FLDS Evidence in Dispute

Attorneys for imprisoned polygamist leader Warren Jeffs are asking a Mohave County, Ariz., Superior Court judge to suppress evidence taken from the West Texas compound of Jeffs' Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints flock last year, arguing that the raid was illegal and thus any evidence taken during the raid is tainted, reports the Mohave Daily News.

Texas Child Protective Services last April took custody of more than 400 children living at the Yearning for Zion Ranch just outside Eldorado after receiving a phone call from a person claiming to be a young and abused girl living there. As it turns out, the call was a hoax (likely placed by a woman in Colorado with a troubling history of making such fake calls), and the Texas Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the state did not have sufficient reason to raid the ranch and take the children.

But whether Jeffs will get a hearing remains to be seen. Prosecutors have said they will not use any evidence taken during the raid, but Jeffs' attorney Mike Piccarreta says Mohave Co. Attorney Matt Smith is pulling a "Texas two-step" by blocking Jeffs' ability to challenge any of the state's evidence.

Meanwhile, back near the ranch, Texas District Judge Barbara Walther has set a trial date for the first of 12 FLDS men living at Yearning for Zion who are facing a variety of criminal charges, including bigamy and sexual assault. Raymond Merrill Jessop will be tried first, on Oct. 26, on one count of sexual assault of a child and one count of bigamy. His attorneys have also argued that any evidence seized during the April raid should be banned; a suppression hearing is scheduled for May.

As of December, Texas' Department of Family and Protective Services had ended cases involving 424 of the 439 children initially taken from the ranch; still pending were lawsuits in the cases of five mothers who among them have 15 children, according to a DFPS report on the Eldorado investigation released Dec. 22. Although the Texas courts ruled that the agency's actions at the ranch were essentially illegal, in its report the agency defends its actions – noting, in part, that 262 children were found to be "subjected to neglect," because their parents failed to remove them from "a situation in which there was a substantial risk of immediate harm." Moreover, the state found that 12 teen girls were the victims of sexual abuse because they'd already been married off, and at least seven of them had already given birth.

Not surprisingly, the report sparked the ire of many FLDS members – such as spokesman Willie Jessop, who disputed the findings, including the conclusion that because a teen has given birth she must have been abused. "What hypocrisy in a state that leads the nation in teen pregnancies," Jessop said in a press statement. (To be fair, Texas has lost the top spot for teen pregnancies to Missis­sippi. We still rank third, with roughly 63 births per 1,000 teen girls.)

Still, the state stands by its investigation: "The Eldorado investigation was very thorough, and the report on that investigation is clear," wrote spokesman Patrick Crimmins in an e-mail to the Deseret News.