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	Fall of a 'Prophet': Women Complicit in Sex Crimes, Some Say By Jennifer Rios San Angelo Standard-Times August 21, 2011 http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2011/aug/20/women-complicit-in-sex-crimes-some-say/ SAN ANGELO, Texas — Warren Jeffs wasn't alone with his 12-year-old bride when he committed his sex crimes. The FLDS prophet can be heard in an audiotape giving orders to witnesses and talking to the underage girl as he assaults her. In a transcript of the recording, Jeffs gives orders to others witnessing the act, at least one of them a woman. "Untie them first, will you Naomie," he's heard telling one of his wives. It's unclear what Jeffs was asking the woman to do. It is not the only evidence that women were involved in Jeffs' crimes. State prosecutors have kept quiet about the women of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints — women who assisted in "heavenly sessions" with underage girls orchestrated by Jeffs. Former FLDS member Flora Jessop said when she visited San Angelo with her daughter for Jeffs' trial she understood how grateful she was not to have raised her daughter in the sect. "I think that the women should be held accountable, the mothers especially, because these mothers are acting as pimps of their own children," Jessop said. "The currency they're trading their children for are Brownie points in heaven." Jeffs and other FLDS men would not have been able to continue the cycle of abuse, she said, without the complicity of the mothers, whom she called the first line of defense. Texas has convicted eight of the 12 men indicted in various crimes committed at the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Schleicher County, and four more await possible trials. Wendell Loy Nielsen, Leroy Johnson Steed and Frederick Merril Jessop have tentative court dates set. Lloyd Hammond Barlow, the ranch doctor who faces three misdemeanor counts of failure to report child abuse, has no court appearances scheduled. Lauren Bean, a spokeswoman for the Texas Attorney General's Office, said the office won't comment on whether there are cases pending against any FLDS women. "We don't want to speculate on what could happen in the future," Bean said. "We're just going to continue prosecuting those we already have charges against at this time." Brock Belnap, county attorney for Washington County, Utah, and the Mohave County Attorney's Office in Arizona said they have no cases involving FLDS women at this time. "We don't have any pending cases right now, but we wouldn't rule out filing a case when we have the appropriate evidence," Belnap said. Texas law says all residents have a responsibility to report abuse, with a stiffer punishment for those considered criminally responsible. A person is criminally responsible "if the offense is committed by his own conduct, by the conduct of another for which he is criminally responsible, or by both." Each party may be charged with the same crime as the principal offender, which in this case could be anything from aggravated sexual assault of a child to bigamy. A law enacted in 2007 lengthened the statute of limitations — the time window during which a person can be charged with a crime — for sexual assault of a child and aggravated sexual assault of a child to "no limitations." The previous limit was 10 years. The statute of limitations for bigamy is three years. Steve Lupton, 51st District attorney and local prosecutor who has worked on FLDS cases, declined to say if the state would pursue charges against FLDS women. Lupton and Patrick Metze, director of criminal clinics at the Texas Tech Law School, used the analogy of a bank robber and a getaway driver. "He's waiting for the accomplice to rob the bank," Lupton said. "He's not robbing the bank, but he's criminally responsible." Metze said he "could only guess" why law enforcement would not consider taking the women to court because the court has already proven it does not excuse a crime simply because the religion condones it. "I don't know why they wouldn't except that it could be a double standard," Metze said. "It could be the women are not held to the same standard in the minds of those making these decisions." Stephen Kent — a professor of sociology at the University of Alberta specializing in alternate religions and cults — has followed Jeffs' trial. "The big question involves whether authorities are going to bring charges against mothers or existing wives of those taking underage brides," he said. When authorities raided Short Creek in the 1950s and broke up FLDS families there, the public outcry was much like the sympathy expressed for the YFZ women and children in 2008, he said. "Now we find their statements were untrue, that they were either woefully ignorant or outright lying, and the tide is turning against the women," he said. "They themselves are abuse victims or brainwashed, but that would be only a mitigating circumstance under prosecution," he said. Jessop said she has not been allowed to speak with her mother in more than 10 years. She said that although she loves her mother, she holds her as accountable as other women in the sect who submit their underage daughters ordered to marry. Even if molestation is reported to mothers, the girls could be told, "That's what men do. Just lay there and get it over with as quickly as possible." Jessop said that's the type of mother who should have all her children taken away. Defenders of Children, an offshoot of Justice for Children out of Houston, is a nonprofit group that works to ensure child victims of abuse receive legal protection. Executive Director Donnalee Sarda, a licensed professional counselor, has worked with former FLDS women, who she says have made up only 2 percent of the agency's caseload. She said the group isn't so different from the rest of her clients."There is a very similar dynamic that goes on with the FLDS women as goes on with traditionally battered women," Sarda said. "They have learned to be helpless and they're trapped in their own cycle. They're trapped in their own little world." Despite that, Sarda said, the women should be held accountable for their behavior — especially when that behavior includes sending underage daughters across state lines knowing their children will become young brides. "Does that mean they should go to jail for life?" Sarda said. "No, but the first solution is awareness and education."
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