Search Underway For Indicted Sect Members

Texas Authorities Look For Polygamist Sect Members In Child Sex Abuse Case

(AP)  Texas authorities on Wednesday began looking for five indicted members of a polygamist sect, in a child sex-abuse case that the group's spokesman alleged was a face-saving move by officials who lost a court battle over their seizure of hundreds of children from a sect-owned ranch.

The five men were indicted Tuesday with sect leader Warren Jeffs, who already was convicted in Utah and jailed in Arizona on charges related to underage marriages.

Jeffs and four of the followers were charged in Texas with felony sexual assault of a child, and the fifth follower was charged with failing to report child abuse. One of the followers also was charged with bigamy.

"Our office does have warrants in hand and indictments in hand," said Sheriff David Doran of Schleicher County, where the ranch is located. His tiny west Texas department was working with Texas Rangers and prosecutors to arrest the men.

The identities of the men and details of the accusations were to remain under seal until the men are arrested. Doran, who cultivated a relationship with the ranch's residents before state authorities raided the property April 3, said it's hard to tell whether they are even still in Texas.

"I haven't personally seen them since the raid took place," he said.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, whose office is acting as the special prosecutor in the case, vowed Tuesday that authorities would make an aggressive effort to find the accused members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Church members have traditionally lived in two communities along the Arizona-Utah line, but they are often nomadic, moving between jobs and church member-controlled sites scattered across the West and Canada. The church bought the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado five years ago.

Jeffs, already convicted in Utah of rape as an accomplice and awaiting trial in Arizona on other charges, is accused of assaulting a girl in Texas in January 2005.

FLDS member and spokesman Willie Jessop said Wednesday that law enforcement officials had not disclosed who they are looking for or tried to enter the ranch, but he said members would cooperate.

"We don't believe their evidence is credible. We don't believe they obtained it legally, but we'll stand up in court and face the allegations," he said. "We believe in our innocence."

Jessop said he believes the criminal prosecutions are designed to try to justify the raid and the subsequent placement of all the more than 400 children from the ranch into foster care. Calls alleging sexual abuse of girls at the ranch prompted the raid, but they are now believed to have been a hoax.

The Texas Supreme Court ruled child welfare officials had overreached in placing the children in foster care because they didn't show any more than a handful of teenage girls were abused. The vast majority of the children taken were younger than 6 or were boys.

Child Protective Services is also continuing its investigations, even with the roughly 440 children returned to their parents six weeks ago.

Agency spokesman Patrick Crimmins said investigators will look at the living circumstances of the children associated with the men who were indicted and determine if they are safe.

Under Texas law, a girl younger than 17 cannot generally consent to sex with an adult. Bigamy is also illegal in Texas, and although FLDS plural marriages were not licensed by the state, the law contains a provision outlawing the act of "purporting to marry" more than one person.

The FLDS, which believes polygamy brings glory in heaven, is a breakaway sect of the mainstream Mormon church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which officially renounced polygamy more than a century ago and has sought to distance itself from the FLDS.

[deacon20081]

mark11a and beehive21 A question;

So I see your computers there at the Ranch were returned huh?

[deacon20081]

Hey!patriot12436 there appears to be alot of mistakes coming out of texas in the past decade. Not just the law enforcement there but the actions of a well known and globaly disliked president of whats left of the United States of America.No offense just a observation.
Posted by tootall1014 at 06:45 AM : Jul 24, 2008
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George Bush is NOT FROM TEXAS he hails from the eastern State of Connecticut.

[patriot12436]

mark11a-99
You obviously are not from Texas and know nothing about their law there. I have lived there and am proud of their law enforcement. Sure they make mistakes, any department can and does.

[mark46n]

A West Texas grand jury now who might that consist of, lets see Herb down at the barber shop, Mel from the feed store, Tom from over at the grain elevator, Henry the town drunk and city council member, and last but not least Joe the fire chief/sanitation engineer. For a six pack and a fat juicy steak these hicks would indict their own grand mothers. You people have already proven that your incapable of conducting a lawful investigation why go for another one do you like to beat up on yourselves?

[beehive21-2009]

The Texas cops should be arresting Judge Walters , DA, sheriff and case workers whom violated the Constitution Rights of the people.