FLDS compound in Texas Court proceedings ONLY please!!!!!

[mollymalone]

http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy636.html

A dairy and alfalfa farm operated by members of a polygamous sect will be seized to satisfy an $8.8 million judgment against Warren S. Jeffs and the FLDS church. Harker Farms Inc., in Beryl, has until May 25 to either comply with or object to the seizure sought by Bruce R. Wisan, a court-appointed fiduciary overseeing the United Effort Plan Trust. Harker & Sons, the entity that operates the farm, faces the same deadline.

The deal transferring the property allowed Wisan to seize the farm after he received a default judgement in March against Jeffs, other trustees and the FLDS church for mismanaging the trust. The other trustees named in the judgment are James K. Zitting, Leroy S. Jeffs, Truman L. Barlow and William E. Jessop, who also is known as William E. Timpson.

If Wisan does not satisfy the $8.8 million judgment by seizing the farm, he may pursue other assets held by any of those debtors.

 

[mollymalone]

http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy626.html
Seven young men have partially settled lawsuits that led to the state’s takeover of a property trust once overseen by polygamous sect leader Warren S. Jeffs.

The agreement resolves claims against the United Effort Plan Trust, which has been under court oversight since May 2005, in a deal that includes land, an assistance fund and attorney fees. The settlements, which still need court approval, give each plaintiff title to a 3-acre, undeveloped lot near a community park in Maxwell Canyon. The canyon is located in Hildale, which along with Colorado City, Ariz., is home to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

The six men who sued alleged they were “systematically” driven out of the community by the church and Jeffs; the seventh alleged he was sexually abused by Jeffs about 20 years ago. The six plaintiffs are Richard Jessop Ream, 25; Thomas Samuel Steed, 21; Don R. Fischer, 22; Dean J. Barlow, 22; Walter S. Fischer, 24, and Richard Gilbert, 22. The man claiming sexual abuse is Brent Jeffs, 24.

The agreement also calls for creation of a $250,000 Lost Boys Assistance and Education Fund to provide emergency aid and education and housing help for people displaced from their families or the community. It will receive $50,000 a year through 2011 or earlier, depending on requests for help. Of that, $10,000 allotments will be given to the law firm of Hoole & King, which represented the seven men, to supply food, shelter and other short-term help to people leaving the twin towns. And it provides $100,000 to Baltimore attorney Joanne Suder, who initially filed the lawsuits on behalf of the men.

The settlement leaves intact claims against Jeffs, the FLDS church and other individuals associated with it.

 

[mollymalone]

http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy626.html
Brent Jeffs filed the first lawsuit on July 29, 2004, alleging Jeffs and two of his brothers had sexually abused him in the 1980s. Brent Jeffs claimed his uncles would leave church services, escort him out of a basement room where children gathered for Sunday school lessons and then sodomize him in a nearby bathroom. Brent Jeffs alleged his uncles told him they were “doing God’s work” and that he was not to tell anyone about their acts.

Two uncles, Leslie B. Jeffs and Blaine B. Jeffs, were dropped from the lawsuit a year ago because they had previously filed for bankruptcy, which automatically stays other court actions.

Brent Jeffs said the “whole goal” in pursuing the lawsuits was “for families to not be afraid to be families” and eliminate the threat of “having your house pulled out from under you” for disagreeing with the FLDS church. “

 

[mollymalone]

http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy626.html
A separate lawsuit was filed on Aug. 27, 2004, by six boys who alleged they were driven out of the twin towns for “trivial reasons” in order to reduce competition for wives. Their lawsuit said they became “lost boys” as a result, adrift in a world they knew little about and cut off from family and friends.

Many have made their way to the Diversity Foundation, set up by former FLDS member Dan Fischer, for help with schooling, jobs and life skills training. Most of the teens have limited educations but marketable construction skills.
The foundation estimates that over the past decade, at least 400 teens have been driven out or fled the restrictive polygamous community, ending up in southern Utah, the Salt Lake City area or surrounding states.

Dan Fischer is the founder of Ultradent, a South Jordan dental products company, and is the uncle of Don and Walter Fischer. He is paying the legal fees of Roger Hoole and his brother Greg.

Rod Parker, an attorney who previously represented the FLDS church, has characterized the so-called “Lost Boys” as juvenile delinquents who proved unmanageable for their families.

 

[mollymalone]

http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy613.html
A factory formerly owned by a polygamous sect was auctioned off Tuesday by a court-appointed trustee. The winning bid was $1.65 million, not quite the $2 million the United Effort Plan Trust had hoped to receive for what had been the Western Precision plant. The factory sits on three acres near the Utah-Arizona state line and includes office space, two apartments and a machine shop.

Bruce Wisan, an accountant who oversees the trust, said Champion Safe of Provo plans to make gun safes at the plant and could hire 75 to 100 people. He said Tuesday's sale was the first to a company from outside the community, which is home mostly to members of the church. He expects to sell off more of the property in the future.

 

[mollymalone]

http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy609.html
Attorneys for Johnny Jessop sued Tuesday seeking a court order to force Warren Jeffs, head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, to disclose the whereabouts of Jessop's 62-year-old mother, Elsie. Jessop has not spoken to his mother in more than 18 months, attorney Roger Hoole said.

Jessop says he was among several boys who were kicked out of the FLDS church in the past four years by Jeffs for being disobedient or because they were seen as competition to older men seeking young brides.Now living in Salt Lake, Jessop was forced out of his family five years ago, Hoole said. Essentially homeless, the youth ran into some minor legal trouble and was ordered several times by courts to return home. Under threat of church punishment, though, his family turned him away, and Jessop ended up in Salt Lake City as a ward of a nonprofit organization that helps boys who say they were pushed out of the church, Hoole said.

For several years, Jessop maintained telephone contact with his mother, but that ended nearly two years ago, Hoole said. Jessop believes that Jeffs ordered his mother to cut ties with him and that the leader knows where Jessop can find his mother, Hoole said. The young man says that he has written two letter to Jeffs, begging him to allow the family to reconnect, but that Jeffs has not responded.

 

[mollymalone]

http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy593.html
Bateman is one of eight Colorado City men indicted on charges of sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor.

David Romaine Bateman, 49, (a former schoolteacher), of Colorado City entered the courtroom silently in street clothes with his family and left in handcuffs with the same stoic countenance. Bateman was sentenced Monday to nine months in prison for sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. Mohave County Judge James E. Chavez sentenced Bateman to serve the sentences for the Class 6 felonies concurrently and required Bateman to register as a sex offender upon his release.
Chavez explained that he felt probation was useful for rehabilitation, while prison is necessary to help prevent a continuance of crime. "There must be some general deterrent effect to these proceedings," Chavez said

Smith focused on the fact that Bateman had not expressed any acknowledgement of committing any wrong or responsibility for breaking the law, which Chavez agreed with when delivering his sentence. "I regret Mr. Bateman sees little between the law and his religion," Chavez said. Chavez said he used the lack of prior convictions, Bateman's community involvement and the statements of the victim to decide on a mitigated sentence.

The victim, now 22, addressed the judge on the behalf of Bateman prior to sentencing. "The state of Arizona has tried to make a victim out of me," she said. "On the contrary, I'm in a happy family." She said she felt that Bateman had not done anything wrong to her. She added they had only been living out their religious beliefs. "I have not been brain-washed," she said. "I made the decision to marry him."

"She says she's not a victim and I won't treat her like a victim," Chavez said.

 

[mollymalone]

http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy591.html
David R. Bateman FLDS member was sentenced to nine months in prison for engaging in sex with a minor.

Vergel Jessop, FLDS member agreed to a plea bargain to avoid jail time, but will probably become a registered sex offender. Jessop works for the parks department in Colorado City, Arizona. In 2000 Jessop was "spiritually sealed" to a 17-year-old girl.

A Mohave County grand jury indicted eight other FLDS men on identical sex-crime charges in August 2005, five cases have been resolved.

Kelly Fischer was convicted and sentenced to 45 days in jail.

Donald Barlow was acquitted because the prosecutor failed to prove the crime took place in Arizona.

Charges were dropped against Terry Darger Barlow because his marriage to a minor took place in Canada. Defense attorney Bruce Griffen could prove that Barlow and the victim were not living in Arizona at the time of the alleged crimes.



Charges remain pending against Rodney Holm, Randy Barlow and Dale Barlow.

 

[mollymalone]

http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy523.html
Six members of the polygamous sect led by Warren S. Jeffs have been released from the Central Arizona Detention Center in Florence, Ariz., where they were being held on contempt of court charges. The six men were jailed after they refused to testify before a federal grand jury investigating Jeffs. Jeffs' arrest Monday evening just outside of Las Vegas may have made it unnecessary to continue holding the men.

The men released are: Mica S. Barlow ( police officers with the Colorado AZ Marshall's office) ; James R. Allred; Leroy B. Timpson; Benjamin Jeffs Neilsen (Warren's nephew); Leroy Jeffs (Warren's brother); and Samuel K. Allred.

 

[mollymalone]

http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy428.html
construction company in Hildale has been fined $10,395 for using boys, including a 12-year-old, to do roofing work. The firm, Paragon Contractors, (owned by Brian Jessop) also failed to pay the boys, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division.

"the firm is appealing the penalty assessed by the Labor Department."

 

[Leila]

http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy677.html
The estranged wife of an ex-member of the Fundamentalist LDS Church is wading into a lawsuit filed against polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs.
A motion to intervene on behalf of Vivian Barlow was filed Friday in St. George's 5th District Court. It seeks to interject her into a lawsuit her estranged husband, Wendell Musser, has filed against Jeffs.

Musser's lawyer claims it's an attempt to divert pressure from Jeffs.
"It wasn't until the pressure was really on Warren that magically they've been able to get Vivian to come forward through a lawyer who has represented FLDS interests," attorney Roger Hoole told the Deseret Morning News late Friday.

Barlow is seeking sole custody of their son, 2-year-old Levi, claiming Musser is unfit for custody or unsupervised visits. She also asks for $250 per month in child support. The motion indicates she is living in Mohave County, Arizona, where many polygamists live.

I bet Wendell Musser is one of the 21 men that Warren Jeffs kicked out and reassigned their wives to another man. It's been stated elsewhere that some of the reassigned wives were sent to the Texas ranch. I wonder if Vivian Musser and her son are there?

 

[mysteriew]

At familywatchdog you can run the sex offenders by city
http://www.familywatchdog.us/

This is Colorado City, Az.
http://www.familywatchdog.us/ShowMap.asp?frm=0

If you click on the boxes, it will tell you about the offenders. There are only two: One a Holm one a Jessop.
I live in a small town, and there are more sex offenders in my town than what shows in here.

 

[mollymalone]

http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy310.html
State authorities accused a former police officer convicted of bigamy of continuing to live with two women, which should be a parole violation.

While the state gathers information for a judge on that charge, state prosecutors argued during a parole hearing for Rodney Holm, 38, on Thursday that he should remain on probation, despite a parole officer's recommendation that Holm's probation be ended early. Assistant Utah Attorney General Kristine Knowlton said during Thursday's hearing that one of the probation conditions placed on Holm is that he obey all laws. But she said Holm is disobeying that if he continues to live with his first two wives.

Holm's attorney, Rod Parker, said the state knew about Holm's second wife before he was charged with bigamy with Stubbs, but the state did not pursue bigamy charge against him for that relationship. Fifth District Judge G. Rand Beacham said if Holm is violating the state's bigamy law, the state should produce a report alleging such behavior, but hasn't. Knowlton said she would request a report from Adult Probation and Parole on Holm's living arrangements. Until then, Holm was instructed he would remain on probation.

 

[mollymalone]

http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy75.html
Former Hildale resident Ruth Stubbs said she fled a polygamous marriage four months ago and is now fighting for custody of her two young children. Stubbs said she decided to leave based on the needs of her children -- ages 1 and 2. And that is part of what the court will have to decide in the custody battle -- whether the polygamous lifestyle will be a part of her children's upbringing.

Holm wants full custody, his attorney, Rodney Parker, said Tuesday. Stubbs also wants full custody and the assurance that her children will not have to visit their father at his Hildale home where his other wives allegedly live.

 

[mysteriew]

Many details have come out since authorities took 463 children from the YFZ Ranch, which is a FLDS compound, the latest showing that boys who have turned 18 are choosing to stay with the state and some children might not have parents at the ranch.
According to the latest update that the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS)provided to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, two boys in state custody turned 18 and have chosen to stay in state's care and based on interviews with the children, the Child Protective Services has reason to believe that some of the children in their care, "do not have parents at the Eldorado ranch."

http://wwwwakeupamericans-spree.blogspot.com/2008/05/flds-children-update-given-to-senate.html

Be sure to check out the glossary of FLDS terms.

 

[Leila]

Many details have come out since authorities took 463 children from the YFZ Ranch, which is a FLDS compound, the latest showing that boys who have turned 18 are choosing to stay with the state and some children might not have parents at the ranch.
According to the latest update that the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS)provided to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, two boys in state custody turned 18 and have chosen to stay in state's care and based on interviews with the children, the Child Protective Services has reason to believe that some of the children in their care, "do not have parents at the Eldorado ranch."

http://wwwwakeupamericans-spree.blogspot.com/2008/05/flds-children-update-given-to-senate.html

Be sure to check out the glossary of FLDS terms.

Thanks Mysteriew! That was quite an article, and the glossary was fascinating!

 

[Pepper]

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com...=/20080503/OPINION0101/805020348/1006/OPINION

Today, Texas officials are employing a sweeping definition of "child abuse" by removing 437 children from their FLDS families. Now the state must justify its actions by arguing that all of the children were harmed or potentially harmed by life in the church culture. As Tom Vick of the Texas Bar Association (who is rounding up lawyers for the children) puts it: "If it's a dangerous situation for one child, it's a dangerous situation for all."

This is a high bar, far more difficult than a limited investigation into specific allegations of under-age marriage. A victory for the state could mean that none of the children can be safely returned to the church. That could well spell the end of the FLDS community, at least above ground.

That's why Texas should proceed with caution from here on. The outcome of this case could create new grounds for intervention when the government decides an unpopular religious group is inherently detrimental to child welfare.

Temporarily removing the children may have been justified in this case -- that's what the courts will need to determine. But the ultimate decision about the children's fate should be based on whether there is clear evidence of systematic sexual abuse rather than on general condemnation of the beliefs of FLDS followers or prejudice against their way of life.

Barring such abuse, these children belong with their parents. Being raised in an unconventional religious system may appall or offend outsiders, but it is not by definition abusive. As much as Texas officials may not want to deal with it, this case is not only about child welfare. It's also about religious freedom.
~~~~~~~
I just hope the state realizes there is more here than 'just' sexual abuse. I believe we are talking:
* systematic culling out imperfect (handicapped children) by smothering them as infants.
* a disproportionate of "accidents" resulting in the death of children due to negligence or disregard of child labor laws.
* a disproportionate amount of broken bones in young children, possibly resulting from child abuse, or at the very least, absence of supervision.
* infant abuse by slapping and holding babies under water to teach them not to cry.
* systematic removal and abandonment of teen boys due to "disobedience," the result of which is often drug abuse and suicide, but this practice serves to reduce the competition for plural wives.
* murder has been alleged as the ultimate punishment for young girls looking to escape (Flora Jessop tape concerning 3 runaways).

Then there are the financial issues:
* possible welfare fraud by collecting welfare on dead or missing children.
* extortion of unreasonable tithes to fund the church and profit its leaders.
* probable violation of child labor laws.
* probable violation of minimum wage laws.
* trading of children across state and international boundries for the purpose of becoming underage plural wives.

There's probably more, but if here isn't enough information to think RICO, then I don't know what it would take.

 

[Pepper]

Be sure to check out the glossary of FLDS terms.

I couldn't find this.

 

[mysteriew]

I couldn't find this.

It is page 5 in this pdf.
http://www.dfps.state.tx.us/documen...wareness_Guide_for_Children_from_Eldorado.pdf

 

[Pepper]

It is page 5 in this pdf.
http://www.dfps.state.tx.us/documen...wareness_Guide_for_Children_from_Eldorado.pdf

Thanks!!