This July 8, 2015, aerial photo shows a view of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints compound near Pringle, S.D. Several top leaders from Warren Jeffs’ polygamous sect were arrested Tue…
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According to AZ Central, the sect located in the towns of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, reportedly altered funds from Utah’s nutrition assistance program for the leader’s inappropriate use, prosecutors said.
Amos Guiora, a University of Utah law professor said, “The bust goes well beyond fraud, putting in doubt who will lead the group and how members will respond to a decisive message from government officials they have historically despised”, Law Newz quoted. The Department of Economic Security, Office of Inspector General, US Attorney’s Office, FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation, and the Sheriff’s Offices from Washington County, Utah and Mohave County, Arizona teamed up in the investigation. Prosecutors claim that the communities discriminate against residents who aren’t members of the church, depriving them of housing and essential services like water and police protection. The indictment filed when the leaders were arrested doesn’t specify a dollar amount, but because many sect members receive food stamps, the amount could have reached millions of dollars every year.
“The ones that are members now are the most zealous and considered the most righteous and they are the ones who are going to look at this as just passing a test, that the outside world is prosecuting them and at any moment the end is going to come and they are all going to be lifted up”, Brower said. That is illegal. The leaders tell church members that they must obtain their food and household goods only through the church, the indictment alleges.
Thomas Jeffs, the son of Lyle Jeffs, foreground, and Roy Jeffs, son of jailed polygamous leader Warren Jeffs, leave the federal courthouse Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, in Salt Lake City.
One common tactic was buying groceries with the food stamps and giving the supplies to the church’s communal storehouse for leaders to choose how to divvy up.
Lyle Jeffs is the leader of the religion, while his brother Warren Jeffs serves a life sentence for child abuse. Seth Jeffs leads the branch of the group in South Dakota.
Federal labor lawyers are also investigating charges that FLDS leaders made the children of church members toil long hours and for little pay on a Utah pecan farm. But private investigator Sam Brower, who has spent years investigating the group, said authorities seemed to have gotten help from large numbers of people who have been kicked out or left amid a series of increasingly freakish orders from Jeffs and leaders loyal to him.
Utah U.S. Attorney John Huber said Tuesday the indictments were about fraud, not about religion, according to the Associated Press. “Combined with everything else, it’s incredible”. Blake Hamilton, an attorney representing Hildale, said none of those indicted was serving in a government position. Those convicted could face as much as 25 years in prison.
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Prosecutors say that between 2011 and 2013, the FLDS leaders held meetings where they ordered church members to shop at Meadowayne Dairy Store and Vermillion Cliffs Produce, and gave “instruction on how to avoid suspicion and detection by the government”. Prosecutors want all those arrested to be remanded; if released, the polygamists will likely flee and disappear into an intricate network of houses, pre-paid cell phones, alias, disguises, and false IDs.
