Merrill Jessop

Source: CNN.com

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She was among more than 400 children seized by state child welfare workers from the FLDS’ Yearning for Zion (YFZ) Ranch in April, then returned after the Texas Supreme Court ruled the state had no right to remove them and lacked evidence to show they were in imminent danger of abuse.

District Judge Barbara Walther approved the state’s request to end court oversight of the girl, according to a report in The Deseret News newspaper of Salt Lake City, Utah.

The girl’s court-appointed attorney, Natalie Malonis, however, told the newspaper the case is not over. She filed a counter-petition last month seeking to have her mother and child protection officials appointed as her joint managing conservators and restricting her to the state of Texas.

Malonis previously attempted to depose Merrill Jessop, an FLDS elder who oversees the YFZ Ranch, and Willie Jessop, a sect member who has served as its spokesman. But both men invoked their Fifth Amendment right in depositions, according to The Deseret News.

A judge has yet to rule on whether the men can be forced to answer Malonis’ questions. Malonis previously requested a restraining order against Willie Jessop, saying he had harassed and intimidated both of them and might be attempting to prevent the girl’s testimony before a grand jury.

Attempts to contact Malonis by CNN Tuesday were unsuccessful.

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Technorati Tags: Natalie Malonis, Barbara Walther

Source:  Chron.com

The head of a polygamist sect’s West Texas ranch invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination more than 250 times in a deposition taken Friday.

The San Angelo Standard-Times obtained a copy of the deposition transcript Wednesday and reported on its Web site that Merril Jessop invoked his Fifth Amendment right on 267 occasions when questioned by an attorney appointed for an alleged underage bride taken from the Yearning For Zion Ranch last year.

Natalie Malonis, the attorney for a 17-year-old who had previously sought to have her replaced, asked numerous questions about the sect’s finances. The teen was allegedly married to Jessop’s 36-year-old son when she was 15.

“Upon the advice of counsel, he’s exerting his Fifth Amendment (rights),” Jessop’s attorney, Amy Hennington, said early in the session. “The basis is that there is potential state investigation still ongoing, as well as criminal investigations under the Mann Act out of the U.S. Attorney’s office.”

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Technorati Tags: FLDS, Natalie Malonis

Source: KRISTV.COM

The bishop overseeing a polygamist sect’s west Texas ranch is among those who have been indicted.

The Texas Attorney General’s office says Fredrick ‘Merril’ Jessop was indicted on a charge of conducting an unlawful marriage ceremony involving a minor. The 72-year-old was believed to be the bishop overseeing the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado.

One of his wives left the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Utah and has written a best-selling book about her experience.

Texas prosecutors identified two other men who were indicted by a grand jury on Nov. 12.

Wendell Loy Nielsen was charged with bigamy and Leroy Johnson Steed was charged with sexual assault of a child and bigamy.

All three men have turned themselves into authorities.

Technorati Tags: Fredrick ‘Merril’ Jessop

Four deer in the headlights…

Source: CNN.com

Five members of a polygamous sect who were indicted alongside leader Warren Jeffs last week turned themselves in Monday to face sexual assault charges, Texas authorities said.
From top left, clockwise: Allan Keate, Raymond Jessop, Michael Emack and Merrill Jessop were all indicted.

From top left, clockwise: Allan Keate, Raymond Jessop, Michael Emack and Merrill Jessop were all indicted.

Four of Jeffs’ followers were charged with one count of sexually assaulting a girl under the age of 17, and each faces five to 99 years in prison, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said.

One of those four also faces a bigamy charge.

A fifth follower is charged with three counts of failure to report child abuse, he said.

Bail for the defendants facing felony charges — Raymond Merrill Jessop, 36, Allan Eugene Keate, 56, Michael George Emack, 57, and Merrill Leroy Jessop, 33 — was set at $100,000 each. Lloyd Hammon Barlow, 38, charged with the misdemeanor failure to report child abuse, faces a sentence of up to six months in prison and a fine of $2,000 per count.