Prophet Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints are back in the news again, this time with another indictment relating to statutory rape. In El Dorado, the town outside the Yearning For Zion ranch, Jeffs and four other FLDS members have been charged with felony sexual abuse, and a fifth was indicted for failing to report child abuse, the AP reports. One of the followers is also facing a charge of bigamy but surprisingly, the bigamist is not Jeffs, though grand juries have been shown pictures of Jeffs fondling and kissing three of his alleged underage "spiritual" wives. (Although he has not been hit with bigamy charges yet, Jeffs isn't off the hook for those disturbing photos. CNN reports that DNA tests have been run to determine whether Jeffs is the father of the children born to the very young girls Jeffs is smooching in those pictures.)
If you'll recall, Jeffs is already serving a jail sentence for being an accomplice to rape, and since his incarceration in Utah, there have been rumblings of a new prophet being anointed. Merrill Jessop, the former husband of Carolyn Jessop, who wrote the anti-FLDS memoir Escape about her awful experiences as Merrill's umpteenth wife and the tyranny of Jeffs' reign. A change in leadership could definitely be a positive, as Carolyn Jessop wrote in her book that things in the sect were much more reasonable before the power-hungry Jeffs came to lead the FLDS.
Texas Grand Jury Indicts Polygamist Sect Members [AP]
Sect Leader Jeffs Charged With Child Sex Assault [CNN]
A New Prophet for the Polygamists? [Time]
Earlier: Big Love
Please Do Not Cry For Those Poor Polygamist Wives, Fox News