Tag: Frederick Merril Jessop

FLDS bishop’s ex-wife gains ‘victory’; $148K is set for child support

A protracted fight to extract child support from a leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has the recipient of the child support claiming a “victory.”

Frederick Merril Jessop, the bishop of the FLDS Yearning for Zion Ranch in Schleicher County, Texas, has signed an order guaranteeing that he will pay $148,000 in child support to his former wife Carolyn Jessop for care of their eight children.

Presiding FLDS elder, two other sect members indicted

FLDS 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.”