Fundamentalist LDS Church spokesman Willie Jessop talks with reporters on Capitol Hill, today, following the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing: Crimes Associated with Polygamy.

David Mattingly
AC360° Correspondent

When Senator Harry Reid of Nevada accuses polygamists of forming "a sophisticated, wealthy and vast criminal organization" and calls polygamous communities "a form of organized crime," he speaks from experience that goes beyond his role as Senate Majority Leader.

Years ago, Reid was the head of the Nevada Gaming Commission and worked to root out organized crime from Las Vegas casinos. He says polygamous communities in the U.S. are not the same as the old Vegas mobs but he says they continue to engage in crimes too serious to ignore. Keep reading

Jailed polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs was taken to a hospital in Las Vegas on Tuesday, but police would not say why.

Las Vegas police Officer Jose Montoya said Jeffs was taken from an Arizona jail to the Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

"I can't tell you why he was brought here or what his condition is," he said.

He referred questions to the Mohave County Sheriff's Office in Arizona. A call to the sheriff's spokeswoman was not immediately returned.

The jail, in Kingman, Arizona, is about 100 miles from the medical center.

Jeffs, 52, is the leader of the estimated 10,000-member Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He is awaiting trial on 10 felony charges - five counts of sexual conduct with a minor, four counts of incest and one count of conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor...

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Warren Jeffs, FLDS leader whose daughtar has accused an FLDS spokesman of harassment.

Terri Langford
The Houston Chronicle

A lawyer for the 16-year-old daughter of polygamist group leader Warren Jeffs is requesting a restraining order to prevent a spokesman for the group from intimidating and harassing the girl.

The request for a restraining order against Willie Jessop was filed in San Angelo today by Natalie Malonis.

The teenager was one of the hundreds of children taken from the Yearning For Zion Ranch by Texas Child Protective Services in April because investigators believed they were exposed to abuse by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Her name is not being disclosed because Malonis has said that she is a victim of sexual abuse.

Keep reading

Chuck Johnston
Assignment Editor, CNN National Desk

The gates outside the Yearning For Zion ranch in Eldorado, Texas, are usually locked. But they were open late Tuesday, as families returned to the sprawling ranch with children being returned from foster homes around the state.

“We just traveled day and night. Texas is a beautiful state, I had no idea I would see that much of it,” Zavenda Young said, holding her youngest daughter while her husband Edson Jessop embraced their sons.

“We are sure grateful to be home,” she added. “We’ve traveled 11,000 miles covering visits to the children, visits with attorneys, and all.”

Young told reporters the family had been temporarily living in the Houston area as they shuttled in between their four children and their caseworkers.

“The people that have been taking care of the children were doing such a wonderful job. They literally cried when we took them away,” Young said of the foster parents who cared for the children after they were removed from the ranch by state officials in April, citing evidence of underage marriages and statutory rape.

Young said the children had been hit hard by the removal to foster homes around the state. "They are dazed," she said. "They are not the same. We hope they pull out of it.”

Some reporters asked returning children how it felt to be back with their parents on the ranch. Clearly still shaken by the experience, children clung to their parents and shied away from the cameras.

Jessop said the raid had created misconceptions of the FLDS members of the polygamist ranch:

“We feel that everybody has been fed a whole bunch of garbage about us. I think when most people come to know us they come to learn that we are different than they suppose, but it’s really hard to change the spots on a leopard-we are what we are. I am the same kind of man that my father and grandfather was. I don’t know why the world wants to change me.”

Steven Hassan
Cult expert
Author and mental health counselor

On the face of it, the Texas Supreme Court's 6-3 vote to support the Appellate Court reversal of Judge Walther's decision—to remove the children from the FLDS compound in Eldorado—might look like a blow, but I don't see it that way.

The fact is, the overall situation is vastly improved for the children and other members of the group and there is great hope.

•First of all, I predict there will not be any more so-called “spiritual” marriages involving underage children.

•Second, the investigation into the facts of child sexual abuse—of girls as well as boys—has begun and is set to continue.

•Third, despite the upset brought about by the dramatic intervention by Texas Child Protective Services, the children and other members of the FLDS group have no doubt had many, many positive experiences with people in the real world, as evidenced by the tearful goodbyes when they had to go back.

Keep reading

Ismael Estrada
AC360° Producer

So how does the state give the kids back?

This morning Judge Barbara Walther asked for all the players to join in court today. A 2pm "conference" to decide how the court will abide by the Texas Supreme Court's decision to essentially give the FLDS kids back to their families.

The court was packed this afternoon as attorneys, FLDS mothers, and media filled the seats. All waiting to hear how this would all be resolved.

The state drafted up some language on how to return the children, with guidelines. Some of those proposals:
Keep reading

Ismael Estrada and David Mattingly
AC360° Producer and Correspondent

ELDORADO, Texas - Schleicher County, Texas is the kind of small community where everyone knows your name. This tiny town has two traffic lights and gas stations, a few restaurants, a small, local weekly paper and now - possibly hundreds of new voters.

A few years ago, when the FLDS polygamist sect set up camp on their new 1,700-acre property, they told local officials they wanted nothing to do with local government. They say they just wanted to stay to themselves in their secluded YFZ ranch, where they were building massive homes and a temple as more FLDS members moved in.

But their promise to stay out of local government has changed since Texas authorities raided their property on April 3. Keep reading

David Mattingly
360 Correspondent

It looks like payback time in Eldorado. Members of the secluded, polygamist sect felt vindicated yesterday when the Texas Supreme Court agreed state authorities did not have the right to take all 400-plus children into custody. But the FLDS families don't plan to go home quietly. Come November...they plan to vote.

I spoke at length with sect spokesman Willie Jessop about plans to register five to six hundred FLDS voters. Schleicher County has fewer than 19 hundred registered voters and no candidate is safe.

Sheriff David Doran, one of the leaders of the April raid at the YFZ ranch was the leading county vote-getter four years ago with just 903 votes. He's in for the re-election campaign of his life.

The County Commissioner from the precinct where you find the FLDS compound should also be worried. He ran unopposed four years ago and got into office with just 154 votes. Just a couple hundred write-in votes could conceivably land a sect member a seat on the county commission.

Jami Floyd
360° Contributor, In Session Anchor

Editor's Note: Watch Jami Floyd tonight at 10pm on Anderson Cooper 360°

There is a reason two appellate courts in Texas — first a three-court panel of the state court of appeals and now the Texas Supreme Court — have ordered the return of children removed from a polygamist ranch to their mothers: It is the right thing to do.

Not as a matter of sympathy, or morality, or decency, but as a matter of constitutional law.
To be sure, the Texas Supreme Court today did not specifically find the absence of wrongdoing at the ranch — where authorities contend sexual abuse of young girls is routine. Indeed, the court acknowledged the state’s interest in protecting children from harm. But state agents cannot simply storm homes, polygamist or otherwise, to remove children without a showing of abuse. Suspicions are not enough.

It is perhaps difficult for anyone who cares about the children or their mothers (who many believe are brainwashed from birth) to understand.

But for those of us who choose to become lawyers, these are the easy cases. These are the very people our constitution is designed to protect — the least popular among us, lest they be subjected to the tyranny of the majority.

Read more of Jami Floyd's comment on the In Session blog

David M. Reisner
360° Digital Producer

Bloggers, wanted to update you on some breaking news in the Texas Supreme Court ruling on the FLDS case: