Current Number of Cases against FLDS Is Unknown, Melinda Rogers, The Salt Lake Tribune, August 13, 2008

Current Number of Cases against FLDS Is Unknown

By Melinda Rogers
The Salt Lake Tribune

August 13, 2008

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_10183979

While Texas authorities were initially investigating 20 cases of sexual assault and 50 bigamy cases involving FLDS members, it is unclear how many of those cases remain open four months later.

Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Tela Mange confirmed the number of cases - outlined in an April e-mail - was accurate in the month officials raided the Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado.

Rod Parker FLDS spokesman

But she said she can't confirm the current number of cases still being investigated. And Salt Lake City attorney Rod Parker, a spokesman for the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, thinks that more than likely the numbers have drastically changed as the investigation has progressed.

So far, the Schleicher County grand jury hearing evidence against sect members has indicted six men, including sect leader Warren S. Jeffs, on charges of sexual assault, bigamy and failure to report child abuse.

Parker said he wonders in particular about the volume of bigamy charges that had been predicted back in April.

Based on the number of men on the ranch in plural marriages, prosecutors likely would need to charge women in order to file 50 bigamy charges, he said - a departure from the typical bigamy suspect. He said women typically have been viewed as victims of bigamy, not perpetrators.

In Utah, for example, outspoken independent polygamist Tom Green was successfully prosecuted for bigamy, but none of his wives was charged.

Green was convicted in 2001 and 2002 of bigamy, criminal nonsupport and child rape for fathering a child with his stepdaughter when she was 13.

Generally, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has said his office will not prosecute bigamy among the FLDS unless someone is committing additional felonies, such as sexual abuse or fraud.

Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, has said Abbott has not made such a declaration.

While the e-mail's number of Texas investigations was current in April, it is hard to say how many people still are under investigation, or how many charges prosecutors will decide to pursue after the investigation is complete, Mange said.

"I don't know what ultimately the team will decide to do, as far as possible charges filed," she said Tuesday.

The Schleicher County grand jury will reconvene next week. Jeffs and four men are charged with first-degree sexual assault; one of those men also is charged with bigamy. The sect's physician was indicted on accusations that he failed to report child abuse.

More than 450 of the sect's children were removed from the ranch amid a child abuse investigation. They were later returned to parents, after the Texas Supreme Court criticized the lack of evidence supporting the children's removal.