From Deseret News archives:
3 more indicted in Texas FLDS probe
By the end of the day, three felony indictments were handed down.
"There's three different indictments, three different names," Schleicher County court clerk Peggy Williams confirmed late Thursday. She would not say who was indicted or what the charges were.
The Texas Attorney General's Office, which is prosecuting the cases, also declined comment on the indictments.
Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran told the Deseret News he had not yet received any arrest warrants.
"Whatever they hand to us, we will actively pursue if it is an arrest warrant," he said.
The indictments came at the end of a nerve-wracking day for members of the FLDS Church. The young women arrived at the Schleicher County Memorial Building in the morning. There, they waited for most of the day as the weather in this tiny west Texas town turned hot and humid and thunderstorms moved in.
To pass the time, a few of the women whipped out digital cameras and took pictures of everything around them. One smiled as she posed for a picture with a Texas Ranger. They joked with a Deseret News photographer about who would have the better pictures.
When it came time to testify, an officer would walk out to where they were waiting. Their attorneys would escort them to the doors, but the women went in alone. The grand jury was meeting in a building that often serves as a one-room courthouse, complete with folding chairs and a card table acting as a judge's bench.
Throughout the proceedings, the young women would often walk out of the building and huddle with their attorneys, a nervous look on their faces. They would then go back in to resume their testimony. This happened numerous times, leading to speculation that some young women were refusing to answer questions under their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
"This has been a very painful process for the people," said FLDS member and spokesman Willie Jessop. "It's certainly had a tremendous toll on everyone involved. My heart certainly goes out to every one of these girls involved."
Jessop also testified, but he could not say what he told the panel because of laws dictating grand jury secrecy.
"We certainly believe there's a God, and we believe he will judge," Jessop said Thursday. "All those who judge will be judged themselves."
The grand jury is scheduled to meet again on Sept. 23.
