Texas Ranger says raid of Warren Jeffs' FLDS compound vindicated

SAN ANGELO, Texas — Investigators made no mention of child sex tapes, or seized photos of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs kissing young girls, after their April 2008 raid on the sect's remote Texas compound. Instead, the public saw the televised spectacle of more than 400 children being bused from the ranch over an abuse hotline call that proved to be bogus.

As Jeffs begins serving a life sentence, brought down by damning evidence seized at the ranch and finally revealed in court, the Texas Ranger who led the heavily scrutinized raid and investigation said he feels vindicated.

"There was a lot of miscommunication put out by the FLDS propaganda machine and defense. All those miscommunications came out in court and you can see the result," Texas Ranger Capt. Brooks Long told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview this week.

"I think the media is less skeptical of why those kids were removed and why the action took place. How can you know that they were having group sex on the bed in the temple? Now, you have the tapes," said Long, who declined to speak about the case until after the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints leader was convicted of sexually assaulting two child brides, ages 12 and 15, and sentenced.

Long said he and a small group of investigators and child protective workers went to the Yearning for Zion ranch on April 3, 2008, after receiving a report from a domestic abuse hotline that a pregnant 16-year-old girl reported being abused there. The call later turned out to be a hoax, but Long said that after seeing a 33-page report on interactions with the hotline worker, there was probable cause to investigate.

"We were planning on just going out to the ranch, starting the search and hoping that the girl would just run to us," he said.

Instead, they found rampant evidence of sexual abuse of girls, he said.

"When you have teenage girls standing in front of you pregnant, that's what I call evidence," said Long.

The search of the ranch was tense because some FLDS members were destroying documents while others videotaped the investigators or watched them from rooftops, he said. Rangers tried to convince FLDS members to voluntarily escort them into the temple and annex.