All Entries Tagged With: "FLDS"
Conviction upheld in FLDS sexual assault case
In his appeal, Abram Harker Jeffs claimed that the state had insufficient evidence to prove that a sexual relationship had occurred between him and his wife, whom he married when she was 14 years old.
He was one of 12 men indicted after a 2008 law enforcement raid on the sect’s Texas-based ranch.
Religion [...]
Exiled FLDS father granted more time with estranged children
An exiled former member of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was granted increased visitation rights with his estranged children, including overnight custody, Friday during a 5th District Court hearing.
Religion News Blog
FLDS sect member’s conviction upheld
A Texas appeals court has upheld the conviction of a member of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who entered into a spiritual marriage with a 15-year-old girl in 2004 at the sect’s Yearning For Zion Ranch.
Raymond Merrill Jessop was sentenced to 10 years in prison and [...]
Former president of polygamous FLDS sect convicted of bigamy
A jury today declared Wendell Loy Nielsen, the 71-year-old former president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, guilty on the three counts of felony bigamy brought against him by the state of Texas.
Last October Nielsen was sentenced to 10 years probation, but he revoked his plea because he [...]
Former FLDS spokesman sues jailed cult leader Warren Jeffs
The former spokesman for the polygamous sect led by Warren Jeffs says in a new lawsuit that sect leaders arranged a nighttime burglary that gutted his business after he was excommunicated for refusing to falsify sect records on Jeffs’ marriages to underage girls.
Willie Jessop, a onetime Jeffs bodyguard and sect spokesman, is seeking [...]
Follower says he was expelled from FLDS for violating Warren Jeffs’ sex ban
As the year comes to an end and the followers of Warren Jeffs await the apocalypse he has predicted, they’re living under a challenging edict: they’re forbidden to have sex until Jeffs is sprung from a Texas prison.
“He has predicted that the walls in the prison where he’s at will fall and crumble,” [...]
Judge: Utah could evict FLDS residents over back taxes
The FLDS sect’s property trust, since 2005 controlled by the state of Utah, owes more than $ 2.2 million in back taxes.
Under a Utah judge’s new ruling, people could be evicted from their homes along the Utah-Arizona border if they don’t pay their bills.
Religion News Blog
Former FLDS bishop goes on trial over Warren Jeffs wedding to minor
Jury selection began Monday in the trial of a Fredrick Merril Jessop, a former bishop of a polygamist FLDS sect. Jessop is accused of officiating at the marriage of an underage girl to the sect’s leader, Warren Jeffs, who has since been sentenced to life in prison
Religion News Blog
Former FLDS President avoids prison
The former president of a polygamous sect pleaded no contest to three counts of third-degree bigamy this week and was sentenced to 10 years probation.
Wendell Loy Nielsen, who was once president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, had been indicted after a raid on the Yearning for Zion [...]
Renewed battle for control of FLDS
Now that cult leader Warren Jeffs has been convicted and sentenced, the fight is heating up for control of the 10-thousand strong FLDS polygamist group.
William E. Jessop, who earlier this year claimed he was the rightful president of the group, has sent an open letter to Warren’s full brother, Lyle Jeffs, who is [...]