FLDS case may hinge on diaries, dictations

Based on photographs, marriage records, letters and cards, CASA said it concluded that Teresa Jeffs was involved in an "intimate relationship" with her purported husband, 34-year-old Raymond Jessop.

The Deseret News normally does not name alleged sex-abuse victims, but Teresa Jeffs has gone public in media interviews and statements insisting she is not a victim.

Wedding day

In a December 2006 entry in her diary, Teresa Jeffs recalled her wedding day.

"The Lord blessed me to go forward in marriage July 27, 2006, the day after I turned 15 years old," she wrote.

In neat cursive, she described meeting with her father, who told her: "Teresa, the Lord would like you to get married tonight, now what do you think of that? Are you willing?"

In his dictation, the FLDS leader said that he gathered members of his faith's priesthood together for a meeting.

"I then talked to Brother Merril Jessop and Raymond Jessop after the young men left. I told Raymond Jessop the Lord had revealed that my daughter Teresa should be sealed to him tonight, and he should come by 8:30 p.m. He left the room," Jeffs said.

Three sealings were performed that night, Jeffs' dictation said. Among them was a then-12-year-old girl who was shown in photographs that became evidence in a child-custody hearing. The photos show Jeffs kissing the girl in a manner that Texas Child Protective Services lawyers described as "how a husband kisses a wife."

"I delegated Merril Jessop to perform the sealing," Warren Jeffs wrote. "And there was sealed (the girl) to Warren Steed Jeffs. That's me!"

Investigation discussed

After the marriage sealings, Jeffs said he and Merril Jessop discussed an FBI agent who sought to get Jessop to testify against the FLDS leader.

"So there is that effort trying to come right among the people on this land," Jeffs said. "May the Lord deliver us from our enemies."

During a prayer circle, Jeffs spoke of a grand jury proceeding in Arizona.

"And in this circle prayer, we presented before the Lord this woman judge to be handled, the judge over the grand jury hearing in Phoenix, whom the Lord has revealed is a bitter enemy, asking the Lord to remove her from the scenes if needs be, and to open doors of deliverance for the faithful," he said.

At the time, a federal grand jury had been convened in Arizona, presumably to learn the whereabouts of Jeffs. A few weeks after the dictation, Jeffs was arrested in a traffic stop on I-15 outside Las Vegas.

"This has been a marvelous time to be on the land of refuge, as the ordinances of the Priesthood carry on and are administered," Jeffs said in the July 2006 dictation.