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 am a harmless little fuzzball. I just got my hair cut.
Where are the indictments? Where are the charges of wrongdoing? I am waiting and waiting so justice can be served, appropriately and constitutionally. I will continue to “watch”, like it or not. I am doing you a favor, but I don’t expect to be thanked.
The DESERET NEWS sources the story to the government.
Half an hour or an hour later, we changed horses, and took supper with a Mormon "Destroying Angel."
"Destroying Angels " as I understand it, are Latter-Day Saints who are set apart by the Church to conduct permanent disappearances of obnoxious citizens. I had heard a deal about these Mormon Destroying Angels and the dark and bloody deeds they had done, and when I entered this one's house I had my shudder all ready. But alas for all our romances, he was nothing but a loud, profane, offensive, old blackguard! He was murderous enough, possibly, to fill the bill of a Destroyer, but would you have any kind of an Angel devoid of dignity? Could you abide an Angel in an unclean shirt and no suspenders? Could you respect an Angel with a horse-laugh and a swagger like a buccaneer?
Great post!
susie
Ok, we will watch together. Watch as verb, not noun.
“The DESERET NEWS sources the story to the government.”
If you heard that the Judge had extra security, just where would you go to get the exact details?
The media (whatever media source you would like to specify) has been totally unbiased in this case?
[
>> Your position appears to be that the FLDS did no wrong
No, not exactly. Not even close!
YOUR position is that my position appears to be that the FLDS did no wrong.
Yet, somehow, inexplicitly, in the face of evidence to the contrary, you continue to claim that you are not a retard.
I rest my case. Give me the rent money for my hotel on Park Place and retire from the game.]
To make this more rational, I suggest you simply list the things that you think the FLDS did wrong, that way you can never be accused of being a sympathizer.
As far as my being a retard, it has been my experience that those most unsure of their own mental capabilities often try to deflect attention from their deficits through taunts aimed at provoking reaction. Just a thought to consider.
Finally, for those who either hope for or hope against some big civil judgment against the state in favor of the FLDS — You might as well quit hoping. It ain’t going to happen.
——hope for or hope against -—
Which ain’t going to happen?......... Or are you trying to say there will be something in the middle, a small to medium civil judgement?
>> To make this more rational
I was wrong, you CAN at least spell “rational”! Who knew? But why would you want to start now?
>> I suggest you simply list the things that you think the FLDS did wrong, that way you can never be accused of being a sympathizer.
Ah, so now we’re negotiating my release from suspicion? ROFL! Tell me, FRiend, who will evaluate this list? Perhaps you can draw up a sample confession... er, I mean, list, and after sufficient coercion I can simply sign that one? You’re a piece of work... something right out of Orwell. P.S. I really don’t take you that seriously.
>> As far as my being a retard
Hey, thanks for owning up to it, but I don’t hold your retardation against you... it takes a big, if slow, person to admit it.
Well, aren’t we all so lucky to have you here to advise us on how to think and what to study! . I will be sure to consult you in the future for my schedule and reading list.
As long as you are recommending what I should let "sink in," here is a little something else my "skull" thought up that you can make additional juvenile remarks about. Until now they have not been claiming tax exempt status, but they just might change that as well and cut off a rather lucrative and steady supply of cash to the county as well. So not only is the county going broke from their ill advised "raid" and Judge Barbara's power trip, what money they do have is liable to dry up as well. Currently that comes to about $450,000. They paid about $200,000 last year.
I suppose I "don't bother" to understand a bit of simple economics either. The Sheriff and the county are making noises about confiscating the property to cover the cost of their raid and CPS wrongful custody of the kids, only to discover that hey, so far, no one has actually been arrested yet to justify that. And if they think public opinion is against LE and the county now just let them take a stab at confiscating the now rather valuable facility. Which, by the way, if they do, will also cut off the tax money to the county.
It’s just one stupid move after another from them.
Another of the Child Molestor Cabal denying the existance of the Evil Eye. Don't you know the FLDS have superpowers
Will someone again point out to me that the CPS supporters are not using the Salem Witchtrial Playbook. I keep forgetting why the thought they are keeps reoccuring to me.
I agree with most of what you said, but you failed to address the 31 adults that CPS rounded up, or the resulting lawsuits that are sure to be filed.
If I were a law-enforcement officer and were asked to be a bodyguard for a judge, any judge, I would immediately consult my list of people for whom I would be willing to die in order to protect them. It’s a short list.
Unfortunately, I don’t see any judges on it.
It seems reasonable to me that a judge ought to be liable to at least someone for a judicial act, especially one as egregious as the one in this article, despite what the Supreme Court - another collection of judges - once ruled. The government, after all, is supposed to have a healthy fear of its citizens.
Need another example? Think Piniellas County, FL and George Greer.
A thread about the dossier on Big Willie and gang
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2029532/posts
Can’t you see I care. I don’t want the mental gymnastics to go so far as to have people get hurt. Just looking out for you.
Watch out now, you might get one of those evil stares the state is so afraid of.
I really doubt that they would attack any government official, especially in this climate. They operate in the shadows and will do anything to prevent attention being drawn to them.
Cordially,
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