The polygamist should try to force their beliefs and lifestyles on the rest of society, like the gays, lesbians and transgender do. With the likes of Oprah and Dr. Phil being our moral authority, telling us this lifestyle should be celebrated. Americans are suspicious of those who keep to themselves and don't attempt to jam their lifestyles down our throats. . It's unthinkable that people might have that live and let live credo, and not want to join this wonderful society. We assume they must be brainwashed or hiding something immoral or illegal.
If the authorities believed that all the adults on the estate were unmarried and having an a huge sex orgy, while the children were watching Sponge Bob Square Pants and playing XBOX in a separate room this would be a non-issue. It would be normal. After all........ Hugh Heffner has a hit television show glorifying his pluralistic lifestyle. Nobody seems to have a problem with that. That's because the women fit a more acceptable image of what a liberated women should look like. That look happens to be half naked, unlike the fully clothed women of the FLDS. The women of the FLDS need help breaking those religious chains of bondage. Even if it means by government force.
I don't agree with Hugh Hefner's life style. But he is not breaking any laws. And the girls are not forced into this lifestyle. It was their choice.
And I never heard any accusations of child abuse from the Hefner Estate.
And I never heard any accusations of child abuse from the Hefner Estate.
I've only heard accusation levied by the media and the false accusation made by a women claiming to be a abused 16 year old at the FLDS.
If their were accusations of abuse from the Playboy Manison I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have been handled with armored vehicles and people armed with machine guns. It probably would have been met with an officer asking for Mr. Hefners autograph.
I don't think you would find 437 children at the mansion either. And Mr. Hefner's life style is an open lifestyle which differs from the Polygamist lifestyle.
I don't think Mr. Hefner is married to any of them. So they are not practicing polygamists. And this is their life style "choice". And there is no reference of child abuse.
The law in every state prohibits a man or a woman from being married to more than one living person at a time. The crime of having more than one current spouse is called either bigamy (having two spouses) is a subset of the crime of polygamy (having more than one spouse), and the law makes no practical distinction between the two. Even in states that separately criminalize both polygamy and bigamy, either crime is committed when a married person first enters into an unlawful marriage with a second person. However, additional marriages beyond the second would support prosecution for additional criminal counts and possibly a longer sentence.
Most states base their polygamy laws on the Model Penal Code section 230.1, which provides that a person is guilty of the third-degree felony of polygamy if he or she marries or cohabits with more than one spouse at a time in purported exercise of the right of plural marriage. The crime is punishable either by a fine, imprisonment, or both, according to the law of the individual state and the circumstances of the offense. The crime of polygamy is deemed to continue until all Cohabitation with and claim of marriage to more than one spouse terminate. Polygamy laws do not apply to Aliens who are temporarily visiting the United States, provided that polygamy is lawful in their country of origin.
The existence of a valid marriage entered into by the defendant prior to the second valid marriage is an essential element of the offense in every jurisdiction. No particular type of ceremony is required for the first or subsequent marriage before someone can be prosecuted for polygamy.Even persons who satisfy the requirement for a Common-Law Marriage can be prosecuted for entering a subsequent marriage that itself is either another common-law marriage or a traditional marriage.
Cohabitation is not typically a requisite element of the offense. Merely entering into a second marriage with knowledge that one is currently married to another living person will support an indictment for polygamy. An indictment for polygamy will not be found unlawful even if the defendant offers proof that his or her first marriage was a voidable marriage, or one that is valid until annulled. If neither party to a Voidable marriage successfully voids the marriage by obtaining an Annulment, then the remarriage of either constitutes polygamy.
Ordinarily the state in which the polygamous marriage occurred has jurisdiction over prosecution of the crime. Some statutes, however, provide that the accused may be convicted in the state where the polygamous cohabitation takes place, even though the marriage occurred elsewhere. For example, California law provides that "when the second marriage took place out of this state, proof of that fact, accompanied with proof of cohabitation thereafter in this state, is sufficient to sustain the charge." Cal. Pen. Code ยง 281.
lack of understanding ALWAYS causes a fear based reaction----like society was rising to meet the occaision.......please--where is Paris Hilton or Bill Clinton or Eliot Spitzer or Madonna when ya need them......our butts have gotten so fat that our brains have followed.....
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
The Salt Lake Tribune July 30, 2004 Leader of FLDS named in abuse suit
Allegations: The polygamous church president, two others are accused of sexual assault By Pamela Manson
A former member of a polygamous sect on the Utah-Arizona border on Thursday accused three of his uncles, one of them the faith's leader,
Warren Steed Jeffs of sexually assaulting him when he was a child and calling it "God's work."
In a lawsuit, Brent Jeffs claims that the trio of leaders in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) - president Warren Steed Jeffs, considered by his followers to be their prophet, and his brothers, Blaine Balmforth Jeffs and Leslie Balmforth Jeffs - described the abuse as a way to make him a man.
"Those defendants explained to plaintiff that it was 'God's will' that he never disclose the abuses to anyone, and if he did, it would be upon pain of eternal damnation," Brent Jeffs, 21, said in his suit, filed in Utah's 3rd District Court. "Thus, for many years, the frightened child remained silent."
But Brent Jeffs said his brother's suicide two years ago prompted him to finally break his silence. His suit, which claims FLDS leaders knew of the "perversity and sexually predatory acts" but did nothing to stop them, gives no details about the death.
Under Utah law, child sexual assault victims have until age 22 to bring a civil suit.
Rodney Parker, a Salt Lake City attorney for the church, said all of Jeffs' charges are false.
"The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and its President Warren S. Jeffs deny in the strongest possible terms the allegations made by Mr. Brent Jeffs," Parker said in a written statement. "The church and President Jeffs believe that the filing of this action is part of a continuing effort by enemies of the church to defame it and its institutions. President Jeffs is confident that ultimately these allegations will be shown to be total fabrications."
The uncles could not be reached for comment. Warren Jeffs, who lives in a walled compound in Hildale, Utah, with an estimated 40 wives and about 56 children, never has given an interview to the news media, according to Parker.
The suit could erode the secrecy that has surrounded Warren Jeffs' two-year tenure as president of the FLDS Church, based in the twin cities of Hildale and Colorado City, Ariz. Most of the approximately 10,000 residents embrace plural marriage as a central tenet of their faith.
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has said his office will investigate any allegations of wrongdoing in the community, and will look into Brent Jeffs' claims.
"We're interested in following up on whether there are potential criminal charges," he said Thursday.
Flora Jessop, an anti-polygamy activist who fled the FLDS community as a teenager and has helped others leave, applauded the suit.
"I'm hoping, with what Brent has had the courage to do, it will bring more victims forward to stop the cycle," said Jessop, of Phoenix, who works with the St. George-based Hope for the Child Brides. "Our complete support is with Brent and his family, and we just pray that he can heal from it and live a normal, healthy life."
Brent Jeffs alleges the sexual abuse occurred in the 1980s at Alta Academy, the church's now-closed private school in the Salt Lake Valley, where Warren Jeffs was principal. He said that when he was 5 and 6 years old, his uncles repeatedly took him from his Sunday school class to a bathroom and sodomized him.
The abuse hurt him emotionally and physically, Jeffs said in his suit, which accuses the defendants of child sexual abuse, battery, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, fraud and conspiracy.
Jeffs is seeking unspecified damages and reimbursement of all money he and his parents paid into the United Effort Plan, the FLDS Church's trust. His attorneys are requesting a temporary restraining order barring the church from disposing of any assets while the suit is pending.
Warren Jeffs is said to expect absolute obedience from his followers, and in the past year has been banishing FLDS members in groups and individually for undisclosed sins, telling them to leave their homes and families behind and repent from afar. One was Blaine Jeffs, according to the lawsuit.
The banishments and other episodes have put a spotlight on the isolated community on the Arizona Strip north of the Grand Canyon.
Utah and Arizona had announced a crackdown on crimes said to be occurring under the aegis of polygamy, including forced marriages of underage girls. Sheriff patrols have been increased in the twin cites and plans have been drawn up for a Colorado City office of social service and law enforcement agencies.
Many of those who have left the community have speculated that Warren Jeffs was planning to take a select group of followers to Mexico. Earlier this year, the FLDS Church established itself on a 1,371-acre ranch near the West Texas town of Eldorado, about 150 miles from the Mexico border.
The new landowner, YFZ Land, has ties to the church: The businessman listed as its principal manager, David S. Allred, is a close associate of Jeffs and related to him by marriage. The buildings going up resemble Hildale-Colorado City structures and the people already living there wear the traditional dress of FLDS members.
Some residents of Eldorado, population 2,000, have said they worry about the burden on services and fear a political takeover in the next election. So far, though, no major problems have been reported.
Where is Ruby Jessop? Forced into a polygamous marriage.
Ruby Jessop tried to escape. But she failed. 14 year old Ruby was married illegally and in secret to her step-brother, Havin Barlow, in the polygamous community of Hildale Utah on April 23, 2001. The FLDS Church , which controls this community, expects that when a girl becomes sexually mature, she will be married off to an older polygamous male of the FLDS leadership choosing.
The marriage was blessed by her step father, Fred Jessop, 2nd councilor to the prophet and officiated by Warren Jeffs, first councilor to the prophet, who has now become Prophet since his father, Rulon Jeffs, died.
Ruby was married against her own choice. 3 weeks later Ruby ran away in an attempt to avoid her fate. She went to her brother's house, where she thought she would be safe. Her brother, Joe C. Jessop Jr., thought he could protect her. He couldn't!
The following weekend at Quail Creek Reservoir in Utah, Ruby was taken by deception and returned to Fred Jessop's home. When the Washington County Sheriff investigated days later, the FLDS leadership replied that the juvenile was on vacation for an undetermined length of time. We now know that during that time she was at a polygamous enclave in Idaho undergoing discipline and re-education for attempting to leave the group.
A month later Ruby was allowed to meet with a representative of the Utah DCFS. Members of FLDS were with her so that she was not free to express herself. She'd been held in seclusion under their control for a month. Under these conditons, Ruby told the DCFS rep that everything was alright. Without any followup or tests for abuse, the DCFS rep turned her back to her FLDS abusers (Transcript) . As is common in Utah, DCFS has worked as an enabler for the polygamist community.
Now "WHERE'S RUBY" ??? She has been seen in Colorado city, always in the company of others. She is never given the opportunity to leave again. Ruby has had a baby now. The hopes she once had to gain her freedom have faded. Negelected and forgotten by the public agencies who were charged with helping her, Ruby's bid for freedom has failed.
When Elizabeth Smart was found by the Salt Lake police they knew enough to seperate her from her captors before asking her who she was. Even then, with freedom just a word away, the brainwashing she'd endured was so powerful she denied her own identity. Think then of Ruby Jessop, with a lifetime of brainwashing and with a DCFS representative who wasn't even smart enough to think to seperate her from her oppressors.
As this is written (September, 2003), Ruby is said to be living in Fred Jessops huge polygamous home in Hildale Utah. She was legally married to Haven Barlow as soon as she turned 16. At about that time she became pregnant and has had a baby now. She is expecting her second child.
In April of 2003 Senator Orrin Hatch made some comments that were very favorable to the polygamists of Hildale UT/Colorado City AZ. He stated that he has many friends among the Polygamists. In response, "Help the Child Brides" issued a challenge to the Senator. We asked him to go out to his friend Fred Jessop's house and bring Ruby in to Saint George where she could be interviewed by Social Workers and experts in abuse. We stated that if conditions among the polygamists are as free and good as he claimed, then his polygamous friends should be happy to allow Ruby an opportunity to set the record straight on her situation.
To date Senator Hatch has not responded to our challenge. It is clear that Senator Hatch spoke the entire truth when he stated that he has many friends among the Polygamists.
Arrest warrant: Colo. woman's phone linked to polygamous ranch raid By George Merritt The Associated Press Article Last Updated: 04/23/2008 05:39:05 PM MDT
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - A court document says a phone number used to report alleged abuse at a polygamist retreat in Texas had been used previously by a 33-year-old Colorado woman. It's not yet clear whether authorities suspect Rozita Swinton of Colorado Springs made any of the calls that triggered this month's raid of the compound. An arrest warrant affidavit made public Wednesday says a phone number she had used previously was used to call a Texas crisis center before authorities conducted the raid and removed more than 400 children. Swinton's whereabouts are unknown. Authorities have said a 16-year-old girl called a crisis center claiming she was abused at the compound. Authorities have not found that girl but say they have found evidence other children were abused. Swinton was arrested April 16 on a misdemeanor charge of false reporting in a February incident in Colorado Springs with no known ties to the Texas case. She was later released. Two Texas Rangers were with Colorado officials when they searched Swinton's home. Texas authorities said the search turned up several items suggesting a possible connection between Swinton and calls regarding compounds in Texas and Arizona owned by the Mormon sect, called the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The items weren't identified. Swinton has not been arrested or charged in connection with the calls made to the Texas crisis center, but authorities call her a "person of interest" in that case. The document released Wednesday shows Swinton had an extensive record in Colorado Springs of posing as a troubled teen and making false claims. The affidavit connects Swinton to several reports that alerted Colorado Springs officials. The document links Swinton to calls made throughout October from a "Dana Anderson." The caller claimed to be a young woman being abused by her pastor at Colorado Springs' New Life Church, and later as a 13-year-old student at Liberty High School who said she was being drugged and sexually abused by her father. In February, a woman calling herself "Jennifer" called 911 from a prepaid Tacphone, claiming that her father had locked her in her basement for days, the document said. Officers linked the calls to Swinton in March. In mid-April, Texas Rangers called Colorado Springs Police regarding their investigation into the Yearning for Zion Ranch. Texas Ranger Brooks Long asked about two telephone numbers, both with Colorado Springs area codes. One of the phone numbers, the document says, "was possibly related to the reporting party for the YFZ Ranch incident," and was one of the numbers police had connected to Swinton. While Colorado Springs Police did not file for an arrest warrant until three days after hearing from Texas, Swinton was arrested April 16 in connection with the February call. Documents related to Swinton's arrest were sealed by a judge at the request of Texas authorities. The Associated Press filed a motion to unseal the records Monday, and the arrest warrant affidavit was released Wednesday.
Flora Jessop Born in Hildale Utah Biographical Statement
I escaped from polygamy 15 years ago and now live in Phoenix, Arizona with my husband and two children. I fought for my freedom, just as the children trapped today fight for their right to be free. After turning to DCFS for protection, I was sent back to the polygamy compound, into the cult I asked them to protect me from. I was severely punished for running away and spent the next three years in seclusion, held hostage by my uncle Fred Jessop, and kept from my siblings and even my mother. In April, 2001, my fourteen year old little sister, Ruby, was married to her stepbrother, Haven Barlow. Ruby also had the courage to run away and sought her brothers help. After one week, she was returned to the polygamy compound and disappeared. When I contacted Utah authorities in DCFS and the Washington County Sheriff's Office for help to get my sister the protection she needed they agreed to help. They did not do so, however. After meeting with DCFS in St. George, where I was promised help for Ruby, I found they thwarted my efforts. After thirty five days, they finally met with Ruby but once again failed to enforce the child protection laws they are mandated to support. Ruby and I were both betrayed by the very system that is responsible for protecting children from sexual abuse, physical abuse, mental abuse, statutory rape, coercion, and forced marriage. These rights are guaranteed to all children but those living inside polygamy remain unprotected. I have vowed to stop this injustice and am now focusing on demanding that a federal prosecutor be named to intervene on behalf of these neglected children. Both Utah and Arizona have repeatedly and long term failed to protect children in polygamy from abuses of all kinds. Ruby is a hostage. No one has seen or heard from her for ? days. Please help us publicize this travesty of justice. I am working with others to establish a foundation to help children escape polygamy so they can secure the rights all other citizens enjoy in this democracy. These children need help completing their educations, finding homes, jobs and adjusting to a world they know little about.
The "Lost Boys" Group urges sponsorship of boys cast out of polygamist sect
By Patty Henetz The Associated Press
They are just young men (mostly young teenagers) who have become competition to the older men who want more (and usually much younger) wives. They are kicked out of their homes and run out of town. They often leave with just the shirts on their backs. Most have minimum education and few life-skills. But, the Prophet said that they must go away. So their parents cast them out like unwanted pets. Now, they are out on the street trying to fend for themselves. They are known as the "Lost Boys".
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) Even though he was abandoned by his family after his church leader excommunicated him for wanting to go to public school, a former member of a polygamist sect on Saturday asked that people not condemn his father.
"The fathers are not always the bad guys. They, too, are being persecuted by the prophet," said Richard Gilbert, who was in Salt Lake City to speak on behalf of some 400 boys and young men pushed out of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ.
The prophet is Warren Jeffs, who reportedly has banished hundreds of men and boys from the twin border cities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, in a struggle for control over the sect, whose estimated 6,000 to 12,000 members make it the largest polygamous group in the West.
Gilbert and about 50 other boys appeared at a Capitol news briefing to help announce the efforts of the nonprofit group Diversity, a mentoring group seeking donations and sponsors the hundreds of youths abandoned by their families.
Gilbert said he was excommunicated at age 16 after saying he wanted to attend public school. In July 2000, Jeffs, told followers to stop associating with apostates and outsiders and pull their children from public schools.
"This is really happening in the United States," he said. "There's a lot that goes on that people need to see and help with."
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, who has volunteered to mentor one of the boys, said the efforts of Dr. Dan Fischer, a Midvale dentist and former FLDS polygamist to establish the foundation will help those who want out of the sect.
Fischer and his group have pledged to help some 400 boys ages 13 to 21 who have been banished or excommunicated from the FLDS for such "sins" as talking to girls or watching movies. Sports are banned, as are observances of national holidays. Too many children have been exploited, victimized and discarded," he said.
"Colors and design of dress are dictated," he said. "Hairstyles are dictated. All are to wear long underwear from wrist to ankles, even in extreme heat."
From the time children are born, they are brainwashed, he said. Home schooling leaves out world and American history, and most sciences are outlawed. Children are taught that God ordained blacks to be slaves and Jews were meant to be punished for killing Christ.
The abandoned boys are sometimes left in the desert in the middle of the night. They have few educational and no financial resources and fear eternal damnation because of their banishments.
Fisher said FLDS is a Taliban-like religious organization that needs to rid itself of surplus males to satisfy its polygamist members. Men marry as many as 70 wives. If they are excommunicated, their wives and children are reassigned to other men, he said.
Fischer said he wasn't trying to overthrow polygamy, but added polygamists who claim freedom of religion while they abuse or abandon children are employing a "smoke screen" as a way to hide their problems.
The Diversity group has gotten the support of best-selling author Jon Krakauer, who explored the FLDS and other polygamist sects in Utah, Arizona, Mexico and Canada for his book about religious extremism, "Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith." The book, published last year, remains a best seller.
"People from outside this region are amazed this has gone on so long," said Krakauer, adding that it was important not to demonize the residents of Hildale and Colorado City.
The real villain, he said, is Jeffs, 48, who assumed leadership of the church after the September 2002 death of his father, former prophet Rulon Jeffs. Many at the time thought one of two church elders, Louis Barlow or Fred Jessop, would have been named president. Both have now been excommunicated.
Law enforcement also is part of the problem. Police in the border towns often take orders from Jeffs, and through local justice courts have prosecuted and levied huge fines on boys charged with such "crimes" as indecent exposure for rolling up their sleeves.
Utah and Arizona prosecutors have been investigating allegations of welfare and tax fraud, incest, child abuses and forced marriages of young girls to adult men. Anti-polygamy activists claim FLDS church leaders often traffic young girls between Colorado City-Hildale to the church's enclave at Creston Valley in British Columbia.
Tommy Steed, now 19, was excommunicated two years ago for associating with people who weren't FLDS members and for watching three movies.
Getting thrown out of the church meant no one, not even his family, was allowed to talk to him. He couldn't be part of the community's shared property program, and had no way to make a living. Certain he would be destroyed by God, as he had been told all his life would happen should he fall away, he considered suicide.
"I believe this happens to many of the other children. They need treatment," he said. In the past three years, Jeffs has gotten so fanatical, he said, he wouldn't be surprised to hear the leader order mass suicides.
The document links Swinton to calls made throughout October from a "Dana Anderson." The caller claimed to be a young woman being abused by her pastor at Colorado Springs' New Life Church
I wonder if the pastor or the children he preached to were taken into custody at gun point and then forced the preacher to prove his innocents. The only crime I can see, is a woman making false accusations using alias's. She should go to prison.
But....... the government can piss all over our rights without checking the validity of the source of the accusations. That's what we as Americans have come to accept. Because we trust our government to do the right thing. After all,,,,it's being done in the name of child protection, such a nobel cause. Who cares if they went into the community with a sledgehammer and tore it apart based on false allegations. As long as they take those kids away from those funny looking people.
Getting thrown out of the church meant no one, not even his family, was allowed to talk to him. He couldn't be part of the community's shared property program, and had no way to make a living. Certain he would be destroyed by God, as he had been told all his life would happen should he fall away, he considered suicide
WOW! A religion using guilt and fear to control it's followers. What a concept.
Tommy Steed, now 19, was excommunicated two years ago for associating with people who weren't FLDS members and for watching three movies.
The way the media makes it sound, you would think leaving a polygamist community would be like escaping from Alcatraz. He was kick out for watching three movies. How cruel these polygamist can be. If he were watching Hefner's "The Girls Next Door" maybe he wouldn't have been kicked out. These savages.
Logged
