Looks like even from jail Warren Jeffs will be in control.

[doggie]

Looks like they won't constrain him from running his empire. not sure whats up with that.

 

Polygamist heard on tape training girls for sex

 

PAUL J. WEBER

Published: Aug 8, 2011 7:58 PM

SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) - Prosecutors seeking life in prison for convicted polygamist leader Warren Jeffs closed their case with a final barrage of graphic audiotapes, records of 24 alleged underage brides and writings that ordered followers to "fight to the death" when police eventually came for him.

 

The same jury that convicted Jeffs last week of sexually assaulting two of his child "brides" could now hand down their punishment early as Tuesday. Even in prison, he could continue to lead the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

 

Among the final pieces of evidence was an audiotape of Jeffs having sex and one of him telling five girls to "set aside all your inhibitions" as he gives his child brides instructions on how to please him sexually.

 

Jeffs' attorneys rested without calling any witnesses as the sentencing phase drew to a close. Jurors will begin deliberating Tuesday following closing arguments.

 

Jeffs, 55, is considered God's spokesman on Earth and a prophet among his 10,000 followers. He again boycotted the sentencing phase of his trial Monday, choosing to remain in another room of the courthouse.

 

Jurors also saw a wedding photo of Jeffs intimately kissing a 16-year-old "spiritual" wife. The girl's hair was combed high in a tight bun and her body covered by the same long sleeve, prairie-style dress that have come to identify FLDS women.

 

"Pure Innocence. Pure Obedience. Pure Heavenly Happiness!" the caption on the photo collage read.

 

Deric Walpole, Jeffs' attorney, has indicated that his plea for leniency during closing arguments will focus on Jeffs being a product of his environment and a culture that hasn't changed for centuries.

 

Prosecutors, however, say it was Jeffs who radically changed the FLDS culture after rising to power in 2002. Former church members have testified how Jeffs outlawed dances and banned books. Men also began marrying younger and younger girls after Jeffs succeeded his father as FLDS president, formed FLDS member Ezra Draper has testified.

 

In a graphic 10-minute audiotape played for jurors Monday, Jeffs is heard telling the girls that what "the five of you are about to do is important." The recording ends with him asking the girls if his instructions are detailed enough. The voices of at least two girls responded, "Yes."

 

Several jurors squirmed or wiped away tears during the sometimes-scratchy recording, which an FBI agent said was made before they all had sex together.

 

Jeffs kept meticulous records - as jurors found out during the conviction phase of the trial. Last week, they heard a tape of what prosecutors said was Jeffs sexually assaulting the 12-year-old victim.

 

Prosecutors also showed jurors a page taken from one of Jeffs' personal journals.

 

"If the world knew what I was doing, they would hang me from the highest tree," Jeffs wrote in 2005.

 

In all, investigators collected 6 terabytes of digital evidence, and carried off hundreds of boxes from the FLDS ranch in Texas in 2008. It led to nearly 400 children being temporarily swept up in what became one of the largest U.S. child custody cases in history, though all were eventually returned to their families.

 

The raid of the Yearning for Zion Ranch, however, still led to the charges against Jeffs and several of his followers. In the personal journals shown to jurors Monday, Jeffs indicated he knew that day was likely coming.

 

Jeffs ordered his followers "to fight to death" if police tried entering the sacred temple on the ranch. Other times, Jeffs crisscrossed the country trying to evade capture and tried changing his appearance, in ways that were in jarring contrast to the traditionally modest, conservative style of FLDS members.

 

A picture taken in Boston shows Jeffs smiling in a novelty T-shirt that reads "One Size Fits All," with a Guinness beer baseball hat on his head. Another shows Jeffs riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, decked out in a leather jacket. In a letter to followers, he tells his lieutenants they will "have to hide the Porsche" if authorities come looking.

 

Prosecutors showed records, also gathered from the ranch, that Jeffs had 78 wives. Not counting his own wives, Jeffs officiated or was a witness to 550 illegal marriages, according to state investigators.

 

FBI agent John Broadway testified that fathers who gave their young daughters to Jeffs - their prophet - were rewarded with young brides of their own. Girls who proved reluctant to have sex with Jeffs were sent away, according to other journal excerpts.

 

"If they wanted to not be rejected by God, then the new laws (Jeffs) was introducing was requiring them to participate in these sessions," Broadway said.

 

The polygamist leader spent years evading arrest, eventually making the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list before his capture in 2006, prosecutors said. A state investigator testified that Jeffs visited 23 states over nearly a year while eluding authorities.

 

Jeffs also allegedly excommunicated 60 church members he saw as a threat to his leadership, breaking up 300 families while stripping them of property and "reassigning" wives and children.

[Austin]

One ongoing question I've had is how Jeffs even logistically could speak so much from prison to the FLDS people and keep and even strengthen his hold on them. I got my answer last night from Sam Brower's book. Jeffs was incarcerated in a for-profit prison (as opposed to one owned/operated by the state). For-profit prisons often provide phones in individual cells and as long as the person can pay for expensive calling cards that must be purchased from the for-profit prison's commissary, these prisoners could talk on the phone 24 hours a day if they can afford it. Clearly, he could afford it and since these prisons are just in it to make money, it was not a problem for them.

I hope when he's sentenced, it will be to a state prison where such privileges cannot be bought.

[forever ago]

Why are for-profit prisons even allowed?

Okay I don't know much about them and they probably are better than state prisons re: inmate safety, so I'm not saying there's anything inherently wrong with them (except for the phone thing, that's just crap). I'm just wondering why they're allowed...

[Guest Anonymous]

Why are for-profit prisons even allowed?

Okay I don't know much about them and they probably are better than state prisons re: inmate safety, so I'm not saying there's anything inherently wrong with them (except for the phone thing, that's just crap). I'm just wondering why they're allowed...

They're allowed because they make a lot of money. And the more people that get locked up, the more money they make.

Google "Prison Industrial Complex" if you want to have your day ruined.

[Patsy]

Because they make the owners/managers rich, so it's in their interests to make it in politicians' interest to allow them.

[Austin]

Why are for-profit prisons even allowed?

Okay I don't know much about them and they probably are better than state prisons re: inmate safety, so I'm not saying there's anything inherently wrong with them (except for the phone thing, that's just crap). I'm just wondering why they're allowed...

I think this is perhaps a prime example of why for-profits are not a good idea. They are in it to make a buck, long and short of it, so inmates can basically buy privileges. So one guy's five years may be a completely different experience than another, richer guy's five years. It's still prison, but having the ability to make all the calls you want, get any food you want, etc. goes a long way towards making the intolerable a bit more tolerable.

It's all about the money.

[forever ago]

...Duh.

Probably why politicians are trying so hard to be 'tough on crime'. their buddies make all the money.

Seriously, would they have allowed Al freaking Capone to be in a for-profit prison, or Charlie Manson? I don't fucking think so. Why they're OK with Warren Jeffs being in one is beyond me.

[forever ago]

I think this is perhaps a prime example of why for-profits are not a good idea. They are in it to make a buck, long and short of it, so inmates can basically buy privileges. So one guy's five years may be a completely different experience than another, richer guy's five years. It's still prison, but having the ability to make all the calls you want, get any food you want, etc. goes a long way towards making the intolerable a bit more tolerable.

It's all about the money.

I do think American prisons can be too harsh in some ways (and too lenient in others... I'm a 'punishment fits the crime' kinda gal). But easily buying privileges is total bullshit. On top of that inmates in for-profit prisons are treated far better than freaking schoolchildren- of course, schoolchildren have the option of packing their lunches, and most in the US don't have to wear uniforms.

[emmiedahl]

For profit prisons save the state money as well. They can do the same job for less money. Apparently they aren't doing a very good job at all if people can talk on the phone all the time! I like the idea of having my own cell, though.

[Austin]

For profit prisons save the state money as well. They can do the same job for less money. Apparently they aren't doing a very good job at all if people can talk on the phone all the time! I like the idea of having my own cell, though.

Yeah, save the state money but at what real cost?

I can't imagine any prison would have Jeffs in general population or with a cellmate, so no matter what, he would have his own cell. He would probably be shanked before the sun set on his first day in prison.

I think he's probably going to have his own cell for the rest of his life, money or no money.

[Guest Anonymous]

Psrt of his sentencing should be limiting his phone card privileges to $25.00-50.00 per month.

[Sweetpea1]

Psrt of his sentencing should be limiting his phone card privileges to $25.00-50.00 per month.

Exactly this.

[doggie]

well god does not seem to like him he just got life in prison. Well wonder when he will give up on god taking vengeance on the court?

[demgirl]

He just got sentenced to life in prison. I have no problem with him continuing to communicate with the loony tunes who follow his "religion", but I don't understand why those children were returned. People were infuriated that these kids were taken -- why? That sect is abusive and it's ridiculous the way that they were painted as martyrs. Those mothers boo-hooing and claiming how children were ripped away from them -- good. They should be ripped away. Anyone who allows their 12 year old to be married off to a 50 year old man or who allows their husband to dump a 15 year old boy by the side of the road deserves to lose their kids. Let Jeffs talk to the whackadoodle parents all he wants -- they are adults that made their own decisions and chose to stay. Take the kids away and put them with some decent deprogrammers and foster parents.

[emmiedahl]

The children were returned because there was no evidence of abuse, mainly because they all refused to talk and they are kept so sheltered that there were no outside witnesses (imo). In order to keep the child out of the home indefinitely, you have to prove not just that they are in an abusive cult, but that this particular child was abused (with specific instances and some kind of proof) and that they are in danger of it happening again. You can remove them out of suspicion, but you need actual proof to keep them long-term.

The older girls were lying, trading names and ages, giving different accounts of whose babies were whose, etc to confuse the process and keep anyone from having hard proof of any single girl's abuse. So, you can look at the situation and say, there are so many babies born among this young teen group, but then you can't prove that this particular teen had this particular baby (which is what you need).

It's kind of fucked up in these situations because you can't prove any single child was abused without someone's testimony... and no one will talk.

[demgirl]

I cannot say for sure, because this was a while ago, but I would have thought the evidence found on-site would have given them probable cause to DNA test the children to the mothers. And there are all sorts of analysis that can be done to determine the developmental age of a young woman. I'm not saying it would have been cheap, or an easy court fight, but I think it would have been the right thing to do. I also think that every single one of those children should have been separated from the group of children and sent to individual places, or at least rooms, to be questioned.

Maybe I'm being unfair, but immediately after the raid, all of a sudden public sympathy (idiotically IMO) swung to the women and mothers and I think the local authorities caved to that pressure.

[emmiedahl]

I don't think you are being unfair at all. I think special things (like DNA tests) could have been done to prove crimes. These are outside the realm of a normal CPS investigation and would require a court order because you know the mothers would not consent. However, there was massive outcry, even Oprah was interviewing them sympthetically, so investigators were probably reluctant to go the extra mile and investigate more deeply than a child abuse case would normally require.

I think that no child should be raised in that environment; just the fact that they are not allowed toys is very telling. In most CPS cases, the parents are required to take parenting classes and I really hope this happened.

I read an article in which the experts were saying that, in FLDS views, beating children and withholding necessities is considered fair treatment and totally normal, as in they think everyone does that. So the children felt persecuted and refused to cooperate.

[Eponine]

Does anyone know what the fallout was from his 2007 confession that he is not the real prophet? Did he take that back? Did the FLDS in any way acknowledge that confession and do anything?

If by his own admission he's not the prophet why the f are they still following him?

[dianapavelovna]

Does anyone know what the fallout was from his 2007 confession that he is not the real prophet? Did he take that back? Did the FLDS in any way acknowledge that confession and do anything?

If by his own admission he's not the prophet why the f are they still following him?

I wonder about this as well. Is that confession widely known/reported? Seems like it wouldn't be hard to keep that from all the faithful, or explain it away somehow.

[doggie]

His faithful are fools and will believe whatever he says. but also they may not believe when he said he was not the real prophet. He sure thinks he is now.

[Austin]

I don't have Brower's book in front of me, but the reason the children were returned are not what people think (sorry, emmiedahl) but rather for complex reasons, largely having to do with the bureaucracy at the high level of CPS and that level not supporting their field workers and their professional observations and opinions, being overwhelmed by the sheer number and what to do with them, where to send them, who would pay. CPS at very high levels dropped this ball. DNA testing was done on some children. I can't remember it all right here and now, but it really didn't have much to do with "lack of proof", according to Brower who lived this whole Jeffs/FLDS saga for seven straight years.

[Patsy]

I definitely need to see if I can find that book.

I don't have much patience for the hand-wringing over children being 'ripped away' from their parents and religious rights blah blah blah, but the government did screw up on some of it - some of the housing provided for the kids just wasn't adequate, as I remember. Obviously logistically it's nigh-impossible to provide that much foster care on short notice, but that's a bit different from the other problems involved. There's no way at all to fix the fact that they'd be devastated at being away from all they've known, and at being in the sinful outer world that's doomed to damnation, but at least theoretically and ideally, they should have had adequate housing while they were in government care.

[contrary]

i just started reading the brower book last night...the ebook is on sale for 2.99 at amazon. (you can download a free kindle reader for your computer, if you don't have a kindle...)

[Patsy]

I can't find the kindle option, contrary - could you give me a pointer? I've never bought an ebook from Amazons before.

[contrary]

yikes. i just bought Prophet's Prey two days ago for 2.99, and now the kindle price has shot up to 14.85! It looks like it does have a "loan" option, so once i've finished reading it, i'd be happy to loan it to you. (I can't loan it and still read it at the same time).

Stolen Innocence (the Elissa Wall book) kindle link for $2.99 is here: amazon.com/gp/product/B0017T0CRE/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title