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Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Sai

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After decades of controversy and allegations, RCMP swept into the polygamous community of Bountiful, B.C., on Wednesday and arrested two sect leaders, including one who had bragged of multiple wives and dozens of children and all but dared police to stop him.

Some anti-polygamists were jubilant at the charges laid yesterday but others were bitterly disappointed that B.C. officials chose not to proceed with sexual exploitation charges against Bountiful leaders.

Two top leaders of the controversial polygamous sect in Bountiful, B.C., have been arrested and charged with practising polygamy.

Oppal said Blackmore is alleged to be married to 20 women, while Oler is accused of committing polygamy by being married to two women.

“This has been a very complex issue,” he told The Canadian Press. “It’s been with us for well over 20 years. The problem has always been the defence of religion has always been raised.”

Allegations that members of a southern Utah polygamous sect are guilty of widespread welfare fraud were raised repeatedly this summer during a U.S. Senate judiciary committee hearing.

But welfare data from Utah, Arizona and Texas do not support the claims.

Yet six speakers at a July 24 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing said fraud and misuse of welfare funds is a primary reason the federal government should be more involved in investigating the sect.

A polygamist group accused of widespread abuse and neglect of children at a Texas ranch called the allegations “manufactured” Saturday in a lengthy rebuke of a state report released this week.

The Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado called the findings “as false and fraudulent as the original hoax telephone call” that initiated an April raid of the ranch, and said the saga has left their community poverty-stricken.

A dozen girls in a polygamist sect have been sexually abused in underage “spiritual marriages” performed with their parents’ consent, Texas Child Protective Services said Tuesday.

More than one of every four pubescent girls at the Yearning for Zion ranch near Eldorado was married at an inappropriate age, Texas Child Protective Services found.

“The 12 girls were ‘spiritually’ married at ages ranging from 12 to 15, and seven of these girls have had one or more children,” CPS said in a report wrapping up a nine-month investigation in the largest-ever U.S. child welfare case. [video]

An Arizona judge has ordered a former member of a polygamous sect to submit to an interview with attorneys for polygamist leader Warren Jeffs with only her attorney present.

Attorneys for sect leader Warren Jeffs want to question Jessop about a raid of a polygamous sect ranch in Eldorado, Texas, earlier this year.

They say she was in constant contact with the woman believed to have made a call to Texas authorities that led to the raid.

Lawyers for Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs have scheduled interviews with Texas authorities involved in the raid on the polygamous sect’s YFZ Ranch.

A judge has ordered the men to give interviews to Jeffs’ criminal defense team, which wants to know what information and evidence from the raid was shared with Arizona authorities.

They have been in the news for bigamy, accusations of forced marriages, mistreatment of women and young boys. Now the polygamist group the FLDS or Church of Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints has quietly purchased at least eight properties in Colorado.

CBS4′s Rick Sallinger has become the first TV reporter allowed inside one of their compounds to see how they live and what they are doing. He reports going through their gate is like leaving one world and passing into another.

The fight over the proposed sale of property from a communal trust set up by a polygamous sect intensified Thursday as the trust overseer alleged there is a “conspiracy” to thwart his efforts.

In a new court document, Bruce R. Wisan refutes claims he is waging war against or seeking to destroy the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Instead, he accused sect members of ”a conspiracy of noncooperation, hostility and sabotage” against the United Effort Plan Trust that now includes filing “frivolous” lawsuits.

Attorneys for polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs are asking a judge to order Texas Rangers to speak to them about the authorities’ raid on the sect’s ranch in Eldorado, Texas, earlier this year.

But prosecutors say they have no plans to use evidence seized from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints’ Yearning for Zion ranch in a pending case against Jeffs in Arizona and want the judge to deny the motion filed this week.

The woman suspected of making the hoax phone call that sparked the raid on the Fundamentalist LDS Church’s sprawling Texas ranch may soon be undergoing mental health treatment.

Rozita Swinton has not been charged in connection with the April 3 raid on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ranch near El Dorado, in which she allegedly pretended to be a pregnant 16-year-old girl.

A 5th District Court judge said Friday he will consider a Fundamentalist LDS Church member’s request to compel the Washington County Attorney’s Office to seek out and provide evidence gathered by various agencies and individuals during the state’s investigation of FLDS leader Warren Jeffs.

Allen Glade Steed, who appeared in court with his parents and Salt Lake City attorney Jim Bradshaw, was charged in September 2007 with first-degree felony rape a day after testifying on Jeffs’ behalf.

A grand jury in Schleicher County issued five indictments on Tuesday against three people in criminal cases involving members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

All the charges are felonies, said Schleicher County District Clerk Peggy Williams, but she declined to elaborate further.

Child by child, Texas authorities are acknowledging that many of the children seized during a raid on a polygamist sect’s ranch can safely live with their parents or guardians.

Since the April 3 raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado, 235 children’s custody cases have been dropped, meaning fewer than half of the 440 children seized remain bound by a court order to stay in Texas, attend parenting classes or be available for unannounced visits by Child Protective Services.

While investigations into abuses at the Texas community of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints continue custody cases for 34 of the sect’s kids have been dropped.

Texas Child Welfare Authorities do want to see 8 children back in foster care.

Meanwhile, a hearing on a challenge to the law-enforcement search of the FLDS ranch may include the person who placed the hoax calls that led to the raid.

Plus: What have we learned from the 1953 raid on another FLDS community?

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