The isolated polygamous commune of Bountiful, B.C., is a “cult” where religion is used to control residents and take away their rights, says the brother of one the community’s leaders.

The daughter of the man whose property became the home of Canada’s Bountiful polygamous community testified Monday that her father eventually renounced the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or FLDS, which had taken control of the community.

Water torture of babies is one way some members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day instil fear of authority, a former member testified Wednesday.

Residents of a fundamentalist Mormon sect in the small British Columbia commune of Bountiful believe they are adhering to the original word of the religion’s prophet, says a former plural wife and advocate of polygamy

A Utah judge has refused to dismiss a rape charge against a man whose 2001 spiritual marriage to an underage girl was the basis for the state’s criminal prosecution of polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs, the Associated Press reports.

Evidence so far has been overwhelming that polygamy is inherently harmful both to individuals and to society. That’s the bar that the attorneys general for both B.C. and Canada must leap in order for Chief Justice Robert Bauman of the B.C. Supreme Court to conclude that it’s okay to override the constitutional guarantees for religious freedom and freedom of expression.

The small Arizona border town of Colorado City is known for the polygamists who live and worship there. But what isn’t as well known is that the town is essentially divided down the middle.

Half of the town remains faithful to former FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, and the other half — the so-called “apostates” — have formed their own religious sect.

Friction between the two groups boiled over in an ugly incident this week during a little girl’s funeral.

Jeff’s followers hindered the burial of 10-month old accident victim Angel Lee.

Warren Jeffs, the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, had legal representation. Then he fired his legal representation.

Then he had legal representation appointed to him.

FLDS cult leader Warren Jeffs is due to appear in court for his fifth pretrial hearing with still no word on whether he has a Texas attorney.

During the past four pretrial hearings over more than a month, Jeffs has said he will get his own representation, each time announcing that he should have representation within a week.The “expectation is he will provide information about who will represent him,” said Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for the office of the attorney general of Texas, about today’s pretrial.Jan. 24 is the date for the first trial, for aggravated sexual assault, Feb. 21 is the date for the sexual assault charge trial, and March 14 is the date for the bigamy charge trial.Fifty-first District Judge Barbara Walther has said the state must finish prosecuting Jeffs for all three charges within 120 days of his arrival because of extradition laws. Jeffs was moved from Utah to Texas on Nov. 30.

A judge in San Angelo, Texas, on Wednesday entered pleas of not guilty on behalf of polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs, who is scheduled to go on trial next month on bigamy and sexual assault charges.

Jeffs, 55, leads the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also known as the FLDS. The charges stem from an alleged spiritual marriage to a 12-year-old girl.

A federal judge has blocked the sale of assets held in the polygamous FLDS church’s communal land trust while he decides whether the faith’s constitutional rights have been violated by Utah authorities.U.S. District Judge Dee Benson issued a temporary restraining order late Tuesday, stopping a pending sale of land held in the United Effort Plan trust.Utah’s state courts seized control of the trust in 2005 amid allegations of mismanagement by church leaders, including Warren Jeffs, the ecclesiastical head of the church who is jailed in Texas pending trial on charges of bigamy, aggravated sexual assault and assault.

Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs is still without a Texas attorney with only weeks until his scheduled trial on charges of aggravated sexual assault.

Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs, who calls himself a prophet, asked a judge on Wednesday to delay his bigamy trial so he can find a Texas lawyer.

But Judge Barbara Walther denied that request, saying the church leader has long known about the charges in Texas and had plenty of time to seek counsel.

A federal judge is considering whether to block the sale of property from a polygamous sect’s communal trust based on the argument that the 2005 state takeover of the trust violated the constitutional separation of church and state.

Attorneys for 6,000 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are asking Benson for an injunction removing the states of Utah and Arizona from the United Effort Plan Trust and preventing the sale of Berry Knoll Farm.

An early leader in the fundamentalist Mormon movement prophesied in 1934 the land would some day be a temple site.

Extradited to Texas two years after being indicted, polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs will be facing Texas prosecutors who haven’t lost a criminal case against his followers since the 2008 raid of his Yearning for Zion ranch.

In the rural courts near the YFZ ranch where Jeffs is considered a prophet, his followers have been reliably convicted by juries that barely deliberate two hours. Also: Jeffs was a “problem inmate from day one.”

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