Fox 13 Now - Utah April 16, 2011
New court docs reveal 1.7 billion pages of evidence in FLDS case
Warren Jeffs purportedly makes new apocalyptic prediction from Texas jail cell
by Ben Winslow
ELDORADO, Texas
A new court filing reveals that federal authorities continue to actively investigate the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, with more than a billion pages of evidence seized from the polygamous sect's sprawling Texas ranch.
Attorneys for Frederick Merrill Jessop, the one-time bishop of the FLDS Church's Yearning for Zion Ranch outside Eldorado, filed a motion seeking to delay his upcoming trial on charges of conducting an unlawful marriage ceremony involving a minor. In the document, they revealed the ongoing federal investigation by noting the voluminous amounts of evidence in the cases against FLDS members.
The evidence, presumably marriage records, diaries and other materials, were seized by Texas authorities during the 2008 raid on the YFZ Ranch. During the raid, more than 400 children were taken into state protective custody over allegations of abuse. They were ultimately returned after a pair of court rulings found the state's actions improper. The call that sparked the raid is believed to be a hoax.
The admissibility of any evidence seized by Texas authorities is also being challenged in court.
"This new discovery apparently constitutes electronic items which were seized by federal law enforcement authorities, purportedly pursuant to federal search warrants, the affidavits for which remain under seal," Jessop's attorneys Amy Hennington and Gerald Goldstein wrote.
The attorneys wrote the electronic evidence alone made up two terabytes of data (approximately 2,000 gigabytes) that has not been reviewed. That alone represents about 440 million hard copy pages, "bringing the total discovery received in this case to approximately one billion, seven hundred million (1,764,400,062) pages of materials," Hennington and Goldstein wrote.
The attorneys also said that the Texas Attorney General's Office is also seeking to get copies of federal search warrant affidavits. However, those remain under seal in Dallas, Texas.
In the waning days of the raid on the YFZ Ranch, FBI agents served a search warrant and seized more evidence. Federal authorities have consistently refused to discuss any investigation into the FLDS Church in Texas.
Photographs obtained by Fox 13 show hundreds of boxes of paper evidence that were seized by Texas authorities from the FLDS Church's temple annex in Eldorado. The evidence state and federal authorities have been investigating is voluminous.
A dozen FLDS members, including polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, are facing criminal charges stemming from the raid. Most are related to underage marriages.
Authorities outside Texas continue to search for evidence of so-called child bride marriages. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police recently announced it was conducting its own investigation into the trafficking of girls across the U.S.-Canadian border for purposes of marriage after Texas documents found their way into a court case in British Columbia considering decriminalizing polygamy in that country.
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said in a recent interview with Fox 13 he has had no evidence presented to him of child bride marriages in Utah since 2004, when Utah made child bigamy a second-degree felony.
Meanwhile, from his jail cell in Big Lake, Texas, Jeffs has purportedly issued another proclamation. The document given to Fox 13, which was reportedly sent to followers in Hildale and Colorado City, is described as a "word of warning" from God through Jeffs.
The "revelation" calls for an end to wars across the world, before warning of more earthquakes, violence, "pestilence and famine and disease" before Jesus Christ's return
"And when you reject my word, and my spirit of peace withdraws, darkness rules," Jeffs wrote. "And there shall be violence in many lands and I shall send my judgments to cleanse the more wicked out of every nation and preserve the more righteous in preparing for my glorious appearing on earth."
The document is dated April 6, which is significant in Mormon history -- the founding of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Joseph Smith. The FLDS Church is a breakaway sect.
The document is signed by "members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known among men as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."
From his jail cell in Texas, where he has access to a phone, Jeffs has reasserted his control as president of the FLDS Church. He has ousted numerous members. Another member, William E. Jessop, has filed documents with the state of Utah challenging Jeffs' presidency of the church
This article was found at:
A new court filing reveals that federal authorities continue to actively investigate the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, with more than a billion pages of evidence seized from the polygamous sect's sprawling Texas ranch.
Attorneys for Frederick Merrill Jessop, the one-time bishop of the FLDS Church's Yearning for Zion Ranch outside Eldorado, filed a motion seeking to delay his upcoming trial on charges of conducting an unlawful marriage ceremony involving a minor. In the document, they revealed the ongoing federal investigation by noting the voluminous amounts of evidence in the cases against FLDS members.
The evidence, presumably marriage records, diaries and other materials, were seized by Texas authorities during the 2008 raid on the YFZ Ranch. During the raid, more than 400 children were taken into state protective custody over allegations of abuse. They were ultimately returned after a pair of court rulings found the state's actions improper. The call that sparked the raid is believed to be a hoax.
The admissibility of any evidence seized by Texas authorities is also being challenged in court.
"This new discovery apparently constitutes electronic items which were seized by federal law enforcement authorities, purportedly pursuant to federal search warrants, the affidavits for which remain under seal," Jessop's attorneys Amy Hennington and Gerald Goldstein wrote.
The attorneys wrote the electronic evidence alone made up two terabytes of data (approximately 2,000 gigabytes) that has not been reviewed. That alone represents about 440 million hard copy pages, "bringing the total discovery received in this case to approximately one billion, seven hundred million (1,764,400,062) pages of materials," Hennington and Goldstein wrote.
The attorneys also said that the Texas Attorney General's Office is also seeking to get copies of federal search warrant affidavits. However, those remain under seal in Dallas, Texas.
In the waning days of the raid on the YFZ Ranch, FBI agents served a search warrant and seized more evidence. Federal authorities have consistently refused to discuss any investigation into the FLDS Church in Texas.
Photographs obtained by Fox 13 show hundreds of boxes of paper evidence that were seized by Texas authorities from the FLDS Church's temple annex in Eldorado. The evidence state and federal authorities have been investigating is voluminous.
A dozen FLDS members, including polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, are facing criminal charges stemming from the raid. Most are related to underage marriages.
Authorities outside Texas continue to search for evidence of so-called child bride marriages. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police recently announced it was conducting its own investigation into the trafficking of girls across the U.S.-Canadian border for purposes of marriage after Texas documents found their way into a court case in British Columbia considering decriminalizing polygamy in that country.
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said in a recent interview with Fox 13 he has had no evidence presented to him of child bride marriages in Utah since 2004, when Utah made child bigamy a second-degree felony.
Meanwhile, from his jail cell in Big Lake, Texas, Jeffs has purportedly issued another proclamation. The document given to Fox 13, which was reportedly sent to followers in Hildale and Colorado City, is described as a "word of warning" from God through Jeffs.
The "revelation" calls for an end to wars across the world, before warning of more earthquakes, violence, "pestilence and famine and disease" before Jesus Christ's return
"And when you reject my word, and my spirit of peace withdraws, darkness rules," Jeffs wrote. "And there shall be violence in many lands and I shall send my judgments to cleanse the more wicked out of every nation and preserve the more righteous in preparing for my glorious appearing on earth."
The document is dated April 6, which is significant in Mormon history -- the founding of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Joseph Smith. The FLDS Church is a breakaway sect.
The document is signed by "members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known among men as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."
From his jail cell in Texas, where he has access to a phone, Jeffs has reasserted his control as president of the FLDS Church. He has ousted numerous members. Another member, William E. Jessop, has filed documents with the state of Utah challenging Jeffs' presidency of the church
This article was found at:
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Posts
Salt Lake Tribune July 29, 2011
ReplyDeleteWarren Jeffs delivers threatening ‘statement from God’
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/52288100-78/jeffs-judge-child-girl.html
Accused child-bride rapist and self-styled polygamist prophet Warren Jeffs — who is representing himself at trial in a West Texas courtroom — on Friday afternoon delivered a threatening "statement from God," saying those who are prosecuting him will face "sickness and death."
"I will wrest your power. I shall judge you. I shall let all people’s know your unjust ways," Jeffs told the court. "I will send a scourge upon the counties of prosecutorial zeal that to be humbled by sickness and death."
The statement came after a state Child Protective Services worker was beginning to testify about a 12-year-old girl with whom Jeffs’ allegedly had sex.
Jeffs started by interrupting the testimony by talking and making objections, prompting District Judge Barbara Walther to send out the jury.
Jeffs then told the judge, "I’ve got this statement from God."
Earlier Friday, Jeffs — who has largely remained silent — had launched into an occasionally agitated hour-long diatribe when prosecutors introduced so-called "sacred" records pertaining to his family.
The records apparently list all the people in Jeffs’ household at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado, Texas, in December 2004, including his wives, his children and their dates of birth.
Jeffs — the head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints — objected to introduction of the records, claiming they were sacred, should remain secret and that his religious rights were being trampled.
...
The 55-year-old leader of the FLDS said his 10,000 followers in the U.S. and Canada are good, moral people who do not abuse their children, and who educate and groom them well.
Jeffs — who is accused of sexually assaulting two girls, ages 12 and 15 — did not talk about underage marriage directly, or claim any special permission from God to take young girls as plural wives.
...
On Thursday, Jeffs fired his team of high-profile attorneys, asked to represent himself, but then sat silently as prosecutors began to lay out evidence that includes an audiotape of one alleged assault on the 12-year-old girl. Prosecutors say they also have DNA evidence that Jeffs fathered a child with the 15-year-old girl.
Jeffs had said he wanted to act as his own attorney so he could present a "pure defense."
Walther reluctantly granted the request, but ordered the fired attorneys to remain on standby in case Jeffs decides to "reconsider this unwise decision."
...
Prosecutors said they also will present evidence gathered from a Cadillac Escalade Jeffs was riding in when he was arrested in Nevada in 2006. That evidence includes an external hard drive believed to contain the audio recording of the alleged sexual assault on the 12-year-old girl.
...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/08/01/polygamist-jeffs-trial.html [excerpt below]
ReplyDeletePolygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs made a third attempt Monday to remove the Texas judge overseeing his child sex assault case, this time claiming God himself demands a change.
Jeff is head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a group of self-described "fundamentalist Mormons," that includes the 1,000-member community of Bountiful near Creston, B.C.
During his trial, he filed a motion purporting to quote God as saying state District Judge Barbara Walther should "step away from this abuse of power against a religious and pure faith in the Lord."
Walther ruled the trial would continue. A hearing will eventually be held on Jeffs's motion, but it's unclear when.
Jeffs is accused of sexually assaulting two girls, ages 12 and 15, he took as brides in "spiritual marriages." His church is an offshoot of mainstream Mormonism that believes polygamy brings exaltation in Heaven, and followers see Jeffs as God's earthly spokesman.
Forensic analyst Amy Smuts, of the Human Identification Center at the University of North Texas in Fort Worth, testified Monday that a DNA sample collected from Jeffs had 15 major markers that matched a sample taken from a girl born to the 15-year-old mother. Smuts said that made her more than 99.99 per cent certain that Jeffs fathered the child, who was born in October 2005.
Monday's session ended in the late evening with lead prosecutor Eric Nichols showing a series of pictures where Jeffs was seen cuddling with, then kissing a red-head girl on the mouth. She had recently turned 12.
see: http://religiouschildabuse.blogspot.com/2008/05/creepy-photos-of-jailed-flds-sect.html
The image caused some in the public to gasp, but there was no visible reaction among jurors. ...