Yisrayl Hawkins

Bigamy charges against West Texas sect leader Yisrayl Hawkins were dismissed Thursday after the leader of the House of Yahweh pleaded no contest to four cases involving child labor violations.

Hawkins was scheduled to go on trial Nov. 9 in Weatherford after 42nd District Judge John Weeks granted a change of venue from Callahan County earlier this month. Hawkins’ lawyers had argued that too many people in the county east of Abilene were prejudiced against him.

Callahan County Attorney Shane Deel said in a statement that in each case, Hawkins will pay a $2,000 fine and serve 15 months of probation. Hawkins was accused of forcing children to work at the church property.

Two significant factors contributed to the decision to dismiss the bigamy charges, Deel said.

“First, the change of venue made the case financially impractical to try. Second, there were some substantial issues with the case and the statute of limitations,” Deel said.

Source/Full Story:  Star-Telegram.com
Technorati Tags: Yisrayl Hawkins

Attorneys for House of Yahweh leader Yisrayl Hawkins, set to stand trial for bigamy, argued for a change of venue during a pretrial hearing in the 42nd District Court in Baird Wednesday.

During the hearing, Hawkins’ attorneys presented the results of a poll taken in mid-August from 511 residents in Callahan, Taylor and Coleman counties, part of the 42nd District.

Hawkins’ attorneys contended a fair and impartial jury could not be seated from those counties.
…
Sixty-eight percent of those polled said the believed he was guilty of bigamy, but 63 percent said they would be able to give Hawkins a fair trial.
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Hawkins stands charged with four counts of promoting bigamy and one count of practicing bigamy. Each bigamy charge is considered a second-degree felony and carries a penalty of two to 20 years in prison with a $10,000 fine.

He also is charged with breaking child-labor laws, a Class B misdemeanor. According to court documents, up to 40 children spent 40 hours a week working on the House of Yahweh property in Callahan County.

Source/Full Story:: Abilene Reporter News
Technorati Tags: Yisrayl Hawkins

Source: billingsgazette.com

A fire has burned four structures at the compound of a Texas sect whose leader is accused of performing polygamous weddings.

Firefighters in the town of Clyde say the cause of Monday’s blaze at the House of Yahweh compound is unknown. No injuries were reported.

Fire Chief Billy Dezern tells the Abilene Reporter-News in its online edition that firefighters kept the blaze from spreading. A few vehicles were also burned.

The compound covers more than 40 acres near Abilene. Sect leader and self-proclaimed prophet Yisrayl (YIZ’-rah-yel) Hawkins is accused of having more than 20 wives and performing the weddings.

He faces trial next year.

Technorati Tags: House of Yahweh

Source: BostonHerald.com

ABILENE, Texas — A judge sentenced a religious sect’s elder to 30 years in prison for molesting an 11-year-old girl during a phony cervical cancer exam.

Yedidiyah Hawkins, 41, a House of Yahweh elder, faced a maximum penalty of life in prison after being convicted in October of aggravated sexual assault of a child. Hawkins earlier decided that a judge would assess the punishment if jurors found him guilty.

Hawkins has no medical training but used a gynecological medical instrument to examine the girl at a home in 2005, according to trial testimony. A former House of Yahweh member testified that Hawkins actually was worried the girl was not a virgin.

Some defense witnesses testified at last week’s sentencing hearing that they never saw Hawkins abuse children. Several became emotional and teary when pleading for leniency.

“We need him,” Erica Hawkins, a teenage sect member, told state District Judge John Weeks.

“I know and believe him to be innocent. … He would never do anything like that,” former sect member Meleana Segura said.

But Callahan County District Attorney Shane Deel read some of Hawkins’ jailhouse letters showing a growing obsession with another young House of Yahweh member he has chosen as his fifth bride, Deel said.

“He not only abused … (this victim) with the speculum he bought from a sex toy Web site — he’s got an eye on another girl. He’s got four wives, all on welfare because he doesn’t support them, and he wants to add the girl,” Deel said.

Defense attorney C. Tony Wright told the judge that Hawkins has turned his troubled childhood into a useful adulthood but is being vilified because of his religious beliefs.

“He is capable of doing good and deserves a sentence on the low end of the guideline,” Wright said, suggesting five to six years, before the sentencing Wednesday.

Hawkins’ other charges — including aggravated perjury, indecency with a child and bigamy — will remain pending until his appeals on this case are exhausted, Deel said.

The sect’s leader, self-proclaimed prophet Yisrayl Hawkins, faces trial next year on bigamy and child labor charges. He is accused of having more than 20 wives, performing polygamous weddings and forcing about 40 children to work at his 44-acre compound in rural Clyde near Abilene. Hundreds of his followers have legally changed their last names to Hawkins.

Technorati Tags: Yedidiyah Hawkins, House of Yahweh, Yisrayl Hawkins

Source: Abilene Reporter-News

Jury selection for the trial of House of Yahweh leader Yisrayl Hawkins has been pushed back.

According to 42nd District clerks, the trial was “not ready” for the originally set date.

Hawkins, 73, is charged with bigamy in Callahan County and was seeking a venue change for his pending trial.

Judge John Weeks decided Aug. 20 to carry forward the hearing to jury selection.

No new date was set for the pending jury selection and trial, but district clerks said the selection could be as late as November.

Source: Abilene Reporter-News

Judge John Weeks decided Wednesday afternoon to carry forward the change-of-venue hearing to jury selection for House of Yahweh leader Yisrayl Hawkins.

Members of the Abilene media testified at the hearing of Hawkins, 73, is charged with bigamy in Callahan County and seeks a venue change for his pending trial.

The judge’s decision Wednesday means he will wait until the jury selection process to determine whether or not to grant the change.

Source: WorldWide Religious News

In his first sermon since being freed from jail, Texas sect leader Yisrayl “Buffalo Bill” Hawkins said his followers are getting ready for global tribulation.

Hawkins is the leader of the House of Yahweh, a religious group that believes in brimstone prophecies, adheres to a lifestyle of abject poverty and is suspected of practicing polygamy, The Dallas Morning News reported Sunday.

“No, we’re not getting ready to kill ourselves,” Hawkins said. “We’re getting ready to live through the greatest tribulation that ever will be.”

The 73-year-old Hawkins was arrested and indicted in February. He is facing four counts of promoting bigamy.

Shannon Edmonds, director of governmental relations for the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, believes the Callahan County case will be the first prosecution of a polygamy suspect under bigamy statutes that were strengthened in 2005.

“They can be very difficult cases to prove because there is no CSI-type evidence. There’s no blood. There’s no DNA,” Edmonds said.

Hawkins also faces a misdemeanor charge of breaking child labor laws, accused of having up to 40 children working weekdays “in the fields, in a canning operation, in a cafeteria and in the butter making process.”

From: ABC News

If nuclear war doesn’t begin next Thursday, June 12, as he has predicted, self-proclaimed Texas prophet Yisrayl “Buffalo Bill” Hawkins will be left to face a widening investigation of his activities, including several felony counts of bigamy.
hawkins

“When you’re violating the law, then you can’t hide behind that religious shield and you’re gonna be held accountable,” said Shane Deel, the district attorney in Callahan County, Texas, who has filed the criminal counts against Hawkins.

Hawkins, 73, the founder of the House of Yahweh religion, located on a 44-acre tract outside Abilene, has been charged with helping others become bigamists, and bigamy himself.

There are allegations he has as many as 30 wives, according to Deel.

“I’ve got a wife, one wife,” Hawkins said in an interview broadcast on 20/20 Friday.

Idiotic CNN host Nancy Grace displays some rather biased “reporting” in this here video.  The tactic is interesting, although not exactly novel:

1. Invite guest on show, knowing full well taht pending legal proceedings will hamper guest’s ability to answer certain questions.
2. Aggressively ask those questions that you know will not be answered.
3. Show indignation that the guest is “avoiding the question.”

I suppose Yisrayl Hawkins was able to say what he wanted to say, that he doesn’t promote bigamy, but I suspect most people will view it as a win for the idiotic interviewer.  It is her show, after all.

Video – Breaking News Videos from CNN.com

In his first live interview ever, alleged polygamist leader Yisrayl Hawkins speaks with Nancy Grace.

“They didn’t get Al Capone because of all the people he murdered and
all the organized crime. They got him for tax evasion,” Deel said.

Detroit Free Press

In his first sermon after leaving jail, Yisrayl (Buffalo Bill) Hawkins was folksy, paternal and apocalyptic.
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“No, we’re not getting ready to kill ourselves,” said the man who calls himself the prophet of the House of Yahweh, a barbed-wire kingdom of brimstone prophecies and abject poverty 15 miles southeast of Abilene, Texas.

“We’re getting ready to live through the greatest tribulation that ever will be.”

The troubles facing Hawkins may soon provide Texas’ first major test of strengthened anti-polygamy laws, just 150 miles from the spotlight on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Eldorado.

The 73-year-old Hawkins was arrested and indicted in February — less than two months before raids on the Eldorado compound — and charged with promoting bigamy, which was made a felony in 2005 after the unrelated FLDS group arrived from Utah.

“This will probably be the first case of its kind,” said Callahan County Attorney Shane Deel, who began investigating the House of Yahweh after taking office in 2005.