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FLDS struggle beyond YFZ Ranch borders

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babymama | 1:35 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
I am concerned Deseret news is reporting on a community of people who are breaking the law by living in polygamy, and another law by child abuse.

Can you in good conscience report on these people ignoring the fact that they are breaking the law?
Is the Deseret news a pro polygamy newspaper?

anon | 3:42 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
To babymama: Since when are newspapers expected to report only on those who obey the law?

It is interesting that at age 12, the young Jessop girl was old enough to be married; but two years later, at age 14, she is an innocent child too young to leave her mother! What a contradiction!
to babymama | 3:51 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
get a life.
Comments continue below
Give it a break | 4:45 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
Good grief. Can't you people see past your own hatred, anger, and bitterness and let these people live the quiet and peaceful life they desire.

Texas has shown itself to be a fool...and fools are still continuing their hatred as shown by these comments.

Someone finally prints a story that gives insight into their lives and the first comment has to be hateful. Sheesh.


Paleez | 4:58 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
You know - it is very disturbing that Barbara Jessop is now saying she is struggling to regain custody of her 14 year old daughter. She is the one who allowed her to marry at 12 and she is the one who refused to cooperate with CPS to protect her children from those who have been indicted for sexual abuse. It would not have been necessary to re-remove the 14 year old if she just cooperated.

Also disturbing is Benjamin saying he wants to work. 11 years old and wanting to work? REALLY! He should be playing, even if it was just with the other kids.

Get a grip folks they are playing the sympathy factor after refusing to cooperate.
JrzWrld | 5:17 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
One question: If Barbara says her daughter is a "precious, innocent child" why are their pictures of Warren Jeffs laying a passionate kiss on her in their wedding photos? Is she old enough to provide informed consent in her marriage to a man roughly 40 years her senior or is she a precious, innocent child? She can't be both.
Joey | 5:18 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
This poor family needs their daughter back now.
Daniel | 5:47 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
It was touching seeing how these families were able to finally be reunited again. I saw much more happiness and well being here than in most of modern american households.
anon | 6:04 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
to babymama:

Since when are newspaperrs supposed to report only on legal activities?

It is interesting that the young Jessop girl was considered old enough to get married at age 12; but at age 14, she is considered an innocent child too young to leave her mother. What a contradiction!
Karl E. Fiorina | 6:15 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
babymama at 1:35am,
Papers all over the country report on many people who are in the U.S. illegally, without mentioning that fact.
JND | 6:21 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
My wife will be in San Angelo today and tomorrow. Maybe I can get the inside story.
Observer | 6:41 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
"She is a precious, innocent child who needs her mother, and I need her."

Right. Precious and innocent enough to hand-over to the grand poobah of child-rapists, Warren Steed Jeffs.

Barbara should be prosecuted as an accessory to rape.

BTW, is there anyone on that ranch with a surname that is not Jeffs, Jessop, or Barlow? Just curious.
JrzWrld | 6:43 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
All I want for a reporter to do is to ask Barbara Jessop "Can you see where people might be confused by your characterization of your daughter as a 'precious, innocent child' when you and her father married her off to a much-older man (and fugitive) at the age of 12?"
I would just like an on-the-record statement from Barbara Jessop on that issue.
Cats | 6:55 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
No one knows at this point just what evidence the State of Texas has. There is a mountain of documents that were recovered at the ranch. So, don't say there is no evidence. A picture of a child in a passionate kiss with a man old enough to be her grandfather is evidence of child molestation on its face.

Oh, but maybe it was doctored up. Maybe it's a fake. REALLY? What evidence there is will eventually come out. But, is there anyone with half a brain that can't see what's going on? That is, people who are willing to be honest with themselves and others!

These children are raised in a warped environment and they don't know anything different. They aren't old enough to give informed consent or even understand what they are getting into. They know no other way.

Many former FLDS didn't understand how they had been brainwashed and programmed until after they got away. Now they see it all too clearly. Many of them hope this is finally a chance to get help for the numerous victims of Warren Jeffs the other criminal leadership of this pathetic group.

These people need help.
TELL BARBARA | 6:57 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
I THINK SHE NEEDS TO SEE IF SHE'S BREAKING THE LAW AT HER NEW HOME, MY NEIGBERHOOD WOULDN'T BE ALLOWED TO HAVE A CHICKEN COOP IN THE BACK YARD... THESE PEOPLE JUST DON'T THINK ... AS FOR HER DAUGHTER, BARBARA HELPED CONDONE THE MARRIAGE TO JEFFS, NOW SHE CAN PUT UP WITH A LITTLE OF HER OWN INDUCED PAIN. AND TAKE THAT 5TH AMMENDMENT WITH HER.. TRYING TO HELP GET HER BACK, WHAT A LAUGH.HER DAUGHTER IS BETTER IN STATE CUSTODY.
SLC gal | 7:13 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
To Babymamma:

These people. though living an illegal lifestyle, live a higher creed, then some of those that practice a more modern legalized form of polygomy.

The form I'm talking about is the kind of where a single "babies daddy" has several "babies mamma's" and doesn't provide support for ANY of them. This suprisingly isn't illegal, but it should be.

The only difference between a polygomist and the "babies daddy" is that the polygomist provides for his families, and steps up like a man. His only crime is calling his "babies mommas" wives.
Magdalena | 7:22 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
Why is poor Barbara struggling if she is married to one of the wealthiest men in the FLDS? Where' Merrill? Why are these women facing their troubles alone?
Babymama | 7:26 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
believe that the prosecutors and the government have "blood on their hands" with respect to the problem we have with the polygamists.

They have not prosecuted the crime of polygamy, thus enabling the community to flourish.

Statistics show that there are more baby boys born into this world than girls. Polygamist communities are included in this statistic. Thus making the lifestyle unsustainable... unless they:

1. Remove their excess boys.
2. Marry younger and younger girls.

I hope that the government recognizes their culpability in this situation, and rectifies it immediately. Then we would not have the rape and indoctrination of our young ones.

The crime of polygamny should be upheld and prosecuted...Start with one family, and systematically run the course through the whole community, and every polygamist community. We cannot turn our heads and ignore their crimes.

The law should be upheld for all crimes, not just for some.
Anonymous | 7:32 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
This place is a 'ranch' the way alcatraz could be called a fishing village. Anyway, it's time to close the religous prisons of the nation down. Starting with this one is a good idea.
to babymama | 7:52 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
Generally, the articles in newspapers are about law breakers: drunk drivers, bank robbers, burglers, murderers, corrupt public officials. And occassionally, a nice story about people helping others or overcoming some very difficult circumstance.

It's called news!!
Babymama | 8:03 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
Yes, I realize my comment at the beginning was not rational. I was just very surprised to see an article that tried to take crimes within that community, and sugar coat them.
anonymous | 8:27 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
Wow, this article couldn't get anymore pro-polygamy if it tried! I think it's sad that when these people talk about missing their kids, what they seem to miss about them is their ability to work. They don't miss them personally, just their ability to do chores. Of course, the individual isn't prized in communal dictatorships like this, it's about the collective and the needs of the individual are subjugated to the needs of the "state", the state in this case being the FLDS. It reminds me of Communism.
Sara | 8:28 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
SLC Gal, No the men do not provide for their wives, they have the wives go out and work or in Tom Greens case, go on welfare.
Prosecutor | 8:44 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
What comes through loud and clear in this story is that these people seem to be mostly honest, decent folks that, unfortunately, are being misled by a small group of devious, venal, small-minded, perverts.

It is very fortunate that the State of Texas has stepped in -- as have the States of Utah and Arizona -- to demonstrate to these poor mopes that the FLDS leadership is not the ultimate earthly authority it has claimed to be. The FLDS are now learning that their leadership will have to be "subject to kings, rulers, presidents, and magistrates" and will have to obey, honor, and sustain the law, just like everyone else.

I'm optimistic that this will be a first step out of darkness for some of these apparently decent, but obviously misguided people.
NO SYMPATHY VOTES | 8:45 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
May they get their day in court, May they stop with the pictures of their long suffering since April. Seeing Barbara bending over her married daughters bed, was pathetic. If this is the way they help their children, God help her also.. how about telling the truth and not pleading the fifth ammendment... oh that's right she might yet get charged herself..
Anonymous | 8:49 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
Beware of the carpet baggers that disquise themselves as Society Workers.
Joey | 9:00 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
No child is better off in foster care. The foster care industry should be abolished. Children are four times more likely to be raped or killed in foster care than in their own homes (Wikipedia). The industry currently self-sustains itself by seeking more and more victims, and it does so by lowering the threshold of "risk" the children would be in if allowed to remain with their parents. CPS uses a very low threshold of risk, and gets a court to order children like this girl taken from their loving homes, "just to be safe" since the evidence usually is highly questionable. Meanwhile families are devastated. It's tyranny and opression, all government sanctioned.
Rita | 9:47 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
Did I hear in the video that the girl was going to live with her aunt?
I have an 11 year old grandson. He plays his X-Box games, goes to school, and is on the Pee Wee Football team, rides his bike, and doesn't know the word "work" except to pick up his toys after he is done playing with them before bed time.
I agree this is all Barb's fault for her daughter not being with her. She thought she would be a smarty and not answer the questions. She would not make herself available for the classes she was supposed to take by hiding.
Hiding and lying will not get her anything positive she wants.
tigerlily | 9:54 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
to babymama:: the deseretnews reports on people who break the law all the time. but most people in utah are related in some way to polygamists so they don't see that they are breaking the law
tigerlily | 9:57 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
to jrz:: the picture is a fake
JrzWrld | 10:08 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
People making complaints about how polygamy is much better than the multiple baby mamas scenario need to remember that these are two entirely different things. The FLDS situation has institutionalized the concept of one man fathering children on multiple women. Unfortunately, this "system" is not too careful about whether they are always doing this with girls who have reached the age of consent. The multiple "baby mamas" scenario is pretty deplorable, but I think in most cases it takes place among consenting adults (or consenting peers, in the case of under-18 parents) - which you can't really legislate. At least in my area, if a man fathers a child on an underaged girl, he gets generally gets prosecuted - the local papers have featured several cases. "At least they take care of the children they father" cannot be used as an argument to protect men who father children on underaged girls. No one has been prosecuted for a polygamy-related crime that has not involved a minor in years, mainly because we are a country that has come to recognize that relationships between consenting adults cannot be legislated.
To Joey and Rita | 10:13 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
Joey, most kids in foster care are already "at risk" because of their horrendous lives before entering foster care, thus the statistics. Those kids tend to get stuck in the least qualified homes because they are so hard to place, making them even more "at risk." The foster care system is pretty awful, but Texas will be very careful where it places this particular child, and probably hundreds of highly qualified families have eagerly lined up.

Rita - I think this is exactly what this girl's parents wanted to happen. She is more useful to them as a sobbing victim than behind the scenes. Now, just as when they married her off to their fugitive leader, they are putting their interests before hers.
To tigerlily, From JrzWrld | 10:31 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
Not a single reputable expert has come forward to decry those pictures as fakes, and not even the FLDS dispute that they are accurate. The FLDS simply object to the manner in which they were obtained. If anyone had come up with verifiable evidence, the media would have pounced on it as would the FLDS. But they haven't, because the photos are real. What's up for debate, really, at this point is whether the marriage was consummated or not. And I see consummation as irrelevant actually, because even if it wasn't, the act of marriage still constitutes grooming - which is almost as despicable. If you tell a 12-year-old she's married to the voice of God, that's pretty much going to shape her world view in such a way that free choice will not necessarily enter into the scenario when she reaches the age of consent.
Ron | 10:32 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
I don't agree with a man having several wives. It wouldn't be for me. However there seems to be quite a few polygamist communities around this country that are doing quite well. The perversions of Warren Jeffs and his ilk has completely poisoned the image of polygamists. This is very sad. I agree with Prosecutor's comments. They are right on. SLC gal makes a very valid point when she points out the practice of men marrying, divorcing, marrying, divorcing again etc. and leaving a trail of broken families and providing little or no support for the children. Most polygamists take very good care of their families. And I agree with Daniel's comment.

What to do? The law should go after the perverts in this and other communities and leave the families in piece.
Joey | 10:33 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
So, I see there's been a trend going on since 1776, when the AOC was 10. When are we going to raise the age of consent to 25? 30, anyone?
WBM5 | 10:37 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
I wonder if babaymama was referring more to the picture DN is portraying of these people. As if DN wants us to feel sorry for the law breakers. I feel for the kids. I am sorry they have parents whose judgments are so clouded and controlled that they are victims of their parents who have allowed abuse in the name of religion to occur.
I feel sorry for every young girl who had to become a pawn to satisfy a perversion and told that this would make her closer to God.
I feel sorry for boys who can't fall in love with the girl next door because she is already married to his father.

I don't feel sorry for the parents and leaders who have made wrong right and right wrong. This is why we have foster homes.
If parents would put their children first before whatever addiction they have, be it drugs, pornography, gambling or even their religion (shocking!)Then people wouldn't have to step in as pseudo parents. If you want to be a parent then be one. Other wise expect someone else to do the job for you.
zxcvbnm | 10:46 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008

Where are the folks ranting about a lack of education?
The woman helping Barbera is a certified school teacher.
re Joey 9:00am | 11:00 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
any child is 100% better off in foster care than with the FLDS. Even if they go through some trying times as children in foster care, at least they have an opportunity to choose their path as they get older.

Being raised in the FLDS is a one-way-street ride to dronesville. FLDS children have little or no opportunity to choose their future. They all become mini-me's.

At least in foster care they have a chance to do whatever they want when they grow up. Living a tough life in foster care is difficult, but doable. Living a muted life in FLDS is all you get - nothing else. That's it. You're done. No future.

I'll take foster care any day and all day. Beats a life sentence in dronesville.
realitycheck | 11:10 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
re Joey 9am:

It is a lot easier to get over being raped in foster care than it is to get over being FLDS.

As a matter of fact, I would rather be raped in foster care and be able to choose my future than to be an FLDS robot for my whole life.

You may not understand that, but freedom is our most precious right, and there is no such thing in FLDS.

And if you think about it - not every child in foster care is raped. As a matter of fact, not that many are at all as a percent of children in foster care (although you would probably dispute that.) But EVERY CHILD in FLDS is doomed to be a mini-me robot clone that serves but one purpose - protecting and working for a group of old men that say they are in a church. And they'll spend their entire lives that way, and make more mini-me's.

I'll take foster care any day.
soccermom08 | 11:09 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
Nothing is as innocent as it looks, does it?

Zavenda Young is mentioned as Edsun Jessop's wife in the photos. But isn't she the one who appeared on Larry King that said she is not married to Edsun, but only lives with him? Did she admit to your reporter now that she is actually married to him?

In the Bishop's list seized from the ranch (p42) they mention all other wives of Edsun. Why aren't they also included in the happy family pictures? Doesn't he care for the other wive's kids?

Ralph in LV | 11:16 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
I am not affiliated with the FLDS in any way but have empathy for them. They are being judged by contemporary laws and not laws stemming from their culture which emanates from practices from the 19th century and throughout history. Compared to the immorality of our day and age, such as gay marriage proposals, abortion, and clergy child abuse and others, the FLDS don't seem so bad to me.
Char | 11:17 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
The picture of Jeffs kissing the little girl is real. In southern Utah and Arizona, the polygs run their teenage boys off the ranch for any infraction so there are not any boys left to take the girls from the old men. There has been reported to be many children born mentally defective from 'inbreeding' and many die very very young as evidenced by the amount of graves that Flora Jessop showed on one report.

Several years ago there were photos and reports of men getting construction contracts in Cedar City and their sons, some as young as 7, working on construction sites. Totally against the Child Labor law.

The ones who take care of the children they father are few and far between when they have multiple wives. The way many are supported is through welfare. Since they are not 'legally' married, only 'spiritually', they can collect welfare (money and food stamps, medical,etc)for themselves and for their children. It is called Bleeding the Beast (us) by taking monies and services.
Sammy | 11:34 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
I just wonder how come there are more women in the FLDS cult than there are men? Where are the boys to even out the score. Something is very fishy about the male issue in that cult. Something is very strange going on there.
the picture is a fake? | 11:49 a.m. Aug. 25, 2008
tigerlily, you just lost any hope of respect from this board....
Lyle | 12:02 p.m. Aug. 25, 2008
Warren Jeffs had no problem "ripping" wives and their children away from fathers. Why should we care that these children have been removed from their mothers now? They have been living in this type of turmoil for years.
anonymous3 | 12:16 p.m. Aug. 25, 2008

A certified teacher to help watch Barbaras kids.........where is the no education lobby?
re Joey 10:33am | 12:33 p.m. Aug. 25, 2008
if everyone was as immature as you, it waould already be 25 or 30.

by the way - this has nothing to do with polygamy. Not clear to me why you even think it does.....
Rita | 12:39 p.m. Aug. 25, 2008
Recently the state of Tennessee changed their legal age for marriage. Are you saying they did it because of the FLDS there too?
So, if not your theory doesn't work does it?
tigerlily | 12:46 p.m. Aug. 25, 2008
to jrz:: they haven't been given the opportunity to talk about the picture. look up the picture online and look at it very carefully and you will see how it could be fake.
Cooperation | 12:51 p.m. Aug. 25, 2008
We the people do not need to cooperate with anyone
Those elected are the servants
Problem is they have different ideas as to their roll in telling the people what to do
Plenty single men and women are sleeping around
Even the married ones to.
For those Holyer than Thou, Shut up
Let people live in peace
I could tell you a story about this
The City Council has a need to act as a Home Owners Association
Did we sign any contracts?
No

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Tammy Jessop watches as Benjamin Jessop works on a chicken coop he built next to his home in Converse, Texas, Saturday.

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