New Charges » Jailed Leader Warren S. Jeffs Faces a New Indictment for Sexual Assault of a Child
By Brooke Adams
Salt Lake Tribune
November 24, 2008
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_11063775
Three members of a polygamous sect indicted earlier this month by a Texas grand jury -- including two men considered sect leaders -- turned themselves into the Schleicher County Sheriff's Office today.
Fredrick Merril Jessop, 72; Wendell Loy Nielsen, 68; and Leroy Johnson Steed, 42, were booked and released after posting bonds.
A Schleicher County grand jury indicted the men on Nov. 12. The grand jury also issued a new indictment on Warren S. Jeffs, president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
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| Frederick Merril Jessop, courtesy of the Eldorado Success. |
Jeffs, currently jailed in Arizona, was indicted on a first-degree felony charge of sexually assaulting a child. The Schleicher County grand jury previously indicted him in July of sexually assaulting a child and, in August, on first-degree bigamy.
Court documents list Jessop as the bishop of the sect's Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado, Texas. He faces one count of conducting an unlawful marriage ceremony involving a minor, which is a third-degree felony.
According to other court documents, Jessop performed a spiritual marriage between a 12-year-old daughter and Jeffs in 2006 at the Yearning For Zion Ranch.
The girl, now 14, was returned to state custody in August after her mother balked at cooperating with Child Protective Services caseworkers. Jessop posted a bond of $30,000.
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| Leroy Johnson Steed, courtesy of the Eldorado Success. |
Nielsen is the founder of a high-tech machine shop, Western Precision, which was formerly located in Utah.
He is also a member of the sect's priesthood council. He is charged with three counts of third-degree felony bigamy, and posted a $10,000 bond on each count.
Steed is charged with one count of sexual assault of a child, a first-degree felony (because it involves a prohibited marriage); one count of second-degree felony bigamy; one count of third-degree felony bigamy; and one count of tampering with physical evidence, a third-degree felony.
Steed was arrested during an April raid on the YFZ ranch after he attempted to remove some documents. He posted a bond of $120,000, with $100,000 for the sexual assault count.
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| Wendell Loy Nielson, courtesy of the Eldorado Success. |
"To date, 12 people associated with the polygamist compound in Eldorado have been indicted as part of the ongoing and continuing criminal investigation," Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said in a statement.
"Today's arrests reflect a nearly two-week-long effort by the Texas Rangers and the Texas Attorney General's Office to arrange for the defendants' arrests," he said.
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