The Sheriff of Mohave County, Arizona vows to help members who want to leave Warren Jeffs' polygamist sect known as the FLDS. Sheriff Tom Sheahan says their department is "helping those that want to get out of that community."
The Sheriff tells Anderson the 'city police department' is nothing but an 'extension of a security service for the church.' He explains, "when people want to leave that church and get away from that type of living, they try to stop them, they hide them out, and they conspire with the elders in that church to keep this from happening." FULL POST
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Post by: Filed under: FLDS • Polygamy • Warren Jeffs |
Ruby Jessop recently escaped from a breakaway Mormon sect known as the FLDS. The group openly practices polygamy, and are controlled and ruled by their imprisoned prophet, Warren Jeffs.
Jessop was forced to marry a cousin when she was fourteen years old. She was able to escape along with her six children. Gary Tuchman tells her story.
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Post by: Filed under: Anderson Cooper • FLDS • Polygamy • Warren Jeffs |
We have been coming to the twin towns of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona for many years covering stories about the thousands of devoted followers of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who live, govern and police the towns. Also known as the FLDS, members of the breakaway Mormon sect openly practice polygamy.
Each time we come here, we are noticed the minute we drive into either town. These are not the kind of towns where outsiders would have a reason or need to stop. There aren't any shops, restaurants or businesses that cater to the outside world. So the minute an outsider does arrive, they are noticed and met with skepticism. Children ride horses and are dressed like everyone else, in traditional FLDS clothing. They are controlled and ruled by their imprisoned prophet, Warren Jeffs. You don’t see children playing with toys or riding bikes. They are usually found working on homes or in fields with their parents. FULL POST
Authorities are concerned polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs believes the world will end before 2013. The jailed FLDS prophet controls his followers from behind bars, and could be delivering a dangerous doomsday message. CNN's Gary Tuchman reports.
Read more about what law enforcement is monitoring in the FLDS communities.
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Post by: Filed under: FLDS • Warren Jeffs |
A doomsday prophesy from jailed polygamist prophet Warren Jeffs has the attention of law enforcement officials.
“The consensus seems to be that (he’s) indicating that by the end of the year, the end of the world will be here,” said Sam Brower, a private investigator who has represented more than 100 former member of Jeffs’ Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Church.
Law enforcement is on alert and monitoring the border towns of Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah, where Jeffs’ followers live.
FULL POST
Gary Tuchman reports on a tip about convicted polygamist Warren Jeffs's sect having FLDS children harvest pecans instead of attending school.
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Post by: Filed under: Anderson Cooper • FLDS • Gary Tuchman |
For years, we've reported on the mysterious enclave of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints near the Utah-Arizona border. We thought we've seen it all. But tonight Gary Tuchman reports on a development that raises new questions about the Church run by jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs.
Gary received a tip that Jeffs, from his prison cell, ordered all schools closed this week so the children could harvest pecans. Gary went to the ranch in question and found hundreds of children in the fields. As soon as he got out of his car, the children all started scattering away from him, and eventually running in the opposite direction.
Gary talked to the owner of a neighboring hog farm, who told him the child labor has gone on for a week or two over a period of years.
Officials in Texas filed suit to seize the compound where the followers of imprisoned FLDS leader Warren Jeffs live. KTVK investigative reporter Michael Watkiss has been covering the polygamous sect for years. He reports from the Utah-Arizona border.
The polygamous community in Colorado City, Arizona is controlled in almost every way by the FLDS church. Even the local police put the interests of their imprisoned leader, Warren Jeffs, above the law.
Citizens outside of the religious group say they're victims of intimidation and cruel vandalism, which includes the torture of helpless animals. The police have done nothing to help.
A recent effort by Arizona legislators to shut down the police department was not successful. The state's Attorney General took action and is using about half a million dollars to provide patrols in the area. The new county sheriffs are trying to enforce the law and make change in a town resistant to outsiders.
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Post by: Filed under: FLDS |
There's a new sheriff in town in the largest polygamous community in America. For years, the local police in Colorado City, Arizona have been accused of not giving protection to anyone who wasn't a follower of polygamous leader Warren Jeffs and his Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints Church.
Now the Arizona attorney general has stepped in and given half-a-million dollars to pay for county sheriff patrols in town. That's after the state legislature tried to disband the police force and didn't succeed.
There are several people in town who say the police force has failed them and they welcome the new patrols.
People like Issac Wyler, who left the church eight years ago and says he's the victim of gruesome vandals.
"They kill cats and throw them in the back of my truck, or I will find them in my porch a lot of times," Wyler told CNN's Gary Tuchman.
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