From Deseret News archives:
More FLDS indictments today?
Six men, including FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, have already been indicted on charges ranging from sexual assault to bigamy and failure to report child abuse. If evidence entered into court in nearby San Angelo is any indication, more members of the Utah-based polygamous sect can expect to face criminal charges.
Marriage records, bishop's records, dictations, love letters, diaries and photographs were among the hundreds of thousands of pieces of evidence seized during the April raid on the church's YFZ Ranch. Some of that evidence has been used in child-custody cases that played out this week in nearby San Angelo.
A list of underage girls allegedly married to older men, compiled by Texas Child Protective Services, gives indications as to who is under investigation. Some of the cases involve men who have already been indicted.
The CPS list shows 10 cases involving marriages of girls ranging in age from 12 to 16 at the time of their alleged marriages. Law enforcement e-mails, written in April and obtained earlier this month by the Deseret News through a government public records request, indicated Texas Rangers were investigating as many as 20 cases of sexual assault and 50 cases of bigamy.
The Texas Attorney General's Office, which is heading up the prosecutions, will only say the case remains under investigation.
Warren Jeffs himself is believed to have married at least four girls, including a 14-year-old girl who was ordered back into foster care on Tuesday after a judge ruled her mother, Barbara Jessop, was unable to protect her from abuse. Authorities allege that at age 12, the girl was wed to Jeffs in a ceremony performed by her father, YFZ Ranch leader Merril Jessop.
Another 12-year-old girl is seen in photographs beaming next to a photo of Jeffs. A letter, in neat cursive, is written around the pictures.
"I have been missing you," she wrote to her then-fugitive husband. "I love your Heavenly smile shining bright. Thank you sweet heart for all you do. ... I yearn to only do your will in all I do. I am praying to become a Heavenly comfort wife for you. I love you so much I pray I may be worthy to advance. I fill (sic) you so close. Love always."
Jeffs, 52, is currently in an Arizona jail facing trial on sexual misconduct charges, accusing him of performing underage marriages. Jeffs was convicted and sentenced to five years to life in Utah for rape as an accomplice for performing a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin.
