6 FDLS members indicted in Eldorado TX
Houston Chronicle - ELDORADO — A grand jury here indicted polygamist leader Warren Jeffs and five other members of his sect on felony charges Tuesday.
Jeffs and four other members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are charged with sexual assault of a child, a first-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. One of the other four faces an additional felony charge of bigamy.
A sixth person is charged with failure to report child abuse, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said. Abbott did not name those besides Jeffs who were indicted.
"There will be an aggressive effort to apprehend them," Abbott said about an hour after grand jurors filed out of their meeting room.
Abbott would only divulge Jeffs' name because he is already in jail.
A Schleicher County grand jury heard testimony throughout the day, halting proceedings for four hours Tuesday afternoon when questions arose as to whether sect members who testified could be prosecuted.
Two members of the sect -- Sarah Barlow Draper and Leann Jeffs -- were then escorted by their attorneys to the grand jury room on the Schleicher County courthouse square shortly before 5 p.m.
Draper, 37, could be seen dabbing her tearful eyes before she re-entered the room. Attorney Andrea Sloan patted Jeffs, 17, her client, on the back before she too headed into the grand jury room.
The state had offered female members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints immunity from prosecution in exchange for their testimony, two sources familiar with the discussions said.
When the proceedings halted, and one of the sources said it was because of doubts over whether such immunity would be accepted by federal prosecutors who also have been investigating the sect.
About nine women in long dresses with braided hair had been called to the grand jury hearing earlier Tuesday. Roughly half of them made it into the meeting room, but all came out quickly after telling the grand jury nothing, said a 25-year-old member of the sect who would only identify himself as Ben.
“They are all taking the fifth,” he said as he and another FLDS member snapped photos of government officials from inside their SUV in the courthouse parking lot.
Those called to testify have the right to invoke their Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. Only one male member of the sect has been subpoenaed: Willie Jessop, the former bodyguard of jailed president and sect prophet Warren Jeffs.
“It’ll all come out,” Willie Jessop said as he waited in the courthouse to be called before grand jurors.
Asked if he expected members of his church to be indicted, he said. “I don’t know. I hope not.”
Jessop was stopped early Tuesday in Eldorado by law enforcement officers and handed a subpoena.
Asked how FLDS members were doing, he said, “Hopefully, they can answer that for themselves.”
One of the women who was called before the grand jury Tuesday was a 16-year-old at the center of a civil battle over which attorney is to represent her. The teen was married at age 15 to 34-year-old Raymond Jessop, the son of Jeffs’ top deputy, Merrill Jessop.
Two of her sisters are also married to Raymond Jessop.
Also called before the grand jury were:
-- Leann Jeffs, 17, who has a 1-year-old daughter.
-- Draper, 37, a registered nurse and mother of four. She now works at a hospital in Abilene where she lives with her children. She was once misclassified as a minor by Texas Child Protective Services but proved to a court she was not. She is the former wife of ousted FLDS member Daniel Barlow, who was once mayor of Colorado City, Ariz., where the FLDS is mostly based.
-- Veda Keate, 19, who was forced to give a third DNA sample to the Texas Attorney General’s Office earlier this month. It is not clear why another was needed. She has a 2-year-old daughter.
-- Annette Jeffs, Warren Jeffs’ first wife and the mother of the 16-year-old who was also called to testify.
Grand jurors filed into their meeting room shortly before 9 a.m. There, they were to listen as lawyers from the attorney general’s office presented evidence against members of the FLDS, the nation’s largest polygamist group, for their role in arranging underage marriages.
Attorney General Greg Abbott entered the grand jury room at about 9 a.m., expected to oversee the presentation of evidence by his staff attorneys, Angela Goodwin and prosecution chief Eric Nichols. Abbott’s presence was interpreted by those close to the investigation as an indication that indictments were imminent.
However, a key question remained whether indictments would depend on testimony from FLDS members, including several young girls.
During the grand jury’s first meeting on this matter in June, sources familiar with the proceedings have said, the girls used their Fifth Amendment right to not answer questions.
Grand jury proceedings are closed to the public. Its members are local residents who consider the prosecution’s evidence and determine whether it is sufficient to charge defendants.
Even if indictments are returned, it is likely that the names of those charged will be kept secret until after arrests have been made.
The state in April raided the FLDS-owned Yearning For Zion Ranch north of Eldorado and removed more than 400 children living there, arguing that evidence of girls under 18 being “spiritually married” to adult men was sufficient to show all the children were at risk of abuse.
The Texas Supreme Court later disagreed and ordered the children returned to their parents. Since the raid, church members have given different names and information to authorities, slowing the investigation process.
The FLDS began moving hundreds of its members to the 1,700-acre ranch in 2004, about the time Jeffs, their president and prophet, was charged in Utah. He was convicted last year on two counts of being an accomplice to rape for his role in forcing a 14-year-old sect member to marry her 19-year-old cousin. He now faces similar charges in Arizona.
Since the raid on the ranch, the FLDS has announced it will no longer allow the marriage of girls younger than 18.
The sect is based in the twin border cities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., and has settlements in South Dakota and other states and in Canada. It is not affiliated with mainstream Mormonism, which denounced polygamy more than 100 years ago.
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