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A West Jordan jury has convicted 19-year-old Parley Jeffs Dutson, one of the FLDS polygamous sect's so-called "lost boys" exiles, in the rape and murder of his 15-year-old girlfriend. A jury of 10 delivered a verdict at about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, finding that Dutson was guilty of one count of murder and one count of aggravated sexual assault, both first-degree felonies.

new clothing brand may be born out of the Texas raid on a polygamous sect. FLDS women for the first time are offering their handmade, distinctive style of children's clothes to the public through the Web site fldsdress.com. Launched initially to provide Texas authorities with clothing for FLDS children in custody, the online store now is aimed at helping their mothers earn a living. The venture, which has already drawn queries from throughout the U.S., is banking on interest in modest clothes, curiosity and charity to be a success. "We don't know what to expect but we have had a...

SANDY, UTAH -- The polygamist sect preached that Dan Fischer was a heretic who had turned his back on God's chosen children. .... But for Enos Deloy Steed, who was banished at age 17 for kissing a girl, Fischer was like a guardian angel, the kindest man he had ever met. .... "He's a remarkable man," Utah Atty. Gen. Mark Shurtleff said of Fischer. "He has done more for the lost boys than everyone else combined. I know he doesn't like to brag about it, but he has spent millions."

Schleicher County, home of the Yearning For Zion Ranch, doesn’t feel it should be responsible for the enormous costs of April’s raid on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints compound. Kerr County agrees. This week, Kerr County commissioners approved a resolution in support of Schleicher County that asks the state to pick up the tab on the Child Protective Services investigation against the polygamist sect. “We are asking the state to indemnify our county,” said Schleicher County judge Johnny Griffin. “Not one person from my county was involved, other than the sheriff who received the initial...

SALT LAKE CITY 26 June 2008 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints took steps today to better inform the public about differences between the Salt Lake City-based church and the polygamous group in Texas that calls itself the FLDS. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - whose members are often called "Mormons" - placed a series of video interviews on its web site to illustrate the differences between its own members in Texas and members of the isolated polygamous group. The Texas Mormons featured on the video interviews include a director of community theater, an orthopedic...

SAN ANGELO, Texas — A court-appointed attorney for a 16-year-old FLDS girl caught up in a grand jury investigation will go to court today under armed guard. Natalie Malonis confirmed to the Deseret News she has received death threats since she sought a restraining order against a high-profile member of the Fundamentalist LDS Church to prevent him from contacting her client. "I've been getting death threats and I am being provided a security detail," she said this morning. "That was not even at my request. Law enforcement recognized the need for it." Malonis said she did not know who has...

Sect elder suspected of intimidating a witness By Paul A. Anthony (Contact) Originally published 03:16 p.m., June 23, 2008Updated 03:21 p.m., June 23, 2008 Willie Jessop With a grand jury set to meet this week to consider possible indictments in alleged sexual abuse within the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, attorneys are likely to square off Tuesday in San Angelo over whether a sect elder has been intimidating and coercing a possible witness.The 2 p.m. hearing in the Tom Green County Courthouse will determine whether a temporary restraining order against Willie Jessop issued Friday by...

An FLDS teenager is taking a dispute with her attorney public, claiming the attorney is making her life "harder" and asking the lawyer to "please leave me alone." Teresa Jeffs, 16, a daughter of polygamous sect leader Warren S. Jeffs, gave The Salt Lake Tribune on Sunday a copy of an e-mail she sent Natalie Malonis of Flower Mound, Texas, after seeing news reports about her case. On Friday, Malonis won a court order banning contact between an FLDS spokesman and the girl. "The most help you will be to me now is for you to step aside and let...

The legal web surrounding the Fundamentalist LDS Church's real-estate holdings arm continues to grow, with subpoenas, filings, counterfilings and depositions under way. Lawyers for a former child bride who testified against FLDS leader Warren Jeffs want to keep the United Effort Plan Trust on the hook for any potential damages arising from her multimillion-dollar civil lawsuit against the polygamous sect. In a motion opposing the UEP Trust's request for summary judgment, attorneys for Elissa Wall argue the UEP was intertwined with the FLDS Church and leadership. "The Church and the Trust were always administered by the same person to achieve...

Al Holm lived his entire life as a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints — until he confessed two years ago to being addicted to online porn sites and was expelled. Now, contrite, lonely and grieving the loss of his family, he's trying to work his way back into the secretive polygamist sect. But he can't find anyone with the authority to pardon him.

Six-year-old Samuel Jeffs has only one leg. On April 3 he was taken away from his home and his mother by the Texas Child Protective Services (CPS). His father, Warren Jeffs, is in prison, convicted in Utah of being an accomplice to child rape. On May 19, Samuel’s mother, Sharon Barlow, is sitting in a San Angelo courtroom with her attorney to hear a review of Samuel’s care. She is wearing an ankle-length turquoise dress, cut roughly in the style of a 19th-century prairie housewife’s. She has reddish hair, a pointed nose, sleepy eyes and poor skin. The hair rises...

A lawyer for the 16-year-old daughter of polygamist group leader Warren Jeffs is requesting a restraining order to prevent a spokesman for the group from intimidating and harassing the girl. The request for a restraining order against Willie Jessop was filed in San Angelo today by Natalie Malonis. The teenager was one of the hundreds of children taken from the Yearning For Zion Ranch by Texas Child Protective Services in April because investigators believed they were exposed to abuse by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Her name is not being disclosed because Malonis...

Utah birth records sought in probe of FLDS couples' ages Utah birth certificates may be playing a significant role in an investigation into possible sexual abuse at a polygamous sect's Texas ranch, The Salt Lake Tribune has learned.     An Arizona investigator requested copies of birth certificates for approximately 25 FLDS couples from the YFZ Ranch - about 50 people in all - to confirm their dates of birth, according to Jeff Duncan, director of the Utah Office of Vital Records and Statistics.     Gary Engels, a special investigator for Mohave County, Ariz., made the request for information first...

A grand jury is scheduled to meet in Eldorado, Texas, next week and could begin considering evidence from the raid on the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch. The Eldorado Success newspaper reported Wednesday that the Schleicher County grand jury is expected to begin considering the first criminal cases that could come from the April 3 raid. The Texas Attorney General's Office declined to comment on any proceedings. "In Texas, grand jury proceedings are secret proceedings by law," attorney general's spokesman Jerry Strickland said in an e-mail Wednesday to the Deseret News. "We can not and will not comment on such...

WEST JORDAN, Utah (ABC 4 News) - A young man raised in the FLDS community is now on trial for murder. Parley Jeffs Dutson is one of the so-called "Lost Boys," exiled as a teen from the polygamous community. Now he is on trial for his former girlfriend's murder. In court on Tuesday, disturbing details were released about what happened at a party last April where 15-year-old Kara Hopkins was shot after allegedly refusing sex. Sometime around 2:30 a.m. on April 7, 2007, a seasoned security guard and his partner found a scene that still brings him to tears. On...

If a person with a strong Protestant background and no education in the doctrines of the LDS Church were to read Chapter 4 of Mormonism 101, they would come away with the feeling that the LDS doctrine of a premortal life had been thoroughly discussed and discredited. This is not a fair assessment, however, as neither Bill McKeever nor Eric Johnson examine much of the evidence available in support of the LDS position.It can be stated right up front that the authors do a fairly good job of concisely stating the views of the LDS Church in relation to preexistence2...

A Salt Lake City attorney has asked three Utah officials to "immediately correct" misstatements about FLDS members in profiles provided to Texas authorities. The profiles, given to Texas law enforcement prior to custody hearings for some 450 children from the polygamous sect's YFZ Ranch in Eldorado, were based on "unsubstantiated or from unreliable sources," said Rod Parker, an FLDS spokesman, in a letter distributed today. "As public servants, sworn to serve and protect the citizens, the spreading of slanderous statements such as these jeopardizes the trust of county officials, state officials, law enforcement and government officials of neighboring states, and...

Gospel Teachings About Lying by Elder Dallin H. Oaks This fireside address was given to faculty, students, and alumni of BYU on September 12, 1993. My brothers and sisters. I am glad to be with you tonight. Before I get to my prepared remarks, I want to say something about the faculty of our Law School. Soon after I went into law teaching, Edward H. Levi, who was then dean of the University of Chicago Law School (later a distinguished attorney general of the United States), became provost of the university and appointed me associate dean and acting dean...

KUTV airwaves turned into a verbal boxing ring, Thursday night, when FLDS Spokesperson Willie Jessop and Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff exchanged heated words. Thursday’s quarrel was not the first confrontation between the two public figures. In a letter --written by Jessop and sent to President Bush-- Jessop accuses Shurtleff of furthering “efforts to exterminate the FLDS and boasting that he has driven them out of Utah.” (Click here to read the FLDS Letter To Pres. Bush) In a live 2NEWS interview at 5 p.m., Shurtleff called Jessop a “liar” and threatened him saying, “we put Warren Jeffs in prison...

As Texas officials sort evidence that could lead to new criminal charges against polygamous sect leader Warren S. Jeffs, charges against him in another state are shrinking. Just two of five cases originally brought against the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints leader in Arizona are still in play, and a significant portion of those two cases have been dismissed. Now, a judge has set a July 11 hearing on whether the remaining charges, based on Jeffs' alleged role conducting marriages for underage girls, came out of a tainted grand jury proceeding. Defense attorney Michael Piccarreta argues...

FORT WORTH, Texas — The cost of the April raid on a polygamist compound in West Texas is expected to top $14 million, about one-third of it in lawyers' fees, according to a published analysis of state records. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram published its findings Saturday after reviewing more than 400 pages of invoices, e-mails and other state records that it obtained under an open-records law request. More invoices for overtime, travel and professional services are expected to boost the final tab, the records indicate.

Lawyers for the Fundamentalist LDS Church are preparing for what could become a series of lawsuits against Texas authorities for the raid on the YFZ Ranch. "There is a desire and a need for compensation, so I think you will see something come," said Rod Parker, a Salt Lake attorney who is acting as a spokesman for the FLDS people. The lawsuits would likely focus on the removal of the children, the raid itself and damage to the FLDS Church's first-ever temple on the Eldorado property.

SALT LAKE CITY — A high-ranking member of a polygamist sect met with the Utah Attorney General's Office to discuss the recent raid at a Texas ranch. Willie Jessop met with Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's chief deputy and other staff members Thursday, The Salt Lake Tribune reported today. Jessop hopes the meeting will "begin to open doors" with Utah authorities. In April, after allegations of abuse, more than 400 children were removed from an Eldorado, Texas, ranch owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

A week after 440 children from a polygamist sect were reunited with their parents, a majority still haven’t returned to the Yearning for Zion Ranch in West Texas. Child Protective Services spokesman Patrick Crimmins said 178 children are living in 33 households in the San Antonio area and 143 children are living in 30 households at the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado. The remaining 19 children are scattered across Texas, but Crimmins said CPS officials are not providing more details about their whereabouts to protect their privacy. Under the court order signed last week by District Judge Barbara Walther, families cannot...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) ― The home of the San Angelo judge who ordered the removal of 440 children from a polygamist ranch is under guard after Utah and Arizona authorities warned of "enforcers" from the sect, a newspaper reported Wednesday. Police assigned to Judge Barbara Walther's San Angelo house were provided dossiers and photos of 16 men and women deemed a threat, the Deseret News said. "There are many individuals who are willing to give up their life for the cause and you can never underestimate what a religious fanatic is capable of," said e-mails obtained from the Washington...

Washington County sends dossiers of select FLDS members to Texas officials Published: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 12:06 a.m. MDT Top row, from left: William Roy Jessop; Ruth Cooke; Lindsay Hammon Barlow. Bottom row, from left: William E. Jessop; Lyle Steed Jeffs; David S. Allred. The Washington (Utah) County Sheriff's Office sent Texas authorities dossiers of several FLDS members "who may engage in acts of intimidation or violence again law enforcement and/or potential witnesses." The information, obtained by the Deseret News through Texas public records laws, includes intelligence compiled during Warren Jeffs' 2007 trial in St. George for performing an...

Texas police have been standing guard outside the home of the Texas judge who ordered the removal of all the FLDS children from the YFZ Ranch. The heightened security was ordered after authorities from Utah and Arizona warned them to be on the lookout for FLDS "enforcers," the Deseret News has learned. Every officer guarding Judge Barbara Walther's San Angelo house was provided dossiers and photos of 16 FLDS men and women whom Utah police deemed a threat. However, e-mails obtained by the Deseret News from the Washington County Sheriff's Office warned Texas authorities to be suspicious of everybody, not...

COLORADO SPRINGS — A court hearing was delayed at the last-minute for the woman considered a "person of interest" in the phone call that sparked the massive raid on the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch. Rozita Swinton, 33, was scheduled to appear in an El Paso County courtroom on Friday for a pre-trial hearing on a misdemeanor charge of making a false report to police. The hearing was postponed at the request of her defense attorney. "He asked for a continuance due to the amount of discovery in this case," said prosecutor Frederick Stein. "I did not object to...

As a district judge heard the state's case for keeping children from a polygamous sect in custody, hundreds of electronic and telephone messages were pouring into Texas Gov. Rick Perry's office. They came from around the country - including Utah - and most made the same point: Send the children home to their mothers. By April 17, three days after separating mothers from their children, the office had received 449 messages opposed to the removal of the children and just 32 from people who supported it. "If you do nothing to protect these rights, you can be assured that you...

Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs' defense team wants to keep any evidence seized from the raid on the YFZ Ranch out of his upcoming trial in Arizona. In papers filed in Mohave County, Ariz., Superior Court late Thursday, Jeffs' defense lawyers put the court on notice that they intend to fight to suppress "any and all evidence obtained from the raid and the search of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS) property in the state of Texas." "It is becoming more and more evident that the Texas raid was based on a hoax telephone call containing false...

Texas Gov. takes blame if FLDS raid 'stepped across some legal line' The Salt Lake Tribune Article Last Updated: 06/06/2008 02:15:33 PM MDT Texas Gov. Rick Perry says he accepts personal blame if Texas "stepped across some legal line" in its raid on a polygamous ranch, while at the same time defending the removal of more than 400 children from the FLDS' Yearning for Zion Ranch in April. In a report today in the Dallas Morning News, Perry said, "I still think that the state of Texas has an obligation to young women who are forced into marriage and underage...

Gov. Rick Perry hinted Thursday that members of a polygamist sect whose children were recently returned amid a botched sex-abuse investigation should pack their bags, a newspaper reported. Perry, who was in La Baule, France, for a European business conference, said that the state of Texas has an obligation to protect young women from being forced into marriage and underage sex, The Dallas Morning News reported in its online edition. He also warned members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that child sex abuse won't be tolerated and even suggested that followers of the renegade...

COLORADO CITY, Arizona (ABC 4 News) - Since the raid by Texas authorities on the FLDS ranch, Willie Jessop has become the voice of the FLDS people. It's assumed that Jessop is a leader, perhaps Warren Jeff's right hand man. Jessop is Jeff's body guard. "Willie was always the strong-arm man. He was the guy who would show up just to intimidate people," said Sam Brower, a private investigator. He is useful to FLDS leaders. "They put him up front because he is the type that will say or do anything," said Brower. Ross Chatwin was one of the few...

SAN ANGELO, Texas - All the children taken from the Yearning for Zion Ranch are out of state custody and have been reunited with parents, the sect and state officials said Wednesday. Just 53 children had been waiting at shelters Wednesday morning - by the end of business Tuesday, 397 FLDS children had been released to their parents. "It's gone pretty smoothly," said Patrick Crimmins, a spokesman for the Department of Family and Protective Services. But also with some sadness for caretakers who watched over the children for nearly six weeks. Dan Adams, director of Cal Farley's Boys Ranch in...

Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday that he'd take personal responsibility if Texas "stepped across some legal line" in the April raid on a West Texas polygamous sect's ranch, but he also defended the state's action.

The lies to justify this outrageous behavior started from the beginning. First, it was an affidavit from police officers about the children all being in danger to the brain-washing culture of the FLDS. Then it was the accusation that bedsheets were found "used" in the FLDS temple. Then it was the alleged discovery of dozens of pregnant underage girls. --- Bit-by-bit we have seen the accusations made by law enforcement to support their Nazi-like detainment of a religious group and confinement of others lose credibility. First, we learned that these underage pregnant women were actually adults -- in one case...

Removing 460 children from a polygamist sect compound and then reuniting them with their families will cost Texas $7 million, according to the state Department of Family and Protective Services. The children were ordered returned to their families this week after the Texas Supreme Court found that the state did not have enough evidence to show that abuse was happening at the Yearning for Zion ranch near Eldorado. Custody Battle Over Sect ChildrenMike Stone, ReutersA woman and two children from a polygamist sect in Eldorado, Texas, prepare to return home Tuesday after sect children were ordered reunited with their families....

YFZ RANCH, Texas - Anne Sweeter Jessop puts her arms around her mother's neck and hangs on, her smile a Texas-mile wide. She is home. Her mother is here. So are her father and three brothers. And that is all this 3-year-old cares about. A day after a district judge gave the go-ahead for parents to reclaim their children, families are trickling back to the YFZ Ranch outside Eldorado. Edson Jessop and his wife Zavenda Young were among the first to return. The couple were on their way to Waco to visit Ephraim, 7, and Zachery, 9, on Monday when...

State officials, fearing a violent reaction from members of a West Texas polygamist sect, considered a secret plan to haul hundreds of children and their mothers to Midlothian to be separated, internal e-mails show. But a judge vetoed the plan. They also worried that mothers would try to make a "run" from the shelter with their children, feared a rampage of infections among the families and fretted about the fear of violence and state resources being overwhelmed by events. More than 1,500 pages of e-mails between the governor's office and Child Protective Services, obtained by The Dallas Morning News under...

ELDORADO, Texas — He was the man at the gates in the white cowboy hat and the folksy southern drawl. Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran was one of the few outsiders whom the FLDS would initially allow onto the YFZ Ranch, and he cultivated a relationship with them. That relationship has been severely strained in the aftermath of the raid on the YFZ Ranch. "I did not have the power to step in and stop this," Doran said. "The state of Texas had an investigation. They had a call, an outcry of a child they had to investigate and we...

YFZ RANCH, Texas - Anne Sweeter Jessop puts her arms around her mother's neck and hangs on, her smile a Texas-mile wide. She is home. Her mother is here. So are her father and three brothers. And that is all this 3-year-old cares about.

CORPUS CHRISTI - On Monday, 129 polygamist sect children across the state were returned to their parents.All but one child taken from a Schleicher County polygamist ranch and being housed at a Corpus Christi shelter were released to family after a court order Monday vacated state custody. The remaining Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints child is expected to be released today, state officials said.Twenty of the 21 youths left the Ark Assessment Center and Emergency Shelter after the court determined family could begin picking up members 10 a.m. Monday. In Abilene, nine children were returned from...

ELDORADO, TEXAS -- As officials haggled Friday over how to return more than 400 children to their parents, it was becoming increasingly clear that Texas' audacious attempt to rein in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints had backfired -- and become a lesson in the difficulty of cracking down on the 10,000-member polygamist sect.... Authorities raided the FLDS compound in April after receiving an anonymous phone call. Although they did not find the caller, who said she was a minor being sexually abused on the compound -- the call appears to have been a hoax --...

For nearly 10 years, the FLDS withstood government pressure and refused to make any public concession on its marriage practices. That changed Monday when the polygamous sect released a four-paragraph statement vowing to abide by marriage age laws in all states. Spokesman Willie Jessop read the declaration, saying it had been issued by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Asked who authorized it, Jessop said, "Joseph Smith." He also said he was unaware if FLDS leader Warren S. Jeffs had any hand in crafting the statement. Here is the statement: * The church's policies regarding marriage...

By MICHELLE ROBERTS, Associated Press Writer 1 minute ago SAN ANGELO, Texas - More than 400 children taken from a polygamist sect's ranch two months ago began returning to the arms of their tearful parents Monday, hours after a judge bowed to a state Supreme Court ruling that the seizure was not justified. "It's just great day," said Nancy Dockstader, whose chin quivered and eyes filled with tears as she embraced her 9-year-old daughter, Amy, outside a foster-care center in Gonzales, about 65 miles east of San Antonio. "We're so grateful." Her daughter and four other children were among the...

The company responsible for testing the DNA of hundreds of parents and children living on the YFZ Ranch began returning the results to state district court today, the state Attorney General's Office said. Additional reports likely will be delivered throughout the week - each report detailing the mother and father of each of the roughly 450 children involved in the massive child-custody case, said attorney general spokeswoman Janece Rolfe. "Reports have been delivered to the court," Rolfe said. "Each child has a report. That report will state who the mother is," and an additional report will detail the child's paternity....

ELDORADO, Texas -- Hours after signing an order releasing FLDS children from state custody, 51st District Judge Barbara Walther arrived at the Schleicher County Courthouse in Eldorado to swear in a grand jury that may be considering indictments related to the polygamous sect. By the end of the day, 18 indictments had been issued, although no details were immediately available. The number was more than the usual; it is more typical for five to 15 indictments to be returned, a court clerk said. Walther arrived at at the Eldorado courthouse at 12:30 p.m., accompanied by two bailiffs and her court...

Judge Walther issues emergency order keeping one child, an alleged sexual abuse victim, from returning to the YFZ Ranch. READ EMERGENCY ORDER: http://www.myeldorado.net/graphics/Motion%20and%20Order%20to%20stay%20enforcement-1.pdf

ELDORADO, TEXAS -- As officials haggled Friday over how to return more than 400 children to their parents, it was becoming increasingly clear that Texas' audacious attempt to rein in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints had backfired -- and become a lesson in the difficulty of cracking down on the 10,000-member polygamist sect. .... The town also was abuzz over an anticipated mass voter registration by the FLDS. Hours after the court first ruled against the state, two members of the sect walked into the county clerk's office and requested 300 voter registration forms, a...

SAN ANGELO, Texas -- A Texas judge today signed an order that said hundreds of children seized during a raid on a polygamous sect's ranch must immediately be released to their families. Signed by 51st District Judge Barbara Walther, the order provides for parents to retrieve their children from the various foster care facilities where they have been placed beginning today at 8 a.m. and extending through 8 p.m.