Sect leader charged with child sex abuse
By Tom Leonard in New York
http://tinyurl.com/8etnq
The leader of a polygamous sect has been charged with child sex abuse
in connection with an arranged marriage between a teenage girl and a
28-year-old man who was already married.
Warren Jeffs, a self-proclaimed prophet and despotic president of the
Fundamental Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, faces up to
two years in jail if convicted.
Although Jeffs, 49, was charged with sexual conduct with a minor, he
did not have sex with the 16-year-old girl but arranged her marriage to
the man, said prosecutors.
Polygamy is illegal in America but police believe that it is practised
by tens of thousands of Mormon fundamentalists across the West.
Jeffs's sect, which split from mainstream Mormonism after the latter
renounced polygamy, is intensely secretive. Most of its members live in
closed, remote communities in Utah and Arizona.
Recently, the group has been building new headquarters on a ranch in
Eldorado, Texas, raising fears that Jeffs, who has not been seen in
public for more than a year, is planning a final armed confrontation
with the authorities similar to the defiance of David Koresh and his
followers in Waco, Texas.
Jeffs has already been named as a defendant in two civil lawsuits in
Utah - one by a nephew accusing him of sodomy and another, by a former
church member, accusing him of covering up child sex abuse.
Although the authorities have previously been unable to enter the
sect's land to search for Jeffs, police will be able to do so now that
he has been charged with criminal offences.
Mark Shurtleff, Utah's attorney general, said his office had attempted
for two weeks to serve Jeffs with a court order freezing more than $100
million in sect land and business assets.
"This sends a message that Warren Jeffs is not above the law," said Mr
Shurtleff.
"He's going to be held accountable for the charges. That's the bottom
line."
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