From Deseret News archives:
Warrants could lead to more FLDS charges
Grand jury will weigh evidence as church seeks their dismissal
Search warrants reveal new names under investigation by law enforcement for alleged underage marriages, the Deseret News has learned. The April 9 search warrants obtained blood, cheek and hair samples from five men, three of whom have already been indicted on sexual assault charges.
The warrants accuse Raymond Jessop, Leroy Jessop, Michael George Emack, Nathan Jessop and Jackson Jessop of fathering children with girls who were all about 16 years old.
Some of that information is based on initial interviews with the girls themselves.
"(The girl) referred to herself as the 10th wife of Nathan Jessop; that the father of her child is Nathan Jessop; and that (the girl) lived with Nathan Jessop at the suspected place and premises," Texas 51st District Attorney's investigator Diane Wilson wrote in a probable-cause affidavit filed with one of the warrants.
Law enforcement returned with DNA samples on April 14 to help establish paternity.
Some of the men have been previously named in search warrants served during the raid on the YFZ Ranch. Hundreds of thousands of pieces of evidence were removed from the temple grounds, including photographs, diaries, marriage and census records, and dictations by FLDS leader Warren Jeffs.
Some of that evidence has been used in child-custody cases over the hundreds of FLDS children taken into state protective custody during the raid. Texas Child Protective Services has said it has evidence of at least 10 underage marriages. A CPS caseworker testified during a court hearing last week that an investigation revealed "48 percent of the men at the ranch were involved in underage marriage practices."
A CPS spokesman could not elaborate, citing the ongoing child welfare investigation.
Nathan Jessop is believed to be about 40 years old, according to another search warrant affidavit that authorities used in the raid. His wife is now 17 and was due to give birth in June, when she was still 16.
That same search warrant also said Jackson Jessop was 36. Wilson wrote that his alleged wife would have conceived her now 3-year-old son when she was 16.
A grand jury has been meeting for months here to consider evidence of crimes involving FLDS members. Six men, including Jeffs, have already been indicted on charges ranging from sexual assault and bigamy to failure to report child abuse.
Raymond Merril Jessop, 36; Allan Eugene Keate, 56; Michael George Emack, 57, and Merril Leroy Jessop, 33, are scheduled to appear in court here Monday.
