Posted on 07/29/2008 6:44:21 AM PDT by ricks_place
Five indicted members of a West Texas polygamist sect turned themselves in to authorities Monday to face charges related to allegations of child sexual abuse.
The five men were indicted last week with Warren Jeffs, the already-jailed leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The charges stem from a state investigation into allegations that the sect forced underage girls into marriage and motherhood with much older men.
State authorities raided the FLDS's Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado on April 3, eventually sweeping more than 400 children into foster care until the state Supreme Court said officials had overreached and sent the children home.
Raymond Merrill Jessop, 36, Allan Eugene Keate, 56, Michael George Emack, 57, and Merrill Leroy Jessop, 33, were charged with one count each of sexual assault of a child, a felony punishable by a sentence ranging from five to 99 years or life in prison. Their bond was set at $100,000 each.
Merrill Leroy Jessop also was charged with bigamy, a felony with the same potential penalties as the sexual assault charge.
Lloyd Hammon Barlow, 38, the ranch's onsite physician, was charged with three counts of failure to report child abuse, a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in prison. His bond was set at $5,000.
Attorney General Greg Abbott on Monday declined to provide details of what the men were accused of doing.
Efforts to find the men's attorneys were not immediately successful. A message left for FLDS attorney Rod Parker was not immediately returned.
Abbott said the state would try to have Jeffs extradited to Texas to face a charge of sexual assault of a child.
Last week's charges were the first since the April raid.
(Excerpt) Read more at kansascity.com ...
You are right I don't. I find that it is a courtesy.
Obviously you were a huge supporter of Texas snatching the Women and Children in the first place, all on the basis of a hoax telephone call.
Now that Texas has actually arrested a handful of men, you seem to feel that it is perfectly all right for the women and children to stay in the presence of hundreds of potential abusers.
I am just trying to understand how you justify such blatant hypocrisy? Why aren't you pounding the forums demanding that the women and children be taken away, like you were when you were defending the CPS?
Why do you now think that it is OK to follow the law when before it was OK to break the law?
The law is applied to Planned Parenthood in Texas. What case are you talking about?
We await further justice, while gladly celebrating this bit of justice.
Bang away if it helps. I’m sorry you are running scared. but I’m not going to keep explaining myself to someone that won’t listen.
Are they following it now though? If not bump PP to the top.
There aren’t “hundreds” of men on the flds cult compound. 6 have been indicted and arraigned. More indictments to come, according to Attorney General Abbott.
Good answer.
Those who are defending the Texas officals are the same type who are supporting the imprisonment of that German couple for the simple act of homeschooling their own children.
I know some are uncomfortable with it but if there are women involved that are still ignoring our laws and enabling the men...they need to be arrested too.
Six? they got another one? I thought they only had Five indictments for men from the compound.
How many men are at the compound? If the Attorney General is saying that more indictments are coming shouldn't they take the women and children away now? Why aren't you screaming for that?
From post #38 above:
“Barlow, 38, was indicted on three misdemeanor counts of failure to report child abuse for allegedly overseeing births of children to underage minors on Oct. 14, 2006; Dec. 20, 2006; and May 20, 2007. “
What does the Texas Medical Society say about physicians who are accused of these types of charges? Is their license to practice jeopardized?
Running scared? Puuuleeaze. You had your chance to explain yourself and you know that it would just make you look like a worse hypocrite.
Your agenda is so blatantly obvious, do you really think that everyone is stupid enough to fall for it?
Precisely. They only think that the Constitution should apply to themselves and people who think exactly the same way. For anyone else they are willing to bend the rules in the interests of the 'children'.
They don't seem to realize how this kind of stuff can come back to bite them. Right now I am beginning to think that anyone who is a mainstream Christian is guilty of child abuse if they teach their children their religion. I think I can make a pretty good case : )
I agree. I am quite comfortable with the women standing trial for allowing their children to be abused in ANY way. What decent mother would allow her baby held under water or her teen daughter married to some old man? None that I know of.
Me either...If it isn’t physically possible then ....well...Man must eventually fall asleep.
I’m a little surprised about how quietly the parental consent and the affidavits were implemented. But it does appear that the law is being followed — I hear rumors all the time that there are organized efforts to catch someone cheating on the laws.
There are 6, including Jeffs, who evidently committed some of his rapes on the compound grounds.
No telling how many men or women are on the compound. Originally, the word from the leader - Merrill, was it/ - was that there were only 150 total. Of course, there were 3 times that many children alone.
Fortunately, most of the women didn’t return to the ranch. And all of them are being scrutinized.
Did you see these pictures? http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/07/27/magazine/20080727_FLDS_SLIDESHOW_index.html
Failure to report abuse is a serious breach of our State Medical Code. The Board of Medical Examiners will likely turn its scrutiny on Dr. Barlow if they haven’t already.
The one where the boy is on the roof brought back an old memory. We used to live in a mobile home. I heard noise on the roof and kids laughing. I went outside just as my oldest jumped off the roof...onto the trampoline...into the pool! Hopefully the thought didn't cross this kids mind :')
Yes but Jeffs was already in prison. Kind of hard to do much raping of young girls and children there.
No telling how many men or women are on the compound. Originally, the word from the leader - Merrill, was it/ - was that there were only 150 total. Of course, there were 3 times that many children alone.
So you would have to admit that there are probably lots of men and boys there, maybe hundreds.
Fortunately, most of the women didn’t return to the ranch. And all of them are being scrutinized.
You mean they are still being stripped and photographed? But you are saying that some of the women and children did return to the compound? Don't you think that they should be taken into custody for their own protection, now more than ever?
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