Children in High Demand Organizations

Sexual Abuse

February 18, 2007

Sect man jailed for sex abuse of girl

The Sydney Morning Herald

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/
sect-man-jailed-for-sex-abuse-of-
girl/2007/02/16/1171405446758.html

David Marr and Geesche Jacobsen

February 17, 2007

THE sentencing of Lindsay Ronald Jensen yesterday for abusing a young girl in Albury brings almost to an end a saga of squalor and betrayal that has embroiled the religious sect the Exclusive Brethren and its leadership for four years.

Jensen, 49, an imposing man nearly two metres tall, was sentenced to five years' jail on four counts of indecent assault and one of sexual intercourse without consent. Judge Gay Murrell found the offences occurred when Jensen was in a position of trust and responsible for the girl's welfare. She set a non-parole period of three years.

The girl was nine when the assaults took place in 2002. Her parents were estranged, and according to the iron rules of the Brethren she had little contact with her father. But she was often in close contact that year with Jensen, a leading member of the Brethren in the city.

Judge Murrell found the relationship between the child and her abuser "was brought about because of membership of the church". But the sect did nothing effective when the child complained about Jensen in early 2003. Some months later the child was quizzed by two senior women in the Albury congregation, but still no action was taken.

The Brethren's new spokesman, Tony McCorkell, told the Herald that although the women were not "overly convinced" by the accusations, local sect leaders tried to dissuade Jensen from attending board meetings at the Brethren school because they thought him "loose-moralled" and feared "maybe this could be true".

Decisive action was finally taken by non-Brethren teachers at the sect's school when Jensen's presence there one day in mid-August 2003 provoked another young girl to storm out calling: "You touched me up. I'm not going to be here at the school while you're here." Mr McCorkell said teachers reported the incident to the NSW Department of Community Services.

Mr McCorkell said it was only at this point that the world leader of the church, Bruce Hales - a Sydney businessman known to the faithful as the Elect Vessel and the Man of God - learnt what was happening in Albury. "I can confirm - and I believe without a shadow of a doubt - Bruce Hales didn't even know about the situation, according to him, until it had already been reported to DOCS."

Jensen was excluded from the day-to-day life of the church, but his exile lasted only four months. "There is a whole heap of bitching and moaning and fighting and carrying on in Albury church," Mr McCorkell said. "Jensen's wife is running around saying to people 'he's been excommunicated and he hasn't even been arrested yet. This is outrageous. This is slanderous' … So there's a lot of pressure on the church to restore him back into the church. So that's what happens."

The young girl went to Albury police the next day. Jensen was expelled from the cult after his arrest.

The Brethren are in the process of expelling his wife, Jenny, and all his children. Mrs Jensen told the District Court yesterday that she had been shunned by the sect.

In a statement issued yesterday, the Brethren extended their sympathy to the victim and her family. "The church shares the community's revulsion of sexual abuse and seeks to do whatever it can to prevent it from occurring and to ensure if further instances occur they are reported to the authorities without delay."

Posted by Perry at 02:01 PM

January 23, 2007

Mormon church, Boy Scouts accused in sex-abuse lawsuit

Salt Lake Tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_5066248

By William McCall

The Associated Press

01/23/2007

PORTLAND, Ore. - Two brothers who claim they were sexually abused as children by a ''home teacher'' filed a $6.5 million lawsuit Monday against the Mormon church and Boy Scouts of America.
The lawsuit, filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court, alleges the Boy Scouts and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were responsible because Timur Dykes was their authorized representative in the mid-1980s.
Dykes was convicted of child sexual abuse, according to the lawsuit filed by Portland attorney Kelly Clark, who has represented victims of alleged abuse by Roman Catholic priests.
Dykes, also known as Timur Van Dykes, is listed on the Multnomah County Department of Community Justice Web site as a ''predatory sex offender'' who gains access to vulnerable boys and families through positions of trust.
Dykes is serving probation until 2015, said Robb Freda-Cowie, department spokesman.

Posted by Perry at 05:02 PM

January 17, 2007

Utah Man Charged with Bigamy and Rape

The Salt Lake Tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_5021716

The alleged bride was underage; the accused denies plural marriage

By Nate Carlisle

01/16/2007

A man in Box Elder County allegedly took a teenage girl as a plural wife and is believed to be the first person in four years to be charged with bigamy in Utah.
But that's not the most serious charge the defendant, Gerald P. Roskelley, of Willard, is facing.
The 38-year-old also is charged with four counts of first-degree felony rape that carry the possibility of life in prison.
Documents filed in 1st District Court in Brigham City say Roskelley had a wife, then married another girl under age 18. Documents say the subsequent marriage occurred on or about May 2006 and July 2006.
Box Elder County Attorney Stephen Hadfield said Monday in an interview that the girl was 15 or 16 years old at the time of the marriage and the union "was a spiritual thing."
"There was some discussion between the two of them about polygamy," Hadfield said.
Court documents claim the rapes occurred last May and June, possibly after the alleged marriage. Utah law permits rape charges against an adult who has sex with someone under the age of 18.
Roskelley also is charged with a count of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony, and witness tampering, a third-degree felony.
Roskelley's attorney, Gary Gale, said Roskelley has one legitimate wife.
"He is denying any other involvement with ceremonies or weddings or actions of that type," Gale said. The attorney declined to discuss other facts in the case and said he didn't know Roskelley's religious affiliation.
Polygamy was a tenet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints until the late 19th century, when the church banned the practice to help Utah achieve statehood. Some breakaway sects continue plural marriage.
Often in those sects, a man marries one woman in a legal ceremony then weds subsequent wives in religious ceremonies. For decades, Utah law enforcement has resisted prosecuting bigamy cases unless the brides are underage. Polygamy supporters sometimes have claimed prosecuting such cases violates their freedom of religion.
One group still practicing polygamy is the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, based in the twin cities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. In 2002, one of the cities' marshals, Rodney Holm, was charged in Utah with bigamy and counts of unlawful sexual conduct after he entered into a spiritual marriage with a 16-year-old girl.
Holm's first wife also was charged with bigamy and unlawful sexual conduct, but those charges were dismissed. The case against the couple is thought to be the last time anyone in Utah has been charged with bigamy.
Rodney Holm subsequently was convicted but has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
FLDS leader Warren Jeffs is awaiting trial in Washington County on charges of being an accomplice to rape, a first-degree felony. Prosecutors claim Jeffs facilitated a marriage between a teenage girl and an adult man.
Hadfield said police in Willard began investigating Roskelley after they found Roskelley and the girl having sex in the back of a truck. Hadfield said he doesn't know if Roskelley's original wife went along with the alleged subsequent marriage, and the woman is not under investigation.
The teenager has cooperated with investigators, Hadfield said. A judge issued a restraining order in September to prevent Roskelley from contacting the girl.
Roskelley is free on bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Feb. 16.
ncarlisle@sltrib.com

Posted by Perry at 02:56 PM

January 09, 2007

Procès du Patriarche: Lucien Engelmajer condamné à cinq ans d'emprisonnement

AP via Yahoo
http://fr.news.yahoo.com/09012007/5/
proces-du-patriarche-lucien-engelmajer-
condamne-cinq-ans-d-emprisonnement.html

mardi 9 janvier 2007

TOULOUSE (AP) - Le tribunal correctionnel de Toulouse a condamné mardi à cinq ans de prison Lucien Engelmajer, dit "le Patriarche", fondateur d'une ancienne association d'aide aux toxicomanes répertoriée comme secte par des rapports parlementaires.

Jean-Paul Séguéla, ancien député RPR de Haute-Garonne et conseiller de Charles Pasqua au ministère de l'Intérieur pour les questions de toxicomanies de 1993 à 1995, a pour sa part été condamné à trois ans de prison. Ces peines sont assorties d'amendes, 375.000 euros pour M. Engelmajer, 50.000 euros pour M Séguéla.

Surnommé "le Patriarche", le principal prévenu -en fuite au Belize- reste visé par deux mandats internationaux pour "abus de bien sociaux et emploi de travailleurs clandestins" et pour "viols et tentatives de viol sur mineurs de moins de 15 ans".

Quatorze prévenus sur 17 étaient poursuivis au total dans le volet financier de l'affaire du Patriarche. Ils comparaissaient pour "abus de faiblesse", "abus de confiance", "recel", "blanchiment d'argent" et "abus de biens sociaux", dont huit enfants d'Engelmajer, pour avoir bénéficié d'importants détournements de fonds provenant de l'association et de ses satellites créés en Europe et sur le continent américain.

Emmanuel, Dominique, Bénédicte et Chantal, quatre enfants des huit enfants mis en examen de Lucien Engelmajer, ont été relaxés. "Le jugement est remarquable. J'éprouve un sentiment de justice", a déclaré Me Simon Cohen, l'avocat des enfants.

Kim Engelmajer, "mêlé aux affaires de son père et manipulé par ce dernier", selon Me Cohen, est condamné à deux ans d'emprisonnement avec sursis. François Engelmajer devra purger une peine de 36 mois d'emprisonnement assorti de 30 mois de sursis.

La communauté fondée par Lucien Engelmajer en 1974 près de Toulouse avait essaimé dans le monde entier sous l'appellation "Organisation internationale Lucien Joseph Engelmajer". En février 1998, le gourou avait été écarté par un "putsch interne" et s'était réfugié au Belize où il vit actuellement à 86 ans. AP

som/jba/mw

Posted by Perry at 03:12 PM

January 03, 2007

Out of the shadows, the Big Love women who want the right to share a husband

The Times Online
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
article/0,,11069-2523162,00.html

Mormon wives are coming forward for the first time to defend their plural marriages and help to root out the abuse of young girls

Catherine Philp in Salt Lake City, Utah
December 30, 2006

Dressed in her sharp pinstripe suit, her dark brown hair elegantly coiffed, Vicky looks every inch the archetypal young working woman after a day at the office. But there are things she does not talk about at work.

Things such as the house she grew up in with her 39 brothers and sisters. Things such as the 21 children, six of them her own, who run around the house she lives in now. Things such as the two other “sisterwives,” one of them her blood sister, with whom she she shares her husband, taking turns to spend the night with him in strict rotation. “It’s not a thing we generally publicise,” she says shyly.

Now, however, Vicky is going public, although she declines to use her last name. As high-profile cases of child sex abuse among secretive cults unsettle and anger the larger polygamist community, women like Vicky are stepping forward to lobby in defence of a woman’s right to be a plural wife without fear of prosecution. “We live good and decent lives,” she said.

Going public on polygamy has long been a risky business in Utah, where an estimated 40,000 polygamists live below the legal radar. For the past 50 years Utah has had a strict “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy towards the practice, a felony punishable by up to five years in jail. The policy was prompted by a raid in 1953 on a polygamist community that ended with hundreds of children taken into care and parents jailed, causing a public relations disaster.

Some groups retreated into compounds. Those living among the wider community kept their mouths shut and their heads down. Parents avoided taking their children to the dentist or doctor, fearing the discovery of their secret. Children were warned not to bring friends home from school – if they were allowed to go.

Murmurs persisted of dark acts among some of the many splinter groups of Mormon fundamentalists, the umbrella term for those who broke away from the main Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints over the practice 100 years ago.

Then in 2003, in a direct challenge to prosecutors, Tom Green, a polygamist, began appearing on television shows to argue his right to his five wives.

“I’d never really thought about prosecuting polygamy,” said Mark Shurtleff, a mainstream Mormon who had been elected Utah attorney general the year before. “But it’s a felony and he’s out there flaunting it.” Investigators discovered worse: Mr Green’s youngest bride was only 13 and had borne him a child – proof of a sexual relationship. Mr Green was charged with child rape and polygamy.

The case opened up a Pandora’s box for Mr Shurtleff. Emboldened, escapees from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the closed cult led by Warren Jeffs, came to tell their stories. “The stories were horrendous,” he said. Carolyn Jessop, who escaped with her eight children, told him of forced child marriages, the abuse of young boys and girls and threats to slit their throats if they left.

“Here’s what I had to decide,” Mr Shurtleff explains. “We had to do something. How are we supposed to prosecute all the polygamists, 20,000 people? It can’t be done. So we decided ‘We’ll go after child rape, child sexual assault. We’ll make it about that, not religion’.”

A warrant was issued for Mr Jeffs’s arrest on charges of aiding child rape instead of polygamy. He went on the run but was recaptured in August. The shocking testimony of a former child bride at a hearing earlier this month convinced a judge to send Mr Jeffs to trial. The hearing is set to begin in April. The stories of Mr Jeffs’s church horrified many other polygamists who regarded his actions as an abuse of God’s law. To them polygamy is a religious duty that they must undertake to reach the highest level of heaven.

Anne Wilde, the widow of a high-profile polygamist, decided it was time to save the reputation of the community as a whole. She began collecting the oral histories of plural wives to publish in a book and created a website for her organisation, Principle Voices. She launched a pro-polygamy magazine, Mormon Focus, and recruited Vicky to pose with her two sisterwives and their babies for the inaugural cover, taking lessons from same-sex marriage advocates to argue their right to an “alternative lifestyle”.

“It was also easier for me because I was no longer a plural wife,” Ms Wilde explains. “For those others, it was a brave thing to do.”

Mr Shurtleff, meanwhile, was struggling to infiltrate polygamist communities to find out the extent of abuse there. “You could probably infiltrate the Taleban movement easier,” he says wryly. Then someone mentioned Anne Wilde.

“Anne has family and friends throughout the community, she knows everyone,” he said. “And they were adamantly opposed to the abuse that was going on. We couldn’t go after it without their help.”

Mr Shurtleff’s decision to co-opt polygamist representatives like Ms Wilde caused uproar in some quarters. Tapestry Against Polygamy, a pressure group formed by woman and child “refugees” who had escaped closed polygamist communities, refused to join a task force formed by the attorney general if Ms Wilde and her associates joined. It would be like “trying to create a rape crisis centre and inviting both the rapists and their victims to attend,” Rowenna Erickson, the group’s co-founder said. “Trying to come to a solution with the perpetrator or their wives is unrealistic.”

Many polygamist women argue that their plural marriage was a choice that has brought them fulfilment. Christine, a third wife, argues that her lifestyle gives her far more freedom than a conventional marriage. “Have a husband around all the time?” she jokes. “I like men but not that much! When he’s sick I can send him to someone else, when he needs his ironing done I can send him to someone else.”

Others talk of the benefits of female companionship. “My sisterwife is my best friend, she colours my hair,” says Mary, a second wife. Vicky admits the life is not always easy. “It’s impossible to see your husband love another woman without some jealousy,” she says. “But that deeply held spiritual belief gets you through.”

Their duty if they want society’s respect, they say, is to help to police their own communities to root out abuse. The religious community that Mary belongs to is one of four polygamist groups that has agreed to clamp down on the marriages of minors and has excommunicated members for child abuse. “We are as appalled as anyone by abuse,” Mary says.

PR help came from an unexpected quarter with the HBO series Big Love, a sympathetic look at a “progressive” polygamist family featuring an exhausted, Viagra-popping husband struggling to keep up with his wives’ financial, emotional and sexual needs. The stories that Ms Wilde collected formed the basis for many of the storylines. But polygamy, as the series shows, is far from problem-free. An extraordinarily high number of the polygamists I spoke to had experienced divorce in their families, even if they defended that by noting that marriage break-ups happen in monogamous families too.

Many of the divorces, though, were caused by polygamy itself. Mary married her second husband when her first ran off with his third wife. Vicky’s sister, Valerie, married her sister’s husband after her own left her. Even with the new declaration against child marriages by some groups, polygamist brides often marry young – 18, 19 or 20 – a result, critics say, of the lessons drummed into young girls that marriage equals salvation.

“I really want to get married,” Milly, a 13-year-old pupil at a fundamentalist school, says shyly. “I spent my whole time reading polygamist love stories.” Monica, 16, who has a boyfriend, is not sure that polygamy is for her. “We’ve talked about it. He’s set on it but I don’t know if I could do that,” she says.

“If he had another girlfriend, I’d shoot her. I don’t really get along with girls.”

Mr Shurtleff now counts many polygamists among his friends, to the horror of his critics. He remains unconvinced by the case for polygamy. “Some men want to sow their wild oats and this is a way for them to do so while calling it a religious duty,” he says. He tells of a family friend who suddenly announced one day that he had received a revelation from God that he should take a second wife. “Of course it was his very cute secretary,” he says wryly.

The fact remains, as he says, that “polygamists aren’t going away”. And reassuring them that they are safe from prosecution for their lifestyle will only make it easier for witnesses to the more serious crimes to come forward.

Decriminalisation, Mr Shurtleff believes, like Ms Wilde’s group, will make it easier to shine a light into the dark corners of the most secret societies. He attempted legislation a couple of years ago to reduce polygamy to a misdemeanour but dropped the clause under political pressure.

There is a fine line between working with and against the polygamists. Mr Jeffs’s group, the FLDS, refused to work with Mr Shurtleff – “they think I’m the Antichrist”. Others are also under his prosecutorial gaze. Seven brothers and members of the Kingstons, a wealthy family-based group, are being investigated.

The women, meanwhile, have vowed to keep up the fight until the felony law is struck from the books. Vicky, whose mother was taken into custody and her grandfather sent to jail after the 1953 raid, says the threat of persecution hung over her childhood and fuelled society’s prejudice. “It’s a very real fear,” she says. “We don’t just take for granted that it’s gone away.” Mary adds: “We have nothing to hide.”

The prophets and the law

# Early leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints practised plural marriage with the belief that it was approved in the Bible. A doctrine of plural marriage was announced at a conference in Salt Lake City, August 28-29, 1852

# Plural marriage was defined as bigamy in US federal law on July 8, 1862. Church leaders said that this was unconstitutional because it would prohibit a religious practice

# They tried to challenge the law with a test case using George Reynolds, a church member who had two wives, Mary Ann Tuddenham and Amelia Schofield. Reynolds was convicted when the case reached the Supreme Court on January 6, 1879

# The Edmunds Anti-polygamy Bill was passed on March 14, 1882, defining polygamous living as “unlawful cohabitation”. In 1884 polygamists were imprisoned and others fled to Canada and Mexico

# The Church denounced polygamy on September 24, 1890, when its president, Wilford Woodruff, said that it would submit to US law. But the practice was still continued by breakaway fundamentalists

# There are 40,000 polygamists in the US, and 10,000 people claim to be members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

# Polygamy is present in 78 per cent of global cultures. While most are polygynist marriages, in which a man has multiple wives, in Nepal and Tibet there are polyandrist marriages, in which a woman has multiple husbands

Source: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, news archives

Wedding Mass

# King Solomon’s 700 wives and 300 concubines were his undoing. The Bible says that in his old age they “turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God”

# The status of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon church, as a prophet enabled him to carry on marrying after his death. Recent scholarship indicates he had 33 wives, but some estimates are as high as 48

# King Mswati III of Swaziland chose his 13th wife last year from 20,000 virgins

# The 17th century Turkish Sultan Ibrahim I, known as “the Mad”, kept a harem of about 280 women. He is said to have had all but two drowned for infidelity

# Jan Bockelszoon, a leader of the 16th century Anabaptist church, made it illegal to reject a marriage proposal. He rescinded the law after 16 wives

Sources: The Bible; FARMS Review; Royal Follies, D. Randall; University of Virginia; Times archives

Posted by Perry at 03:11 PM

January 02, 2007

Sect covered up sex assaults on two children

The Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/sect-covered-up-
sex-assaults-on-two-children/2006/12/29/1166895479950.
html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

Michael Bachelard
December 30, 2006

THE Exclusive Brethren sect has tried for almost four years to cover up the sexual assaults of two girls, protecting the abuser, ostracising the victims and blaming their mother.

The perpetrator, a senior, respected and rich Brethren elder in a country town, was found guilty two weeks ago of eight charges in a Sydney court, including the digital rape of one girl of eight, and the repeated indecent assault of her older sister, who was 12 and 13 when the offences occurred.

The Age has obtained a document showing the Brethren leadership ignored written warnings as early as 1991 that the perpetrator, a serial molester, had "sexually assaulted many young women within the sect".

The abuser has been ejected from the secretive group, and is in custody awaiting sentencing.

The Christian sect has become notorious in recent years for running expensive advertising campaigns for conservative parties. It successfully lobbied the Liberal Government, and the Prime Minister, John Howard, has admitted meeting representatives. In New Zealand, the sect hired private detectives to tail the Prime Minister, Helen Clark, and contributed to the downfall of the National Party leader, Don Brash, when he denied accepting their funds.

Revelations in The Age about the sect's lobbying efforts and Government funding of its schools has prompted the Greens leader, Bob Brown, to move for an inquiry into the sect. Labor sources say the party's leader, Kevin Rudd, is taking the allegations seriously and is following events "very closely".

None of the parties in the recent sexual assault case can be identified for legal reasons, but the distraught father of the two victims has come forward and told The Age that in 2003, before the case was reported to police, the girls' mother came under intense pressure by the sect not to report the assaults to police.

"A local Brethren woman quoted the scripture to my ex-wife. She said, 'It would be better for a millstone to be hung around your neck and for you to be cast into the depths of the sea, rather than go to the police.' "

According to the father, one of the Brethren's Australian leaders also told the victims' mother that she should take the blame for the sexual assaults.

During this time, the wife of the sexual predator was allowed to interview the older sister for several hours. Towards the end of that session, the abuser himself also joined the interview. Under the pressure, the girl retracted her complaints and issued a written apology to her abuser and his wife.

"It was a coerced admission that it was because of my own daughter's naughtiness and sinfulness that she had said such a thing," the father told The Age.

The retraction and apology was presented as evidence for the defence during the man's trial, but rejected by the jury.

Later that year, two senior Brethren women grilled the girls for several hours. The results of this interview were reported to the church's leadership.

These interviews later led police and the director of public prosecutions to fear that the girls' evidence might have become too contaminated to secure a conviction, the father said.

Seeing the psychological effect the assaults and manipulation were having on her children, the mother wanted professional counselling for them.

However, she was warned that a counsellor would be compelled to report the assaults to police. This warning, and the hold the Brethren had over her, caused her to delay seeking professional help for her traumatised daughters for a further three months, the father says.

It was not until November 2003 that she reported the assaults. Police arrested the perpetrator in February 2004.

In Brethren theology, the "worldly" courts are inferior to their own "assembly". In words from April 2003 that were recorded and published to be taken as gospel by the sect's 40,000 adherents, the world leader of the sect, Sydney office supply salesman Bruce Hales, said it was "a very great matter, I think, to know that this place, the assembly, is the highest court".

It was only after the charges were laid that the Brethren imposed any "assembly discipline" on him. "That set the scene for the vilification of my family," the father said. "The kids were excluded at school, jeered at, made fun of. And from that time ensued a period where my ex-wife's house was repeatedly egged - eggs under the doormat, being smashed on the windows, the car being scratched."

Posted by Perry at 04:11 PM

December 20, 2006

FLDS member gets prison for sex with minor

Another man from the sect makes plea that avoids jail but may tag him as a sex offender

By Brooke Adams

The Salt Lake Tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_4865134

12/19/2006 12:29:55

A man who belongs to a polygamous sect at the Utah-Arizona state line will spend nine months in prison for engaging in sex with a minor, an Arizona judge decided Monday.
Another man from the same sect agreed to a plea bargain that will keep him out of jail but may still land him on the state's sex offender registry.
Mohave County Superior Court Judge James Chavez sentenced David R. Bateman to nine months in prison on two counts of sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy to engage in sexual conduct with a minor. The judge agreed to let Bateman serve the terms concurrently.
Bateman, who also must register as a sex offender, was taken into custody immediately.
Bateman, a construction worker and former school teacher, is a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The polygamous sect is primarily located in the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.
Warren S. Jeffs, the sect's leader, is scheduled to stand trial in Utah in April on charges of being an accomplice to rape for a 2001 marriage involving a 14-year-old girl and a 19-year-old man.
Bateman was 44 when he was spiritually sealed to a 17-year-old girl in 2001. The woman is still married to Bateman and asked the judge for leniency, according to Gary Engels, a Mohave County special investigator.
Also on Monday at the Kingman,Ariz., court, Vergel Jessop entered a no-contest plea to child abuse, a lesser offense than the two felony sex-crime charges he faced. Mohave County Prosecutor Matt Smith agreed to the plea bargain because two of Jessop's wives have serious health issues.
Jessop, 47, will receive three years' supervised probation with no jail time. Judge Steven Conn also will decide in January whether to require Jessop to register as a sex offender.
Jessop works for the parks department in Colorado City. He entered into a spiritual marriage with a 17-year-old girl in 2000.
"Each one of these is a little different," said Engels. "I hope this makes the people up there think twice before they participate in this type of action in the future."
A Mohave County grand jury indicted eight men from the FLDS community on identical sex-crime charges in August 2005. So far, five cases have been resolved.
Kelly Fischer was convicted and sentenced to 45 days in jail in August. Donald Barlow was acquitted in September after the county prosecutor failed to prove the crime took place in Arizona. The county dropped its case against Terry D. Barlow in October after Barlow proved his marriage took place in Canada.
Charges are still pending against Rodney Holm, Randy Barlow and Dale Barlow.
brooke@sltrib.com

Posted by Perry at 02:48 PM

Brethren member guilty of indecently assaulting girl, 10

The Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/12/18/
1166290475602.html?from=top5

Geesche Jacobsen

December 19, 2006

"IN OUR community we really treat each other as if we are really, really close friends," the 10-year-old girl explained to the police officer.

The girl was talking about her religious community, the Exclusive Brethren.

And she was explaining how she came to stay with a man who digitally raped and repeatedly indecently assaulted her sister.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was yesterday found guilty in the District Court of four counts of indecent assault and a charge of sexual intercourse with a child under 10.

Judge Helen Murrell told the Downing Centre jury he was convicted last year of sexual offences against the girl's sister. She refused to continue his bail, pending his sentencing in January.

The judge also refused an application for the entire proceedings of the trial to be suppressed.

"It is through the publication of such matters that the community understands the extent and nature of child sexual abuse in the community … and can serve to encourage other victims to come forward," she said. The girl said she had trusted the man. "I thought he was really nice."

He had touched her under her dress while she was sitting in a car, despite his children being present, she told police.

Another time he had touched her while his wife was in the same room. He had put her hand on his penis, while hugging her sister on the bunk bed above her. "He got my hand. He does it in a sly way. And he gets you and he does it, though he's really nice. I was taken by it," she said. "You are lovable," he had told her but had insisted they keep what had happened between them.

After the assaults, when she had returned home, she no longer liked going to church, even though that was where she met all her friends.

"It freaked me out, and I hated seeing him."

The man's lawyer, Paul Byrne, SC, argued that the offences were so brazen they were unlikely, and the jury should not believe the girl.

Posted by Perry at 02:44 PM

December 17, 2006

Missouri Church Leaders Accused of Child-Sex Abuse

by Doualy Xaykaothao

NPR - Morning Edition
http://www.npr.org/templates/
story/story.php?storyId=6622525

December 14, 2006

Early next year, the first of several child-sexual abuse cases involving church leaders is expected to be heard in a courtroom in southwest Missouri. The sex charges were filed this summer by women who grew up in a religious community deep in the Ozarks. Most of the accusers and the accused are related by blood or marriage.

The five women who have pressed charges are all now adults. They attended Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church in Washburn, Mo. If what they say is true -- and that's still to be proven -- they were lured into sexual conduct by some of their church leaders when they were children, one as young as 8.

At a preliminary hearing in the Newton County, Mo., courthouse in October, 20-year-old Mackenzie Kyle Amey testified against her alleged molester, 63-year-old pastor George Johnston, a man she used to call Grandpa. Her younger sister has also made claims against Johnston. Attorney Andy Wood represents Johnston. He says his client is innocent.

In neighboring McDonald County, Duane Cooper, an attorney for Raymond Lambert -- the other pastor accused of multiple counts of statutory sodomy and child molestation -- also questions the timing of the accusations. Cooper says Lambert is innocent, and Cooper isn't happy about all the publicity the case has received locally.

"There's an assumption of guilt," Cooper says. "As soon as people see it on TV, hear about it on the radio, read about it in the newspapers, they assume because the great powers of the state have charged a crime, that a person is actually guilty."

Cooper and other lawyers representing Raymond Lambert say they don't want to try their client's cases in the media, but they agreed to let NPR ask pastor Lambert about the effects of the accusations on his life.

"It's been tough on everyone, but I believe we're going to make it," Lambert said. "My vision of what our farm would be -- a school, a farm -- in a moment of a few days, and seemingly a few hours, it all changed."

One accuser, who fears reprisals for speaking out, tells NPR she left the community in April. Since then, she no longer attends church because she finds it hard to trust any religious figure. She doesn't want to be identified by name. She alleges her sexual relationship with pastor Raymond Lambert started when she was 15.

Another woman who left is Charyn Epling. She says she wasn't encouraged to read the Bible in this community because it was preached to her that only men of God read it.

Charyn Epling is now reading the Bible. The first thing she learned, she says, is that "nowhere in the Bible does it state that you can touch a child. Nowhere. You cannot sexually touch a child, and that's basically what this is all about."

Next week, a hearing is set for one of the accused church leaders in McDonald County. Other cases are pending, and one trial is set for February.

Posted by Perry at 04:59 PM

December 04, 2006

Ghaziabad Swami charged with rape

NDTV.COM
http://www.ndtv.com/topstories/
showtopstory.asp?slug=Swami+accused+
of+sexual+abuse&id=20850&category=Nation

Friday, December 1, 2006 (Ghaziabad,India):

After NDTV reported sexual abuse of children by a Swami in Ghaziabad near Delhi – he is arrested and charged with rape and other offenses.

During the investigation, NDTV correspondent Anchal Vohra spent 10 days undercover at the Balanath ashram.

On Friday, Baba Balnath - charged with outraging the modesty of women, rape and criminal intimidation, has been ordered to appear in court on Saturday.

The National Commission for Women and Uttar Pradesh government have decided to move the children – all girls – out of the Swami's ashram to shelters in Uttar Pradesh.

The younger children will to taken to Agra and the older girls to Meerut. The NGOs 'Stop' and Shakti Vahini will oversee their transportation and care.

The girls staying at the ashram, many of them orphans, claim they have been sexually abused by the in-house swami. Among the swami's alleged victims are young, mentally challenged orphans.

The Chief Justice of India has asked the National Human Rights Commission, the National Commission for Women and the district magistrate to submit reports on the case.

The chairperson of the National Commission for Women Girija Vyas has also reached the ashram in Ghaziabad.

In the 10 days the NDTV team spent at the ashram, the stories got progressively worse.

"He beat me up when I was a kid and did not give me any treatment. He beats us with sticks and slippers and also abuses us," claimed Shikha, an inmate.

"Everyone was watching TV and kids were playing here when swamiji stripped me naked and abused me physically," said Preeti.

Swami Balanath, who set up his ashram in 1975, is the man who one child after another describes as a monster. In the year 2000, his assets were valued at almost Rs 15 lakh.

Govt funding denied

Although the swami denies any government funding, records with NDTV show donations worth over Rs 1 lakh from the UP government.

Nearly 65 girls, most of whom are still not in their teens, live here. The swami says his ashram is basically an orphanage, but he discusses the children here with chilling contempt.

"These girls are very naughty and are even brainwashing the kids here. What do you have in mind for the adults here? If I start taking care of these girls, I will get ruined. These are not good girls. But most girls grew up here," said Swami Balanath.

Most of the girls NDTV spoke to cannot remember how they got here, but they are desperate to leave.

The more daring have even tried to escape. They complained to the police about the swami but instead of helping them, the police forced them back into their hell.

"We jumped off the wall at around 1 am, but were caught by the police an hour later and sent back to the ashram," said Meena, an inmate.

"The police told us that we will have to return to the place from where we came from," added Rinki, another girl.

Continue reading "Ghaziabad Swami charged with rape"

Posted by Perry at 02:36 PM

Bailed cult leader ordered away from HQ

A CULT leader accused of sexually abusing young girls has been refused permission to celebrate an anniversary at the group's Sydney headquarters – the scene of the alleged crimes.

Australia
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20869455-1702,00.html

December 04, 2006

Ken Dyers co-founded the spiritual healing group Kenja, based in inner-city Surry Hills. When the 84-year-old faced the Downing Centre District Court today, he applied to have his bail conditions varied to allow him to attend meetings at the group's headquarters.

Mr Dyers is set to stand trial on 22 charges, accused of assaulting two 12-year-old girls, then members of the group, at Kenja's Surry Hills offices in 2001 and 2002.

His barrister, Paul Byrne SC, said the organisation had a number of important meetings coming up, including the 25th anniversary of the group's foundation.

He asked Justice Reg Blanch to vary Mr Dyers' bail conditions, to allow him to attend the social gatherings.

"It is a large organisation which has meetings at its headquarters regularly," Mr Byrne said.

"At the moment his bail conditions prohibit him from attending those headquarters."

Justice Blanch refused the application, but released Mr Dyers on continuing bail.

Mr Dyers is expected to seek a stay on the charges on the grounds of his health.

A trial has been set down for next May.

Posted by Perry at 02:24 PM

November 26, 2006

Two women who found the strength to defy polygamy

One testifies against 'prophet' Warren Jeffs, the other feels her pain

Daphne Bramham, Vancouver Sun
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/
story.html?id=0af3cd18-ac35-4694-8d46-e2e87230ed01

Saturday, November 25, 2006

ST. GEORGE, Utah - Sara Hammon wept in a Utah courtroom this week as another young woman testified how she was forced at age 14 to marry her 19-year-old first cousin by Warren Jeffs, the prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

"It [the testimony] ripped my heart out," Hammon said.

Eighteen years ago, Hammon was also 14, living in the FLDS town of Hildale, Utah and engaged to be married.

But Hammon escaped, unlike the young woman who is the state's star witness against Jeffs who is charged with two counts of rape as an accomplice. Jeffs has an estimated 15,000 followers, including about 500 who live in seclusion in Bountiful, B.C. Another 700 or so fundamentalist Mormons in Bountiful follow Winston Blackmore. The woman, who is now 20 and pregnant, spent four hours testifying against Jeffs at a preliminary hearing this week. The hearing resumes Dec. 14.

Jeffs, 50, is in nearby Purgatory Correctional Centre, where he's been held since his arrest in August. He'd been a fugitive for more than two years and was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted along with Osama bin Laden. In addition to the Utah charges, he's facing six Arizona charges for sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor.

The young woman's testimony included an explanation of FLDS teachings. She said girls in the polygamous cult are taught that their only link to God is through men -- their fathers, then their husbands and ultimately, the prophet, who is the embodiment of God on Earth.

They are taught that when they marry, they must submit unquestioningly to their husbands' will. If men make bad decisions, it is because their wives are not praying hard enough or aren't pure enough.

They aren't taught anything about sex. Even a month after her marriage in April 2001, the 14-year-old had no idea how babies were made.

She was in Grade 9 in April 2001 when her stepfather told her the prophet had arranged for her marriage later that week.

Eighteen years ago, Hammon was also assigned by the prophet, who was also her father Marion Hammon. She had asked to be married to get out of the family home where she says scarcely a day went by that she wasn't sexually or physically abused by her father or someone else in the family.

When she went to her father, she started by telling him her name. She was one of 75 children. Her father was 83.

"He said, 'Can you cook? Can you clean? Are you ready to be a mother? Have you started your period?' I said yes."

Hammon was assigned to an 18-year-old boy and the wedding date was set for just after her 15th birthday.

"I didn't know him that well and he didn't want to marry me ... And I was 14. I was not old enough to know what I wanted."

But the biggest difference between Hammon and Jane Doe, the woman testifying against Jeffs, is that Hammon had another option.

She had a married sister who had left the group and was living in St. George, less than an hour's drive from Hildale. Hammon stayed there on weekends and started babysitting for the neighbours. Before she turned 15, Hammon asked the neighbours if she could live with them and be a nanny to their children. They agreed.

Utah's witness had no options. Her father had been kicked out of the FLDS two years earlier. The witness, her mother and her younger siblings were uprooted from their Salt Lake City home and reassigned to 88-year-old Fred Jessop, who already had 15 wives and dozens of children living in his 40-bedroom house.

They were told to treat their excommunicated father as if he were dead.

Calling him for help was not an option. Even had she contacted him, she had no money and no means to make the six-hour trip from Hildale to Salt Lake City.

When told of her assignment marriage, the girl pleaded with her new father to at least delay the wedding until she was 16. He refused.

She went to Rulon Jeffs, the ailing prophet whose work was being done by his son, Warren. Rulon told the girl to follow her heart, Warren told her that her heart was in the wrong place and that to refuse the marriage was to defy God's will.

She went tearful and terrified to her mother.

"My mother talked me into doing what I needed to do. She told me that the prophet knew best. She said ... she had no power to change it.

"I felt totally powerless, I felt trapped. I did everything I could do to change it, but nothing worked. I was scared because I didn't have anywhere else to go. I felt if I didn't do what I was told I would forever pay the consequences ... and I would never be able to go to heaven."

The marriage took place in a motel owned by FLDS members in Caliente, Nev. The girl refused to hold the groom's hand. Warren Jeffs took it and placed in the groom's. When he asked if she took this man to be her husband, she hung her head and refused to say anything. He asked again. Nothing. Jeffs ordered her mother to stand beside her and hold her hand.

He asked a third time and when the silence became unbearable, the girl said, "Okay, I do."

Over the next three years, the young woman went to Jeffs several times asking to be released from the marriage. She told him that her husband was touching her inappropriately and wouldn't stop when she said no. He told her to obey her husband, who said sexual intercourse was her duty as a wife.

Jeffs told her to have children. That would change everything.

She was pregnant in November 2003 when she went to Bountiful to visit her sister, who at 17 had been assigned to marry a Canadian FLDS member.

There, the young woman had a miscarriage that required months of recuperation. She didn't want to go back to Hildale, but her mother again persuaded her not to disobey the prophet.

In court, she admitted being hurt by her mother's failure to protect her. Hammon still struggles with that.

Her mother put a railway tie separating the backyard from a field. It marked a safe zone for the girls. Beyond that there was no protection from molestation.

Girls caught beyond the railway tie were whipped with a horse bridle on their bare legs.

Girls who were molested and told were then forced to watch as the boys were beaten, reinforcing for Hammon that no matter what happened, it was always the girls' fault.

Yet somehow both Hammon and the state's witness found strength to be defiant.

By the winter of 2003, the young bride had given up trying to being a good wife. She had a separate bedroom in the trailer she shared with her husband, but often she slept in her truck.

She testified that her husband raped her one night that winter, up in the dark red hills above the desert town.

"I told him, you know, I'll never be the same. That's when I decided I was done."

But still she had nowhere to go. She began spending more time with people who had left the FLDS or been excommunicated. One man was kind to her. They fell in love. They sneaked away for a weekend. Her husband found the photos and condoms in her drawer. By then she was pregnant with her lover's child.

That spring, her husband asked the leaders to dissolve the marriage. Jeffs agreed and that same night, the young woman left Hildale for the last time with the other man who is now her husband.

During all of this, she never called police. In August 2005 she called a lawyer wanting to know about her rights. A year ago, she filed a civil suit against Jeffs.

Why did it take so long to complain? Jeffs's attorney, Tara Issacson, wanted to know. Why did she call a lawyer and not police? The suggestion was that she is more concerned about getting money than getting justice?

But Hammon is amazed the woman came forward so soon.

By the time Hammon spoke out, she was 30, well-travelled, well-spoken and established in her career. Her father was dead. Still she was terrified and still she hasn't gone to police to report any of the abuse.

She channels her energy and anger into volunteering with the HOPE Organization, which helps others who have left the FLDS and other polygamous, fundamentalist Mormon groups.

Based on her experience in Hildale and with HOPE, Hammon says the state's witness "represents at least a couple of thousand other women out there going through this even today."

(In addition to the women, HOPE estimates there could be as many as 1,000 boys living in the St. George area, who have been kicked out or encouraged to leave so that older men can have multiple wives.)

Hammon has been called a liar by people who still revere her father as one of God's prophets.

But she was in court this week because she says she knows the truth. She believes her father was a pedophile.

And she believes he was wrong to preach that all children lie, that no child can ever tell the truth.

dbramham@png.canwest.com

Website links:

The HOPE Organization (www.childbrides.org)

Posted by Perry at 03:48 PM

November 24, 2006

Lawyers for polygamist sect leader put on vigorous defense

http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=5716160

ST. GEORGE, Utah -- Warren Jeffs may have arranged a marriage, but his lawyers contend he's no accessory to rape.

Jeffs, the leader of a century-old fundamentalist polygamist group, is charged with two counts of rape as an accomplice for his alleged role in arranging the marriage of a 14-year-old girl to her 19-year-old cousin.

But that's as far as it went, his lawyers argued at a preliminary hearing Tuesday, declaring that arranging a marriage is no crime.

They portrayed the woman as manipulative, trading sex for favors from her husband, and Jeffs as an innocent religious prophet caught up in a domestic dispute.

It was a sign the lawyers plan a vigorous defense for a jailed leader still in control of some 10,000 followers in the border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.

The first phase of the hearing was held Tuesday in 5th District Court. The hearing will resume Dec. 14, after which Judge James Shumate must decide whether there is probable cause to send Jeffs to trial.

Wally Bugden, Jeff's lead attorney, said after the hearing that prosecutors are using rape charges to inflame passions, but that a jury would see through it "for what it is _ religious persecution."

"There was no rape," Bugden said on the courthouse steps. "My client, as an accomplice, is not guilty of rape."

It came after nearly a full day of testimony from the woman, now 20 and pregnant by a second husband, who helped her escape the first marriage. The defense team plans to call that husband, along with a sheriff's investigator, to the stand Dec. 14.

On Tuesday, the woman testified she was married by Jeffs over her repeated objections. She said she refused to hold hands or utter "I do" at a wedding ceremony in Nevada. She finally relented, but hesitated to exchange a kiss with her groom. She got through that with a "peck" of a kiss instead.

Then she locked herself in a bathroom.

"I felt completely defeated and trapped," said the woman, who was kicked out of her community sect when her marriage disintegrated after 3 1/2 years. The Associated Press does not identify victims of sexual assault.

She is the key witness against Jeffs, the 50-year-old leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, who sat nearly motionless during the hearing, without expression.

Continue reading "Lawyers for polygamist sect leader put on vigorous defense"

Posted by Perry at 05:53 PM

Underage marriages arranged with polygamists at motel

http://www.komotv.com/news/national/4698586.html

Nov 20, 2006

By JENNIFER DOBNER Associated Press Writer

CALIENTE, Nev. (AP) - Room 15 at the Caliente Hot Springs Motel seems like an unlikely place for a wedding. There are no flower-covered arbors, pews or candles. It is an apartment-style room with a kitchenette, a bed, a dresser, a table and a couch.

But it was in Room 15 that dozens of weddings took place between underage girls and men from a polygamist sect, church insiders say.

The sect's charismatic leader, Warren Jeffs, has been charged with rape as an accomplice for his alleged role in arranging one of those marriages - that of a 14-year-old girl who claims she was forced to wed her older first cousin in 2001.

Jeffs, the 50-year-old leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, will be in a Utah court Tuesday for a hearing on whether prosecutors have enough evidence to try him. If he is tried and convicted, the man some 10,000 followers revere as a prophet could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Jeffs was captured in a traffic stop outside Las Vegas in August after nearly two years on the run. He was one of the nation's 10 most-wanted fugitives.

According to authorities, the bride, identified in court papers as Jane Doe No. 4, stood dressed in white in Room 15 and said, "I do," sealing the marriage with a secret handshake. Prosecutors say the marriage was then consummated back in Hildale, Utah, where members of the sect live.

The girl told Jeffs she didn't want to marry, and later begged to be released from the union, saying she did not like marital relations, authorities said. But Jeffs said the marriage was her religious duty and threatened her with the loss of salvation, according to authorities.

The FLDS claims to be a fundamentalist offshoot of the Mormon church. But the Mormons disavow any connection and renounced polygamy more than a century ago.

Jeffs' attorneys have not responded to requests for interviews. But at hearing in September, attorney Walter Bugden said Jeffs believes he is being persecuted for his religious beliefs.

Carolyn Jessop, a former sect member who used to run the motel, said that once or twice a month, beginning in the spring of 1999, she would get a telephone call telling her to plan for a weekend of sect weddings. Some insiders say as many as 10 such weddings were held in a single day.

Wedding parties and church elders would arrive in a caravan of cars about midmorning, not long after checkout time for guests.

"They did not want anybody on the property," said Jessop, whose husband, Merrill Jessop, owned the 18-room motel with her father for seven years until it was sold in 2004.

The drive to Caliente from Hildale is 160 miles, most of it on a two-lane road through the mountains and across the desert. But sect leaders believed Caliente was a safe place - "a way to go under the radar screen" - because Utah and Arizona were passing legislation to address underage marriage and threatening prosecution, Jessop said.

Utah later passed a law making it a felony to arrange a marriage between a minor and an older married person. Arizona has enacted a similar law.

At the motel, the girls usually arrived with their parents, including their fathers' multiple wives. The bridegroom might bring his own wives. In some ceremonies, the first wife might hold the young bride's hand and place it gently in the groom's as a symbolic gesture that she accepted the new wife into the family, sect insiders say.

After the ceremony, sect elders would share a meal cooked by some of the women.

"I can't imagine the trauma that some of these younger girls must have gone through," said Jessop, who left the sect and her husband in 2003.

No charges have been brought against her or her husband. She said she would help set the room up but would not stay around for the ceremonies.

Insiders say the newlyweds would promptly leave and presumably consummate their unions back in Hildale or neighboring Colorado City, Ariz. - dusty twin towns populated by women in long, pioneer dresses and men in long sleeves and buttoned-up collars.

Posted by Perry at 05:30 PM

Un gourou polygame américain pour la première fois face à son accusatrice

Le Monde
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/depeches/0,14-0,39-28893382@7-60,0.html

AFP 22.11.06

Le chef d'une secte polygame américaine a pour la première fois comparu devant un tribunal en Utah (ouest) pour une audience préliminaire lors de laquelle une jeune femme a témoigné qu'il l'avait mariée contre son gré à l'âge de 14 ans.

Jeffs est inculpé de complicité de viol. Les audiences se déroulent au tribunal de Saint George, dans le sud-est de l'Etat, à deux heures de route au nord-est de Las Vegas (Nevada), où le gourou avait été arrêté fin août.

"Prophète" de l'église fondamentaliste de Jésus-Christ des saints du dernier jour (FLDS), un schisme du mouvement mormon qui compterait quelque 10.000 membres, Jeffs, 50 ans, est soupçonné d'avoir organisé des "mariages" illégaux entre des adolescentes ou des pré-adolescentes et des hommes plus âgés au sein de sa secte.

Ainsi, l'accusatrice, dont la justice préserve l'anonymat pour ne pas compromettre sa sécurité, a raconté, des sanglots dans la voix, comment elle avait été "mariée" par Jeffs à un de ses cousins, de cinq ans son aîné, dans un hôtel du Nevada en 2001. "J'étais horrifiée", a-t-elle dit.

Le parquet affirme que Jeffs a conclu la cérémonie et donné l'ordre à l'adolescente de "se multiplier et de repeupler la terre et d'élever des enfants dans le respect de Dieu".

Après que son "mari" eut eu des relations sexuelles avec elle, l'accusatrice est allée voir Jeffs pour lui dire qu'elle voulait mettre un terme à l'union, a-t-elle encore raconté.

"J'avais très peur le leur dire non, c'était du jamais vu, parce que si vous alliez contre ce qu'ils vous avaient dit de faire ou ce qu'il disaient que Dieu vous avait dit de faire", a expliqué le témoin.

Deux des soeurs de l'accusatrice ont corroboré ses déclarations lors de cette audience préliminaire, à l'issue de laquelle le juge devra décider si l'affaire mérite ou non un procès.

De leur côté, les défenseurs de Jeffs, qui n'a pas cillé de toute l'audience, ont assuré que le rôle de leur client dans cette affaire n'était que celui d'un conseiller spirituel, comme tout responsable religieux.

La prochaine audience doit avoir lieu le 14 décembre.

Warren Jeffs est aussi réclamé par l'Arizona (sud-ouest) pour agression sexuelle sur un mineur en 2002. Il figurait avant son arrestation sur la liste des dix personnes les plus recherchées par le FBI, la police fédérale américaine, au côté notamment du chef d'Al-Qaïda Oussama ben Laden.

La polygamie est illégale depuis 1862 aux Etats-Unis et a été abandonnée en Utah par les mormons en 1890, alors que cet Etat n'était pas encore incorporé à la fédération.

L'Utah a renoncé, par manque de moyens et crainte d'une catastrophe sociale, à poursuivre cette pratique lorsqu'elle se produit entre adultes consentants. Les autorités de l'Etat estiment qu'il abrite 37.000 membres de familles polygames.

Il est très rare que les victimes d'abus portent plainte; les membres de la FLDS vivent en cercle fermé dans deux villes contiguës à la frontière de l'Utah et de l'Arizona, Hildale et Colorado City, dont la secte contrôle les mairies et les polices locales.

Posted by Perry at 03:34 PM

Polygamist prophet a pimp: prosecutor

Jeffs's lawyers frame it completely differently. They call it a case of religious persecution.

Daphne Bramham, Vancouver Sun

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
news/story.html?id=15f9377c-a86b-407a
-89e2-6ef8f43258d1&k=20304

November 22, 2006

ST. GEORGE, Utah - Polygamist prophet Warren Jeffs is nothing more than a pimp -- a pimp for God, perhaps -- but a pimp just the same.

That's the position the state of Utah is taking in a case against Jeffs, the 50-year-old leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a breakaway sect of the Mormon church. Using precedents from other cases involving polygamy and others involving forced prostitution, Utah prosecutors argue that Jeffs -- who FLDS believe is God's spokesman on Earth -- married a 14-year-old girl to a 19-year-old man, instructed them to have sex and produce many children.

Jeffs's defence lawyers frame it completely differently. They say it is a case of religious persecution.

"It is nothing less than the State of Utah condemning a culturally different religion. It is a continuation of 165 years of intolerance for a people who engage in different cultural and religious practices," attorney Walter Bugden said Tuesday after the preliminary hearing was adjourned until Dec. 14.

"There is no rape in this case. Officiating at a wedding ceremony does not make Mr. Jeffs an accomplice to rape."

Jeffs is charged in Utah with two counts of rape as an accomplice. Once this case is dealt with, he will then be transferred to Arizona to face five counts of sexual conduct with a minor and one count of conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor.

Jeffs was arrested Aug. 28 in Las Vegas after spending nearly four months on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list alongside Osama bin Laden.

The state's key witness is a young woman who is now 20 and two weeks shy of having a baby. She says she was forced into a religious -- not legal -- marriage with her 19-year-old first cousin, a boy who used to taunt her, calling her Tubby-Tubba.

Over several hours of testimony, the young woman described how in April 2001, as a Grade 9 student, she was dumbfounded when her step-father told her she would be married that week.

"I was so scared, I didn't have any place to go," she said, pausing to wipe her eyes. "Everybody who I respected, every leader made me feel like I was defying God.

"My salvation was in jeopardy, my family, I knew nothing else. I was scared of the outside world and I loved the people there so much. I felt if I didn't do it I would forever pay the consequences and my salvation was in jeopardy and I would never go to heaven."

The FLDS believe that plural marriage -- polygamy -- is the way to the highest realm of heaven. The young woman and two of her sisters testified that they were taught from birth that girls must be obedient to their fathers, the priesthood or church leaders and the prophet, who gets revelations from God.

They are taught not to question, not to defy and not to disobey. They are told always to be sweet and submit to the commands of men.

The victim described how when she refused to say "I do" during the wedding ceremony, Jeffs asked her mother to stand up and hold her hand. When she refused again, she said she could feel Jeffs' eyes drilling into her. "The silence was unbearable so I finally said okay, yes."

To cheer the girl up, her sisters, mother and friends decorated the bedroom in her step-father's house as the honeymoon hideaway where the newlyweds slept on their wedding night. Photos were taken of the smiling couple -- photos that became evidence Tuesday.

Still, the young woman called the marriage "the darkest time of my entire life and one of the most painful things I've ever been through. I have always tried to forget it and I've just wanted to move on and forget it ever happened."

Continue reading "Polygamist prophet a pimp: prosecutor"

Posted by Perry at 03:28 PM

November 05, 2006

The Indian living god, the paedophilia claims and the Duke of Edinburgh awards

Paul Lewis
Saturday November 4, 2006
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,1939403,00.html

A spiritual group whose "living god" founder has been accused of sexually abusing young boys has become an accredited partner of the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme, the Guardian can reveal.

Last night pressure was mounting on the charity to break its links with the group whose followers are devoted to the preachings of 79-year-old holy man, Sai Baba.

About 200 young people will fly to India in two weeks' time on a humanitarian pilgrimage run by Sai Youth UK, a division of the Sri Sathya Sai Organisation. The teenagers and young men earn their Duke of Edinburgh awards for humanitarian work, chiefly distributing medical aid.

he trip coincides with Sai Baba's 80th birthday and has been arranged, organisers say, after he gave a divine commandment for the UK's Sai youth movement to visit him for the occasion.

For decades male former devotees have alleged that the guru molested them during so-called "interviews". During the last youth pilgrimage, in 2004, young people were granted group interviews with the guru after administering medical aid to villages surrounding Sai Baba's ashram in Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh, although there was no evidence of abuse.

Large numbers of young men have travelled from across the world to study alongside and meet the guru. His supporters say their encounter was spiritually enriching. Others, including participants in a BBC programme, The Secret Swami, two years ago, accuse him of abuse, claiming he massaged their testicles with oil and coerced them into oral sex.

Sai Baba has never been charged over the sex abuse allegations. However, the US State Department issued a travel warning after reports of "inappropriate sexual behaviour by a prominent local religious leader" which, officials later confirmed was a reference to Sai Baba.

Tom Sackville, a former Home Office minister and chairman of Fair, a cult-watching and victim support group, said: "It is appallingly naive for the award scheme to involve young people and the royal family with an organisation whose leader is accused of paedophilia.

"Parents who plan to send their children on this month's pilgrimage ... should be aware of the danger their children are being exposed to."

But Peter Westgarth, chief executive of the charity, last night faced down calls to terminate his organisation's relationship with the Sai organisation. He said: "This is not the only religion accused of paedophilia. Young people who are participating on these trips are doing so because they choose to," he said. "The awards accredit the good work they do for poor people in India. We make no judgment about their religion. We would no sooner intervene here than we would the Church Lads' and Girls' Brigade."

The Conservative MP Michael Gove said he would write to the charity asking it to consider a stricter monitoring of the organisations they they work with. "As a society we need a more determined effort to identify and expose those religious cults and extremists that pose a direct threat to people, so that they do not enjoy patronage that should be directed elsewhere," he said.

Shitu Chudasama, Sai's UK national youth coordinator, defended the trip, saying it was primarily a humanitarian mission to help impoverished people, saying that the sex abuse claims were "totally unfounded". He added: "We hope to have an interview with Sai Baba but it's not guaranteed. If he wants to see us, he'll call us."

Sai Organisation's UK branch has also came into contact with royals through the awards, something Buckingham Palace was made aware of in September. In correspondence seen by the Guardian, Brigadier Sir Miles Hunt-Davis, Prince Philip's private secretary, wrote: "[We] are very keen to get this sorted out properly and finally." He said trustees of the award would undertake legal advice before deciding how to proceed.

In July the Sai Organisation received a certificate for their "invaluable contribution" to the awards at a Buckingham Palace garden party. A news story which appeared on a Sai Baba website after the ceremony was removed after an intervention by Peter Westgarth, who said the event had been misrepresented.

In the posting, Mr Chudasama recounted the moment he delivered a speech to "various dignitaries, diplomats, ministers [and] famous celebrities" at the palace. "I was the last speaker called up, and suddenly a confidence, a joy, engulfed my being," he said. "I attributed everything to our founder Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. As I spoke I watched the sea of faces, they were hanging from my every word and there was a look of excitement on their faces as if to say 'why have we not heard of this organisation before?'."

Mr Chudasama also attended a private audience with Prince Philip at St James's Palace last year. "Prince Philip showed a very keen interest in our youth and asked many questions," Mr Chudasama wrote in a Sai newsletter. "I also had the opportunity to mention ... that we drew our inspiration and motivation from our founder Sri Sathya Sai Baba; he paused for a few seconds and then said: "Very good".

Backstory

Saytha Sai Baba, who has an estimated 30 million followers worldwide, is possibly India's most controversial holy man. He gained a following in his teens when he claimed to have divine powers and, later, said he was an incarnation of God. His teachings are benign - his most famous mantra is "Love All, Serve All" - and he encourages followers, which include many of India's political elite, to undertake humanitarian work. He purports to be able to miraculously conjure sacred ash and expensive jewellery into the palm of his hand, as if out of thin air. Opponents dismiss his miracles as party tricks. The Sai Organisation claims to have more than 1,200 Saytha Sai Baba Centres in more than 100 countries .

Posted by Perry at 04:12 PM

November 03, 2006

Secret document sets out a procedure for dealing with child sex abuse scandals within the Catholic Church

BBC - Panorama
29 September 2006

[The documentary Sex crimes and the Vatican is viewable at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/panorama/5389684.stm]

Crimen Sollicitationis was enforced for 20 years by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became the Pope.

It instructs bishops on how to deal with allegations of child abuse against priests and has been seen by few outsiders.

Critics say the document has been used to evade prosecution for sex crimes.

Crimen Sollicitationis was written in 1962 in Latin and given to Catholic bishops worldwide who are ordered to keep it locked away in the church safe.

It instructs them how to deal with priests who solicit sex from the confessional. It also deals with "any obscene external act ... with youths of either sex."

It imposes an oath of secrecy on the child victim, the priest dealing with the allegation and any witnesses.

Breaking that oath means excommunication from the Catholic Church.

Continue reading "Secret document sets out a procedure for dealing with child sex abuse scandals within the Catholic Church"

Posted by Perry at 05:07 PM

November 02, 2006

Los Angeles Abuse Cases Are Settled for $10 Million

By NEELA BANERJEE
The New York Times
Published: October 28, 2006

WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles and a Catholic religious order have agreed to pay $10 million to settle claims made by seven victims of sexual abuse by clergy members, lawyers for the parties involved said Friday.

While the amount per victim is large relative to payments made to settle sexual abuse cases in other parts of the country, it is typical of the sums paid in California, which has a taken a strong stance toward the Catholic Church in abuse cases. In 2003, for example, the state extended its statute of limitations for child sexual abuse cases, and the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office has been conducting a criminal investigation into the archdiocese since 2002.

More than 95 percent of the $10 million settlement will be paid by the religious order, the Carmelites, Province of the Most Pure Heart of Mary, which is based in Darien, Ill. The archdiocese will pay less than 5 percent, lawyers for the plaintiffs and the order said.

The settlement for the most part is not covered by the Carmelites’ insurance, said Jim Geoly, the order’s lawyer, adding that the order might have to borrow money to pay the sum.

Mr. Geoly said the order wanted to avoid protracted litigation, which he said would have amounted to going to war with the plaintiffs, “because that’s what litigation is.”

“They are deeply sorry that this sexual abuse occurred and that the church didn’t have more understanding of this kind of problem at the time,” he said. “They want to do everything they can to make it right, even though money can’t make the abuse go away.”

The seven plaintiffs accused four Carmelite priests and one Carmelite brother of sexual abuse in a period from the early 1950s to the late 1970s.

Several of the claims focused on the Rev. Dominic Savino, who held several high-ranking faculty positions at Crespi Carmelite High School in the Encino section of the city before he was removed from the ministry in 2002. One plaintiff accused Father Savino and another priest of raping him at the school when he was 15 and continuing the abuse from 1978 to 1979, said John C. Manly, a lawyer for the plaintiff.

Mr. Manly and victims’ rights groups welcomed the decision by the Carmelites, though they said that it had been hard-won.

“I’m glad Carmelites did the right thing,” said Mr. Manly, himself a Catholic, “but I think that’s what’s ultimately wrong with the Catholic Church: you shouldn’t have to sue your church to get them and the bishop to do the right thing.”

Posted by Perry at 02:39 PM

October 27, 2006

Two more accused of child sex abuse at religious home

The Seattle Times
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/eastsidenews/2003321671_latin25e.html

October 25, 2006

By Peyton Whitely

Seattle Times Eastside bureau

Two more men were charged with sexually abusing children at a religious home operated by a group that had sites in Bellevue and Sammamish.

The charges were brought against Steven Kyle Kirkland, 24, of Duvall, and Donovan Patrick Olsen, 20, originally of Tucson, Ariz.

Kirkland is charged with two counts of first-degree child rape. Olsen is charged with one count of first-degree child molestation and one count of second-degree child molestation.

According to the filings made Monday, the abuses took place at a religious seminary known as the "Trident Latin Rite," which had been on Northeast Sixth Street in Bellevue and later moved to an address on Southeast 39th Street in Sammamish.

The charges originated with investigations that date to 2004 and earlier.

Court documents have described the facilities as a "religious home," and other accounts have described the operations as being part of a sect that broke away from the Catholic Church. Sect members first worshipped in a church using the name Tridentine Latin Rites, according to 2002 Seattle Times reports.

In the latest charges, Kirkland is accused of raping a child between 1996 and 1999.

Continue reading "Two more accused of child sex abuse at religious home"

Posted by Perry at 06:38 PM

Attorney general fears possible sex abuse in Bountiful

The Calgary Sun
http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/National/2006/10/24/2114380-sun.html

Tue, October 24, 2006

By CP

VICTORIA -- The possibility of children being sexually exploited or abused in the community of Bountiful is of more concern than the issue of polygamy, B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal said yesterday.

But Oppal also said he is not ignoring polygamy charges may be available to Crown prosecutors for some members in the B.C. community.

"The fundamental issue here is sexual exploitation of children, sexual abuse of children and sexual assaults," Oppal said.

Posted by Perry at 06:22 PM

Polygamist accuser aged 14 when forced to marry relative

The Calgary Sun
http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/World/2006/10/21/2086954-sun.html

Sat, October 21, 2006
By AP

SALT LAKE CITY -- The woman at the centre of a criminal case involving polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs was 14 when forced into a marriage with her first cousin, a source close to the case said yesterday.

At Jeffs' direction, she was married despite her objections in 2001 to the cousin, who was older than 18, the source said on condition of anonymity to protect the woman's identity.

The marriage was not polygamous, the source said.

"It was child abuse, plain and simple."

Jeffs, 50, is the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a southern Utah-based church. The sect broke away from the Mormon church more than a century ago and has been disavowed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Prosecutors charged Jeffs in April with two first-degree felony counts of rape as an accomplice for his suspected role in the marriage.

Jeffs was arrested in August during a traffic stop near Las Vegas. If convicted on both charges, he could face up to life in prison.

Posted by Perry at 06:10 PM

Police investigation into polygamist Bountiful community now with Crown

Macleans
http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/news/shownews.jsp?content=n1019103A

October 19, 2006 - 20:40

VICTORIA (CP) - A police investigation into the polygamist commune in Bountiful has been completed and is in the hands of the criminal justice branch.

The branch release a brief statement Thursday from Crown spokesman Stan Lowe, confirming the receipt of a report from the RCMP concerning the community, located near Creston in southeastern B.C.

The report was received by the branch on Sept. 28, 2006, and resulted from a lengthy and complex police investigation into alleged misconduct on the part of some residents of Bountiful, the statement said.

A "comprehensive charge assessment review" of the police report will be conducted by senior Crown counsel to determine if any Criminal Code offences have been committed.

The branch said that the assessment would likely take a long time to complete and no further comments would be made until there is a decision.

People at the commune are members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

There have long been allegations of sexual abuse at the commune and rumours of charges against leaders of the community such as Winston Blackmore have long been whispered.

Last summer, in a meeting with the attorneys general of Arizona and Utah, B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal discussed common problems with polygamist communities.

The church is based in the state line communities of Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah, but it also has a sizeable branch in Bountiful.

Posted by Perry at 06:06 PM

PROFILE OF PERFIDY

New York Press
http://www.nypress.com/19/42/film/jennifermerin.cfm

Documentary spotlights pedophile priests

By Jennifer Merin

Deliver Us From Evil Directed by Amy Berg

Amy Berg’s documentary, Deliver Us From Evil, is a compelling exposé of the Catholic Church’s schemes to cover up its clergy’s rampant child abuse. The film focuses on the history of Father Oliver O’Grady, the notorious pedophile priest who raped and sodomized hundreds of boys and girls aged nine months through adolescence, and one adolescent victim’s mother, over the course of 20 years. During this time, church superiors avoided exposure to scandal by reassigning him from one California parish to another, never punishing him and failing to prevent his ongoing predatory behavior.

O’Grady was eventually tried and incarcerated. He was deported to Ireland after his release from prison, where he now lives comfortably in retirement, still ordained, enjoying his pension, roaming freely.

Berg uses archival footage as well as new interviews to reveal O’Grady’s flippant attitude. Oozing indifference, he’s utterly without remorse about his heinous behavior and the devastation he caused his victims and their families. In contrast, as they recall O’Grady’s actions, the victims and their families erupt with anguish and anger—and enormous frustration that there’s been no prosecution of LA’s Cardinal Roger Mahony who, according to the film, knew of O’Grady’s crimes but did nothing to stop them. And it’s easy to understand their rage: Mahony still rules the LA Archdiocese.

The film traces the trail of deceit and shame all the way to Pope Benedict XVI, who’s been accused of conspiracy to cover up the crimes. The Vatican asked President Bush to grant the Pontiff immunity from prosecution—and got it. When O’Grady’s victims traveled to Rome to petition for mercy and justice, they were turned away without an audience. The Church also declined to be interviewed for the documentary.

Berg substantiates her public awareness agenda by interviewing theologians, lawyers, psychologists and other experts about clergy child abuse. Especially alarming are their statements that that the Church’s only solution for ending clergy child abuse has been to scapegoat homosexual priests. Further, as victim Leslie Sloan points out, Church superiors considered molestation of boys “obscene,” while they deemed abuse of girls to be “normal curiosity.”

Deliver Us From Evil stands out from the pack of moralistic docs because of its compelling stories of families devastated by O’Grady’s abuse. Bob Jyono’s expression of pain and guilt about not suspecting that his daughter was being raped by his trusted family priest and friend is heartbreaking, as is his daughter’s confession that she’s not been able to forget, forgive, nor marry. The film manages to deliver viewers to the point of moral outrage regarding clergy abuse—Catholic or not.

Posted by Perry at 05:43 PM

October 24, 2006

Sexual assault chief concern in Bountiful

Globe and Mail

23/10/06
Canadian Press

VICTORIA — The possibility of children being sexually exploited or abused in the community of Bountiful is of more concern than the issue of polygamy, B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal said Monday.

But Mr. Oppal also said he is not ignoring the fact polygamy charges may be available to Crown prosecutors for some members in the southeastern B.C. community.

“The fundamental issue here is sexual exploitation of children, sexual abuse of children and sexual assaults — if all that is taking place,” Mr. Oppal told reporters.

“That is more important than anything else. I'm not ignoring the fact there may be polygamy charges available there but it's much more important I think we can all agree, that we prevent any child abuse.”
The B.C. Criminal Justice Branch has started a charge assessment review after receiving an RCMP report.

A separate federal Justice Department report says Canada is violating international human rights obligations by allowing polygamy to persist in the community.

Continue reading "Sexual assault chief concern in Bountiful"

Posted by Perry at 11:52 AM

July 20, 2006

Oregon police say man abused teen in cult-like operation

7/20/2006, 12:01 p.m. PT
The Associated Press

HILLSBORO, Ore. (AP) — A 39-year-old man who had a robe with the words "Master Eric" and claimed that a psychic ability called "remote viewing" helped him locate runaways has been accused of sexually abusing a teenager, police said.

Police said the victim was 17 when a follower of Eric J. Pepin recruited him in 2004, and then Pepin had him perform sex acts.

Pepin and an employee, Jamison Priebe, 21, who lives at the same address as Pepin in Aloha, surrendered on charges of using a child in a sexual display and sexual abuse. A grand jury issued indictments last week.

"The charges are false, and we are confident Mr. Pepin will be exonerated," said his attorney, Sam Kauffman.

Under Oregon law, using a child in a sexual display carries a minimum penalty of nearly six years in prison.

Beaverton police Detective Mike Smith said Pepin operated the Higher Balance Institute in Beaverton. Smith said the ornate robe emblazoned "Master Eric" turned up during a search.

Pepin's Web site says he has located more than 100 missing persons and runaways, along with U.S. Navy submarines, through a psychic ability he calls "remote viewing." The site offers meditation systems for $79 to $149 help customers develop their "sixth sense" and apply it "inward to awaken a dimensional universe within the mind."

In an affidavit filed with a request for a search warrant, Smith said the victim, now 20, told police that Internet customers are men and women usually older than 35. But, he told police, Pepin told him he should recruit "good-looking men" between 18 and 24 to work for him.

Smith wrote that the victim "was taught by Pepin to believe that the sexual contact was only a spiritual necessity." But after a while, the affidavit says, the boy decided he was being used by Pepin, who bought him meals and paid him $200 after sex.

The man contacted Beaverton police in January.

___

Information from: The Oregonian, http://www.oregonlive.com

Posted by Julia at 01:41 PM

July 15, 2006

Testimony shows man took teen bride after 'marriage' with her mom

Family ties: Verdict is called a message
By Brooke Adams
The Salt Lake Tribune

KINGMAN, Ariz. - Compelling testimony about how polygamous marriages work, coupled with birth certificates, proved enough for a Mohave County jury to find a Colorado City, Ariz., man guilty of two sex-crime charges Friday.

The jury found Kelly Fischer, 39, had engaged in sex with a 16-year-old girl he took as a plural wife about six years ago and that it occurred in the home they shared in Colorado City. Prosecutors had contended Fischer, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, conspired with Warren Jeffs, the faith's leader, and the girl's mother in arranging to have sex with her.
The jury took just over an hour to reach its verdict, despite the lack of testimony from a victim or a witness with firsthand knowledge of the crimes.
"The evidence was very direct in what conclusion we came to," said Debbie Henderson, the head juror, as she left the courthouse. "That made it really easy. The witnesses - all three - they knew what they were talking about."
Henderson also said birth certificates, which showed the girl was 17 when she gave birth to a child fathered by Fischer, were "definitely very good evidence."
Fischer was the first of eight men to stand trial on the sex crime charges, and Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith said he hoped the verdict sent a message to the polygamous FLDS community that straddles the Utah/Arizona state line.
"This case is not about polygamy. It is about underage sex practices and having sex with underage girls, and I think the jury in this county is speaking for the fact that that is not something that should be tolerated, no matter where it happens," Smith said.
He also praised the jury for being able to understand the conspiracy charge, saying that the only way FLDS men enter marriages with underage girls is if "Warren Jeffs puts his stamp of approval on it."
Jeffs is a fugitive, wanted on the same Arizona charges, as well as a rape-as-an-accomplice charge in Utah for his role in arranging and conducting underage marriages. He has been on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" fugitive list since May 6.
Fischer, a construction contractor, sat stoically as the court clerk read the jury's verdict, and he left the courthouse without speaking.
Judge Steven F. Conn will sentence Fischer on Aug. 4. The charges - sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor - are class 6 felonies punishable by four months to two years in prison, or probation.
Bruce Griffen, Fischer's attorney, said he will seek probation, with the possibility of dropping the conviction from his record in the future, as allowed by Arizona law.
Smith said victims usually are allowed input on sentences, but since the girl has not been located, he doubted "we'll have much luck in that."
Fischer is listed as the father of her first child, born in 2001, and Griffen did not dispute that. Instead, he challenged the lack of specific information on where she conceived the child - raising questions about whether Arizona had jurisdiction in the case - and who else might have had a role in authorizing the relationship.
But Smith returned over and over to one theme: exploitation of minors.
According to testimony, the girl's mother was ''re-assigned'' as a wife to Fischer around 1997-98 and moved into his home with her children. Her daughter - who would become Fischer's third wife - was about 13 or 14.
Isaac Wyler, then an FLDS member, lived down the street and worked with Fischer on community service projects. Wyler testified that a couple of years later, he noticed the girl and Fischer frequently riding horses together.
Once they came up a creek near his home and Fischer asked Wyler, a horse trainer, for advice about how to get their horses to cross a large puddle.
"They were joking around a little bit, probably inappropriately for the way we were raised," he said, describing it as "courtship" behavior.
Wyler later heard the pair had been married in a secret FLDS ceremony - a rumor he felt was confirmed when he saw Fischer drive by one day with the girl seated in the vehicle between him and his legal wife.
That behavior is typical among polygamists who "rotate" seating arrangements among wives - a strong relationship signal in a faith that discourages displays of affection, said Wyler, who was kicked out of the FLDS church in 2004.
Richard Holm, also an ex-FLDS member, described how marriages are directed by the faith's prophet. No one can refuse such edicts, he said, without facing intense pressure and threats of, as Smith put it, "death and destruction."
Smith said that explanation showed why Fischer had to have approval from Jeffs and the girl's mother to father children with her.
"The only way it happened is the way you heard things happen up there," he said. "Sex with underage girls would be condoned up there. . . . But keep in mind that doesn't make it OK. . . . This is, in effect, sex with his stepdaughter. He's got to know that is wrong."
Smith told the jury that in sex abuse and domestic violence cases, there often is no victim testifying; nevertheless, cases go forward.
"You're her voice. You get to speak for the victim in this case," Smith said. "Don't let him get away with it."
Griffen argued the testimony was full of "guess, speculation and assumption," and characterized Wyler and Holm as disgruntled.
"Seeing [the girl] at a house is not circumstantial evidence of sexual intercourse at that house," said Griffen, who had suggested it was possible the girl became pregnant in some other state where Fischer worked.
"Don't rely on just culture," he urged jurors, asking them to put aside their feelings about polygamy, Jeffs and about men who father "a couple dozen football teams of children . . . to give a Colorado City fundamentalist a fair trial."

What's next:

* Kelly Fischer will be sentenced Aug. 4.
* Seven other polygamists face identical charges: Dale Evans Barlow, 48, whose trial begins in August; Rodney Hans Holm, 39; Donald Robert Barlow, 49; Vergel Bryce Jessop, 46; Terry Darger Barlow, 24; Randolph J. Barlow, 33; and David Romaine Bateman, 49. They are the largest group to be prosecuted on charges related to polygamy since 1953, when Arizona staged an infamous raid on Short Creek, now known as Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.

Posted by Julia at 11:31 AM

July 11, 2006

Former Ohio Police Chaplain Sentenced For Having Sex With Girls

MEDINA, Ohio -- A judge sentenced a former police chaplain to 15 years in prison for having sex with four girls since 2002.

Leonard Robertson, 46, pleaded guilty in April to 54 counts of sexual battery, two counts of gross sexual imposition and one count of attempted gross sexual imposition.

"This is sort of the poster child of patterns of abuse," Medina Common Pleas Judge Christopher Collier said Monday. "You don't get much more clear than this."

Continue reading "Former Ohio Police Chaplain Sentenced For Having Sex With Girls"

Posted by Julia at 08:16 PM

September 08, 2005

'Faith' filmmakers say church rebuffed them

By CLAUDIA ROWE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Thursday, August 18, 2005

In 2002, when news stories broke detailing a decades-long coverup of child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic church, Kirby Dick, a documentary filmmaker in Los Angeles, felt many things, among them exasperation.

News coverage concentrated on accountability and blame and, eventually, lawsuits. But rarely did he read anything that exposed the emotional reality of victims. "Twist of Faith," Dick hopes, will redress that.

In an interview with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Dick and producer Eddie Schmidt discussed their search for an appropriate subject to tell this story and described church reaction in its aftermath.

P-I: There are innumerable instances of child abuse. Why make a movie about this particular scandal?

Dick: Sexual abuse, unfortunately, happens very, very frequently in this country, but I think it's actually hard for people to contemplate this, to even think about it. And when you add religion it adds a level of complexity and trauma for the survivor that I was very interested in delving into.

How has the church reacted to your movie?

Dick: When we were making the film, we'd arranged for an interview with the bishop in Toledo. He had no direct relationship to the abuse we were talking about so we thought it would be OK. We flew out to Ohio, set up our cameras for an hour and a half outside his office, and five minutes before we were going to start shooting he said, "I've changed my mind. I'm not going to do it." That was astounding to us. It kind of gave me a sense of what Tony (the film's protagonist) had gone through, that this person you think of as a paragon of virtue suddenly breaks a promise and is lying to you.

Continue reading "'Faith' filmmakers say church rebuffed them"

Posted by Perry at 07:54 PM

August 18, 2005

'Faith' filmmakers say church rebuffed them

By CLAUDIA ROWE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER Thursday, August 18, 2005
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/movies/236935_faithside18.html

In 2002, when news stories broke detailing a decades-long coverup of child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic church, Kirby Dick, a documentary filmmaker in Los Angeles, felt many things, among them exasperation.

News coverage concentrated on accountability and blame and, eventually, lawsuits. But rarely did he read anything that exposed the emotional reality of victims. "Twist of Faith," Dick hopes, will redress that.

In an interview with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Dick and producer Eddie Schmidt discussed their search for an appropriate subject to tell this story and described church reaction in its aftermath.

P-I: There are innumerable instances of child abuse. Why make a movie about this particular scandal?

Dick: Sexual abuse, unfortunately, happens very, very frequently in this country, but I think it's actually hard for people to contemplate this, to even think about it. And when you add religion it adds a level of complexity and trauma for the survivor that I was very interested in delving into.

Continue reading "'Faith' filmmakers say church rebuffed them"

Posted by Perry at 04:43 PM

August 16, 2005

Twisted logic in polygamy case

The Arizona Republic, Op-Ed, Aug. 11, 2005

Trustees must have true respect for laws on marriage

Who would you pick for trustees of a pot of money worth more than $100 million that was established for a polygamous cult and put in jeopardy by its indicted and missing "prophet"?

More polygamists?

If you think the answer is obvious, you are in for a surprise.

Polygamists are on the list of people a Utah court is considering as replacements for Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints "prophet" Warren Jeffs and his cronies.

Jeffs and Co. were stripped of their trusteeships to stop them from looting the trust's assets, which are the sole resource of 10,000 or so cult members living in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City.

One of those on the replacement list is Winston Blackmore, former leader of a polygamist cult in Bountiful, British Columbia.

The Vancouver Sun says he is being investigated by Canadian authorities for sexual exploitation of underage girls.

Continue reading "Twisted logic in polygamy case"

Posted by Perry at 07:10 PM

August 15, 2005

Twisted logic in polygamy case

The Arizona Republic, Op-Ed, Aug. 11, 2005
www.azcentral.com

Trustees must have true respect for laws on marriage

Who would you pick for trustees of a pot of money worth more than $100 million that was established for a polygamous cult and put in jeopardy by its indicted and missing "prophet"?

More polygamists?

If you think the answer is obvious, you are in for a surprise.

Polygamists are on the list of people a Utah court is considering as replacements for Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints "prophet" Warren Jeffs and his cronies.

Jeffs and Co. were stripped of their trusteeships to stop them from looting the trust's assets, which are the sole resource of 10,000 or so cult members living in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City.

One of those on the replacement list is Winston Blackmore, former leader of a polygamist cult in Bountiful, British Columbia.

The Vancouver Sun says he is being investigated by Canadian authorities for sexual exploitation of underage girls.

Continue reading "Twisted logic in polygamy case"

Posted by Perry at 04:53 PM

August 12, 2005

Twisted logic in polygamy case

The Arizona Republic, Aug. 11, 2005
www.azcentral.com

Trustees must have true respect for laws on marriage

Who would you pick for trustees of a pot of money worth more than $100 million that was established for a polygamous cult and put in jeopardy by its indicted and missing "prophet"?

More polygamists?

If you think the answer is obvious, you are in for a surprise.

Polygamists are on the list of people a Utah court is considering as replacements for Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints "prophet" Warren Jeffs and his cronies.

Jeffs and Co. were stripped of their trusteeships to stop them from looting the trust's assets, which are the sole resource of 10,000 or so cult members living in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City.

One of those on the replacement list is Winston Blackmore, former leader of a polygamist cult in Bountiful, British Columbia.

The Vancouver Sun says he is being investigated by Canadian authorities for sexual exploitation of underage girls.

Continue reading "Twisted logic in polygamy case"

Posted by Perry at 07:06 PM

Twisted logic in polygamy case

The Arizona Republic, Aug. 11, 2005
www.azcentral.com/

Trustees must have true respect for laws on marriage

Who would you pick for trustees of a pot of money worth more than $100 million that was established for a polygamous cult and put in jeopardy by its indicted and missing "prophet"?

More polygamists?

If you think the answer is obvious, you are in for a surprise.

Polygamists are on the list of people a Utah court is considering as replacements for Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints "prophet" Warren Jeffs and his cronies.

Jeffs and Co. were stripped of their trusteeships to stop them from looting the trust's assets, which are the sole resource of 10,000 or so cult members living in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City.

One of those on the replacement list is Winston Blackmore, former leader of a polygamist cult in Bountiful, British Columbia.

The Vancouver Sun says he is being investigated by Canadian authorities for sexual exploitation of underage girls.

Continue reading "Twisted logic in polygamy case"

Posted by Perry at 07:01 PM

July 29, 2005

Former Polygamous Sect Member Confronts Past

ABC News / Primetime, USA
July 28, 2005

abcnews.go.com

Woman Returns to Assert Identity; Questions Her Abuser

Jul. 28, 2005 - As a member of an isolated polygamous sect in Arizona, Laurene Jessop says she was sexually abused by her father, who had four wives and 56 children, and mistreated by her husband, who was already married to Laurene's sister.

After enduring a lifetime of desperation, she fled her home in Colorado City, Ariz., a town dominated by the group, called the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints.

But a year after she left, the 47-year-old returned to confront her past. She felt she had to prove to herself the group no longer had power over her.

As she drove into the city with "Primetime" co-anchor John Quiñones, she said, "It's like coming into a nightmare, another life."

From a very young age, everyone in Colorado City is taught that outsiders are evil. They wear old-fashioned clothes, and they fervently submit to the rules of Warren Jeffs, a man they call "The Prophet."

Young girls are destined to be married off in their teen years to older men, who keep several wives. The girls are expected to bear many children and obey the sect's strict patriarchal rules. The FLDS split from the mainstream Mormon church in 1890 when it disavowed polygamy.

Continue reading "Former Polygamous Sect Member Confronts Past"

Posted by Perry at 11:16 PM

July 24, 2005

Kingston kids fate in hands of judge

The Salt Lake Tribune,June 23, 2005
Brooke Adams

WEST JORDAN - The mother, children, therapists and attorneys all have had their turn to speak. Now, they must wait three weeks to learn what the judge has to say in the complex, controversial Kingston child welfare case.

Third District Juvenile Court Judge Elizabeth Lindsley set Aug. 15 as the day she will issue a decision about the fate of the children of Heidi Mattingly Foster and polygamist John Daniel Kingston. The judge said she had a previously scheduled vacation, but also needed time to review documents in the case.

"I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't look over everything and I need to do that to determine what is in the best interests of these children," Lindsley said.

Continue reading "Kingston kids fate in hands of judge"

Posted by Perry at 11:57 PM

July 14, 2005

10K reward offered for polygamist church leader

Associated Press July 13, 2005

PHOENIX - Arizona and Utah's attorneys general on Wednesday announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the reclusive leader of a polygamous church based in communities along the states' common border.

Warren Jeffs, who has not been publicly sighted in months, was charged in Arizona in early June with counts that include conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor.

"I find it hard to believe (Jeffs is) the active leader of 10,000 and no one knows where he is," Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said.

Continue reading "10K reward offered for polygamist church leader"

Posted by Perry at 01:12 AM

May 25, 2005

The Long and Difficult Road to Protecting Children from Sexual Abuse: A Tale of Three States, and How They Revised Their Statutes

by Marci Hamilton
Thursday, May 19, 2005
http://writ.findlaw.com/hamilton/20050519.html

Over the last decade, concern about childhood sexual abuse has grown.

Megan's Laws -- which put convicted sex offenders on public registers, so that parents can know if a neighbor has a record -- have become popular. Child abuse reporting statutes that mandate that certain professionals contact the state with knowledge of child abuse have also been passed.

And of course - in the most high-profile development - suits against clergy and religious institutions for childhood sexual abuse have been filed, and their filing has sent shock waves through the Catholic Church and (as I will discuss below) other religious institutions.

Even the press - which was unforgivably lax in covering this issue -- is starting to cover children's issues as though they are an important part of public policy.

What are the reasons for this trend? One is that experience has shown that pedophiles are incurable. It is a sexual predisposition, not a treatable psychological condition.

Another is that society has come to recognize that children have a great deal of trouble telling others about their victimization, and that, later in life, they suffer serious ill-effects from abuse. The victim pays for life, and society pays in lost capacities and contributions.

Continue reading "The Long and Difficult Road to Protecting Children from Sexual Abuse: A Tale of Three States, and How They Revised Their Statutes"

Posted by Perry at 09:18 PM

May 23, 2005

The Choirboy

By John Heilemann
From the May 30, 2005 issue of New York Magazine.
http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/features/12061/index.html

As head boy at a legendary choir school, Lawrence Lessig was repeatedly molested by the charismatic choir director, part of a horrific pattern of child abuse there. Now, as one of America’s most famous lawyers, he’s put his own past on trial to make sure such a thing never happens again.

Continue reading "The Choirboy"

Posted by Perry at 02:22 PM

April 28, 2005

'Internet evangelist' held on child rape charges

DELAND -- A self-described Internet evangelist who has preached about everything from morality to spirituality on his family's Web site was arrested Wednesday and charged with raping a child younger than 12.

Continue reading "'Internet evangelist' held on child rape charges"

Posted by Julia at 10:14 PM

April 25, 2005

Polygamy lecture 'disgusts'

The only right they have is to obey their husbands - who have multiple other wives. Their babies are born without limbs and other mutations because the father has been a close relative for many generations.

Continue reading "Polygamy lecture 'disgusts'"

Posted by Julia at 10:28 PM

April 24, 2005

Beyond Bountiful

By Brian Lynch
21-Apr-2005

Keep Sweet revisits polygamy in a small B.C. town

The act of reading opened one of the few apertures in Debbie Palmer’s carefully sealed childhood, which, as her recent memoir Keep Sweet: Children of Polygamy describes in tragic detail, was spent in Bountiful, the now-embattled community of fundamentalist Mormons near Creston, B.C.

Continue reading " Beyond Bountiful"

Posted by Perry at 01:35 PM

April 21, 2005

Pak panchayat weds two-year-old girl to 40-year-old man

In a bizarre incident, a two year old girl has been promised in marriage to a 40 year old man, in Pakistan.

Continue reading "Pak panchayat weds two-year-old girl to 40-year-old man"

Posted by Julia at 06:01 PM

No more polygamy with girls under 18, B.C. sect says

Last Updated Wed, 20 Apr 2005 21:42:57 EDT
CBC News

CRESTON, B.C. - The wives of polygamists from a religion-based community near Creston, B.C., defended their lifestyle at a meeting Tuesday night, but also said girls under 18 will no longer enter into "plural marriages."

Continue reading "No more polygamy with girls under 18, B.C. sect says"

Posted by Perry at 01:08 AM

Abuse in polygamous town denied

October 11, 2004
By AMY CARMICHAEL

VANCOUVER (CP) - In a huffy note hammered onto the town message board, women from a B.C. polygamous commune have announced they would be "setting the record straight" about abuse they have allegedly been subjected to.

Continue reading "Abuse in polygamous town denied"

Posted by Perry at 01:02 AM

Pitcairn Islanders Challenge British Laws

Monday, April 18, 2005 Updated at 8:17 AM EST
Associated Press

Wellington — Six men from Pitcairn Island launched a challenge Monday to the British laws used to convict them last year of a string of sex crimes that unveiled widespread abuse of women and girls on the tiny island dating back as many as 40 years.

Continue reading "Pitcairn Islanders Challenge British Laws"

Posted by Perry at 12:49 AM

April 18, 2005

Utah, Arizona Target Polygamists

Lawyers representing the attorneys general of Arizona and Utah plan to be in court today in Salt Lake City to support moves to strip the head of the nation's largest polygamist community of his greatest political and financial assets.

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Posted by Julia at 09:56 PM

April 15, 2005

Cult leader rapes little girls under Christian cloak

"He didn't just touch them, he repeatedly raped several of the little elementary school girls. I've heard that there were cases when there would be several little girls sleeping in his office at the same time and he would grab one of them and rape her without waking any of the others. The other girls would be awake, but pretend to be asleep," Chiemi Saga, lawyer for a group of alleged rape victims, tells Shukan Josei (4/26).

Continue reading "Cult leader rapes little girls under Christian cloak"

Posted by Julia at 11:33 AM

April 14, 2005

Panel looks at polygamous sect

AUSTIN, Texas — Expert witnesses warned a House committee Wednesday that a polygamous sect taking root in West Texas is led by a man who poses a danger to women and children in the sect and has the capacity to incite religiously inspired violence.

Continue reading "Panel looks at polygamous sect"

Posted by Julia at 07:21 AM

April 13, 2005

Bill targets polygamist sect

The Utah attorney general has offered his help to state Rep. Harvey Hilderbran, who is trying to crack down on multiple marriages among a religious sect building a town-size compound in West Texas.

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Posted by Julia at 07:36 PM

Police suspect Kyoto reverend raped more girls

KYOTO -- Police have questioned several girls over whether they were sexually attacked by the leader of a church who stands accused of raping one girl, officials said on Wednesday.

Continue reading "Police suspect Kyoto reverend raped more girls"

Posted by Julia at 07:32 PM

Sex abuse victims target fugitive priests

VATICAN CITY - American victims of clergy sex abuse urged church officials Wednesday to help extradite accused priests who fled to their religious orders in Rome or to foreign countries to escape punishment.

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Posted by Julia at 06:32 PM

Two brothers receive nearly $2 million in church abuse case

HAYWARD – Two brothers molested by a priest more than two decades ago were awarded nearly $2 million in damages by a jury Wednesday.