Warren Jeffs and the FLDS

The first polygamist sect member to face criminal trial following the raid of a West Texas ranch was sentenced to 10 years in prison Tuesday for sexually assaulting an underage girl with whom he had a so-called "spiritual marriage." Jurors who last week convicted Raymond Jessop, 38, handed down the sentence that includes an $8,000 fine. His attorneys had sought probation for the conviction that could have brought him up to 20 years in prison. Jessop, who prosecutors allege has nine wives, still faces a separate bigamy charge to be tried later. He is the first member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ ... Read Full Story

The first of a dozen polygamist sect members charged with abuse of women stands trial Monday, 18 months after agents raided the group's remote ranch and carted off more than 400 children in the largest child-custody case in American history. Raymond Jessop, 38, faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of sexual assault of a child, a charge stemming from his alleged marriage to an underage girl in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He will be tried later on a separate count of bigamy related to a second alleged underage bride. In all, 12 sect members have ... Read Full Story

The first jury trial in more than a decade in the sleepy West Texas town of Eldorado involves an alleged polygamist and an accusation of sexual assault of an underage bride, a far cry from the occasional drunken driving cases that normally occupy the Schleicher County court system. Attorneys on Monday will begin culling the largest jury pool ever called in Eldorado to try to find 14 people in a county of 2,800 who can set aside what they've heard about a polygamist sect whose alleged marriages involving underage girls triggered a police raid that swept more than 400 children into state custody last ... Read Full Story

Canada will not appeal a court ruling tossing out criminal charges against two men in polygamous religious sects, authorities in British Columbia said Thursday. Provincial Attorney General Michael de Jong said that westernmost British Columbia will instead ask its provincial Supreme Court whether Canada's law against polygamy is constitutional. "We believe polygamy is against the law, and it should be against the law," de Jong told reporters. But before measures can be taken to prevent it, he said, courts have to answer the question: "Is polygamy a crime in Canada?" Last month a judge with the court quashed charges against Winston Blackmore and James ... Read Full Story

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - A Canadian court will be asked if the country's laws against polygamy violate constitutional protections of religious freedom, British Columbia's attorney general said on Thursday. The law's constitutionality was left in limbo last month after a judge tossed out a criminal case against two members of a breakaway Mormon sect that practices polygamy in the Western Canadian province, Michael de Jong said. "There is a question that needs to be answered, and it's a very basic one: Is polygamy a crime in Canada?" de Jong told reporters in announcing the special case to be filed in British Columbia Supreme ... Read Full Story

ELDORADO, Texas — Women in a polygamist sect were taught that their fathers or husbands and the sect’s prophet had the right to direct every aspect of their lives, a former member testified Wednesday in the child sexual abuse trial of a current sect member. “As a woman you have no direct connection to God,” said Rebecca Musser, a former member of the Fundamentalist LDS Church. “Every area of our lives was directed by the church and their teachings.” Musser left the church in 2002 and never lived at the Yearning for Zion Ranch, the site of a state raid in April 2008 that ... Read Full Story

A judge has quashed polygamy charges against two leaders of a polygamous community in western Canada. British Columbia Supreme Court Judge Sunni Stromberg-Stein said Wednesday the province's attorney general did not have the authority to appoint a second special prosecutor to consider the cases of Winston Blackmore and James Oler after the first special prosecutor recommended against charging the two men. Authorities arrested Blackmore and Oler, who lead rival polygamous factions in Bountiful, a town in southeastern British Columbia, in January. Blackmore was charged with marrying 20 women and Oler was accused of marrying two women. Blackmore, long known as "the Bishop of Bountiful," ... Read Full Story