Tag: Frederick Merril Jessop

The former bishop of a polygamy-sanctioning sect received the maximum sentence of 10 years and a $10,000 fine late Tuesday afternoon for conducting a marriage ceremony between a 12-year-old girl and the then-50-year-old sect leader, Warren Jeffs.

jurors took just under an hour to deliberate on the sentence of Fredrick Merril Jessop

Jury selection began Monday in the trial of a Fredrick Merril Jessop, a former bishop of a polygamist FLDS sect. Jessop is accused of officiating at the marriage of an underage girl to the sect’s leader, Warren Jeffs, who has since been sentenced to life in prison

Frederick Merril Jessop, a former bishop of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was told to stay in Texas until his trial unless he gets permission from the court to take medical trips out of state.

Two other FLDS leaders appeared in court as well.

What was to be a final pretrial turned in to what may be the first of several pretrials for Frederick Merril Jessop, 75, a bishop of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, who now has a new attorney.

Jessop’s next pretrial hearing was scheduled for June 27 in Schleicher County, and a trial date was set for Oct. 31.

The 72-year-old presiding elder of a breakaway Mormon sect and two other church members turned themselves into authorities Monday to face felony charges relating to the underage marriage of girls to older men.

Frederick “Merril” Jessop, a leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, faces one count of conducting an unlawful marriage ceremony involving a minor, a felony.

One of Merril Jessop’s wives, Carolyn, fled the FLDS community on the Arizona-Utah line with her children in 2003 and wrote a best-selling book, “Escape.”