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	Breaking News: FLDS Leader Jessop Arrested By Paul A. Anthony San Angelo Standard Times November 24, 2008 http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2008/nov/24/breaking-news-flds-leader-jessop-arrested/ Fredrick Merril Jessop - the patriarch of a Schleicher County polygamous compound accused of orchestrating or condoning at least 10 marriages alleged to have occurred between underage girls and adult men - turned himself in Monday to Schleicher County officials and was released on bond. Jessop and two others, indicted Nov. 12 by a Schleicher County grand jury, arrived at the Schleicher County Sheriff's Office shortly before noon Monday and were released on bond soon after, sheriff's personnel said. Jessop, 72, believed to be the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints since the arrest of its self-styled prophet, Warren Jeffs, was indicted on a charge of conducting an unlawful marriage ceremony involving a minor, a third-degree felony. He was released after posting $30,000 bond. Wendell Loy Nielsen, 68, was released on $30,000 bond - $10,000 each for three counts of bigamy, a third-degree felony. Leroy Johnson Steed, 42, was released on $120,000 bond after being arrested on four charges - first-degree felony sexual assault of a child, which carries a $100,000 bond, and three others: second-degree felony bigamy, third-degree felony bigamy and third-degree felony tampering with physical evidence. Jeffs also was indicted on a charge of first-degree felony sexual assault of a child, his third indictment since the grand jury began meeting this summer. In Texas, a first degree felony is punishable by 5 to 99 years in prison; a second degree felony is punishable by 2 to 20 years in prison; and a third degree felony is punishable by 2 to 10 years in prison. All three categories allow a fine of up to $10,000 in addition to incarceration. Nielsen and Jessop, FLDS elders who were among the closest to Jeffs while he lived at the YFZ Ranch, have been accused in case court documents of officiating a triple wedding ceremony in which one of Jessop's sons, 34-year-old Raymond Jessop, is alleged to have married Jeffs' 15-year-old daughter, while Jeffs, then 51, married Jessop's 12-year-old daughter, and another of Jessop's sons, 31-year-old Leroy Jessop, married Nielsen's 15-year-old daughter. The ceremony, alleged to have taken place July 27, 2006 - documented in a dictation Jeffs made later that night - likely led to Jessop's indictment, as the charging papers refer to an incident "on or about" that date and refer to Jeffs marrying an underage girl. The grand jury indicted both Jessop sons July 22 on charges of sexual abuse of a child. Nielsen was indicted Nov. 12 for two allegedly bigamous marriages on Feb. 7, 2006, and a third on June 8, 2006. According to bishop's records released as part of the mountains of evidence associated with the case, Nielsen listed 21 wives, ranging in age from 24 to 79, and 36 children still living with him as of August 2007. Steed, in a bishop's record dated March 2007, listed eight wives, and identified one as being 16 years old. He is accused sexually assaulting a girl younger than 17 "on or about" Jan. 16, 2007, as well as engaging in bigamy by living with a 16-year-old girl beginning about March 25, 2007, and marrying a woman about June 8, 2006, despite already being married. Steed also is accused of attempting to conceal an "electronic data storage device" and some papers in a trash bag on April 7, during the state's search of the compound. In all, 12 FLDS members have been indicted in the state's criminal investigation into alleged sexual abuse at the ranch, northeast of Eldorado. A total of 26 charges have been filed in the case, all related to allegations of underage marriage. The charges are an outcome of a state raid on the ranch in April, during which 439 children were removed by authorities after an allegation - now believed to be a hoax phone call - of physical and sexual abuse. Merril Jessop's family has been the focus of the parallel investigation by the state's Child Protective Services agency into the alleged abuse at the ranch, with three of his children - including the now 14-year-old Jeffs wife - taken into state custody, and the girl removed altogether from the care of her mother, ranch matriarch Barbara Jessop. During that case, CPS filed affidavits accusing the couple of witnessing or condoning no fewer than 10 marriages, many of them between their underage daughters and granddaughters and much older men - often at the request of Jeffs, who in his dictations claimed to have been told by God which girls were to be married to whom, and when. Jeffs has been convicted in Utah of arranging a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin. He faces similar charges in Arizona, where he is awaiting trial. Jessop has long been one of the most well known of the FLDS leaders, thanks in large part to the defection of his wife, Carolyn Jessop, who wrote the best-selling book "Escape" about her time in the FLDS and testified against Barbara Jessop during a September custody hearing.
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