'If world knew what I was doing, they would hang me ...,' FLDS leader wrote
SAN ANGELO, Texas — Softly telling five girls to "set aside all your inhibitions," convicted polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs was heard Monday giving his child brides instructions on how to please him sexually during a graphic 10-minute tape played for a Texas jury.
Law enforcement officials, left, and right, escort Warren Jeffs, center, out of the Tom Green County Courthouse Friday Aug. 5, 2011, in San Angelo, Texas. Jeffs, a polygamist sect leader convicted of child sexual assault walked out of his sentencing hearing in protest Friday, after reading a statement he claimed was from God. The statement promised a "whirlwind of judgment" on the world if God's "humble servant" wasn't set free.
Jeffs faces life in prison after being convicted by the same jury last week of sexually assaulting two of his "brides," who were 12 and 15. The sentencing phase of his trial is expected to finish early this week.
Prosecutors showed a page from one of Jeffs' journals.
"If the world knew what I was doing, they would hang me from the highest tree," Jeffs wrote in 2005, according to one of thousands of pages of notes seized from his Texas ranch.
The 55-year-old is the ecclesiastical head of the Utah-based Fundamentalist LDS Church. More than 10,000 followers consider him God's spokesman on earth.
Jeffs boycotted his sentencing phase for a third straight day, but made a brief courtroom appearance Monday after being summoned by state District Judge Barbara Walther. She told Jeffs' attorney, Deric Walpole, that she wanted to make sure Jeffs hadn't changed his mind.
Wearing a charcoal suit and carrying a blank yellow legal pad, Jeffs walked back into court but never spoke. Walpole said Jeffs wanted to stay outside, and Jeffs was escorted back to another room in the courthouse.
Soon after, prosecutors played the tapes. Jeffs is heard telling the girls that what "the five of you are about to do is important." The recording ends with him asking the girls if his instructions are detailed enough. The voices of at least two girls responded, "Yes."
Last week, jurors heard a tape of what prosecutors said was Jeffs sexually assaulting the 12-year-old victim.
Prosecutors suggested that the FLDS leader told the girls they needed to have sex with him — in what Jeffs called "heavenly" or "celestial" sessions — in order to atone for sins in his community. Several times in his journals, Jeffs wrote of God telling him to take more and more young girls as brides "who can be worked with and easily taught."
FBI agent John Broadway testified that fathers who gave their young daughters to Jeffs — their prophet — were rewarded with young brides of their own. Girls who proved reluctant to have sex with Jeffs were sent away, according to excerpts from Jeffs' journals that prosecutors showed to the jury.
"If they wanted to not be rejected by God, then the new laws (Jeffs) was introducing was requiring them to participate in these sessions," Broadway said.
The recordings and journals were seized during a 2008 raid on the sect's Yearning for Zion ranch in rural West Texas. That raid led to the charges against Jeffs and several of his followers.
Jeffs spent years evading arrest — crisscrossing the country as a fugitive who eventually made the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list before his capture in 2006, prosecutors said. Jeffs also allegedly excommunicated 60 church members he saw as a threat to his leadership, breaking up 300 families while stripping them of property and "reassigning" wives and children.
Walpole, Jeffs' attorney, has declined to say whether he'll call witnesses during the sentencing phase. He has indicated that his plea for leniency will focus on Jeffs being a product of his environment and a culture that hasn't changed for centuries. Tweet
(Courtesy of the Deseret News)
An FBI agent testified that the 2004 audiotape, in which Jeffs is heard breathing heavily, preceded Jeffs having sex at the same time with all the girls, who were 15 and younger. Several jurors squirmed or wiped away tears during the sometimes-scratchy recording.
Law enforcement officials, left, and right, escort Warren Jeffs, center, out of the Tom Green County Courthouse Friday Aug. 5, 2011, in San Angelo, Texas. Jeffs, a polygamist sect leader convicted of child sexual assault walked out of his sentencing hearing in protest Friday, after reading a statement he claimed was from God. The statement promised a "whirlwind of judgment" on the world if God's "humble servant" wasn't set free.
Jeffs faces life in prison after being convicted by the same jury last week of sexually assaulting two of his "brides," who were 12 and 15. The sentencing phase of his trial is expected to finish early this week.
Prosecutors showed a page from one of Jeffs' journals.
"If the world knew what I was doing, they would hang me from the highest tree," Jeffs wrote in 2005, according to one of thousands of pages of notes seized from his Texas ranch.
The 55-year-old is the ecclesiastical head of the Utah-based Fundamentalist LDS Church. More than 10,000 followers consider him God's spokesman on earth.
Jeffs boycotted his sentencing phase for a third straight day, but made a brief courtroom appearance Monday after being summoned by state District Judge Barbara Walther. She told Jeffs' attorney, Deric Walpole, that she wanted to make sure Jeffs hadn't changed his mind.
Wearing a charcoal suit and carrying a blank yellow legal pad, Jeffs walked back into court but never spoke. Walpole said Jeffs wanted to stay outside, and Jeffs was escorted back to another room in the courthouse.
Soon after, prosecutors played the tapes. Jeffs is heard telling the girls that what "the five of you are about to do is important." The recording ends with him asking the girls if his instructions are detailed enough. The voices of at least two girls responded, "Yes."
Last week, jurors heard a tape of what prosecutors said was Jeffs sexually assaulting the 12-year-old victim.
Prosecutors suggested that the FLDS leader told the girls they needed to have sex with him — in what Jeffs called "heavenly" or "celestial" sessions — in order to atone for sins in his community. Several times in his journals, Jeffs wrote of God telling him to take more and more young girls as brides "who can be worked with and easily taught."
FBI agent John Broadway testified that fathers who gave their young daughters to Jeffs — their prophet — were rewarded with young brides of their own. Girls who proved reluctant to have sex with Jeffs were sent away, according to excerpts from Jeffs' journals that prosecutors showed to the jury.
"If they wanted to not be rejected by God, then the new laws (Jeffs) was introducing was requiring them to participate in these sessions," Broadway said.
The recordings and journals were seized during a 2008 raid on the sect's Yearning for Zion ranch in rural West Texas. That raid led to the charges against Jeffs and several of his followers.
Jeffs spent years evading arrest — crisscrossing the country as a fugitive who eventually made the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list before his capture in 2006, prosecutors said. Jeffs also allegedly excommunicated 60 church members he saw as a threat to his leadership, breaking up 300 families while stripping them of property and "reassigning" wives and children.
Walpole, Jeffs' attorney, has declined to say whether he'll call witnesses during the sentencing phase. He has indicated that his plea for leniency will focus on Jeffs being a product of his environment and a culture that hasn't changed for centuries. Tweet
(Courtesy of the Deseret News)
I can't find a audio of this, if you find one, please EMAIL it to me,
ReplyDeletelovetvreality@gmail.com
Warren Jeffs is a part of the FLDS, the Sister Wives are part of the AUB, different "churches" same religion.
ReplyDeleteTrue, they are different groups.
ReplyDeleteWhat Jeffs is doing has nothing to do with religion or anything the Mormans do or have believed. He and his group are extremely sick and I hope they prosecute every adult in the group an take the kids away to healthier homes.
Yes, I agree BUT, even the AUB 20 yrs ago condoned underage marriages, even now you have to get the OK for the high master. They have just learned how to hide it better than the most, maybe more educated.
ReplyDeleteAre all these girls his wives, and he flopped from one to another? SICK. Only a narcissist proud of himself would tape and record this crap. On the other hand, he knew it was wrong. How odd this man is.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wtvr.com/sns-rt-us-polgyamist-trialtre7776kf-20110808,0,4886479.story
ReplyDeleteMore evidence more AUB and their coalition denouncing Jeff's.
The testimony from his nephew, the sister wives participating ...all of it just so sick.
Let me ask this, WHY did no one in his sect turn him in?
ReplyDeleteBecause he is their prophet? Because they are all products of their environment and of the same mindset?
ReplyDeleteI have contemplated this very question JohnX.
Regardless of Jeff's defense theory, ignorance of the law is no excuse. I would like to see mitigation but I don't know that it will happen because many see the females as brainwashed victims but Texas has promised that any evidence leading to others will be investigated. Many see an investigation into the Yearning for Zion Ranch as interfering with religion, too.
I honestly don't understand how parents gave their kids over knowing what was happening. I don't understand how the wives help hold girls down, I don't understand much of what FLDS YFZ Ranch does. You would think instinct would kick in. I do believe there are clear indicators that they know right from wrong. They know enough to word things in a way to try to hide truth. They know enough to have an indoctrinated defense against the crimes they blame on being products of their environment.
If you watch documentaries, talk shows, investigative news reports and articles, you can see members defending Warren.
Did you see the article from yesterday how the ranch was instructed to "fight to the death". It was in the sentencing evidence.
" In another priesthood record, Jeffs instructs his flock to "fight to the death" rather than let the government come into the YFZ ranch ."
I sure hope we don't see a Kool-Aid kind of moment when Jeff's sentencing is delivered.
Some said those at the ranch are unaware of the verdict and on full media black out, some say they are aware but in disbelief and in the mindset the walls will crumble and Jeff's will walk free etc.
Sentencing in!
ReplyDeleteLife in prison! A life sentence plus twenty years.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/08/polygamist-leader-warren-jeffs-gets-life-in-prison/1
http://www.reporternews.com/news/2011/aug/09/polygamist-leader-jeffs-sentenced-life-prison/
New articles piling in, too! Women bred for paedophilia:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2024150/Warren-Jeffs-trial-50-brides-bred-worship-paedophile-prophet.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
I've got one up, and putting up the UK one, too- let's take it up there! Hallaluah!
ReplyDeleteSick puppy. Raised to be like that. And the Principal Voices didn't know until now?
ReplyDeleteThe more I think about it, he didn't want to Train" them, he wanted to "break" them. Total humiliation.
ReplyDeleteIs the second one out?
ReplyDeleteLe'ts face it, ALL the men in the Mormon groups think their g-ds, so they can do what they want.
ReplyDeleteAnd no reverence for the Real God. Did God tell us he was married, or was Jesus? Made up fiction.
ReplyDelete