Posted on 06/11/2008 4:59:10 AM PDT by Flo Nightengale
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 just those on the list.
"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," according to the e-mails, which were obtained through Texas' public records law.
Police were also keeping close tabs on witnesses, as the "enforcers" might try to "intimidate kids and other witnesses, watch foster homes where kids may be placed, bribe witnesses, appear at court hearings, and make attempts to contact FLDS kids," according to an e-mail from an investigator with the Tom Green County District Attorney's Office.
Law enforcement in Texas has been on alert since a Fundamentalist LDS Church-related Web site published Walther's home address and work and home telephone numbers.
Walther signed the original order to remove all of the FLDS children from the YFZ Ranch in April and place them in state custody.
An attorney for the FLDS Church said its followers are peaceful people and that law enforcement has nothing to worry about.
"Have they ever seen an act of intimidation or violence against law enforcement from the FLDS community at all, ever?" Rod Parker told the Deseret News. "Before they start spreading those kinds of rumors, they ought to be able to ID an example of them ever doing that in the past."
As for the threat to "pay Ms. Walther's home a visit," on the site www.flds.ws, Parker said the site is not sanctioned by the FLDS Church. The site is run by Bill Medvecky, a Fort Myers, Fla., man who has donated to the fund for captive FLDS children, Parker said.
Once Parker told church leaders that the post could be construed as a threat, they contacted Medvecky and had him remove the judge's address, he said.
However, Walther's work and phone numbers are still listed on the Web site. The site calls Walther the "leader of the Gestapo," and includes a link to a petition to impeach the judge.
Medvecky doesn't see the harm in publishing Walther's address on the Internet. After all, it's in the phone book, he said.
"They are not confrontational whatsoever. I am," Medvecky told the Deseret News. "They are not me, and they have nothing to do with the site. We support them 100 percent."
Texas law enforcement wasn't aware of the threat until early June, but the dossiers "regarding any FLDS members who may engage in acts of intimidation or violence against law enforcement and/or potential witnesses" started circulating April 16.
The dossiers track individuals in FLDS leader Warren Jeffs' circle of trust, as well as a few "wild cards" that make Utah authorities "uncomfortable."
The list includes Willie Jessop, who has acted as one of the main spokesmen for the FLDS Church after the April 3 raid on the Yearning For Zion Ranch. The dossier calls him — William Roy Jessop — "the most serious threat associated with the FLDS religion."
Others included on the list are Lyle Steed Jeffs, Warren Jeffs' brother; and Lindsay Hammon Barlow, who witnesses described as Warren Jeffs' "muscle," among others.
"It is very obvious that Washington County officials do not let the facts get in the way of a good story," Willie Jessop said. "These are the types of paranoid allegations that can hurt a lot of innocent people if they are allowed to go unchecked.
"I don't know what the remedy is, but it should alarm everyone when an investigator does not even bother to fact check what he is supposed to be investigating."
The dossiers include the persons of interests' last known address and possible vehicles.
Washington County sheriff's deputies compiled the dossiers by tracking individuals during Warren Jeffs' 2007 trial, where he was convicted of rape as an accomplice after performing a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin. He was sentenced to a pair of five-to-life prison terms.
Police believe Jessop, also known as "Willie the Thug" or "King Willie" in the dossiers, is the primary FLDS "enforcer" and has a passion for violence, weapons (legal and illegal) and explosives.
On the third day of Warren Jeffs' trial, Jessop was banned from the courthouse after "it was determined he was attempting to intimidate the witnesses, after he was observed numerous (times) staring menacingly at the witnesses," according to the dossiers.
Jessop said he and other FLDS men and women who attended Jeffs' highly publicized trial were there as observers, nothing more.
"The fact that we would show up in court and then to have them turn that around on us shows how biased these public officials are," Jessop said. "There are no facts, no history of violence, not a shred of evidence to support these irresponsible allegations. Not one bit of it is true and these officials know it."
Other FLDS members showed up on the dossiers for a variety of things, from staring down and intimidating witnesses, being an active member of Warren Jeffs' security team, or holding a high rank in the FLDS Church's hierarchy.
Utah police also warned Texas officials of so-called "wild cards" or "religious fanatics," including Ruth Cooke, a woman police said is "blindly devoted to Warren and the FLDS religion," according to the dossiers.
"She is just the kind of person who may be capable of doing something crazy but justified in her head," the dossiers state.
Dee Yeates Jessop is another "intimidating enforcer" who police described as a fanatic who blindly follows Jeffs. Witnesses told police Dee Yeates Jessop is "relatively unimportant" in the church's command structure.
"His social status makes all the more dangerous. What would he do to improve his standing?" according to the dossiers.
Several other high-ranking church officials show up in the dossiers, like William E. Jessop, a high-ranking elder in the FLDS Church, and David Allred, who is involved in the church's finances and is "fairly high in the FLDS pecking order." However, the dossiers said the men were unlikely to be considered a threat, but could be involved in the decision-making process because of their positions of power.
Both Willie Jessop and Parker, who has also acted as a spokesman for the church, discounted the dossiers.
"If they are going to malign people's character like that, they ought to have something better than someone staring at somebody or looking at them funny," Parker said. "This is the same kind of rumor-mongering that I've been complaining about for a long time. These rumors tend to feed on themselves."
I stated what I would like. This is my actual post:
I would like for you to not post to me ever again. After you vile post to me a few days ago, I think that would be for the best.
If that is threatening to you, so be it. I really don't care.
yeah, those stares are spooky scary. cue music. LMAO.
Tell us how you really feel. Scared of prairie dresses too?
They all look alike!
Oh wait, they are all family.
“So you are saying that they shouldn’t have the right to vote? Oh okay.”
I didn’t say that at all. You made it up, out of thin air, and then answered the question yourself.
I was pointing out that they wanted no involvement with ‘the law’, nor politics, and now, since the ‘raid’, they suddenly decided they needed to be patriotic.
I was only questioning why the sudden change of heart.
Why had they waited until ‘now’ to exercise their right? EN MASSE.
Gee, you’ve gone off the deep end lately.
I was the one who posted an article explaining the culture of the FLDS women, and their manner of dress. I think it only fair to consider all sides of the issue, even if I don’t agree with what I see.
However, you seem to have taken to acting like a child, making such ridiculous remarks.
I know voting by these folks makes you nervous and I am remarking on the mental gymnastics you do to find things wrong with every minutia of their actions since the invasion. You are exercising some serious leaps to explain your positions and the positions by the mob here. They have every right to register to vote and put pressure on those that wronged them. You still think all these indictments are coming down on them and you can’t seem to recognize the victimhood the state is playing in all of this.
Scary looks, prairie dresses, legal rights to voting, individual liberty, due process, and all that stuff is fine for you but not for them. If they vote, they must be doing it because yada yada yada yada.....
I continue to be amazed by some of it. Surreal.
You fascinate me because you want to straddle the fence yet take your positions in hypocrisy ever so gently. I just like calling you out.
You want to talk about the deep end?
I am still laughing out loud on your hypothesis that someone inside the sect sought out and searched for a convicted hoaxer so that the convicted hoaxer could call a woman’s shelter in another state and then the shelter could contact the police and CPS. Now that, in my eyes, is the most ridiculous thing I have seen.
“Come on now, just the other day you were doing some serious mental gymnastics trying to allude that someone...”
I even made it clear that none of those options were proveable, at the moment, and they meant ‘nothing’, and that they were far-fetched.
You are trying too hard, trying to dismiss something I wasn’t trying to prove.
>> Would that be why you post a silly banner which is itself propagandistic and without logic, but merely a taunt?
NT:[WOWEE! (the taunt part, anyway)
Yer smarter than I gave you credit for!
Give yerself a big ol’ pat on the back. Your analytical skills are nothing short of awesome.]
Vacuous Taunt followed by Vacuous Taunt. The mark of a true believer in the FLDS.
>> If that is threatening to you, so be it.
It wasn’t a threat that I took seriously (that should be clear).
But it’s also very clear, to me and others, that you intended it as a veiled threat. I can understand that you don’t wish to admit it, but that doesn’t change the fact.
“I know voting by these folks makes you nervous “
No more nervous than when Clinton and Gore brought in 100,000 Mexicans, made them citizens, and told them they were registered to vote as Democrats.
It does make one wonder why it was done EN MASSE.
Why didn’t the YFZ Ranch folks go get their own voting applications?
Oh, I want them to have those rights. Apparently they didn’t have them, under the strict rule of Warren Jeffs.
If there are indictments coming, do you want them stopped?
>> Vacuous Taunt followed by Vacuous Taunt.
OF COURSE! Man you ARE perceptive!
>> The mark of a true believer in the FLDS.
Now, that’s where you’re wrong. The mark of a true believer in the FLDS is this “666” that I have tattooed on my... oh, nevermind.
(Do you seriously not realize how ludicrous such a statement is? And how transparent?)
They didn’t feel the need to vote before, but now are going to exercise their vote, which they are entitled to. That would be my guess to the first question.
Secondly, you seem to be a believer that the fishing expedition is going to pay off in indictments. I doubt it. But, if they do get some indictments then let the prosecution commence. You can’t have unreasonable search and seizure and expect evidence to stand, so it is of my opinion that the state screwed the pooch on doing anything other than line the pockets of these people. Stupid is as stupid does.
Lmao. Just say Boo. They scurry around the ping list like madwomen.
>> I was pointing out that they wanted no involvement with ‘the law’, nor politics, and now, since the ‘raid’, they suddenly decided they needed to be patriotic. I was only questioning why the sudden change of heart. Why had they waited until ‘now’ to exercise their right? EN MASSE.
So, you honestly can’t imagine why a group that has been attacked by “the law” and “politics” might develop a sudden interest in “the law” and “politics”?
Two words come to my mind: “Self Defense”. Seems obvious to me!
I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt that you’re really not that obtuse. However, that requires me to believe that you’re being disingenuous.
“But it’s also very clear, to me and others, that you intended it as a veiled threat. I can understand that you don’t wish to admit it, but that doesn’t change the fact.”
Have you been reading the minds of these mysterious “others”? Some people even hear voices in their heads from mysterious “others.”
Have you been reading JRochelle’s mind too, since you are so sure it’s a “veiled threat”? Just asking.
I entered in to this conversation to note for the record that I am not one of those “others” to which you refer. In fact, I think it would be enlightening if you could share with all of us just who these “others” are.
Or, perhaps it the existence of these “others” that gives you a nervous tick?
Most excellent point. Shouldn’t need to be spoken, but sometimes you gotta type slow so it penetrates. I think you see the mental gymnastics to create boogiemen and subversion to defend the CPS and the state. This whole article is about the state playing victim, from prairie dresses and stern looks. You can’t make this stuff up, but yet, some here can make up the most outlandish tales on a whim. Methinks, some of these people write fiction for a living. A bunch of Stephen Kings living with the light on.
“But, if they do get some indictments then let the prosecution commence. You can’t have unreasonable search and seizure and expect evidence to stand, so it is of my opinion that the state screwed the pooch on doing anything other than line the pockets of these people.”
I’m not arguing with that. What I was arguing about was that to defend your position, you say things like ‘scary prairie dresses’.
It makes you look childish.
>> Have you been reading the minds of these mysterious “others”?
Not today... I took my meds.
>> Some people even hear voices in their heads from mysterious “others.”
I do sometimes, when I don’t take my meds.
>> Have you been reading JRochelle’s mind too, since you are so sure it’s a “veiled threat”? Just asking.
Don’t need to read a mind, just read for meaning. I guess you have to know the context. Anyway, how could I read a mind that’s totally blank? I already told ya, I can do that sometimes, but I took my meds this AM.
>> I entered in to this conversation to note for the record that I am not one of those “others” to which you refer.
Duly noted. Your name has been entered in the Book Of Not Others. Send me your mailing address and I’ll send you a beautiful, leather bound certificate. And a set of steak knives.
>> In fact, I think it would be enlightening if you could share with all of us just who these “others” are.
SORRY DAVE, I CAN’T DO THAT. Why that would give away exactly who all is in the super series Free Republic chapter of Latter-Day Danites! That would be a hugh misteak. My beeber would be stuned. I’m super serial.
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