Sam Bateman and the three women followers scheduled to appear for their arraignment were arrested last year and charged with kidnapping and impeding a federal investigation
Now 11 members of Bateman’s group face 51 felony counts for transporting children across state lines to facilitate sexual activity, recording it, destroying evidence and witness tampering.
Colorado City and Hildale – an adjoining town across the Utah border – have changed dramatically since the group’s prophet, Warren Jeffs, was arrested more than a decade ago. But the case against Bateman serves as a reminder that its legacy remains and continues to evolve. Bateman has been accused of taking at least 20 wives, including many minors as young as 8 and 9 years old. But charges have mostly pertained to the decision by him and his adult followers to take the minors across state lines – including at one point breaking them out of Arizona foster care – and impeding the investigation.The FLDS, from which Bateman originated, is itself a breakaway sect of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as the Mormon Church.
Relying on journals, day planners and text messages, it says Bateman initiated sexual encounters with groups of followers in hotel rooms, including one that began with a religious rite-inspired “washing of the feet.” A girl, who the indictment describes as 9 or 10 years old, called the sexual encounters “definitely terrifying.”
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