The YFZ Ranch

Peter Van Sant Reports On The April 2008 Raid Of The YFZ Ranch

(CBS)  An uneasy truce between Eldorado and the FLDS followed until the end of March, when a call came into a hotline from someone claiming to be a teenage victim of sexual abuse at the ranch.

Police now believe that call was a hoax. But once inside, investigators said they saw a number of pregnant girls and young mothers who appeared to be underage. That shocking discovery, the state said, was reason enough to remove all the children. It turns out now that many of those young girls are actually adults, and the FLDS has gone on the attack against Texas.

"It's un-American," Willie Jessop argues. "They haven't got one woman that says, 'Please save me.' They haven't found one child that says, 'Please save me.'"

To win sympathy for their cause, Jessop and the FLDS launched a public relations campaign. The parents they made available to the media are monogamous, like 24-year-old Dan Jessop and his 22-year-old wife Louisa.

"It’s pretty rough to see what my children are going through, what we’re going through for no reason," Dan Jessop explains.

The Jessops' three children became wards of the state, including their two-week-old baby boy, who was born after the raid. "We're innocent of any of these crimes. Me and my wife have not abused my children," Dan Jessop says. "I wish they'd let me have my children back."

Dan and Louisa Jessop have been in court fighting to win custody of the baby.

Last Friday, during their hearing, the state introduced disturbing photos that show FLDS leader Warren Jeffs kissing a pre-teen girl in 2006. 48 Hours tried to show these pictures to Dan Jessop after court, but he didn't want to be filmed holding them.

What might have made him most uncomfortable is that the girl in Jeffs' arms is one of his own little sisters. "It is a potential problem for a 13-year-old girl to have intimate relationships with a man. In my opinion, that’s where I stand. That is definitely a problem," Jessop says.

"What about these allegations that underage girls have been sexually abused at the ranch?" Van Sant asks Willie Jessop.

"You called it exactly right, allegations," Jessop replies. "I don't know that that's happened. You don’t know that that’s happened."

[sibbymom2]

If Louisa Jessop is 22, I am 30.

[nosugrof]

CBS apparently hasnt noticed the following fact. 25 of the CPS'' underage mothers are in fact adults. Yes, it is based on lies.

[mommakat64]

Have you ever had the "missionaries" come to your door? Ask them about the belief that each man, when he dies, becomes a "god" with his own heaven wherein his wife and children also live when they die. Then ask, if the children are supposed to inhabit their father''s heaven, where should the mother be...maybe in HER father''s heaven?? Or, if the sons marry and have children, where do the sons go...with their father? Or to heavens of their own? With wives that will go to the sons'' heavens, or to the wives'' fathers'' heavens???? Same questions should be asked about the daughters/wives. You can see how this whole mess can get out of hand real quick. I ask the first question and they hmm and haw...by the third question, they''re backing out the door. It''s like Joseph Smith didn''t think anything through, just made it up willy-nilly as he went. It doesn''t make sense. And, yes, the switching of wives and polygamy started right from the start, and is what started the fights in Missouri and Illinois. Some of the de-wifed husbands didn''t cotton to the idea and took their grievances to the local press, who published the accounts. The citizens of the towns were outraged, jailed Smith and his son for bigamy. Others raided the jail--I wonder how many of the displaced husbands were in that crowd--and hanged the Smiths. Thus started the long trip to Zion..otherwise know as Utah. Once a disease is started and let run for a while, it''s hard to stop.

[mommakat64]

Not just excuses, but playing a shell game with the facts. These men have their s**t together though. The women and children have never been outside of their community and have been taught to fear "the outsiders". Rest assured "the outsiders" are the subject of many "hell and brimstone" sermons and classes. It is so heartbreaking to any person who has been raised, and lives, without those confining, crippling fears. From what I''ve read, heard and know, these women CANNOT show any jealousy toward other wives...so they take it out on each others'' children. And what woman would EVER feel good about a younger woman sharing her husband, especially, if she''s 13, 14 years old.

[gal50]

Excuses, excuses, excuses. Nearly every response in this article is an excuse. The FLDS had every opportunity to practice its religion in Utah and Arizona. The crime of polygamy was hardly ever prosecuted.

Why in the world, would this group when engaged in illegal behavior, which it felt was necessary to get to heaven, risk everything by electing to engage in further illegal behavior that was unnecessary to get to heaven? It didn''t need to marry underage girls and it didn''t need to abandon underage boys. It didn''t need to engage in forced marriage or wife reassignment.

How did the FLDS not expect a backlash from unhappy FLDS members and the outside world over the increase in illegal and harsh behavior? It didn''t seem to understand the concept of consequences or to realize that people are motivated to fight injustices.

The tricks the FLDS has in its bag are to spread out among states, to isolate the sect members and to become fugitives. Fugitives have a high capture rate especially when the FBI is involved, isolation didn''t work in Texas and now the federal government has promised to get involved in this multi-state problem.