Grand Jury Indicts Warren Jeffs and Five Other Polygamists

By Charlie Brett
12:16, July 23rd 2008
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Grand Jury Indicts Warren Jeffs and Five Other Polygamists

A Texas grand jury indicted polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs on sexual assault accusations, state Attorney General Greg Abbott announced on Tuesday. Furthermore, five of his followers are also due to be prosecuted for a variety of criminal charges.

Warren Jeffs was incriminated for the sexual assault of a child, a first-degree felony, while four of his followers were charged with one count of sexually assaulting young girls under the age of 17. What’s more, one of the four lawbreakers also faces an additional accusation of bigamy. According to Attorney General Greg Abbott, a sixth member of the sect was charged with three counts of failure to report child mistreatments.

Warren Jeffs, aged 52, is the leader of the approximately 10,000 devotees of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, an offshoot of the conventional Mormon church, which formally gave up polygamy more than a century ago. However, the independent sect believes polygamy brings triumph and grandeur in heaven.

The FLDS “prophet,” already convicted for being accomplice to rape in Utah and awaiting trial in Arizona for marrying underage girls, is facing new accusations of assaulting a girl in Texas three years ago, according to the indictment released on Tuesday.

The grand jury will continue investigations and will take into account other potential criminal charges until August 21, according to a source who offered information on the condition of anonymity because proceedings of the board are confidential by law.

As reported by the Associated Press, the identities of Warren Jeff’s followers who were also indicted were not made public on Tuesday because the indictments remain sealed until the men are detained.

 

 



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