Warren Jeffs demands polygamists' support from prison

SAN ANGELO, Texas - Warren Jeffs is tightening his grip on the polygamist group he leads as "prophet" while he is in prison, demanding people abandon amenities such as toys, pets and recreational vehicles to give more money to their church, possibly to support the sect's massive ranch in Texas, a sect member said.

Members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the twin border cities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., are being threatened with excommunication, potentially losing their family and property, if they do not follow through.

"Because of the lack of resources in Texas, he is trying to mandate other communities turn in their resources," said Willie Jessop, an FLDS member who is not loyal to Jeffs.

Jeffs is in a Texas prison serving a sentence of life plus 20 years in prison for sexually assaulting two girls ages 12 and 15.

That fact isn't known to the vast majority of Jeffs' followers, Jessop said.

FLDS members aren't being allowed to have things like bicycles, ATVs, trampolines or toys. There is no Internet access for faithful followers of Jeffs, and pets, or any animals that don't bring monetary gain, are forbidden, Jessop said.

In trials of FLDS members in Texas, law enforcement personnel noted that when they raided the Yearning for Zion Ranch in April 2008, searching for someone who reported being sexually assaulted, they removed more than 400 children but found no children's toys in the residential houses on the ranch.

The cash flow realized from constriction of luxuries and entertainment among the FLDS is money "to cover up the immoral conduct of Warren Jeffs, and it is corruption at the highest level," Jessop said.

Sam Brower, a private investigator who has built a career looking into the FLDS and keeps up with members, said Jeffs has given a deadline of Dec. 31 for his supporters to prove their loyalty.

Members are now required to pay $5,000 more each month, he said, an incremental amount from previous mandates to pay tithes plus $500, then $1,000, then $2,000.

The money may be going to "places of refuge," FLDS outposts around the country, Brower said. Much of the money may also be going to construction projects, he and Jessop said.

New construction continues at the Schleicher County ranch. A massive domed building with walls 30 feet high can be seen under construction.

The rules for the YFZ Ranch, which included only handpicked followers of Jeffs, seem now to be applied to all other communities, Jessop said.

"I think clearly there is an effect that will take place in Texas based on the ethnic cleansing he is trying to impose on other communities," Jessop said. "The good side of this is that it has exposed that this is not about religion. It's about taking people's lifestyle away in the name of religion.

"The bad part is, people are going broke trying to sustain the appetite of cash at the YFZ Ranch."

People no longer follow Warren Jeffs because he is beloved, they follow him out of fear, Jessop said.

The cash flow realized from constriction of luxuries and entertainment among the FLDS is money "to cover up the immoral conduct of Warren Jeffs, and it is corruption at the highest level," Jessop said.

(Matthew Waller is a reporter for the Standard Times in San Angelo, Texas.)
(Courtesy of http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/jeffs120711/jeffs120711/)

Kody Brown Says 'Courting' Multiple Wives Isn't Easy

KODY BROWN has some wise advice for a friend of his who wants to have his own plural marriage - it isn't easy!

In an exclusive sneak peek of Sister Wives obtained by RadarOnline.com, the dad of the polygamist family talks openly with his friend Andy about marrying a second wife.
"I didn't say it was easy, I think frankly you know better," Kody tells his friend. "Have you ever tried courting a second wife?"


Andy and his wife Nicole used to be neighbors of the Browns in Utah, and said they support a polygamist lifestyle, even though they don't have a second wife yet, but Andy has some rules.  "A 37-year-old man better not be looking at an 18-year-old woman," Andy tells Kody.


Check out Sisters Wives to find out if Kody's advice helps his friends decide if they want to have their own sister wives Sunday on TLC at 9/8c.  In the meantime,  here's another sneak peek of the episode:

http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2011/11/kody-brown-says-courting-multiples-wives-not-easy-video

(Courtesy Radaronline)

Jeffs fathered baby with 15-year-old, DNA allegedly shows

San Angelo, Texas • In the midst of Warren Jeffs’ objections and purported proclamations from God, a DNA expert testified Monday that the 55-year-old leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints church almost certainly fathered a child with a 15-year-old plural wife.

Amy Smuts, a DNA lab tech at the University of North Texas Laboratory, testified there is a 99.99996 percent probability that Jeffs is the father of the child in question. Jeffs is also accused of having sex with a 12-year-old child bride.

There has been no indication that either alleged victim will testify during Jeffs’ West Texas jury trial. But prosecutors say they have plenty of other evidence, including an audio recording of Jeffs having sex with the 12-year-old.

Monday’s session, the sixth day of Jeffs’ child sex-abuse trial, began with the defendant filing a motion — purportedly dictated to him by God — calling for District Judge Barbara Walther’s removal from the case. "I am to now recuse you from this case," the "Revelation of the Lord Given to President Warren S. Jeffs" states. "Now sign order [sic] to recuse thyself; and allow this proceeding to stop ... " The revelation/recusal motion, which Jeffs says came to him on Sunday, ends with, "I, the Lord, have spoken. Amen."

Jeffs — who last week fired his attorneys and is representing himself — claims in the motion that Walther has a personal bias against him and members of the FLDS. He also claims God has labeled Walther a person of "evil intent." Attached to the motion is a transcript of Jeffs’ revelation from last week, which says God has undertaken Walther’s impending demise.

"Let also Barbara Walthers [sic] be of a humbling to know I have sent a crippling disease upon her which shall take her life soon," the revelation states. Walther contracted polio when she was 15 months old and still wears a brace and strides with a limp.

The recusal motion caused a one-hour halt in the trial, which resumed after a visiting judge denied Jeffs’ claim that Walther is biased against the FLDS Church.

Jeffs is charged with one count each of sexual assault of a child and aggravated sexual assault of a child. The charges stem from a massive raid on the group’s remote Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado, Texas, three years ago. More than 400 children were taken into protective custody, though they were later returned to their parents.

(Courtesy of http://www.sltrib.com/)

Polygamist Leader Defends Lifestyle - Warren Jeffs

(SAN ANGELO, Texas) — Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs broke his silence Friday, delivering before jurors a 55-minute sermon defending plural marriage as ordered by God and protected by the U.S. Constitution.

Jeffs, 55, is accused of sexually assaulting two underage girls and could face life in prison if convicted. He fired his high-powered defense team on Thursday and has been representing himself, but he made no opening statement and spent hours sitting alone at the defense table staring into space in silence while prosecutors made their case.

That changed, however, as FBI agent John Broadway testified about seizing eight desktop computers and 120 boxes and large folders of documents from the sect's West Texas compound in April 2008. Broadway was about to describe a list of names and birthdates for those living at the compound when Jeffs suddenly cried "I object!" "There is sacred trust given to religious leadership not to be touched by government agencies," he said.

Jeffs is ecclesiastical head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, an offshoot of mainstream Mormonism that believes polygamy brings exaltation in heaven. The church's 10,000 members see Jeffs as a prophet who speaks for God on Earth.

When answering questions from state District Judge Barbara Walther, Jeffs usually pauses for a full minute or two and then speaks in slow and deliberate tones, interrupted by long, awkward pauses. But his objection flowed more smoothly. "We cannot surrender these principles based on the laws of man trying to convince us that our religion is not necessary in practice," he said, referring to freedom of religion as guaranteed by the First Amendment. Jeffs later added, "this must stop in a land of freedom if all others are to receive a similar guarantee against their freedom of religion being trampled."

Jeffs said his church has practiced polygamy for five generations and believes it is the will of God, who is a higher power than courts, state legislatures and the U.S. Congress. Jeffs is scheduled to be tried for bigamy in October. "We are not a fly-by-night religious society . . . We are a community of faith and principles and those principles are so sacred. They belong to God, not to man and the governments of man," he said, later adding that polygamy "is not of a sudden happening, it is of a tradition in our lives. And how can we just throw it away and say 'God has not spoken?'"

Jeffs asked Walther to suspend the case and hold a hearing on whether his church's religious freedoms were violated. He said FLDS members believe adhering to God's will, as stated by prophets like himself, is the only way to achieve eternal life in "Zion," or heaven. "We do not seek your salvation," Jeffs told Walther and the 10 female and two male jurors, who watched and listened intently but made no visible reaction to his words.

Jeffs said Texas authorities had unfairly persecuted the FLDS simply because its members are different from those of mainstream religions. Women in the sect wear prairie-style dresses and keep their hair tied up in tight buns that conjure images of frontier times. "We are derided for how we dress, how we go about our laborers in a common society," Jeffs said. "The government of the United States had no right to infringe on the religious freedom of a peaceful people." Authorities, he said, are "not understanding our religious faith, yet judging it."

When Jeffs finished, lead prosecutor Eric Nichols rose and said the Supreme Court has found since the 1890s that religious freedom does not extend to polygamy. When Jeffs interrupted, Walther said, "Mr. Jeffs, please sir, follow courtroom procedure."

When he kept interrupting, the judge dismissed the jury and ordered Jeffs to speak with defense attorney Deric Walpole, who sits in the public gallery but has been instructed by the court to stay on as side counsel.

Jeffs' sect made headlines nationwide in 2008, when authorities raided its compound in tiny Eldorado, about 45 miles from San Angelo, after hearing allegations that young girls were being forced into polygamist marriages. More than 400 children were seized temporarily but eventually returned to their families. Still, Jeffs and 11 other FLDS men were charged with crimes including sexual assault and bigamy.

All seven sect members prosecuted so far have been convicted. They received prison terms of between six and 75 years.

(Story Courtesy of : http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2085953-2,00.html