Texas officials initially estimated 70 charges against FLDS

Right: Rulon Jeffs and two brides.

By Melinda Rogers
The Salt Lake Tribune

While Texas authorities were initially investigating 20 cases of sexual assault and 50 bigamy cases involving FLDS members, it's unclear how many of those cases remain open four months later.

Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Tela Mange confirmed the number of cases -- outlined in an April e-mail -- was accurate in the month officials raided the Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado.

But she can't confirm the current number of cases still being investigated. And Salt Lake City attorney Rod Parker, a spokesman for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, thinks the numbers have more than likely drastically changed as the investigation has progressed.

So far, the Schleicher County grand jury hearing evidence against sect members has indicted six men, including sect leader Warren S. Jeffs, on charges of sexual assault, bigamy and failure to report child abuse. Parker said he wonders in particular about the volume of bigamy charges that had been predicted back in April.

Based on the number of men on the ranch in plural marriages, in order to file 50 bigamy charges against ranch residents, he said, prosecutors would likely need to charge women -- a departure from the typical bigamy suspect. He said women have typically been viewed as victims of bigamy, not perpetrators.


In Utah, for example, outspoken independent polygamist Tom Green was successfully prosecuted for bigamy, but none of his wives were charged. Green was convicted in 2001 and 2002 of bigamy, criminal nonsupport and child rape for fathering a child with his stepdaughter when she was 13. But generally, Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has said, Utah won't prosecute consenting adults who engage in polygamous relationships.

Texas officials have not ruled that out. While the e-mail's number of Texas investigations was current in April, it's hard to say how many people are still under investigation, or how many charges prosecutors will decide to pursue after the investigation is complete, Mange said. "I don't know what ultimately the team will decide to do, as far as possible charges filed," she said Tuesday.

The Schleicher County grand jury will reconvene next week. Jeffs and four men are charged with first-degree sexual assault; one of those men also is charged with bigamy. The sect's physician was indicted on accusations that he failed to report child abuse.

More than 450 of the sect's children were removed from the ranch amid a child abuse investigation. They were later returned to parents, after the Texas Supreme Court criticized the lack of evidence supporting the children's removal.