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News Portal Home  Mormonism (FLDS) Mormonism (FLDS)
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Monday, 06 July 2009 |
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Despite some 40 hours of negotiations, it's unlikely a settlement can be reached by Monday in a dispute over a property trust once run by polygamous church leader Warren Jeffs, Utah's attorney general said. The $114 million United Effort Plan Trust is an arm of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It holds most of the land and homes in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., as well as a church enclave in Bountiful, British Columbia. SOURCE ARTICLE |
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Friday, 08 May 2009 |
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These are tough times for fundamentalist Mormon polygamists. The criminal charges -- one count each of practising polygamy -- against Bountiful's two leaders, James Oler, 44, and Winston Blackmore, 52, are expected to end up in the Supreme Court of Canada because their defence is that the Constitution guarantees their right to freedom of religion and polygamy is one of their beliefs. Their legal costs could be $1 million or more. Even in good times, that's a lot of money for men with multiple wives and, in Blackmore's case, 119 children. But these aren't good times. SOURCE ARTICLE |
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Friday, 08 May 2009 |
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A polygamist sect is accusing the Texas Rangers of deliberately misleading a judge to acquire a search warrant to raid its compound last year. Attorneys representing 10 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints filed motions Tuesday and Wednesday arguing that Texas Rangers Lt. Brooks Long withheld details that would have undermined the credibility of calls from a domestic abuse hot line that sparked the raid. SOURCE ARTICLE |
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Friday, 08 May 2009 |
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The only FLDS child still in Texas state custody after last year's raid of a polygamous ranch will soon move to a relative's home, a judge said Thursday. Texas Judge Barbara Walther approved a plan that allows the 14-year-old girl to live with Naomi Carlisle, an FLDS member and a distant relative who moved to San Antonio from Utah last year to help families affected by the raid. "We're absolutely elated, and we feel like this has been an answer to prayers," said Willie Jessop, a spokesman for the polygamous sect. SOURCE ARTICLE |
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Wednesday, 15 April 2009 |
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A potholder, sand art and the hug of a child: One year later, they are the simple tokens the three women seated around a conference room table carry with them. They are reminders of the children for whom they were asked to advocate -- and whom they believe the system failed. Paulette Schell, a staff member for the Children's Advocacy Center of Tom Green County, still has the potholder, given to her by a precocious girl who she remembers did not actually like to cook. The girl, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was returned to her parents in June, and like 437 others, her case has been dismissed by the state's Child Protective Services agency. SOURCE ARTICLE |
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Wednesday, 15 April 2009 |
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The name of the man listed on a search warrant used to enter a polygamous sect's ranch last spring was provided by a domestic violence shelter worker to a woman alleged to have made hoax calls that triggered the investigation, newly filed court documents state. A motion filed today in Eldorado, Texas, on behalf of 10 men facing criminal charges related to last year's investigation says a Texas Ranger omitted material facts about the information received from the shelter in an affidavit seeking a search warrant last spring. SOURCE ARTICLE |
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Sunday, 15 February 2009 |
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He's the most notorious inmate at the Mohave County Jail, segregated for the crimes he's accused of and the name he's built for himself. Most of his fellow prisoners know him from the news, though they've never seen him in person. Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs was brought to the Arizona jail nearly a year ago, far from his followers, to await trial on four counts of being an accomplice to sexual conduct with a minor. The charges stem from two arranged marriages between teenage girls and their older male relatives. But Jeffs' journey through the justice system won't end here. As he awaits his day in an Arizona court, Texas is building an unrelated case against him, and he's already been convicted in Utah. SOURCE ARTICLE |
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Sunday, 15 February 2009 |
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The man in charge of the court-controlled United Effort Plan Trust has filed a lawsuit against the family of the former child bride who was the star witness in the criminal case against Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs. It's in response to a personal injury lawsuit filed by Elissa Wall over her marriage at age 14 to her 19-year-old cousin. Bruce Wisan's attorneys filed a third party complaint naming members of Wall's family, her former spiritual leaders and even her former husband, Allen Steed. SOURCE ARTICLE |
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Sunday, 15 February 2009 |
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Texas Child Protective Services notified a judge Monday that it is removing the 17-year-old daughter of jailed polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs from court supervision even though evidence shows her father encouraged her marriage to a 34-year-old sect member. The teen’s removal leaves under court supervision only three of 439 children CPS removed last April from the sect’s ranch in Eldorado. SOURCE ARTICLE |
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Tuesday, 06 January 2009 |
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Texas child welfare officials say they have ended their investigation into a polygamous sect after months of interviews and sifting documents identified 12 girls were "spiritually" married between the ages of 12 and 15. What that means for a parallel criminal investigation, which has led to indictments of 12 men so far, is unclear. The 21-page report prepared for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and released Tuesday provides new details about the investigation at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado. The ranch is home to members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which has historic roots in Utah, Arizona and Canada. SOURCE ARTICLE |
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Tuesday, 06 January 2009 |
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A polygamist group accused of widespread abuse and neglect of children at a Texas ranch called the allegations "manufactured" Saturday in a lengthy rebuke of a state report released this week. The Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado called the findings "as false and fraudulent as the original hoax telephone call" that initiated an April raid of the ranch, and said the saga has left their community poverty-stricken. SOURCE ARTICLE |
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Tuesday, 06 January 2009 |
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Allegations that members of a southern Utah polygamous sect are guilty of widespread welfare fraud were raised repeatedly this summer during a U.S. Senate judiciary committee hearing. They surfaced frequently, too, in messages sent to Texas Gov. Rick Perry after an April raid on the Eldorado ranch occupied by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. "Please pull the plug on the freebies for the cult. Why are the taxpayers of your state paying for this illegal group?" wrote a Michigan couple on April 17. But welfare data from Utah, Arizona and Texas do not support the claims. None of the 600 or so residents of the Yearning For Zion Ranch received any form of welfare, according to state officials. Cash assistance is almost nonexistent in the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. SOURCE ARTICLE |
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Sunday, 30 November 2008 |
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Texas has spent at least $12.7 million on the nation's largest child-custody case - including more than $9 million to house 439 children and dozens of women for more than two weeks at the San Angelo Coliseum - and is likely to spend much more. The costs, incurred over the nearly eight months since an April raid on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' compound in Schleicher County, include nearly $900,000 in reimbursements to local entities - the vast majority of which has been paid to the city of San Angelo. FULL ARTICLE LINK |
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Sunday, 30 November 2008 |
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For the past three years, members of a polygamous sect stayed silent as the state took over and began to dismantle their 66-year-old communal property trust. No more. At least 300 men, women and children from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints crowded into a federal courtroom and spilled into hallways Wednesday, as lawyers sought to block a state court hearing on the proposed sale of land they consider sacred. FULL ARTICLE LINK
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Saturday, 08 November 2008 |
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The judge overseeing the Fundamentalist LDS Church's land holdings has refused to delay a hearing on a pending sale of farmland that the Utah-based polygamous sect claims is a future temple site. In an order filed in 3rd District Court in Salt Lake City, Judge Denise Lindberg denied a request by FLDS members Willie Jessop, Dan Johnson and Merlin Jessop to postpone a Nov. 14 hearing in St. George. FULL ARTICLE LINK |
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