Flora Jessop

Flora Jessop is roaming the West Texas highways this week, going from book signing to book signing, and trying to keep a story of a fundamentalist breakaway group from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its Texas compound alive in the public’s consciousness.

"It’s not so much to promote the book as an excuse to talk to Texas people and explain what happened when the raid occurred," said Jessop, who grew up in an Arizona town controlled by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints but ran away as twice as a teenager because of sexual abuse and molestation.

She was in Lubbock Friday for a signing event at Barnes and Noble of her book, "Church of Lies," an autobiographical look at her family life, her decision to leave,and her efforts to bring other women away from the FLDS.

Last weekend, she was in Dallas. Since then, the stops have included Abilene and Midland, and from Lubbock the road leads to Amarillo and Denton.

Source/Full Story: lubbockonline.com

Source: Deseret News

A judge has ordered an anti-polygamy activist to give a deposition about conversations she had with the woman suspected of making hoax phone calls that sparked the raid on the Fundamentalist LDS Church’s YFZ Ranch.

FLDS leader Warren Jeffs’ defense attorneys are seeking to question Flora Jessop about conversations she had with Rozita Swinton. They’re seeking to block any evidence from the Texas raid from Jeffs’ pending trial in Arizona on sex crimes charges.

In an order issued in Kingman, Ariz., on Tuesday, Mohave County Superior Court Judge Steven F. Conn said that despite Arizona prosecutors’ insistence that they won’t use any YFZ evidence in Jeffs’ upcoming trial, the court is not convinced the issue would never have to be addressed.

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Technorati Tags: Flora Jessop, Rosita Swinton

Source: Deseret News

Lawyers for Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs are seeking a court-ordered deposition of an anti-polygamy activist.

In papers filed Friday in Mohave County Superior Court, Jeffs’ attorneys seek a deposition of Flora Jessop, objecting to her appearance at a voluntary interview with them on Nov. 24. She brought a TV crew with her and the interview was over before it started.

“Ms. Jessop’s publicity stunt is clearly an unacceptable condition … ,” attorneys Richard Wright and Michael Piccarreta wrote, adding that Jessop sought to turn her interview into “The Jerry Springer Show.”

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Source: Salt Lake Tribune

An Arizona attorney plans to seek a court order to require an anti-polygamy activist to answer questions after she refused to cooperate Monday unless a television crew was allowed to tape the meeting.

Flora Jessop had agreed to a voluntary interview with attorney Michael Piccarreta, who represents polygamous sect leader Warren S. Jeffs. Piccarreta had asked Jessop to bring recordings of her conversations with a caller who used a phone linked to Rozita Swinton, a Colorado woman.

The phone also was used to call a Texas shelter in April, triggering an investigation at the sect’s Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado.

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Really?

Source: Deseret News

Flora Jessop’s “Church of Lies: The True Story of Escaping Slavery and Polygamy, and Rescuing Women and Children from the Notorious Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints” will hit bookstore shelves in February 2009. It’s being published by Jossey-Bass, a division of Wiley Publishing.

“It’s a book about my life, about what I come from and why I do what I do,” Jessop told the Deseret News on Thursday. “I think that it’s important to know why I do what I do, and for people to know why I’m fighting for these children.”

In the book’s preface, Jessop said she was one of 28 children born to her father and his three wives. At 8, she said she began being sexually abused and tried to run away throughout her teenage years. She finally left the church about 20 years ago, enduring a rough life until she became an advocate for abused children in polygamy.

Jessop now heads the Phoenix-based Child Protection Project, where she has helped women and children seeking to leave the FLDS communities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. She once proclaimed she’d be willing to go to jail for harboring runaways, if it meant protecting children from abuse.

Interesting, read the full story

Escape From Flora Jessop: The Story of Val and Laurene Jessop

…
A day or two later, Laurene’s brother in Phoenix, whom she had not seen in over twenty-five years, came to see her. He had called beforehand, saying that he had someone he was going to bring with him, but would not tell her who it was. When he arrived, that someone was Flora Jessop, the media-hungry anti-FLDS activist.

Laurene relates, “She told me she could help me get custody of my children; however, I had to do whatever she told me. In my vulnerable situation I agreed, yet I had no idea what chain of events would follow.”

That very day, Flora took Laurene and her three girls to Phoenix. “The next thing I knew,” she relates, “she had told my landlord I wouldn’t be back. She arranged for my belongings to be hauled to her double-wide where the children and I lived in her backyard. [Laurene slept in her motor home, and the girls slept on her living room floor.] When she got suspicious that I wanted to call Val, she took my phone.”

At this time, Val and Laurene were in constant communication. Her sudden and complete silence instantly let him know something was wrong. He notified the Flagstaff police; and for two weeks, day after day, he drove everywhere in search of them, to all the popular places where they had gone or camped, calling everyone he could think of. Finally, going on a hunch and locating Flora’s address, he drove to Phoenix and watched her home. It was not long when Laurene and the children appeared. He found his family.

Val was prepared for a conflict and had brought the court order that gave him legal custody of the children. In addition, knowing Flora, he called the Phoenix police department and arranged to have an officer there. Before it was over, there were six police cars. Of course the media was instantly called in by Flora—her supporter, TV reporter Mike Watkiss. Flora made a big spectacle of this, filled with lies and fear mongering. Val had a cell phone in a leather case on his belt, and Flora even told the officers he had a gun. With Flora’s lies and the media hype against the FLDS, along with the willing cooperation of the Phoenix officers, the officers actually ignored the court order and sent Val away without his three daughters. But this was only the beginning. What you will read now is Laurene’s account regarding these matters.

“Very shortly thereafter, Flora got an emergency custody order, over Val’s custody order. I signed whatever she told me to. I did not understand legal issues and was not given the opportunity to read the paperwork. I just signed and wrote what she told me to.” But what Laurene did not know was that the claims she signed were outrageous lies typical of Flora, including that if the children returned they would be severely punished and could even be killed as a spiritual blood atonement. In classic Flora style, the lies were both bizarre and endless.

In the days ahead, Val would once again experience the agony of having family taken away from him, even as he experienced as a three-year-old. “I was there [in Short Creek] in 1953. Then in 2004 they [civil authorities] started all over again! With the aid of Attorney Judith Morse, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Steven D. Sheldon and Flora Jessop stole my family, based completely on a stack of lies that Flora fabricated! Again I was helpless! All I could do was watch in sorrow and a feeling of utter hopelessness as they cut off all contact with my little ones, and played out their nasty show in court.”

Laurene continues regarding those initial days with Flora: “Meanwhile, she had friends disappear with my children for five weeks. I was so upset and nervous, but she kept me hopeful.” One of the things Laurene objected to before she left Flagstaff was that she did not want to be used in Flora’s typical media spectacles. Flora assured her that “she only resorted to using the media if it would help our case.” But, added Laurene, “Within a week after arriving in Phoenix, she had introduced me to Mike Watkiss,” the TV news reporter who faithfully covers Flora’s antics.
…

Why are anti-polygamist activists “demoralized” now when the accusations against the FLDS in Eldorado were centered around child abuse. As far as I can recall, no one mentioned crimes of polygamy.

I have noticed that Flora Jessop has been a bit quieter, ever since the name Rosita Swinton appeared in headlines.

Via: azcentral.com

The list of charges against Warren Jeffs in Arizona is dwindling. Four incest charges were dropped this week. Two other charges were dropped in March. Some are wondering if any prison time will be added to Jeffs’ prison sentence.

Anti-polygamy activist Flora Jessop says its a tough battle to be a prosecutor in this case. She says one of the biggest challenges is convincing the FLDS faithful to testify. Many are afraid of retaliation from other members.

Jeffs faces four charges in Arizona including sexual misconduct. He faces anywhere from probation to eight years in prison if convicted. Originally, Jeffs faced as many as 27 years in prison.

Many anti-polygamy activists seem demoralized. Hundreds of FLDS children have been returned to their families in Texas. They fear the FLDS community believes the government will never be able to stop underage marriages. Jessop believes the families will begin to filter into mainstream society where CPS won’t be able to find them.

Read the entire letter at: Truth Will Prevail

To whom it may concern:

My name is Martha Barlow Jessop, wife of the late Fred M. Jessop, whom Flora referred to as “Grandpa.” I am an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse and a Certified Nurse Midwife. I was very closely associated with Flora from her birth until she was 16 years old. I was appointed her guardian by the State of Utah when she was 14. She was under my direct care and supervision, living in my home, until she left at age 16 years.

After listening to and hearing of the stories and lies that Flora has been telling and putting out to the world through the media—lies about how she was “abused” and “escaped” from her childhood home and religion, I feel compelled to tell the true story of Flora.

Arizona has become a haven for sects that practice polygamy and child bigamy because it lacks the laws needed to protect victims, an activist who left a polygamous marriage told state lawmakers Thursday.”We’re destroying generation after generation of children by allowing this molestation of children to continue,” said Flora Jessop, executive director of the Child Protection Project, a group that helps those who leave polygamists.Jessop testified before the House Committee on Human Services, which then endorsed a bill that would prevent judges from granting child custody or unsupervised parenting time to those involved in child bigamy.

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HB 2009, David Lujan, Arizona, Flora Jessop, Child Protection Project, child bigamy, Buster Johnson, Terry Goddard