Court Files Detail Claims of Sect’s ‘Pattern’ of Abuse

By GRETEL C. KOVACH
The New York Times
Published: April 9, 2008

SAN ANGELO, Tex. — Texas authorities released court documents on Tuesday detailing accusations of a “widespread pattern” of physical and sexual abuse of children by a polygamous sect.

The accusations led to a raid that began on Thursday at their compound in a remote area of West Texas and the removal of 416 children.

Texas state troopers and child welfare investigators executing a search warrant started the search for a 16-year-old who called to tell of abuse at the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado. Leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-day Saints, a breakaway sect not recognized by the mainstream Mormon Church, own the ranch.

The girl who made the call has not been found, the authorities said.

The children and more than 100 adult women who elected to leave the ranch to be their caretakers are being housed at the Fort Concho historic site here.

An affidavit released on Tuesday says the 16-year-old repeatedly called a local family violence shelter asking for help to leave the ranch. She said that she had been taken to the ranch three years before by her parents and that when she was 15 she was forced into a marriage with a man who was then about 49, becoming his seventh wife.

The girl said the abuse began shortly after she moved to the ranch, the court papers say. She added that the man would force her to have sex with him and beat her when he became angry. The last time he beat her was on Easter, she said in the papers.

The girl, whispering into someone else’s cellphone, told the authorities that she thought she was several weeks pregnant, the papers say. She said that she was not allowed to leave the ranch other than to receive medical care, but that the man had left the ranch for a while to go to “the outsider’s world.”

A lawyer for the sect declined to comment on Tuesday.

The authorities have determined that the suspect, identified in the original search warrant as Dale Barlow, had been indicted in Mohave County, Ariz., on criminal charges of sexual conduct with a minor in connection with a reported marriage.

The man struck a plea deal, had the charge dismissed, served 45 days in jail and was given three years’ probation.

His probation officer said Monday that Mr. Barlow maintained that he did not know the girl and that he had not been in Texas in 30 years.

“YFZ Ranch and church members had told her that if she tried to leave, she will be found and locked up,” the affidavit states.

Church members also reportedly told her that outsiders would hurt her, force her to cut her hair and wear makeup and “have sex with lots of men.” The girl also said her parents were preparing to send her 15-year-old sister to the ranch from outside the state.

At the end of the call, she began crying and “then stated that she is happy and fine and does not want to get into trouble and that everything she had previously said should be forgotten.”

Based on that account, investigators entered the compound and found a number of young teenage mothers who appeared to be minors, some of them pregnant and some already with infant children.

“Investigators determined that there is a widespread pattern and practice among the residents of YFZ ranch in which minor female residents are conditioned to expect and accept sexual activity with adult men at the ranch upon being spiritually married to them,” the affidavit states.

Because of this “pervasive pattern of indoctrinating and grooming” girls to accept these spiritual marriages and bear their husbands’ children, the authorities found all the girls to be in danger of abuse.

Boys also are forced to marry under-age girls, “resulting in them becoming sexually perpetrators,” and are in danger of abuse themselves, the affidavit said. The affidavit was the basis for obtaining a judge’s approval to take custody of the children.

Child welfare investigators also found evidence that children had been deprived of nutrition and forced to sit in closets as a punishment, court documents indicate.

Carolyn Jessop, author of a book, “Escape,” fled the sect’s historic home base in the twin cities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., in 2003 to escape a polygamous marriage.

Ms. Jessop said she believed that her former husband, Merrill Jessop, was leading the Eldorado group after the conviction and jailing of its well-known leader, Warren Jeffs. Mr. Jeffs was convicted last year of being an accomplice to rape for forcing a 14-year-old to marry her cousin.

“Those girls are terrified,” said Ms. Jessop, who traveled to Eldorado in an unsuccessful effort to speak with her stepdaughters. “They don’t think these people are there to help them.”

The authorities made two arrests in searching the compound, but have not charged any member with a crime relating to the abuse accusations.

On Sunday, Levi Barlow Jeffs, 19, was arrested for interfering with the duties of a public servant. Leroy Johnson Steed, 41, was arrested on Monday on a felony charge of tampering with physical evidence.