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	Abbott Testifies By Trish Choate Times Record News July 24, 2008 http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/2008/jul/24/polygamist/ Senators hear polygamist story [with video] Video WASHINGTON -- Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott believes the YFZ Ranch would never have sprung up outside Eldorado if the federal government had formed a task force 10 years ago to help states handle crimes suspected of polygamist sect members who set up housekeeping in his state. In testimony Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Abbott painted a picture of a mobile Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints whose members and resources slip easily across state and international borders to escape crackdowns.The task force proposal explored during the hearing would give prosecutors more tools to deal with challenging investigations, he said. "What we have found is that the FLDS group is very difficult to penetrate," Abbott, whose office is acting as special prosecutor in Texas FLDS cases, said after leaving the hearing. "They have a veil of secrecy they operate under." Federal involvement could have led to the draining of the sect's financial means to buy hundreds of acres in remote Schleicher County and to build a secretive compound, Abbott said after leaving the hearing. "Crimes Associated with Polygamy: The Need for a Coordinated State and Federal Response" began promptly at 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time with a few raps of the gavel. Members of the breakaway Mormon sect watched closely from the audience but were not among witnesses on the three panels. U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., was the sole witness on the first panel, and he framed a soft-spoken plea for a task force and his supporting legislation around the theory that FLDS members carry out organized crime. A panel of federal prosecutors from Nevada and Utah, Abbott and the Arizona attorney general testified about difficulties in prosecuting FLDS members. The FLDS has a business empire that spreads across several states, sect children often don't attend public schools and the religion's members are often more afraid of the authorities than harmful sect members because of the disastrous Short Creek raid 55 years ago, federal and state attorneys testified. Abbott spoke of the "massive, multi-jurisdictional investigation" underway in Texas, following a raid in April at the YFZ Ranch in which authorities removed more than 400 children, seized documents and gathered DNA evidence. Six FLDS members were indicted this week on various criminal charges in Schleicher County. "This is not at all the end of our investigation," Abbott said after leaving the hearing. U.S. Attorney General Brett Tolman expressed concerns that a task force would sink efforts to infiltrate the closed world of the FLDS through informants. Sect communities are so closed that an outsider driving through town is immediately spotted and identified as such, Tolman said. The sect has strongholds in British Columbia, Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, two border towns once collectively known as Short Creek. The final panel included ex-FLDS member Carolyn Jessop who spoke of an insular and limited life in a sect allowing women few rights. They weren't even allowed to drive a legally registered car or have a driver's license. Jessop said local authorities -- controlled by the FLDS -- have ignored pleas for help. The other two witnesses on the last panel were Stephen Singular, a journalist who has written a book about imprisoned FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs, and Daniel Fischer, a successful dentist and former sect member. FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop, sect lawyer Jim Bradshaw of Salt Lake City and two sect couples had their say after the hearing. "This is genocide," Willie Jessop said. He considered Thursday's proceedings to be one-sided and a chance for some lawmakers to try to drive home that the FLDS and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are two different entities, he said. Sect members asked to testify at the hearing, but lawmakers ignored their requests, Bradshaw said. Willie Jessop responded quickly to a question for one of the FLDS husbands about how many wives he had. He told a reporter he'd get the answer to that if the reporter would reveal how many people he's slept with. FLDS member Miryam Holm asked why the number of wives was relevant. "You know our religion, and we're not ashamed of it," Holm said. After the FLDS children's removal from the ranch, an appeals court ordered state protection officials to return the children to their parents. The sect came to international prominence after the raid in Texas. The raid was sparked by suspicions of sexual abuse that arose after telephone calls now suspected to be fakes. But investigators still have "boxes and boxes" of evidence to examine, as well as DNA, Abbott said after the hearing. Washington regional correspondent Trish Choate can be reached at (202) 408-2709 or choatet@shns.com
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