Polygamist witness describes teen bride's fear

[lily]

Debated where to put this. Religion didn't seem right. Civil Rights definately not. So I figured Law would be the right place, because when they get done with this one, I want the older cousin she was forced to marry to be charged with rape too. (http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/11/21/polygamist.leader.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories)

Polygamist witness describes teen bride's fear
POSTED: 5:49 p.m. EST, November 21, 2006





ST. GEORGE, Utah (AP) -- A 14-year-old girl cried and was clearly troubled
in the weeks preceding an arranged marriage to an older cousin, her sister
testified Tuesday at a hearing involving the leader of a polygamist sect.

"She was 14," said Rebecca Musser, whose sister has a different last name.
"It was just shocking and horrific. ... She didn't want to get married."

Warren Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints, is charged with rape as an accomplice for his alleged role in
forcing the girl to marry her 19-year-old first cousin in 2001. Musser was
the first witness at a hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to
send Jeffs to trial.

Security at the Washington County courthouse was extraordinary, with police
sharpshooters posted on the red rock hills that ring the building. No
vehicles were allowed to park on the street.

Looking gaunt in a dark gray suit, Jeffs, 50, sat nearly motionless for the
first few hours. He smiled at family and fellow church members in the
audience.

Musser is a former member of Jeffs' church who was married to his late
father. She recalled Jeffs telling her to counsel her teenage sister after
the wedding at a Nevada motel.

"You need to encourage her to be happy. God has put this marriage together.
You need to encourage her to be submissive and obedient," Jeffs said,
according to Musser.

At the time, Utah and Arizona were cracking down on marriages involving
minors. She said Jeffs warned her that "this marriage could cause us some
problems."

In court documents, prosecutors say the bride, identified as Jane Doe No. 4,
objected to the marriage and later begged to be released. The Associated
Press does not identify victims of sexual assault.

Jeffs was arrested August 28 and is being held without bail in the county
jail in Purgatory, about 25 miles west of the twin towns of Hildale, Utah
and Colorado City, Arizona, where most of his estimated 10,000 followers
live.

Jeffs' defense team has said he is being persecuted for his religious
beliefs.

The church arranges marriages for young girls and believes plural marriage
ensures exaltation in heaven. Jeffs assumed leadership in 2002 after the
death of his father. Followers revere him as a prophet who communicates with
God.

The church represents itself as a fundamentalist offshoot of the Mormon
church. But the Mormons disavow any connection and renounced polygamy more
than a century ago.

[BoogyMan]

This is disgusting. I hope they send those guys up for the maximum amount of time the law allows.

[askates]

I think we'll all agree on this one , hopefully those guys will be the wife in a polygamist relationship in jail
Not only is it rape but that marriage was incest. gross

[Professor]

How was she forced? Couldn't she refuse?

Having not been in the situation I can't answer those questions. I think this is part of my own obstinate nature, I won't do things I don't want to do, if it is of that importance. I already refused to go to church once today and later I'm sure my mom will beg me and i will refuse again.

But the fact that her sister is testifying for her says a lot.

[Professor]

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/11/20/polygamist.marriage.ap/index.html

Polygamist wedding chapel 'under radar' at Nevada motel
POSTED: 7:15 p.m. EST, November 20, 2006

CALIENTE, Nevada (AP) -- Room 15 at the Caliente Hot Springs Motel seems like an unlikely place for a wedding. There are no flower-covered arbors, pews or candles. It is an apartment-style room with a kitchenette, a bed, a dresser, a table and a couch.

But it was in Room 15 that dozens of weddings took place between underage girls and men from a polygamist sect, church insiders say.

The sect's charismatic leader, Warren Jeffs, has been charged with rape as an accomplice for his alleged role in arranging one of those marriages -- that of a 14-year-old girl who claims she was forced to wed her older first cousin in 2001.

Jeffs, the 50-year-old leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, will be in a Utah court Tuesday for a hearing on whether prosecutors have enough evidence to try him. If he is tried and convicted, the man whom 10,000 followers revere as a prophet could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Jeffs was captured in a traffic stop outside Las Vegas in August after nearly two years on the run. He was one of the nation's 10 most-wanted fugitives.

According to authorities, the bride, identified in court papers as Jane Doe No. 4, stood dressed in white in Room 15 and said, "I do," sealing the marriage with a secret handshake. Prosecutors say the marriage was then consummated back in Hildale, Utah, where members of the sect live.

The girl told Jeffs she didn't want to marry, and later begged to be released from the union, saying she did not like marital relations, authorities said. But Jeffs said the marriage was her religious duty and threatened her with the loss of salvation, according to authorities.

The FLDS claims to be a fundamentalist offshoot of the Mormon church. But the Mormons disavow any connection and renounced polygamy more than a century ago.

Jeffs' attorneys have not responded to requests for interviews. But at a hearing in September, attorney Walter Bugden said Jeffs believes he is being persecuted for his religious beliefs.

Former manager describes ceremonies
Carolyn Jessop, a former sect member who used to run the motel, said that once or twice a month, beginning in the spring of 1999, she would get a telephone call telling her to plan for a weekend of sect weddings. Some insiders say as many as 10 such weddings were held in a single day.

Wedding parties and church elders would arrive in a caravan of cars about midmorning, not long after checkout time for guests.

"They did not want anybody on the property," said Jessop, whose husband, Merrill Jessop, owned the 18-room motel with her father for seven years until it was sold in 2004.

The drive to Caliente from Hildale is 160 miles, most of it on a two-lane road through the mountains and across the desert. But sect leaders believed Caliente was a safe place -- "a way to go under the radar screen" -- because Utah and Arizona were passing legislation to address underage marriage and threatening prosecution, Jessop said.

Utah later passed a law making it a felony to arrange a marriage between a minor and an older married person. Arizona has enacted a similar law.

At the motel, the girls usually arrived with their parents, including their fathers' multiple wives. The bridegroom might bring his own wives. In some ceremonies, the first wife might hold the young bride's hand and place it gently in the groom's as a symbolic gesture that she accepted the new wife into the family, sect insiders say.

After the ceremony, sect elders would share a meal cooked by some of the women.

"I can't imagine the trauma that some of these younger girls must have gone through," said Jessop, who left the sect and her husband in 2003.

No charges have been brought against her or her husband. She said she would help set the room up but would not stay around for the ceremonies.

Insiders say the newlyweds would promptly leave and presumably consummate their unions back in Hildale or neighboring Colorado City, Arizona -- dusty twin towns populated by women in long pioneer dresses and men in long sleeves and buttoned-up collars.

[askates]

the fact that shes 14 regardless makes it rape, even if she wanted the sex, shes 14 shes not old enough to be responsible for making sexual decisions, esp when the dude is prob atleast 2x her age, thats exploitation, i mean this girl is prob so brainwashed, she has lived her whole life in this radical sect, she probably doesnt know of a different life than arranged pedophile marriges

[Labrocca]

14 and brainwashed yet she still instinctively knew it was wrong. I say Jeffs gets 20 years at least.

[Professor]

14 and brainwashed yet she still instinctively knew it was wrong.Â*Â*


That's my point. What would have happened had she stood there and refused to say anything or do anything?

[wonder cow]

Warren Jeffs

The guy is scum, IMO.

I can't stand people like him.

Law enforcement had been letting this man and his cult get away with this crap for years. It is only recently that they started doing something about it.

[lily]

I forgot all about this. I thought the trial would be over by now.