Raymond Jessop - the Trial

[Lola]

Texas Polygamist Women Called "Pimps"

Former Sect Member Assails Them Ahead of First Trial of Fundamentalist Group's Men on Child Sex Abuse Counts

Jury selection is slated to begin Monday in the trial of the first of 12 male members of a Texas polygamist sect whose ranch state officials raided last year.

Raymond Jessop, of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was indicted after the April 2008 raid and pleaded not guilty to allegations including sexual assault, bigamy, and being married to underage girls.

The other eleven defendants are scheduled to be tried separately later this year.

 

[octobermoon]

Polygamist sect focus of rare trial in Texas town

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_POLYGAMIST_TRIAL?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

 

[Lola]

Polygamy challenged as renegade Mormon group's trial grips Texan town

Court case sheds light on Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, where it is alleged that bigamy and sexual abuse of girls, some as young as 12, are widespread.

 

[octobermoon]

Judge orders redaction of polygamist documents

ELDORADO, Texas (AP) -- A Texas judge ordered Tuesday that a document showing a member of a polygamist sect had at least four wives who were pregnant or nursing at the same time should be excluded from his trial on charges of child sexual abuse.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_POLYGAMIST_TRIAL?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

 

[octobermoon]

Judge says Texas polygamist sect trial nearing end

ELDORADO, Texas (AP) -- After days of meticulous plodding through photos and records seized from a polygamist sect's West Texas ranch, jurors could begin deliberating the sexual assault case against one its members as early as Thursday.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_POLYGAMIST_TRIAL?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

 

[octobermoon]

Jurors took a little more than two hours to convict Raymond Jessop, 38, of sexually assaulting a teen with whom he had a so-called "spiritual marriage."

Jessop allegedly has nine wives. He faces a bigamy charge, but that case is to be tried later.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_POLYGAMIST_TRIAL?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

(more at link)

 

[Texas Mist]

MissIzzy posted this link in the CITN forum:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091218...lYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcmllcwRzbGsDdGV4YXNwb2x5Z2Ft


<snip>

The jury at a court in Eldorado, West Texas, deliberated for under two hours Tuesday before convicting Keate for his "spiritual marriage" to a 15-year-old girl who gave birth at age 16.