3 FLDS members surrender to authorities

3 FLDS members surrender to authorities

ELDORADO, Texas — Three members of a West Texas polygamist sect were released on bond Monday after surrendering to authorities on charges accusing them of sexual assault of a child.

Lehi Barlow Jeffs, 29; Abram Harker Jeffs, 37, and Keith William Dutson Jr., 23, were indicted last week by a Schleicher County grand jury that has been considering evidence against residents of the Yearning For Zion Ranch, which is run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a breakaway Mormon sect.

Lehi Jeffs and Abram Jeffs also were indicted on bigamy charges.

Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran said the men surrendered about 11 a.m., paid their bail money and were released in about an hour. The bonds totaled $320,000.
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The Houston Chronicle reported in its online edition Monday night that Lehi Jeffs was listed in the “Bishop Records” of having three wives, including one who was 16. Keith Dutson was listed as having a monogamous union with a 16-year-old and Abram Jeffs was listed as having five wives, including one who was 16.
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Generally under Texas law, no one younger than 17 can consent to sex with an adult.

The state’s bigamy statute includes prohibitions against legally marrying or even purporting to marry more than one person. Many of the FLDS unions are so-called “spiritual” marriages, unions blessed by the church but with no legal record.

Five other men from the polygamist group, including FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs, face similar felony sex abuse charges in Schleicher County related to purported unions with underage girls.

Warren Jeffs was convicted in Utah of sexual abuse, received up to life in prison and now sits in an Arizona jail, awaiting trial there in connection with underage marriages.

Authorities say the polygamist group, which bought a 1,700 acre ranch on the outskirts of Eldorado in 2003, forced teenage girls to “spiritually marry” older men — and kept detailed records of the unions.

Attorneys for the group say the charges are baseless — concocted by the state to destroy an unorthodox religious movement.

FLDS polygamists marry one wife legally, and then take on additional so-called “spiritual wives.” Spouses of the same husband are known as “sister-wives.”

According to FLDS teachings on polygamy, referred to as “the principle,” men must have at least three wives to be guaranteed a place in paradise.

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