Monday, August 01, 2011 4:49:30 AM
Polygamist leader, in court outburst, says is persecuted
Warren Jeffs looks toward the jury in his trial in St. George, Utah, September 25, 2007.
Credit: Reuters/Douglas C. Pizac/Pool
By Jim Forsyth
SAN ANTONIO | Fri Jul 29, 2011 3:04pm EDT
(Reuters) - Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs interrupted his Texas child sexual assault trial on Friday, shouting that his religious rights were being violated and warning the court it was stomping on "sacred ground".
"This is not a fly-by-night religious organization," Jeffs shouted in front of the startled jurors in the San Angelo courtroom, referring to the breakaway Mormon sect he leads.
"You are stomping on sacred ground. You are treading on a people of peace. This religion deserves protection. The government of the United States has no right to infringe on the right of a peaceful people. The mockery must cease. This religious persecution must cease."
Jeffs, who is representing himself at the trial, is charged with child sexual assault and aggravated child sexual assault in connection with his "spiritual marriages" to two girls, ages 12 and 14, at the remote Yearning for Zion Ranch in Texas.
Jeffs, 55, is considered the spiritual leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which experts estimate has 10,000 followers in North America.
The sect is accused of promoting marriages between older men and girls, and has been condemned by the mainstream Mormon Church.
The outburst happened when Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Nichols called FBI Agent John Broadway to the stand to ask him about the so-called "Bishop's List," which details the men at the ranch and their multiple wives.
Jeffs, who had previously sat quietly with his hands in his lap, sprang from his seat at the defense table, yelling "I object!"
He launched into a rambling 45-minute denunciation of federal prosecutors, the court system, and what he called a century of persecution of his FLDS sect.
JEFFS SAYS HE IS A PROPHET
Jeffs, the self-proclaimed "prophet" of his church, paced excitedly in front of the jury box as he pumped his fist, extended his arms, and cut the air with his hands.
"God has entered me upon the people of Earth as a living prophet," Jeffs told the jurors.
Jeffs frequently returned to what he sees as this case being a part of continued government persecution of the FLDS, which was created by Mormons who left the mainstream church after a Mormon declaration in 1890 outlawing polygamy.
The sect teaches that for a man to be among the select in heaven, he must have at least three wives.
"This is a sacred trust delivered to religious leadership, not to be touched by government agencies, no matter what," Jeffs thundered, referring to plural marriage. "We maintain the right of a free religion. You are now treading on sacred ground."
Jeffs' outburst and subsequent interruptions of other attorneys in the case led State District Judge Barbara Walther to dismiss the jurors and adjourn the court session until at least Friday afternoon.
Jeffs repeatedly said a special hearing, outside the presence of the jury, should be held to determine whether the Bishop's List should be introduced as evidence.
The list was collected during a raid on the ranch that was prompted by a phone call later determined to be a false report, which some attorneys have argued should negate its use in court.
The judge has already ruled that the evidence could be admitted. Jeffs has been his own attorney in the case since Thursday, when he fired all his lawyers and demanded to represent himself.
(Editing by Karen Brooks)
Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/29/us-polygamy-trial-texas-idUSTRE76S5UR20110729 [with comments]
===
Polygamist ‘prophet’ Jeffs warns court of divine wrath
By lindsay whitehurst
The Salt Lake Tribune
First published Jul 29 2011 08:56AM
Updated Jul 31, 2011 12:31PM
San Angelo, Texas • Warren Jeffs broke his public silence Friday, opening the vocal floodgates by saying God would bring "sickness and death" to those prosecuting his West Texas trial and haranguing jurors with a nearly hour-long defense of polygamy.
The 55-year-old leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints interrupted the fifth day of his trial to passionately argue the proceedings were trampling his right to religious freedom and condemn the exposure of "sacred" church documents.
"I say to you, the government is stepping beyond the bounds," said Jeffs, who has insisted on representing himself. "The mockery must cease, that which is sacred to us must be kept sacred."
He is charged with sexually assaulting two underage girls he allegedly took as plural wives, one a 15-year-old and the other a 12-year-old.
After ending his sermon-like speech with an "amen," Jeffs took his rhetoric up a notch. After Judge Barbara Walther dismissed the jury, Jeffs began reading from a piece of paper that he claimed contained "Jesus Christ’s own words."
"I will wrest your power. I shall judge you. I shall let all peoples know your unjust ways," he said. "I will send a scourge upon the counties of prosecutorial zeal to be humbled by sickness and death."
Walther warned him that if he — or the God he claims to communicate with — directed any threats of harm at the jury, she would remove him. Then she started the trial again.
Following his outburst, Jeffs continued to object at almost every turn to the evidence presented by the prosecution, including blueprints of a home at his followers’ remote Yearning for Zion Ranch, photos of tall steel doors surrounding the ranch’s enormous white limestone temple and large records vaults inside the temple. The evidence was gathered during a massive 2008 raid.
"I cannot stop. This must not be a desecration so great," Jeffs told the court. "It is too sacred to be paraded before the public."
Finally, a bailiff turned off his microphone and moved it away.
Jeffs was initially moved to speak when prosecutors presented a church record purportedly listing the names, ages and birth dates of his wives and children. The FLDS believe that detailed documentation of their lives is necessary for exaltation, former members say — the records on Earth must match those in heaven.
As leader of the FLDS since 2002, Jeffs has until now been extremely secretive, never giving a media interview or speaking publicly as he faced charges related to underage marriage in Utah and Arizona. His commandment to FLDS members caught up in court proceedings has often been to ignore the court, or "answer them nothing."
He seemed to be taking his own advice Thursday, as he sat silently by, doing and saying nothing as prosecutors entered public documents establishing basic information about himself and his two alleged victims.
But the words Jeffs spoke Friday sounded similar to his recent dictations from jail, which include "warnings to the nation" and threats of natural disasters in President Barack Obama’s home state of Illinois. Jeffs has been predicting to his followers for months that he would be delivered from jail before the trial could take place, and they built a mansion for him, anticipating he would be freed around the first of the year.
Jeffs, who is thought to have close to 90 wives, faces up to life in prison if convicted. If he is found guilty, he will be sentenced by the Texas jury in a proceeding that could unleash evidence of hundreds of other so-called bad acts, including at least 10 underage marriages authorities have already introduced in other courts.
Jeffs on Friday defended polygamy as a "pure, natural way of life," one of "God’s law(s)," that people had been following since Joseph Smith first practiced it 150 years ago (the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints long ago renounced polygamy). Jeffs said his approximately 10,000 followers in the U.S. and Canada are good, moral people who do not abuse their children, and who educate and groom them well.
Copyright 2011 The Salt Lake City Tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/52288100-78/jeffs-god-judge-prosecutors.html.csp [with comments]
===
The full 'sickness and death' proclamation from Warren Jeffs
The Polygamy Blog
Lindsay Whitehurst
Published on Jul 29, 2011 05:10PM
In court today:
Jeffs continues to interrupt presentation of evidence. The jury is sent out. He continues to speak, then gets to reading this written statement to the court.
My statement being the Lord Jesus Christ's words as follows:
I, the Lord God in Heaven, call upon the court to now cease this prosecution against my pure and holy way coming against my church.
Let it stop now.
I am the Lord God over all that speaketh.
I will wrest your power from you.
I shall judge you.
I shall let all peoples know of your unjust ways.
I shall send a scourge upon the counties of prosecutorial zeal to be humbled by sickness and death.
Innocent people: Let this cease, lest you bring forth an eternal power of judgement upon your own lives.
This being instructions by my God ... who is the God above all.
Judge Walther:
(About the jury) If you call for their disruption or in any way imply they will be damaged because of their service -
Jeffs, interrupting:
I'm not threatening, only relaying a message*
Walther:
Well, don't relay the message.
*Thanks to the San Angelo Standard-Times for the add on this line.
Copyright 2011 The Salt Lake City Tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogspolygblog/52290719-185/god-court-jeffs-lord.html.csp [with comments]
===
Child marriage and the Warren Jeffs polygamist trial
The Texas trial of Warren Jeffs should shine a spotlight on the global problem of child marriages, and efforts to prevent them.
By the Monitor's Editorial Board / July 29, 2011
Here’s one way to view the Texas trial of Warren Jeffs, the polygamist-sect leader accused of sexual assault and marrying two teenage girls: Even America is not immune to the global problem of child marriage and should use this case to support campaigns to end it.
Underage marriage has long been common in Mr. Jeffs’s secretive group, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To date, seven FLDS men have been convicted on the same charges facing Jeffs.
Worldwide, though, more than 60 million girls end up as child brides, meaning they marry before the age of 18, which is classified as underage by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Most are forced into these awkward arrangements, usually by poor, rural parents who essentially sell off daughters for a dowry. The damage to the girl in marrying an older man, both physically and emotionally, remains largely hidden.
The practice – which amounts to rape – is deeply entrenched and not associated with any one religion, according to the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW).
While the prevalence of child marriage seems to be declining – a result of information campaigns, education for girls, and rising prosperity – the ICRW estimates that 25,000 girls will be married every day for the next 10 years – some as young as 8. In some countries, more than half are coerced into saying some form of “I do.” Many are betrothed in the cradle.
The slow pace to outlaw child marriage – or enforce laws on the books – is reflected in a current struggle by Saudi Arabia’s justice ministry to set a minimum age for marriage. The proposal, which didn’t specify an age, was openly opposed this month by a powerful Muslim cleric, Saleh al-Fawzan. He issued a religious ruling against it, citing a Quran passage about the prophet Muhammad’s marriage to a 6-year-old girl. (In 2003, Dr. Fawzan also issued a fatwa that “slavery is a part of Islam.”)
In the conservative kingdom, the monarchy grants much authority to the Islamic clergy and its interpretation of sharia law, especially over social matters. The ministry, however, appears ready to stand up to the cleric, with Saudi media on its side.
The Saudi Human Rights Commission supports the government effort, stating that a girl “needs to be cared for by her family, pursue her education and enjoy her childhood.” And recently a Saudi court granted a divorce to a 12-year-old girl from her 80-year-old husband.
Each country must find its own methods of ending child marriage. In India, where the practice may be the largest in the world, many experiments are being tried, such as one that promises money to parents if they allow girls to reach the age of 18 without marrying.
Such efforts deserve US support. One way is for Congress to pass a bipartisan bill in the Senate called the “International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act.” It would reorient foreign aid to provide more educational and economic opportunity to girls who face threats of early marriage, while pushing legal reforms as well.
As FLDS trials reveal, the innocence of young girls needs special attention – and protection – in any society.
© The Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2011/0729/Child-marriage-and-the-Warren-Jeffs-polygamist-trial [with comments]
===
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Warren Jeffs looks toward the jury in his trial in St. George, Utah, September 25, 2007.
Credit: Reuters/Douglas C. Pizac/Pool
By Jim Forsyth
SAN ANTONIO | Fri Jul 29, 2011 3:04pm EDT
(Reuters) - Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs interrupted his Texas child sexual assault trial on Friday, shouting that his religious rights were being violated and warning the court it was stomping on "sacred ground".
"This is not a fly-by-night religious organization," Jeffs shouted in front of the startled jurors in the San Angelo courtroom, referring to the breakaway Mormon sect he leads.
"You are stomping on sacred ground. You are treading on a people of peace. This religion deserves protection. The government of the United States has no right to infringe on the right of a peaceful people. The mockery must cease. This religious persecution must cease."
Jeffs, who is representing himself at the trial, is charged with child sexual assault and aggravated child sexual assault in connection with his "spiritual marriages" to two girls, ages 12 and 14, at the remote Yearning for Zion Ranch in Texas.
Jeffs, 55, is considered the spiritual leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which experts estimate has 10,000 followers in North America.
The sect is accused of promoting marriages between older men and girls, and has been condemned by the mainstream Mormon Church.
The outburst happened when Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Nichols called FBI Agent John Broadway to the stand to ask him about the so-called "Bishop's List," which details the men at the ranch and their multiple wives.
Jeffs, who had previously sat quietly with his hands in his lap, sprang from his seat at the defense table, yelling "I object!"
He launched into a rambling 45-minute denunciation of federal prosecutors, the court system, and what he called a century of persecution of his FLDS sect.
JEFFS SAYS HE IS A PROPHET
Jeffs, the self-proclaimed "prophet" of his church, paced excitedly in front of the jury box as he pumped his fist, extended his arms, and cut the air with his hands.
"God has entered me upon the people of Earth as a living prophet," Jeffs told the jurors.
Jeffs frequently returned to what he sees as this case being a part of continued government persecution of the FLDS, which was created by Mormons who left the mainstream church after a Mormon declaration in 1890 outlawing polygamy.
The sect teaches that for a man to be among the select in heaven, he must have at least three wives.
"This is a sacred trust delivered to religious leadership, not to be touched by government agencies, no matter what," Jeffs thundered, referring to plural marriage. "We maintain the right of a free religion. You are now treading on sacred ground."
Jeffs' outburst and subsequent interruptions of other attorneys in the case led State District Judge Barbara Walther to dismiss the jurors and adjourn the court session until at least Friday afternoon.
Jeffs repeatedly said a special hearing, outside the presence of the jury, should be held to determine whether the Bishop's List should be introduced as evidence.
The list was collected during a raid on the ranch that was prompted by a phone call later determined to be a false report, which some attorneys have argued should negate its use in court.
The judge has already ruled that the evidence could be admitted. Jeffs has been his own attorney in the case since Thursday, when he fired all his lawyers and demanded to represent himself.
(Editing by Karen Brooks)
Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/29/us-polygamy-trial-texas-idUSTRE76S5UR20110729 [with comments]
===
Polygamist ‘prophet’ Jeffs warns court of divine wrath
By lindsay whitehurst
The Salt Lake Tribune
First published Jul 29 2011 08:56AM
Updated Jul 31, 2011 12:31PM
San Angelo, Texas • Warren Jeffs broke his public silence Friday, opening the vocal floodgates by saying God would bring "sickness and death" to those prosecuting his West Texas trial and haranguing jurors with a nearly hour-long defense of polygamy.
The 55-year-old leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints interrupted the fifth day of his trial to passionately argue the proceedings were trampling his right to religious freedom and condemn the exposure of "sacred" church documents.
"I say to you, the government is stepping beyond the bounds," said Jeffs, who has insisted on representing himself. "The mockery must cease, that which is sacred to us must be kept sacred."
He is charged with sexually assaulting two underage girls he allegedly took as plural wives, one a 15-year-old and the other a 12-year-old.
After ending his sermon-like speech with an "amen," Jeffs took his rhetoric up a notch. After Judge Barbara Walther dismissed the jury, Jeffs began reading from a piece of paper that he claimed contained "Jesus Christ’s own words."
"I will wrest your power. I shall judge you. I shall let all peoples know your unjust ways," he said. "I will send a scourge upon the counties of prosecutorial zeal to be humbled by sickness and death."
Walther warned him that if he — or the God he claims to communicate with — directed any threats of harm at the jury, she would remove him. Then she started the trial again.
Following his outburst, Jeffs continued to object at almost every turn to the evidence presented by the prosecution, including blueprints of a home at his followers’ remote Yearning for Zion Ranch, photos of tall steel doors surrounding the ranch’s enormous white limestone temple and large records vaults inside the temple. The evidence was gathered during a massive 2008 raid.
"I cannot stop. This must not be a desecration so great," Jeffs told the court. "It is too sacred to be paraded before the public."
Finally, a bailiff turned off his microphone and moved it away.
Jeffs was initially moved to speak when prosecutors presented a church record purportedly listing the names, ages and birth dates of his wives and children. The FLDS believe that detailed documentation of their lives is necessary for exaltation, former members say — the records on Earth must match those in heaven.
As leader of the FLDS since 2002, Jeffs has until now been extremely secretive, never giving a media interview or speaking publicly as he faced charges related to underage marriage in Utah and Arizona. His commandment to FLDS members caught up in court proceedings has often been to ignore the court, or "answer them nothing."
He seemed to be taking his own advice Thursday, as he sat silently by, doing and saying nothing as prosecutors entered public documents establishing basic information about himself and his two alleged victims.
But the words Jeffs spoke Friday sounded similar to his recent dictations from jail, which include "warnings to the nation" and threats of natural disasters in President Barack Obama’s home state of Illinois. Jeffs has been predicting to his followers for months that he would be delivered from jail before the trial could take place, and they built a mansion for him, anticipating he would be freed around the first of the year.
Jeffs, who is thought to have close to 90 wives, faces up to life in prison if convicted. If he is found guilty, he will be sentenced by the Texas jury in a proceeding that could unleash evidence of hundreds of other so-called bad acts, including at least 10 underage marriages authorities have already introduced in other courts.
Jeffs on Friday defended polygamy as a "pure, natural way of life," one of "God’s law(s)," that people had been following since Joseph Smith first practiced it 150 years ago (the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints long ago renounced polygamy). Jeffs said his approximately 10,000 followers in the U.S. and Canada are good, moral people who do not abuse their children, and who educate and groom them well.
Copyright 2011 The Salt Lake City Tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/52288100-78/jeffs-god-judge-prosecutors.html.csp [with comments]
===
The full 'sickness and death' proclamation from Warren Jeffs
The Polygamy Blog
Lindsay Whitehurst
Published on Jul 29, 2011 05:10PM
In court today:
Jeffs continues to interrupt presentation of evidence. The jury is sent out. He continues to speak, then gets to reading this written statement to the court.
My statement being the Lord Jesus Christ's words as follows:
I, the Lord God in Heaven, call upon the court to now cease this prosecution against my pure and holy way coming against my church.
Let it stop now.
I am the Lord God over all that speaketh.
I will wrest your power from you.
I shall judge you.
I shall let all peoples know of your unjust ways.
I shall send a scourge upon the counties of prosecutorial zeal to be humbled by sickness and death.
Innocent people: Let this cease, lest you bring forth an eternal power of judgement upon your own lives.
This being instructions by my God ... who is the God above all.
Judge Walther:
(About the jury) If you call for their disruption or in any way imply they will be damaged because of their service -
Jeffs, interrupting:
I'm not threatening, only relaying a message*
Walther:
Well, don't relay the message.
*Thanks to the San Angelo Standard-Times for the add on this line.
Copyright 2011 The Salt Lake City Tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogspolygblog/52290719-185/god-court-jeffs-lord.html.csp [with comments]
===
Child marriage and the Warren Jeffs polygamist trial
The Texas trial of Warren Jeffs should shine a spotlight on the global problem of child marriages, and efforts to prevent them.
By the Monitor's Editorial Board / July 29, 2011
Here’s one way to view the Texas trial of Warren Jeffs, the polygamist-sect leader accused of sexual assault and marrying two teenage girls: Even America is not immune to the global problem of child marriage and should use this case to support campaigns to end it.
Underage marriage has long been common in Mr. Jeffs’s secretive group, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To date, seven FLDS men have been convicted on the same charges facing Jeffs.
Worldwide, though, more than 60 million girls end up as child brides, meaning they marry before the age of 18, which is classified as underage by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Most are forced into these awkward arrangements, usually by poor, rural parents who essentially sell off daughters for a dowry. The damage to the girl in marrying an older man, both physically and emotionally, remains largely hidden.
The practice – which amounts to rape – is deeply entrenched and not associated with any one religion, according to the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW).
While the prevalence of child marriage seems to be declining – a result of information campaigns, education for girls, and rising prosperity – the ICRW estimates that 25,000 girls will be married every day for the next 10 years – some as young as 8. In some countries, more than half are coerced into saying some form of “I do.” Many are betrothed in the cradle.
The slow pace to outlaw child marriage – or enforce laws on the books – is reflected in a current struggle by Saudi Arabia’s justice ministry to set a minimum age for marriage. The proposal, which didn’t specify an age, was openly opposed this month by a powerful Muslim cleric, Saleh al-Fawzan. He issued a religious ruling against it, citing a Quran passage about the prophet Muhammad’s marriage to a 6-year-old girl. (In 2003, Dr. Fawzan also issued a fatwa that “slavery is a part of Islam.”)
In the conservative kingdom, the monarchy grants much authority to the Islamic clergy and its interpretation of sharia law, especially over social matters. The ministry, however, appears ready to stand up to the cleric, with Saudi media on its side.
The Saudi Human Rights Commission supports the government effort, stating that a girl “needs to be cared for by her family, pursue her education and enjoy her childhood.” And recently a Saudi court granted a divorce to a 12-year-old girl from her 80-year-old husband.
Each country must find its own methods of ending child marriage. In India, where the practice may be the largest in the world, many experiments are being tried, such as one that promises money to parents if they allow girls to reach the age of 18 without marrying.
Such efforts deserve US support. One way is for Congress to pass a bipartisan bill in the Senate called the “International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act.” It would reorient foreign aid to provide more educational and economic opportunity to girls who face threats of early marriage, while pushing legal reforms as well.
As FLDS trials reveal, the innocence of young girls needs special attention – and protection – in any society.
© The Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2011/0729/Child-marriage-and-the-Warren-Jeffs-polygamist-trial [with comments]
===
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Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
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