Is Sister Wives Hiding The Disturbing Truth About Polygamy?

Is ‘Sister Wives’ Hiding The Disturbing Truth About Polygamy?
9/7/11 – Sam Brower

Despite the recent well-publicized and deeply disturbing child molestation trial of self-proclaimed polygamist prophet Warren Jeffs, TV reality show polygamist Kody Brown and his trendy wives and family seem to be everywhere these days. Their TV show, “Sister Wives,” is a big hit….

For more than seven years, as a private investigator I have been investigating and researching similar polygamous societies, but mainly the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) and its outlaw prophet, Warren Jeffs, who is now serving a sentence of life plus twenty years in a Texas prison….

I can only hope and pray that the depravity of child abuse and the degradation of women and children to the status of chattel will never be thought of in such a callous manner as simply- unconventional yet relatable.

In my world, unconventional doesn’t mean four mommies showing up for back-to-school night; the FLDS do not send their kids to public schools. If they’re lucky, the children may receive the equivalent of an eighth grade education before being sent out to work on a construction job, or to become mothers themselves.

Admittance into the bride pool can begin within a few weeks after a child’s twelfth birthday. “Mother” is the person who raises and nurtures you as a “daughter in Zion” over the course of those short formative years. She then takes you by the hand and places it in the hand of a man decades older, in an arranged “spiritual sexual union,” alongside that man’s several or many other “sister wives.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-brower/sister-wives-_b_952693.html

Facing life for sex abuse, the monster church leader with 24 child ‘wives’

Facing life for sex abuse, the monster church leader with 24 child ‘wives’ who he told would find ‘favour with god’

Jury took only three hours to find polygamist leader guilty
Court had heard tape of him having sex with 12-year-old girl
Leader claimed he was victim of ‘religious persecution’

By Tom Leonard In New York
6th August 2011

The leader of a polygamist Mormon sect has been found guilty of sexually abusing girls aged 12 and 15 among his two dozen child ‘wives’.

Warren Jeffs, 55, faces a possible life sentence.

The self-proclaimed prophet and head of the shadowy Fundamentalist Church of Jesus of Latter Day Saints told females in his 10,000-strong flock they would find favour with God if they pleased him sexually.

He defended himself and spent much of his trial in west Texas angrily claiming he was being religiously persecuted.

Prosecutors said they will present evidence to his sentencing hearing that he had 78 so-called ‘spiritual wives’ – 24 of them under 17 – in addition to his legal one.

They said they would also show how Jeffs either witnessed or performed more than 500 unlawful polygamous marriages, as well as 67 others involving under-age girls.

Jurors were given DNA evidence showing that Jeffs had fathered a child by the 15-year-old.

And prosecutors reduced some jurors to tears when they played an audio tape of Jeffs, breathing heavily and panting as he had sex with the 12-year-old…..

The FLDS, which has at least 10,000 members, is a radical offshoot of mainstream Mormonism and believes polygamy brings exaltation in heaven. They see Jeffs as God’s spokesman on earth…..

Seven other leaders of the sect, which broke away from the official Mormon church over its insistence that polygamy brings exaltation in heaven, have already been convicted of similar offences.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023066/Warren-Jeffs-trial-guilty-sexually-abusing-children-followers-spiritual-marriages.html

Warren Jeffs, Polygamist Leader, Convicted In Child Sexual Assault Case

Warren Jeffs, Polygamist Leader, Convicted In Child Sexual Assault Case
8/4/11

SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) — A Texas jury convicted polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs of child sexual assault Thursday in a case stemming from two young followers he took as brides in what his church calls “spiritual marriages.”

The 55-year-old head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints stood stone-faced as the verdict was read.

Jeffs, who acted as his own attorney, faces up to life in prison. The jury went immediately into sentencing proceedings. They had deliberated on a verdict for more than three hours.

Prosecutors used DNA evidence to show Jeffs fathered a child with a 15-year-old girl and played an audio recording of what they said was him sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl. They also played audio recordings in which Jeffs was heard instructing young women on how to please him sexually.

Jeffs has claimed he was the victim of religious persecution. The FLDS, which has at least 10,000 members nationwide, is a radical offshoot of mainstream Mormonism. The church believes polygamy brings exaltation in heaven and that Jeffs is God’s spokesman on earth.

Police had raided the group’s remote West Texas ranch in April 2008, finding women dressed in frontier-style dresses and hairdos from the 19th century as well as seeing underage girls who were clearly pregnant. The call to an abuse hotline that spurred the raid turned out to be a hoax, and more than 400 children who had been placed in protective custody were eventually returned to their families.

But authorities brought charges against several men from the group, with Jeffs by far the highest-profile defendant…..
Jeffs represented himself after firing seven attorneys in the six months leading to the trial. He broke his courtroom silence with an objection marked by a nearly hourlong speech defending polygamy, and twice threatened the judge and the court with warnings of punishment from God.

….Eleven other FLDS men were charged with crimes including sexual assault and bigamy. All seven of those who have been prosecuted were convicted, receiving prison sentences of between six and 75 years.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/04/warren-jeffs-polygamist-leader-convicted_n_918915.html

Jeffs Case: Polygamist Leader Fires Lawyers,10 yr old Killed For Taking Popsicle

Warren Jeffs Case: Polygamist Leader Fires Lawyers, Represents Himself In Bizarre First Day Of Child Sex Assault Trial 7/29/11

SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) — Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs broke his silence Friday, delivering before jurors a 55-minute sermon defending plural marriage as ordered by God and protected by the U.S. Constitution.

Jeffs, 55, is accused of sexually assaulting two underage girls and could face life in prison if convicted. He fired his high-powered defense team on Thursday and has been representing himself, but he made no opening statement and spent hours sitting alone at the defense table staring into space in silence while prosecutors made their case.

That changed, however, as FBI agent John Broadway testified about seizing eight desktop computers and 120 boxes and large folders of documents from the sect’s West Texas compound in April 2008. Broadway was about to describe a list of names and birthdates for those living at the compound when Jeffs suddenly cried “I object!”

“There is sacred trust given to religious leadership not to be touched by government agencies,” he said.

Jeffs is ecclesiastical head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, an offshoot of mainstream Mormonism that believes polygamy brings exaltation in heaven. The church’s 10,000 members see Jeffs as a prophet who speaks for God on Earth….

“We cannot surrender these principles based on the laws of man trying to convince us that our religion is not necessary in practice,” he said, referring to freedom of religion as guaranteed by the First Amendment. Jeffs later added, “this must stop in a land of freedom if all others are to receive a similar guarantee against their freedom of religion being trampled.”

Jeffs said his church has practiced polygamy for five generations and believes it is the will of God, who is a higher power than courts, state legislatures and the U.S. Congress. Jeffs is scheduled to be tried for bigamy in October….

When Jeffs finished, lead prosecutor Eric Nichols rose and said the Supreme Court has found since the 1890s that religious freedom does not extend to polygamy….

Jeffs and 11 other FLDS men were charged with crimes including sexual assault and bigamy.

All seven sect members prosecuted so far have been convicted. They received prison terms of between six and 75 years.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/29/warren-jeffs-case-polygamist-leader-fires-lawyers_n_913008.html

article describes severe and graphic abuse

Ame Deal, Arizona 10-Year-Old, Killed By Family For Taking Popsicle: Police
7/29/11

The family of a 10-year-old found dead in a trunk outside an Arizona home initially claimed the child died while playing hide-and-seek. But investigators now believe Ame Deal suffocated after her family locked her in the box because she took a popsicle from the freezer without permission.

Phoenix police claim Deal’s grandmother, aunt and two cousins regularly subjected the child to horrific treatment, ultimately culminating in her July 12 death.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/29/ame-deal-killed-over-popsicle_n_913646.html

Abuses Found Mexican Institutions for Disabled, Warren Jeffs Texas bigamy case

Abuses Found at Mexican Institutions for Disabled
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD November 30, 2010
MEXICO CITY — Ten years ago, a human rights group released a scathing, groundbreaking report on abusive, decrepit conditions in Mexican institutions for the mentally and physically disabled, moving the country to promise change and to take the lead in writing international agreements to protect the disabled. But in a new report released Tuesday, the group, Disability Rights International, working with a Mexican human rights organization, said a yearlong investigation revealed “atrocious and abusive conditions” that included lobotomies performed without consent, children missing from orphanages, widespread filth and squalor, and a lack of medical care….

At orphanages, the team found that children were unaccounted for and interviewed residents who had said they had grown up in the facilities, though officials had no record of the names they came in with or arrival date.

Human rights officials and unnamed government officials told them there was no registry or tracking system for children placed in public or private institutions, leaving them prey to human traffickers.
“Due to a failure to provide oversight, children have literally disappeared from institutions,” the report said. “Some of these children may have been subject to sex trafficking and forced labor.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/01/world/americas/01mexico.htm

Abandoned & Disappeared: Mexico’s Segregation and Abuse of Children and Adults with Disabilities – A report, by Disability Rights International and the Comisión Méxicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos, on the state of the Mexican mental health care system.
http://documents.nytimes.com/abuses-found-at-mexican-institutions-for-the-disabled

Warren Jeffs returned to Texas to face bigamy case
By PAUL J. WEBER AP Dec. 1, 2010
SAN ANGELO, Texas — Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs has been extradited from Utah to Texas to face trial on bigamy and sexual assault charges, the Texas Attorney General’s Office said Wednesday. Jeffs, who is being held without bail in Texas, is set to make a court appearance Wednesday morning in San Angelo. Texas authorities have charged the ecclesiastical head of the Fundamentalist church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints with felony bigamy, aggravated sexual assault and assault.

Attorney General’s Office spokesman Jerry Strickland said the 54-year-old Jeffs arrived Tuesday night at a West Texas jail, but declined to specify where he is being held. Jeffs’ Southern Utah-based church practices polygamy in arranged marriages that have involved underage girls….

Jeffs’ Texas charges stem from evidence gathered during a raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado in April 2008.  Jeffs had been held at the Utah State Prison after his arrest, prosecution and conviction on two charges of rape as an accomplice for his role in the 2001 marriage of an underage follower — then 14 — to her 19-year-old cousin.  In July, the Utah Supreme overturned the 2007 convictions. Prosecutors there have yet to decide whether they’ll retry Jeffs.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/new/7318902.html

 

DOJ report says child porn on the rise, hearing for FLDS sect leader Warren Jeffs

DOJ report says child porn on the rise (AP) – 8/2/10 WASHINGTON — The spread of child pornography, fueled by technology and the Internet, is outpacing efforts to combat it, the Justice Department said Monday in a report to Congress that promises more arrests, prosecutions and better coordination among federal, state and local authorities. Attorney General Eric Holder said the distribution of child pornography, the number of images being shared online and violence against child victims all have increased. “Tragically, the only place we’ve seen a decrease is in the age of victims,” Holder said in a speech at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Va.

The report, ordered by Congress in legislation approved two years ago, concedes that the market for child pornography continues to grow rapidly and determining its size is impossible. “The number of offenders accessing the images and videos and the quantity of images and videos being traded is unknown,” the report said….The increased attention to fighting child pornography already has led to record numbers of prosecutions and tips. More than 8,600 people have been prosecuted at the federal level since October 2006. State and local authorities focused on the use of the Internet in child sexual exploitation reported that documented complaints of online enticement of children more than tripled from 2004 to 2008 and complaints of child prostitution rose more than 10 times.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ikJwimhJLziWOIbrB1d8IYltbW-gD9HBH0FG0

Utah judge orders Aug. 18 hearing for FLDS sect leader Warren Jeffs July 28, 2010 SALT LAKE CITY – A Southern Utah judge has set an Aug. 18 date for a hearing on a request that polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs be granted a speedy trial. Jeffs was charged in 5th District Court in 2006 with two counts of felony rape as an accomplice. A jury convicted him of both counts the following year. But the Utah Supreme Court reversed the convictions Tuesday and sent the case back for a new trial. Within hours, Jeffs’ defense attorneys, Wally Bugden and Tara Isaacson, filed a motion seeking a “speedy trial before a jury of his peers.” Court papers also say Jeffs “has been incarcerated for many months.”

At a news conference Tuesday, Bugden said he planned to seek bail for Jeffs, 54, the ecclesiastical head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The Southern Utah-based church practices polygamy in marriages arranged by FLDS Church leaders. On Wednesday, Judge James Shumate, who presided over the 2007 trial, ordered a hearing on a retrial. Deputy Washington County Attorney Brian Filter has said officials haven’t decided how they’ll proceed in the case. Prosecutors first plan to meet with the victim and law enforcement and conduct a legal analysis of the high court’s ruling, Filter said. http://www.standard.net/topics/courts/2010/07/28/utah-judge-orders-aug-18-hearing-flds-sect-leader-warren-jeffs

Warren Jeffs: Utah court overturns polygamist’s rape conviction

Warren Jeffs: Utah court overturns polygamist’s rape conviction – The Utah Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the jury in the 2007 rape trial of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs received improper instructions from the trial judge. By Daniel B. Wood, Staff writer / July 27, 2010  The Utah Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned polygamist leader Warren Jeffs’s rape conviction for conducting the marriage of a 14-year-old girl….The Utah justices held that instructions given to the jurors were erroneous and ordered a new trial. Jeffs was originally found guilty of being an accomplice to rape for using his religious influence to coerce a minor into marrying her 19-year-old cousin. The justices said that the jury’s deliberation should have been focused on whether Jeffs’ intent in performing the “spiritual marriage” was for rape to occur, not on whether the action itself led to nonconsensual sex. “In particular, the court held that Mr. Jeffs had to have the intent to aid the rape that was committed,” says Paul Cassell, professor of criminal law at S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah. “That will be the issue on which the new trial will focus.”

Analysts say the court’s opinion was narrow in the sense that they did not hold that Jeffs is innocent but rather simply that the jury was improperly instructed on the charges. “We regret the effect our opinion might have on the victim of the underlying crime, to whom we do not wish to cause additional pain,” wrote Justice Jill Parrish for the court. “However, we must ensure that the laws are applied evenly and appropriately, in this case as in every case, in order to protect the constitutional principles on which our legal system is based. We must guarantee justice, not just for this defendant, but for all who may be accused of a crime and subjected to the State’s power to deprive them of life, liberty, or property hereafter.”
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2010/0727/Warren-Jeffs-Utah-court-overturns-polygamist-s-rape-conviction