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	Polygamist Sect Leader Jeffs, 5 Others Indicted By Michelle Roberts Associated Press July 22, 2008 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/7670920 ELDORADO, Texas (AP) - A Texas grand jury Tuesday indicted polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs on a charge of felony sexual assault of a child. Five of his followers have been indicted as well. Attorney General Greg Abbott said four of Jeffs' followers are charged with one count of sexually assaulting girls under the age of 17. One of the four faces an additional charge of bigamy. Abbott said a fifth follower is charged with three counts of failure to report child abuse. The charges follow an ill-fated child custody case in which more than 400 children were placed in foster care. The Texas Supreme Court ruled child welfare authorities overstepped in taking all the children from their parents even though many were infants and toddlers. The criminal charges came during the panel's second meeting on the case and followed the ill-fated child custody case in which more than 400 children were placed in foster care. The Texas Supreme Court ruled child welfare authorities had overstepped in taking all the children for their parents even though many were infants and toddlers. Abbott arrived in this west Texas outpost on Tuesday as a grand jury met for a second time to consider possible criminal charges against members of the polygamist sect raided in April. Abbott went to a small community building where the grand jury was meeting near the courthouse surrounded by yellow tape and state troopers. Women and girls in prairie dresses, including a 16-year-old daughter of jailed sect leader Jeffs, were later escorted into the same building, while lawyers and members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints crowded a bench in front of the courthouse. The grand jury met in June without issuing indictments in the case. Grand jury proceedings are supposed to be secret, but documents released as part of the separate child custody case involving the FLDS children have revealed some of the evidence collected by law enforcement during the weeklong raid that began April 3. Among the hundreds of boxes of photos, documents and family Bibles, investigators found photos of Jeffs in intimate embraces and kissing several apparently underage girls. A journal entry purportedly from Jeffs attached to a report by a child advocate indicates he married his daughter to a 34-year-old man the day after she turned 15. The girl turns 17 on Saturday and has denied being married, though the child advocate report indicates intimate notes between the girl and man were also found in the raid. The girl, who playfully climbed a giant oak tree while waiting to be called to testify last month, left the community building frowning as she talked to her lawyer. The Associated Press is not identifying her because authorities believe she may be a sexual abuse victim. In addition to discussions of the girl's marriage, the Jeffs journal entry also indicates he blessed marriages of two other sect member who were daughters to himself and another member. The grand jury meetings follow the ill-fated child custody case in which more than 400 children were swept into foster care from the Yearning For Zion Ranch. The children were placed in state custody after officials accused FLDS parents of abusing them by forcing underage girls into marriage and sex and teaching boys to become adult perpetrators. Child Protective Services returned the children to their parents after the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the agency had overstepped its authority because it didn't show any more than a handful of teenage girls may have been abused. FLDS leaders have consistently denied there was any abuse at the ranch and vowed not to sanction underage marriages. Under Texas law, a girl younger than 17 cannot generally consent to sex with an adult. Bigamy is also illegal in Texas, although FLDS plural marriages were not licensed by the state. The FLDS, which believes polygamy brings glory in heaven, is a breakaway sect of the mainstream Mormon church, which officially renounced polygamy more than a century ago. Jeffs, who is revered as a prophet, is jailed in Arizona awaiting charges related to the marriages of young girls. He was convicted in Utah of rape as an accomplice for his role in the marriage of a 14-year-old last year.
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