Fugitive, fundamentalist-Mormon, polygamous “prophet” Warren Jeffs is still on the loose – dodging criminal indictments in Arizona for his alleged role in arranging a marriage between a teen girl and a married man, and one federal count of evading arrest (which in August earned him a spot on one of the FBI’s most wanted lists) – but he has apparently been in contact with his flock, at least long enough to issue an order that they refuse all contact with outsiders, reports the Phoenix New Times. The directive from the leader-on-the-lam has prompted Jeffs’ Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints followers to begin erecting “no trespassing” signs and 8-foot walls, some with surveillance cameras attached, around their houses in the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., the FLDS stronghold commonly referred to as Short Creek. While Short Creek is populated almost entirely by FLDS followers, it is still a public community, which means sect members are still vulnerable to outsiders – most importantly, state law enforcers. “Tell them nothing!” is the message Jeffs allegedly conveyed to his faithful, the New Times reports.
Meanwhile, FLDS followers living and working at the sect’s newest and, significantly, most private compound in Eldorado, Texas (south of San Angelo), have reportedly reached an agreement with area officials – including the Upper Colorado River Authority – to withdraw a permit application that would allow the sect to build and operate a wastewater treatment plant on their so-called Yearning for Zion Ranch. The UCRA and others had opposed the project over concerns about the FLDS’ plans to discharge treated effluent from the property. Instead, the sect’s Eldorado leaders have agreed to resubmit their application based on a plan to operate the plant in a manner that would recycle the water within the property, possibly by using treated wastewater to irrigate crops, reports The Eldorado Success. The new application is still pending. (For more on the Jeffs and the FLDS Eldorado compound, see “Meet the New Neighbors,” July 29.)
This article appears in September 30 • 2005.