December 15, 2005

Family Members Accuse Warren Jeffs of Abusing Children

UTAH
KSL

December 14th, 2005 @ 5:49pm
John Hollenhorst Reporting

Ward Jeffs, Warren Jeffs' Brother: "And he must be brought to justice. He's not beyond the law even if he holds some title of a prophet of a church. He has to be stopped."

A brother and a nephew of fugitive polygamist leader Warren Jeffs today accused him of sexually abusing young boys and girls for many years. And they laid the blame on Jeffs for a tragic family suicide.

Jeffs' relatives say he took advantage of his position in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, using threats of hellfire to force sex acts on boys and girls as young as five-years old.

It's clear that religious and sexual turmoil have torn the Jeffs family apart. If the allegations we heard today are true, it's also clear there are crimes in the polygamist community that are not victimless crimes.

Posted by kshaw at December 15, 2005 07:47 AM