Jury selection begins in FLDS criminal trial

ELDORADO, Texas — More than 150 potential jurors, including 10 women in prairie dresses and braids, crammed into a makeshift courtroom Monday as jury selection began in the first criminal trial stemming from the raid of a polygamist sect's ranch last year.

Raymond Jessop, 38, is charged with sexual assault of a child, stemming from his alleged marriage to an underage girl. The girl, according to church documents seized by authorities, gave birth at age 16 at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado. If convicted, Jessop faces up to 20 years in prison.

He is also charged with bigamy, but that charge is to be tried separately. Prosecutors allege Jessop has nine wives, including three that were married to a brother before the brother was excommunicated by Warren Jeffs, the jailed leader of the Fundamentalist LDS Church.

The FLDS, which believes polygamy brings glorification in heaven, is a breakaway sect not recognized by the mainstream Mormon Church, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago.

In all, 12 sect members have been charged with crimes ranging from failure to report child abuse to sexual assault and bigamy.

Potential jurors for what would be Schleicher County's first jury trial in more than a decade waited Monday morning on plastic folding chairs in a building next to the courthouse. A few were dismissed with early exemption claims, and about a dozen FLDS members, conspicuous because of their distinct dress, remained in the pool.

Randy Mankin, the editor of the weekly newspaper, The Eldorado Success, was dismissed. His mother and college-age son had also been summoned but took earlier exemptions allowed for older jurors and full-time students.

The county sent summonses to 300 registered voters, the largest jury pool in its history, in hopes of seating 12 jurors and two alternates — a task that could be a challenge in a small county that became international news with the raid last April.

Authorities took 439 FLDS children into state custody and conducted a weeklong raid at the ranch, confiscating hundreds of boxes of documents and family photos.

Images of the women and children dressed in prairie clothing dominated cable news networks for weeks after the raid and after subsequent court rulings sending the children back to their parents.

If lawyers can't come up with a jury in Schleicher County, the trial could be moved to an adjoining county.