By Nadia Gilani
Daily Mail
November 8, 2011
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2058952/Ex-bishop-convicted-marrying-12-year-old-daughter-illegal-wedding-polygamist-leader-Warren-Jeffs.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
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| Guilty: Fredrick Merril Jessop was a longtime FLDS bishop and senior church leader believed to be second in-line for the presidency after Jeffs |
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| Trial: Being led in by his lawyer, Fredrick Merril Jessop, walking to court last week |
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| Wives: The picture shows dozens of Warren Jeffs's brides, lined up together as if they are posing for a school photograph |
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| Jailed: Warren Jeffs was sentenced to life in prison earlier this year |
A former bishop has been convicted of performing an illegal wedding ceremony between his 12-year-old daughter and polymagist cult leader Warren Jeffs.
Jurors deliberated for about an hour and 20 minutes before finding Fredrick Merril Jessop guilty with a felony count of performing the illegal wedding between Jeffs and the underage girl in 2006.
The ceremony took place at the Yearning For Zion Ranch near Eldorado, owned by the Jeffs-led Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS).
The FLDS holds polygamy as a fundamental belief and its men take multiple wives in what are termed 'celestial marriages' each performed in a ceremony called a 'sealing'.
Jessop's lawyer, Rae Leifeste, told jurors in her opening statement at the trial last week that 'sealing' is not a marriage ceremony as defined by Texas law, according to the San Angelo Standard-Times.
But lead prosecutor Angela Goodwin told the jury in the West Texas town of Robert Lee that 'Texas law is as clear as a bell' about what a marriage ceremony is.
She said: 'The state will prove beyond a reasonable doubt that on July 27, 2006, Fredrick Merril Jessop married a freckled, 12-year-old girl to a 50-year-old man'.
Jessop, 75, who is yet to be sentenced faces between two and 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
Much of the prosecution's case relied on documents seized in a 2008 raid at the sect's ranch near Eldorado.
Concerns over the difficulty of choosing an unbiased jury in sparsely populated Schleicher County, where the ranch is located, prompted the judge to move Jessop's trial about 70 miles north to Coke County.
Jeffs is serving a life sentence for sexually assaulting Jessop's 12-year-old daughter involved in the case and another 15-year-old girl.
He excommunicated Jessop from his cult sometime after he performed the wedding ceremony.
The Utah-based church practices polygamy in arranged marriages that sometimes involve underage girls. The faith believes polygamy brings exaltation in heaven.
Authorities raided the sect's Eldorado ranch in 2008 after a telephone call alleging the abuse of an underage bride by her husband was placed to a domestic violence hot line.
More than 400 children were temporarily removed from the ranch and placed in state protective custody.
Prosecutors have since used family and church records seized in the raid to bring charges against 12 sect members - all men, including Jessop and Jeffs.
Jeffs was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for sexually assaulting two of his child brides in August.
Jessop was a longtime FLDS bishop and senior church leader believed to be second in-line for the presidency after Jeffs.
He was in charge of running the daily operations at the Yearning for Zion ranch until January, when he was reportedly ex-communicated from the faith.
One of Jessop's wives, Carolyn, fled the FLDS community on the Arizona-Utah line with her children in 2003 and wrote a best-selling book, Escape.
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