Warren Jeffs Part 1

Description

Warren Jeffs was the self-declared prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the FLDS) a polygamist offshoot of mainstream Mormonism. He inherited leadership from his father Rulon Jeffs in 2002, even marrying some of his father's wives after his passing. At its peak, Jeffs controlled an estimated ten thousand followers, primarily concentrated in the twin border towns of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona. Local law enforcement, local government, local businesses answered to Jeffs, not the federal authorities. People who left, or were expelled, often lost everything: their homes, their families, their entire social world, overnight.The crimes Jeffs committed and enabled were extensive, systemic, and in many cases, as so many cults do, perpetrated against children.Jeffs arranged and performed marriages between adult men and underage girls, some as young as twelve and thirteen years old. He taught his followers that these arrangements were divine commandments, that questioning them was questioning God. Women and girls within the sect had no autonomy. They were assigned husbands by Jeffs himself, reassigned when he saw fit, and had children taken from them as punishment.He also wielded excommunication as a weapon. Men who challenged him or fell out of favor were cast out, stripped of their families, their property, and their standing, in a practice followers called "reassignment," in which their wives and children were simply handed to other men in the community.When the kingdom began to crumble Warren Jeffs was put on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List in 2006 but was able to elude capture until a fateful traffic stop in NevadaSourcesState of Utah v. Warren Steed Jeffs (2007) — rape as accomplice convictionUtah Supreme Court appeal — reversal on jury instruction grounds (2010)Texas v. Warren Jeffs (2011) — sexual assault of a child; aggravated sexual assault of a childTexas v. Merril Jessop et al. (2009–2011) — related FLDS prosecutionsTexas Supreme Court, In re: Texas Department o