'Lost Boy' suing Jeffs to find his mother

Deseret Morning News graphic    Jeffs complaint

Johnny Jessop wants to know where his mother is.

He wants to know so badly, he'll sue Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs to get an answer.

Jessop and his lawyers filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Salt Lake City's 3rd District Court demanding a judge force Jeffs to reveal the location of Elsi Jessop.

"This gives Mr. Jeffs an opportunity to reunite at least one family," said Jessop's lawyer, Roger Hoole.

If Jeffs refuses to talk, a judge could find him in contempt and give him more time in jail.

According to the lawsuit, Jessop lived with his natural parents until 1998, when FLDS leaders took his mother and his siblings and "reassigned" them to live with another man. As Warren Jeffs took control of the FLDS Church from his father, numerous families were broken up and men were kicked out of the polygamous church on the Utah-Arizona border.

Jessop says that at age 13 he was kicked out by Jeffs, who by then was considered the "prophet."

"Jessop was told to come and get his belongings or they would be thrown out," Hoole wrote in the lawsuit. "Jeffs' actions in expelling Jessop from the Short Creek community alienated Jessop from the affection of his mother, deprived him of her support, and severed him from his family, friends, school, work and all else he had ever known."

After being on his own and running into trouble with the law, a juvenile court judge in St. George's 5th District Court ordered Jessop to be reunited with his mother. However, the lawsuit claims FLDS leaders reiterated that Jessop was not welcome back in the communities of Hildale, Utah; and Colorado City, Ariz.

After struggling to find a place to live, Jessop found his way to Shannon Price, who heads the Diversity Foundation, which helps the so-called "Lost Boys" who have been kicked out of the FLDS communities.

"He loves her dearly," Price told the Deseret Morning News, referring to Jessop's feelings for his mother. "He misses her desperately. He's pretty heartbroken."

The lawsuit seeks damages for breach of duties, alienation of affection, invasion of privacy and infliction of emotional distress. It claims that Jeffs expelled Jessop from his family and home to "perpetuate the illegal practice of polygamy."

Jeffs, 51, is facing charges in 5th District Court of rape as an accomplice, a first-degree felony. He is accused of performing a child-bride marriage. He remains in the Purgatory Jail in isolation.

Jessop did not return calls for comment Tuesday night, but the lawsuit said it has been more than two years since he has spoken to his mother, and he doesn't know where she is.