Religion News Blog » Polygamy

Polygamist Sect Leader Convicted of Sexual Assault

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:22:26 +0000

Raymond M. Jessop, one of the leaders of a polygamist sect was convicted Thursday night of sexually assaulting an under-age girl whom the church elders had assigned to him as one of his nine wives.

The state used birth records, a marriage certificate and FLDS church records to show Jessop, already married, took the girl as a spiritual wife in 2004 when she was 16. [video]

Witness: FLDS men lead all aspects of sect life

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:31:38 +0000

Women in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints polygamist sect were taught that their fathers or husbands and the sect's prophet had the right to direct every aspect of their lives, a former member testified Wednesday in the child sexual abuse trial of a current sect member.

Prosecutors asked Musser to talk about her experience in the FLDS and how church records are kept, as they are relying heavily on records and dictations by jailed FLDS leader Warren Jeffs that were seized from the ranch.

Cult leader Warren Jeffs’ attorneys argue sect leader faced wrong charge

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:52:43 +0000

Cult leader Warren Jeffs' attorney, Walter Bugden Jr., said the state could have charged Jeffs with performing an illegal marriage, but instead decided to charge an unpopular religious figure with a serious crime that didn't fit the facts of the case.

Note that Jeffs -- notorious for his ruthlessness -- told the girl in question she would lose her salvation if she did not obey.

Texas judge limits some records in FLDS trial over polygamy references

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:39:39 +0000

Defense attorney Mark Stevens argued that much of the content of the documents, mostly marriage records or dictations made by Warren S. Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, are extraneous, prejudicial and not relevant to the crime charged to Jessop because they refer to polygamy.

Photos show birthing center at sect’s Texas ranch

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:50:25 +0000

A birthing center on the bottom floor of a log cabin-style building at a polygamist group's West Texas ranch was set up like a medical office with one distict difference: A portrait of jailed polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs hung over the delivery bed.

The photo was introduced into evidence by prosecutors in the trial of FLDS sect member Raymond Jessop.

Trial for FLDS member interrupted

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:32:15 +0000

The child sexual assault trial of a polygamist sect member came to a screeching halt just before 3 p.m. today because a jurist’s child may have swine flu.

Raymond Merrill Jessop is the first of 12 men from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to face a criminal trial in Texas. The assault charge stems from his alleged marriage to a girl who was 16 when she became pregnant.

Judge refuses to bar mention of polygamy in cult trial; Jury selection continues

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:35:42 +0000

Attorneys moved closer to seating a jury in the first criminal case resulting from the state's 2008 raid on a polygamist sect's ranch after narrowing a jury pool to 34 on Tuesday.

Raymond Jessop is the first of 12 FLDS men to be tried on a variety of sexual assault and bigamy charges as a result of the April, 2008 raid on the cult's Yearning for Zion Ranch.

First of a dozen polygamist FLDS sect members goes on trial

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:36:14 +0000

The first of a dozen polygamist sect members charged with abuse of women stands trial Monday, 18 months after agents raided the group's remote ranch and carted off more than 400 children in the largest child-custody case in American history.

Raymond Jessop, 38, faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of sexual assault of a child, a charge stemming from his alleged marriage to an underage girl in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He will be tried later on a separate count of bigamy related to a second alleged underage bride.

Canada says will not appeal Bountiful polygamy case

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:49:41 +0000

Canada will not appeal a court ruling tossing out criminal charges against two men in polygamous religious sects, authorities in British Columbia said Thursday.

Provincial Attorney General Michael de Jong said that westernmost British Columbia will instead ask its provincial Supreme Court whether Canada's law against polygamy is constitutional.

Polygamous sect challenges seizure of land trust

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:25:21 +0000

A polygamous sect is asking the Utah Supreme Court to overturn a state court decision that stripped the religious purposes from its communal land trust.

In a court filing Tuesday, attorneys for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints say making the United Effort Plan Trust secular was a violation of the faith's constitutionally protected religious rights.

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