Polygamist Sect Leader Convicted of Sexual Assault

New York Times ^ | November 6, 2009 | JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr. and JULIA PRESTON

[La Lydia]

ELDORADO, Tex. — One of the leaders of a polygamist sect was convicted Thursday night of sexually assaulting an under-age girl whom the church elders had assigned to him as one of his nine wives. A jury of seven men and five women deliberated 2 hours 20 minutes before returning a verdict of guilty in the first trial of a dozen members of the Yearning for Zion Ranch just outside this rural hamlet in West Texas.

The defendant, Raymond M. Jessop, 38, seemed unperturbed as Judge Barbara Walther of State District Court read the verdict. Mr. Jessop was immediately handcuffed and taken into custody by the Schleicher County sheriff. He smiled and nodded to several other men in his religious group, who sat grave-faced as he was led away. Mr. Jessop will be sentenced after a second hearing before the jury on Monday. He faces penalties ranging from 2 years’ probation to 20 years in prison.

His lawyer, Mark Stevens, declined to say if he would appeal, though the defense had argued in hearings before trial that the state illegally seized the church documents that were crucial to the case during a raid on the ranch in April 2008.

Mr. Jessop is one of the most prominent members of a breakaway sect that has at least four other communities in Arizona and Utah. He is close to Warren S. Jeffs, the self-styled prophet and leader of the sect.

Mr. Jeffs has been convicted in Utah as an accomplice to rape, a charge related to his role in ordering the “spiritual marriage” of an under-age girl to one of his followers. He is in jail in Arizona awaiting trial on similar charges and has been charged in Texas with sexual assault and bigamy...

[La Lydia]

Good for that jury. I vote for 20 years. Young girls are not personal property.

[edcoil]

“ELDORADO, Tex. — this rural hamlet in West Texas.”

Obviously someone that never visited the place.

[ansel12]

This breakaway sect needs to realize that America made Mormons stop this stuff a long time ago, it was officially ended 21 years before President Reagan was born.

[Colofornian]

From the NY Times article written by Mr. James C. McKinley, Jr.: The trial of Mr. Jessop offered a rare glimpse of the inner workings of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a group that split from the Mormon Church.

#1: Mr. McKinley, the fLDS still consider themselves "Mormon."
#2: Mr. McKinley, for clarification purposes, you need to point out that NONE -- of these Texas fundamentalist Mormons were EVER part of the mainstream "Mormon church"; therefore these members NEVER "split" from anything. (The fLDS church has been around for about 60 years)

[Night Hides Not]

This oughta be good for a couple of episodes in the next season of "Big Love".

Lest anyone be offended.../sarcasm