May 27, 2008

Escape

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

  • Play CBS Video Video Escape

    Erin Moriarty reports on a daring escape from the FLDS and the fallout that followed.

  • Video Escape, Part 2

    Erin Moriarty reports on a daring escape from the FLDS and the fallout that followed.

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48 Hours
Laura Chapman
Click here for more information about Laura Chapman.

(CBS)  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.

Sarah's mom became one of his 39 wives; Sarah's brothers and sisters found themselves suddenly living in Jessop's massive home with as many of 50 of his other children.

Sarah’s family was shattered. "How would you feel if one day, Carl was your dad and the next day Jeff was your dad?"

And over time her parents and nearly all of her siblings followed Sarah out; now they live near Sarah in the Northwest in a community of other FLDS exiles.

And today, even fellow runaway Kathy is back out. They are once again best friends. "It’s comforting to know that you’re close to other people who left," Sarah tells Moriarty.

Laura Chapman believes that Sarah's achievements should be the model for the children currently at the center of the Texas case.

One day, as she was watching that story unfold, she got a sudden jolt. "I saw my sister," she says.

Laura says she didn't know her own sister, who she had not seen for 27 years, was in Texas. "And there she was. There aren't words for what you feel. That could've been me," she says.

Laura fears that no matter how the Texas courts rule, Warren Jeffs-even from his jail cell-will continue to control and victimize women and children of the sect.

"He's run a whole community like Nazi Germany. He's tossed boys out.
He's taken women and children away from their father and given them to somebody else," she says. "It's a crime. It's a crime against innocence."



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by gaye5 May 29, 2008 10:32 AM EDT
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..
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by cyberus-2009 May 28, 2008 7:27 PM EDT
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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
----

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.
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by darnedsocks May 28, 2008 12:12 PM EDT
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. "
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by rowdywicca May 28, 2008 10:02 AM EDT
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?
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by mommakat64 May 28, 2008 8:56 AM EDT
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.
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by gal50 May 28, 2008 6:19 AM EDT
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.
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