FLDS leader may be moving flock to Texas

"I would think that after all the talk of those kinds of allegations, you'd see a case filed. There's no case," he said. "God knows they're looking for cases to prosecute. They're crawling all over that community."

The towns sit at the foot of the picturesque Vermillion Cliffs — big red rock towers that stretch like fingers into the sky with deep, weathered lines slicing their sides. It is a strange mix of apparent wealth and poverty — paved streets number almost evenly with those packed of clay, and enormous homes sit alongside modest two- and three-bedroom houses.

Since Jeffs took over the FLDS Church after his father died, observers say he has guided the church with a ruthless hand and boundless ambition to dispatch anyone who threatens his leadership. As prophet and leader of a church in which women and children are considered property, Jeffs has the singular authority to reassign wives and children, and their belongings, and excommunicate anyone.

Even his siblings have not been spared banishment. Brother Blaine Jeffs now lives in a trailer next to the convenience store he used to own, Brower noted during a recent tour of the town.

"These people are never told what they've done wrong," Brower said.

In the meantime, they're required to write the prophet weekly letters confessing various sins in hope they'll be reaccepted into the church and community they've been born into, and the only way of life they know.

Shurtleff has called Jeffs an "evil genius" who knows how to manipulate people and the welfare and legal systems to retain power.

"For three years now, he's been doing everything he can to keep people from cooperating with us and to take steps to avoid our efforts," he said.

Parker said Shurtleff and anti-polygamy advocates are buying too much into the stories of ex-church members, who can be biased and lack credibility.

"That's the view of the dissidents. It's not the view of the people who wish to continue to be involved in that church," he said.

Jeffs has barred church members from public school; children are only allowed to attend private schools until the sixth, seventh or eighth grades, Brower said. Most residents are considered to be functionally illiterate, with the exception of Jeffs himself.

In audio copies of speeches heard by the Associated Press, the reclusive prophet sermonizes in calm, almost detached, but learned language.

His voice sounds almost like the speaker on a self-help tape, even when he's explaining to followers that blacks exist so Satan can have a presence on earth, and that they are "uncouth, rude, filthy and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings that are generally bestowed upon mankind."