| Polygamist sect leader Jeffs, 5 others indicted - |
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Mariah
 Posted:
Thu Jul 24, 2008 6:13 am |
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Polygamist sect leader Jeffs, 5 others indicted
By MICHELLE ROBERTS, Associated Press Writer Tue Jul 22, 9:09 PM ET
ELDORADO, Texas - A Texas grand jury Tuesday indicted polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs and four of his followers on charges of felony sexual assault of a child. Another was indicted for failing to report child abuse.
Attorney General Greg Abbott said the five men are charged with one count of sexually assaulting girls under the age of 17. One of them, but not Jeffs, faces an additional charge of bigamy.
Abbott said a sixth member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is charged with three counts of failure to report child abuse.
Jeffs, already convicted of being accomplice to rape in Utah and awaiting trial in Arizona on other charges related to underage marriages, is accused of assaulting a girl in Texas in January 2005, according to the indictment issued Tuesday.
"Our investigation in this matter is not concluded. This is an ongoing investigation that we intend to continue," said Abbott, whose office is acting as the special prosecutor in the case.
The grand jury in this tiny western Texas ranching community will continue consideration of other possible criminal charges on Aug. 21, according to a source who spoke on the condition of anonymity because proceedings of the panel are secret by law.
The identities of the Jeffs' followers who were indicted in addition to him were not released Tuesday because the indictments remain sealed until authorities can arrest the men.
"There will be an aggressive effort to apprehend them," Abbott said when asked whether he was concerned the men may have fled Texas.
FLDS members have historically lived around the Arizona-Utah line and bought the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado about five years ago.
Calls to spokesmen for the church were not immediately returned Tuesday.
The indictments follow a child custody case in which more than 400 children were placed in foster care. The Texas Supreme Court ruled child welfare authorities overstepped in taking all the children from their parents even though many were infants and toddlers and the state failed to show any more than handful of teenage girls were abused or at risk.
The criminal charges came during the panel's second meeting on the case; it met in June without taking any action.
Abbott spent Tuesday in the small community building where the grand jury was meeting near the courthouse. Women and girls in prairie dresses, including a 16-year-old daughter of Jeffs, were escorted in and out, while lawyers and FLDS members crowded a bench in front of the courthouse.
Grand jury proceedings are supposed to be secret, but documents released as part of the separate child custody case involving the FLDS children have revealed some of the evidence collected by law enforcement during the weeklong raid that began April 3.
Among the hundreds of boxes of photos, documents and family Bibles, investigators found photos of Jeffs in intimate embraces and kissing several apparently underage girls.
A journal entry purportedly from Jeffs attached to a report by a child advocate indicates he married his daughter to a 34-year-old man the day after she turned 15. The girl turns 17 on Saturday and has denied being married, though the child advocate report indicates intimate notes between the girl and man were also found in the raid.
In addition to discussions of the girl's marriage, the Jeffs journal entry also indicates he blessed marriages of two other underage sect member to himself and another member.
FLDS leaders have consistently denied there was any abuse at the ranch and vowed not to sanction underage marriages.
Under Texas law, a girl younger than 17 cannot generally consent to sex with an adult. Bigamy is also illegal in Texas, and although FLDS plural marriages were not licensed by the state, the law contains a provision outlawing the act of "purporting to marry" more than one person.
The FLDS, which believes polygamy brings glory in heaven, is a breakaway sect of the mainstream Mormon church, which officially renounced polygamy more than a century ago.
http://tinyurl.com/6fa3ua
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| PerryPeabody
Posted:
Mon Jul 28, 2008 5:27 pm |
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| Quote: | Raymond Merrill Jessop, 36; Allan Eugene Keate, 56; Michael George Emack, 57; and Merrill Leroy Jessop, 33, were charged with one count each of sexual assault of a child, a first-degree felony with a sentence ranging from five to 99 years or life in prison. Their bond was set at $100,000 each.
Lloyd Hammon Barlow, 38, was charged with three counts of failure to report child abuse, a class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to 6 months in prison and a fine of up to $2,000 per count. Barlow's bond was set at $5,000. |
[from News Articles thread]
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| Black-Tulip
Posted:
Mon Jul 28, 2008 5:41 pm |
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 _ Raymond Jessop
 _ Allan Keate
 _ Merril Jessop
 _ Michael Emack
 _ Lloyd Barlow
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Posts: 5368
Location: onder de pannen
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| PerryPeabody
Posted:
Mon Jul 28, 2008 5:50 pm |
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[snipped]
Three of the men — Merril “Leroy” Jessop, 33; Raymond Jessop, 36; and Allan Keate, 56 — face charges of sexual assault of a child and are purported to be “spiritual husbands” of young women who testified before the Schleicher County grand jury last week. A fourth man, Michael Emack, 57, also faces charges of sexual assault of a child. The fifth man, Dr. Lloyd Barlow, 38, faces three misdemeanor counts of failing to report child abuse. He’s purported to be the chief physician at the sect's compound outside Eldorado and is thought to have had information about young mothers there.
Leroy Jessop is also charged with bigamy.
The West Texas grand jury that indicted the men also charged sect leader Warren Jeffs with sexual assault. Mr. Jeffs is currently in jail in Arizona awaiting trial for similar charges.
[snipped]
By EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News
http://tinyurl.com/667bcw
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| Black-Tulip
Posted:
Mon Jul 28, 2008 5:55 pm |
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Allan Keate: 6 wives, 1 is 17
7 daughters + 7 sons
Michael Emack: 4 wives, 1 is 19 with 1½ year old son
8 daughters + 4 sons
Lloyd Barlow: 4 wives
7 daughters + 8 sons
Last edited by Black-Tulip on Mon Jul 28, 2008 6:10 pm; edited 2 times in total
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| PerryPeabody
Posted:
Mon Jul 28, 2008 6:03 pm |
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| Black-Tulip wrote: | Allan Keate: 6 wives
7 daughters + 7 sons
Michael Emack: 4 wives
8 daughters + 4 sons
Lloyd Barlow: 4 wives
7 daughters + 8 sons |
Is that all?
The Mrs. Barlows are winning.
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| Black-Tulip
Posted:
Mon Jul 28, 2008 6:08 pm |
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| PerryPeabody wrote: |
Is that all?
The Mrs. Barlows are winning. |
Michael Emack took the 19 year old and her child with him to YFZ. He abandoned 3 wives and 11 children in Short Creek.
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| PerryPeabody
Posted:
Mon Jul 28, 2008 6:12 pm |
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| Black-Tulip wrote: |
Michael Emack took the 19 year old and her child with him to YFZ. He abandoned 3 wives and 11 children in Short Creek. |
That's not nice--but maybe the others were getting too old for him.
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| Black-Tulip
Posted:
Wed Jul 30, 2008 5:49 pm |
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http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=3893291
FLDS suspect out on bail
July 30th, 2008 @ 11:40am
(KSL News) One of the five indicted followers of polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs is out on bail.
Dr. Lloyd Barlow, 38, posted $15,000 bond during a court hearing yesterday. Barlow is charged with failure to report child abuse.
The other four men are still in custody on bonds of $100,000 for each charge they face. They are charged with felony sexual assault of a child.
The five members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS Church) surrendered to Texas authorities on Monday. They were indicted last week by a grand jury.
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| Tonk
Posted:
Wed Jul 30, 2008 11:06 pm |
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| Tonk
Posted:
Wed Jul 30, 2008 11:35 pm |
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| Tonk
Posted:
Wed Jul 30, 2008 11:37 pm |
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| Tonk
Posted:
Wed Jul 30, 2008 11:37 pm |
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| Tonk
Posted:
Wed Jul 30, 2008 11:38 pm |
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| Tonk
Posted:
Wed Jul 30, 2008 11:39 pm |
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| Tonk
Posted:
Wed Jul 30, 2008 11:41 pm |
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