polygamous sects

A convicted sex offender and leader of a North Ogden-based polygamous group died at the Utah State Prison.

Arvin Shreeve died at age 79 from natural causes on Monday, prison officials said.

Shreeve was moved to the prison’s infirmary from his dorm in the special service unit for sex offenders in mid-July when prison staff determined he was nearing the end of his life.

"They knew he was going to go pretty soon," said Utah Department of Corrections deputy director Mike Haddon.

Shreeve’s family was notified that he was moved to the infirmary. His daughter visited him sometime before he died.

Shreeve was the leader of the Zion Community (also called The Sister Program), a sect from a North Ogden subdivision that practiced polygamy, lesbianism and child sexual abuse as tenets of faith.

Source/Full Story: Deseret News

Source: prweb.com

It began as a quest for a peaceful existence in an unorthodox religious society. It ended in mayhem, murder, and tragedy.

Grants Pass, OR (PRWEB) February 17, 2009 — First time author Kim Taylor has surprised members of her small community, including some of her own family and friends, with the release of her tragic memoirs in a book that reads stranger than fiction. For the first time ever, the easy-going Oregon housewife shares in detail the fascinating events that took place in her young life.

In her story, titled Daughters of Zion: A Family’s Conversion to Polygamy (212 pp, tpb, $15.95), Taylor chronicles being uprooted from her family’s comfortable middle class home in Utah at the tender age of seven to be raised in a polygamous cult in Mexico. Her life takes unbelievable twists and turns as her older sisters become plural wives, and young Kim herself is eventually courted by the polygamist fathers of her close friends. All semblance of a peaceful life is shattered when violence erupts within the ranks of the priesthood leaving one sister a widow. Kim fears for her own life as some of the people she cares most about become murderers in the name of religion.

Detailing the beginning of the gruesome legacy of Ervil LeBaron, now sometimes referred to as “The Mormon Manson,” Daughters of Zion will be of special interest to those who remember the shocking events that stunned the inhabitants of Houston, Texas on June 27, 1988. Soon known as “The Four o’Clock Murders,” this violent tragedy captured the attention of the entire nation.

Mary Ann Cook, published author for Focus on the Family, praises Taylor’s first literary offering: “It was curiosity about polygamy that led me to pick up this book,” she writes, “but it is the author’s craft at storytelling that made it impossible to put down. Kim’s riveting, honest portrayal of her courageous search for deliverance from what she eventually recognized as dangerous dogma cloaked as religious truths, is both intriguing and inspiring.”

The release of Taylor’s story, which leads the reader on a fascinating journey into the world of cult mental conditioning, coincides with and is relevant to the thirtieth anniversary of the Jonestown massacre in Guyana.

Daughters of Zion: A Family’s Conversion to Polygamy may be purchased from Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, WorldNetDaily.com and other bookstores.

ISBN 978-0-615-25701-3

Kim Taylor makes her home in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and a son, the youngest of five children. She recently took up the challenge of creating an interactive pro-monogamy blog and website that features articles written by former polygamists and others. Visitors are welcome at: www.justonewife.com

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Source: Chron.com

Texas Child Protective Services notified a judge on 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 from the sect’s ranch in Eldorado in April 2008.

“We have nonsuited (dismissed) cases when we believe that parents or family members have taken steps to protect the children from future abuse or neglect,” CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins said. “A nonsuit means that in our estimation court oversight is no longer needed to ensure a child’s safety.”

With her signature by late afternoon, state District Judge Barbara Walther, of San Angelo, acknowledged CPS’ notice to drop the case from her court.

“It was the right thing to do,” said Mindy Montford, attorney for the teen’s mother, Annette Jeffs. “I hope CPS continues on this same course of action.”

One of the teen’s siblings is among the three children still under court supervision.

In December, CPS found that there was a “reason to believe” the teen had been abused.

That finding and the agency’s decision to have the case dropped seem contradictory, the girl’s attorney, Natalie Malonis, said.

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Technorati Tags: FLDS

Source: Pine Bluff Commercial

Parents of 21 children associated with the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries must sever their ties to the church before regaining custody of their children, a judge has said.

Miller County Circuit Judge Joe Griffin cited a history of underage marriages and beatings in the jailed evangelist’s church for his decision. Griffin also said children in the ministry received substandard schooling and had not received required childhood vaccinations.

“A majority of those kids never get past the ninth or 10th grade,” Griffin told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “A lot of the young girls historically have gotten married before they finished what would be the 12th grade, and then the boys just simply drop out.”

State child-welfare officials seized 23 children associated with the ministry in November and December. Griffin previously ruled two of those children could be reunited with their parents if they moved off church property and gained financial independence from the ministry. Griffin wrapped up eight days of a hearing for the other 21 children on Wednesday.

Since a September raid on the Alamo’s Fouke compound, state welfare officials have taken 36 children associated with the ministry. Court orders allowing the state to take the children into protective custody initially named nearly 100 other children, but officials have said either parents or the ministry likely were hiding the youths.

Over the course of the hearing, Griffin ordered three different parents jailed for contempt of court for refusing to answer his questions. Most parents affiliated with the church live on ministry property and work at jobs within the ministry or at church-owned businesses.

“The court found that the witnesses for the state were credible witnesses and felt that a lot of the testimony by the respondents was not credible, it was evasive,” Griffin said. “The crux of it was I believed the allegations that were made.”

Alamo, 74, faces a 10-count federal indictment accusing him of taking young girls across state lines for sex. He remains held without bond pending a May trial.

Technorati Tags: Tony Alamo Christian Ministries

Source: The Associated Press

An Arkansas judge has jailed a second member of evangelist Tony Alamo’s ministry for refusing to say where her three daughters are.

Circuit Judge Joe Griffin in Texarkana says he had no other choice Thursday but to find the mother in contempt of court. A man in a separate case was jailed for the same reason earlier this week.

Griffin is presiding over a hearing to determine the fate of 23 children taken into protective custody amid allegations of physical and sexual abuse by leaders of Alamo’s ministry. The state is searching for dozens of other children.

The 74-year-old Alamo faces trial on federal charges of transporting females across state lines for sex. He denies the allegations but says his religion allows marrying girls when they reach puberty.

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Source: texarkanagazette.com

Arkansas taxpayers shouldn’t have to fund the appeals of able-bodied Tony Alamo Christian Ministries followers just because they work as volunteers for their church, according to a motion from the Arkansas Public Defender Commission.

The commission wants Circuit Judge Jim Hudson to reconsider an order he signed Dec. 31, appointing the commission to represent some Alamo followers in their quests to have a higher court overturn the judge’s decision to keep their daughters in foster care.

Hudson said the commission’s motion is “under review” and a hearing to address it has…

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Yea, I’d be hiding my children too before I’d let them get chewed up in the steely jaws of the Beast…

Source: The Associated Press

Parents or followers of a jailed evangelist have been hiding children sought by state welfare officials, the state director of human resources said Wednesday.

John Selig said the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries routinely ferries members across the nation to churches in California and elsewhere. The practice and the ministry’s secrecy have stymied officials trying to find as many as 100 children named in court orders allowing the state to take them into protective custody, he said.

“They may have gotten some word that we were about to come in, whether they knew about the court order or not,” Selig told The Associated Press. “They may have just said, ‘Let’s take them somewhere else.’”

Protective orders filed in Arkansas courts carry no weight outside the state, further complicating the effort. Selig said his agency has talked with other states about locating the children. So far, 36 children from the ministry have been taken into custody, six of them from outside Arkansas.

Initially, Arkansas officials took six girls into custody when state police and the FBI raided the ministry’s compound in Fouke on Sept. 20. Another 18 children from passenger vans traveling in Arkansas near the line with Texas were seized Nov. 18. Family members said the ministry wanted to take the children to a park. A total of six other children were taken elsewhere in the state that same day or on Dec. 12.

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Source: gosanangelo.com

Several people waiting in line at Carolyn Jessop’s book-signing described her story the same way: brave.

At least 130 people turned out at Hastings in San Angelo to see Jessop, author of “Escape,” and share a word or two with her.

The book is her memoir of life in a polygamist “marriage” in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and how she broke away with her eight children.

Jessop’s former husband, Merril Jessop, was the leader of the FLDS group at the Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado that authorities raided in April. More than 400 children were temporarily taken into state custody.

“I think there’s quite a bit of interest here,” Carolyn Jessop said recently.

Willie Jessop, a sect elder who is a spokesman for the FLDS, said Tuesday that he has not read Carolyn Jessop’s book. He said more families continue to return to the YFZ Ranch to resume their way of life, and he is grateful for that.

Of the book-signing, Willie Jessop said, “I’m disappointed she would exploit such a tragic situation and use it for her own personal gain.” He was referring to the state raid on the sect’s ranch.

At the book signing, Callie Albus of San Angelo said she kept up with the news during the YFZ raid, but that Carolyn Jessop’s book gives details about the FLDS that weren’t on the news.

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Technorati Tags: Carolyn Jessop, Merril Jessop, Willie Jessop

Source: Salt Lake Tribune

A Texas judge has set the first criminal trials for members of a polygamous sect for October.

Raymond M. Jessop and Allen Keate are slated for jury trials beginning Oct. 26 on sexual assault charges. Trials for eight other men indicted by a Schleicher County Grand Jury will be set one per month, 51st District Judge Barbara Walther decided Monday.

The grand jury indicted 12 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints last year on charges related to underage marriages. With the exception of FLDS leader Warren S. Jeffs, the 10 men charged with felonies attended the hearing at the Schleicher County Courthouse.

The case involving physician Lloyd H. Barlow, charged with misdemeanor counts of failure to report child abuse, has been moved to Tom Green County.

The judge also set May 13 to hear arguments to throw out evidence seized from the Yearning For Zion Ranch, which authorities raided last April after receiving a call alleging abuse. The call is now believed to have been a hoax.

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Technorati Tags: Raymond M. Jessop, Allen Keate, Lloyd H. Barlow

Source: WXVT

Two former followers at the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries are seeking more time to serve court papers against Alamo’s alleged enforcer, John Kolbek.

Kolbek is sought by state authorities for a beating sustained by Seth Calagna, who along with Spencer Ondrisek has filed a civil suit against Kolbek and Alamo. The plaintiffs say Kolbek is hiding from authorities and that they need more time to serve him with a copy of a lawsuit.

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Source:  CNN.com

Court proceedings will be held in September to determine whether a 14-year-old girl believed to have married polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs should permanently remain in state custody.
Warren Jeffs faces a sentence of up to life in prison in Utah and is awaiting trial in Arizona.

Warren Jeffs faces a sentence of up to life in prison in Utah and is awaiting trial in Arizona.

The September 28 proceedings were scheduled at a hearing Thursday in San Angelo, Texas, according to CNN affiliate KLST.

The 14-year-old girl was one of 400 children removed in April from the Fundamental Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Yearning for Zion (YFZ) ranch near Eldorado, Texas. A judge later ordered the children returned after the Texas Supreme Court ruled there was no evidence the children were in imminent danger on the ranch.

The girl was among those ordered released, but was taken back into foster care in August after child protection officials alleged her parents did not take measures to limit her contact with men involved in underage marriage.

According to court documents filed in December, the girl’s mother, Barbara Jessop, “has not demonstrated herself as a safe and responsible caregiver” and “has not demonstrated that she can provide a safe and stable home” for the girl. In counseling sessions, Jessop has denied that her daughter was abused, the documents said.

The girl is believed to have married Jeffs as a 12-year-old in July 2006 with the consent of her parents. At the time, Jeffs was 50. Jeffs is also accused of marrying several other underage girls, authorities have said.

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Technorati Tags: Warren Jeffs, FLDS

Source:   arkansasonline.com

A judge is expected to hear testimony Monday from child welfare officials who say Tony Alamo Christian Ministries punishes children with beatings and from parents who say the allegations are just part of an attempt to destroy their church.

After the hearing on the future of the children taken from the ministry is complete, Miller County Circuit Judge Joe Griffin will determine whether 23 children removed from the ministry in November and December are the victims of abuse or neglect. Griffin will decide whether they should remain in foster care, go to live with relatives outside the ministry or be allowed to return to their parents, possibly with conditions.

Technorati Tags: Tony Alamo

In response to the quoted sentence in bold below I say…

…indeed, it has been said to me numerous times over the years (once that it has been agreed upon that polygyny is in fact a perfectly legitimate biblical form of marriage) that “Well, it’s just not for me, and no woman in her right mind would want it.”

The assumption of those who say this of course is that they themselves are in their right mind and any woman who is unlike them on the issue, who would seek out and engage themselves in a plural marriage, must be mentally unstable, brainwashed, or existing in some state of extreme desperation.  Interestingly enough, this usually has been preceeded with another statement, which goes something like “It would be easier to accept your position on polygyny if more people (ie. the majority) agreed with you.”  Just who is brainwashed, and by whom I wonder?

Nautrally, I would disagree with this assessment, although I do readily admit that finding a lady possessing the qualities of a good, God fearing wife (especially amongst the christian community!) is akin to finding the proverbial needle in the haystack.  But contrary to the assumption that a polygymous wife must be flawed in some manner I would say that she is a precious jewel indeed.  The diamond, being ever so rare, so different from all the rest, is valued all the more, is it not?

Source: canada.com

But there must be consent, and this is where things get tricky. A lot of people seem to assume that these young, healthy women in a polygamous relationship have been brainwashed by those with religious authority over them. They believe no self-respecting sister would subject herself to this kind of arrangement of her own free will. Ergo, this must be stopped.

Well, I’ve seen high Anglicans genuflecting, Quakers quaking and holy rollers rolling in their places of worship, and it has occurred to me that something has happened to their brains. But when they emerge, shriven or whatever, they seem perfectly normal again.

It’s the same with people of other faiths I’ve seen on TV, lacerating their bodies, beheading live chickens and crawling with their faces in the mud. I presume they have families to look after and jobs to go to.

What the Bountiful women have done, though, is more permanent. They’ve hitched themselves, like sled dogs, to one man so that he can “raise up seed” and qualify to get to the celestial kingdom.

If they, and their man, really believe this is their religious duty, what right has any non-believer to stop them from performing it? And how can anyone presume to tell where religious instruction ends and brainwashing begins?

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Technorati Tags: polygamy, polygyny

An interesting piece.  Read the full story at the Source: TIME

Winston Blackmore and Family

The farming community of Lister is located in a picturesque valley hard on the U.S. border in southeastern British Columbia, Canada, in the shade of the Skimmerhorn Mountains. It lies roughly between Calgary and Spokane (the closest big town is Creston — pop. about 4,800). Founded by World War I veterans, Lister was always conspicuous for the dark secrets of many of its inhabitants. In the beginning of course, these secrets were the simple memories of the horrors of war. But recent generations have struggled with more complex secrets centered on a farming settlement in a corner of Lister known as Bountiful — and paralleling the events that unfolded in Eldorado, Texas in April 2008.

Made up of as many as 1,000 adherents of a fundamentalist Mormon sect, Bountiful has been home to clans of polygamists since the arrival in the late 1940s of the homestead’s founder Harold Blackmore, who — according to one account — was drawn to the valley after envisioning it in a dream. Blackmore was part of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which was expelled from mainstream Mormonism in the 1930s. For generations, local farmers co-existed with the polygamists of Bountiful. But this relationship, based on the country tenet of “live and let live,” grew increasingly uneasy over time as strange stories of life within the settlement leaked out, and found their way into the media with accounts of a power struggle between Winston Blackmore, the sect’s leader in Bountiful, and Warren Jeffs, the leader of the FLDS Church. Jeffs, now incarcerated in the U.S. for being an accomplice to rape, is facing charges in the aftermath of the raid on the polygamist Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado. (See pictures of two polygamist families.

Technorati Tags: FLDS, Harold Blackmore

Source: The Associated Press

A federal judge in Arkansas has delayed the trial of jailed evangelist Tony Alamo on charges he took young girls across state lines for sex.

U.S. District Judge Harry F. Barnes in Texarkana has reset Alamo’s trial to begin on May 11. The trial had been scheduled to begin on Feb. 2, but Alamo’s lawyer John Wesley Hall Jr. objected to the start date, saying he needed more time to prepare.

Alamo, 74, has denied all accusations in the 10-count federal indictment he faces. The pastor remains held without bond pending trial.

A total of 36 juveniles linked to Alamo’s organization have been taken by state Department of Human Services officials since a Sept. 20 raid on the ministry’s Fouke compound.

Technorati Tags: Tony Alamo