan was a white knight. Attorney General Mark Shurtleff picked the no-nonsense Salt Lake City accountant to wade into the United Effort Plan Trust, that spiderweb of communal property ownership and finances in Colorado City and Hildale. He would seize control from polygamist prophet-on-the-run Warren Jeffs, carve up the land and mete out justice for disaffected outcasts and faithful alike. It all seemed relatively simple. It's become anything but. And now Wisan has sold the dairy cows. This week, the attorney general and lawyers for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter...

Brent Jeffs was one tired-out ex-Mormon fundamentalist last week in Denver, but still a man on a mission. Back-to-back book-signings and 17-hour days in Salt Lake City, Phoenix and Denver for Jeff's recently released memoir, "Lost Boy," alternately wound him up or wore him down to feeling like "a zombie," he said. Jeffs juggles a day job with Ultradent dental products with a personal quest. Brent, the 26-year-old nephew of Warren Jeffs, the convicted felon and former prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is determined to make known the extent of what he describes...

Brent Jeffs grew up in the inner circles of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; his grandfather was a prophet of the FLDS, which teaches that polygamy is a religious practice that guarantees salvation. Jeffs' uncle Warren Jeffs became president of the sect in 2002.-SNIP- Although Brent Jeffs' lineage gives him what he says FLDS followers think of as "royal blood," he was eventually expelled from the FLDS church during a series of excommunications of dozens of men and boys. -SNIP-Jeffs lost one brother to suicide, another to an overdose, but his book argues that the...

New research on Mormons and media show that media are making attempts to distinguish between FLDS and LDS... A new study of newspaper coverage after the FLDS raid in Texas shows that of the 145 Spanish- and English-language articles from U.S. and international newspapers, just more than half explicitly distinguished between the LDS and FLDS, about 44 percent implicitly distinguished between the two churches and one article confused the two. Writing in Dialogue, researchers Ryan T. Cragun and Michael Nielsen conclude with this statement: "This paper detailed the two definitions of the label 'Mormon' used by the media. Until an...