Texas FLDS man accused of skirting banking laws

SAN ANTONIO — A polygamist sect member set to go on trial for bigamy and sexual abuse of a child next month deliberately skirted anti-money-laundering laws and used a wife he once abandoned to help front a company in Arizona, prosecutors allege in a court filing.

The Texas Attorney General's Office isn't seeking additional charges against Raymond Jessop, 38, but wants to use the allegations to bolster Jessop's punishment if he is convicted. The court filing lists numerous marriages, the abandonment of wives and children, efforts to avoid banking laws and other so-called "extraneous offenses" that prosecutors believe Jessop engaged in.

Jessop will be the first of a dozen men from the Fundamentalist LDS Church to face criminal trial following a raid of their West Texas ranch in April 2008. His trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 26.

A grand jury indicted Jessop last year on the sexual-abuse and bigamy charges. Since grand-jury proceedings are secret, it's unclear whether the new allegations were presented to grand jurors or if they could result in later charges.

Jessop's attorney, Mark Stevens, declined Tuesday to comment on the individual allegations but said all are untrue. He said he would contest their admissibility in court.

Jessop, a member of the FLDS Church, was indicted last year on charges of sexual assault of a child, stemming from his marriage to a 16-year-old. Prosecutors say he and others refused to take the pregnant teen to a hospital, even though she had difficulty delivering the child, putting both her and the infant in danger.

The bigamy charge stems from his alleged marriage to a different girl, a daughter of jailed sect leader Warren Jeffs, on the day after her 15th birthday.

Under Texas law, children under the age of 17 generally cannot consent to sex with an adult, and bigamy includes cases where someone "purports" to be married to more than one person.

The unindicted allegations listed in the court motion filed Friday by Assistant Attorney General Angela Goodwin include several other marriages and allegations related to business improprieties.

Among them, prosecutors say that Jessop and other FLDS members purchased dozens of money orders from different locations on two occasions in 2007 to avoid reporting requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act, a law requiring records and reports of large transactions that could be tied to money laundering or tax evasion. The money orders were used to pay fuel and cement suppliers, prosecutors say.