Escape

Erin Moriarty Reports On A Daring Escape From The FLDS And The Fallout That Followed

(CBS)  Child advocate Laura Chapman is not afraid to take risks. Nine years ago Laura rescued two teenage girls from an FLDS branch outside Salt Lake City, and she risked kidnapping charges and even death threats to do it.

"I could relate to them. I could see myself in them," says Laura, who was once herself a member of the FLDS community in Hilldale, Utah.

"My father had four wives, I have 31 brothers and sisters," Laura tells correspondent Erin Moriarty.

She was 18 when she was forced to marry a man she barely knew. "We had never kissed. We never had any kind of intimacy at all," she says. "So I knew what that's like for a young woman. It's a severely emotionally abusive experience."

Laura tried to be the dutiful wife, and before long she had five children. But inside she struggled as she watched young girls being married off to older men. "There were just things that happened over the years that my soul told me where wrong," she says.

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The last straw for Laura was when her own husband announced that in order to get to heaven he would need another wife. In fact, he had already chosen her: a 16-year-old girl.

"He told me that he married her," Laura recalls. "Tears ran down my face and he said, 'You look like you need a hug. Can I hug you?' And I said, 'Don't you ever touch me again and get the hell out of my house.'"

At 28 years old, Laura took her five children and left both her husband and the FLDS. With only a fifth grade education, she went to college, supporting her children on welfare and grants.

It was in 1999, when 48 Hours first met Laura living in a suburb of Salt Lake City and working as an anti-polygamy advocate. "What I went through to leave and get an education and raise five children, one with a handicap on my own is horrific. No girl raised in the United States of America should ever have those basic rights to an education or who she marries taken from her," she says.

So when Laura got a call begging her to help Sarah and Kathy, she couldn't refuse. "The girls said they had one week before their marriages would be performed. Sarah's mother was making her wedding dress," Laura remembers.

Because one of the grooms was said to be in his 40s, Laura first tried to get Utah children's services to intervene. "I was like, 'If 16-year-old girls are facing an arranged marriage in polygamy, can you help them?' He said ‘Not until they've had unwanted sex with an older man,'" she remembers.

[gaye5]

I have read taht they are saying that these children shouldnt have been taken from their families that no crime has been committed...
WHAT ROT, polygamy is a crime and some of these men had many wives, shove them all in jail and leave them there, they have massively broken the law, yet I dont hear anyone saying that they have broken the law by having more than one wife..everyone just seems to be concerned that the children are getting got at, and it is obvious that they have so that is crime number two, stick them in jail and throw away the keys.. Pedophilia under the guise of marrying them young..

[cyberus-2009]

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Sarah says her mother was reassigned to "Uncle Fred" - Fred Jessop, a FLDS church bishop then living more than 200 miles away in Hilldale, Utah
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As far as I am concerned the *reassignment* of wives completely removes any claim of this being based on religion and makes it a *** ring run by a few perverts. Even if someone points to various parts of the bible supporting multiple wives nowhere does it say you get to swap them around like party favors.

[darnedsocks]

THIS IS SO SICK! LAWS SHOULD BE IN PLACE TO PROTECT CHILDREN "BEFORE" THEY ARE ABUSED!

"So when Laura got a call begging her to help Sarah and Kathy, she couldn''t refuse. "The girls said they had one week before their marriages would be performed. Sarah''s mother was making her wedding dress," Laura remembers.

Because one of the grooms was said to be in his 40s, Laura first tried to get Utah children''s services to intervene. "I was like, ''If 16-year-old girls are facing an arranged marriage in polygamy, can you help them?'' He said %u2018Not until they''ve had unwanted *** with an older man,''" she remembers. "

[rowdywicca]

What is the use of a CPS that says, ''We can''t do anything until you are forced into having *** with a man you don''t want to?'' Isn''t someone telling you that their right of choice is being subverted enough? Especially a 16 year old girl being forced into marriage with a 40 year old pervert?

What kind of sick law do wew have in this country that will allow this to happen to a young female?

[mommakat64]

These women and children live a religious "third world". No wonder the kids that make it out sometimes fall into drugs and *** and street life...until they can get their feet under them again. And Michael Savage just thinks this is such persecution...WHAT? The kids in foster care will get into drugs and ***...yeah, because they''ve been filled with such self-destructive lies, Michael. All they really need is to get out, be taught and believe that they ARE NOT tools of the self-aggrandizing men in their CULT. Michael, you are wrong, but you won''t listen to accounts of statutory rape and wife-swapping...sadly.

[gal50]

Every time a victim''s story comes out, it is far worse than what we could imagine. The forced marriages, the underage marriages, the abandonment of the boys, the reassignment of the families, the lack of education, the isolation of those who leave are all woven into a single story. Just as we start to think the reason people stay in the FLDS is brainwashing, we get hit with another reality which is that people stay because they don''t want to force those they love to suffer punishment.

It does sound like Nazi Germany. In the United States we have all of this freedom and yet there is a group that is severely controlled and denied many of these freedoms. I sure hope the federal government can step in and help.

And to Utah CPS, you should be able to take custody of girls when there is an intent to victimize them through a criminal act. Either you are misinformed or your laws are out of whack and need to be strengthened.