BishopAccountability.org
 
  5 More Indictments against Sect Members

By Jayna Boyle
San Angelo Standard Times
September 23, 2008

http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2008/sep/23/5-more-indictments-against-sect-members/

ELDORADO - A grand jury in Schleicher County today issued five indictments against three people in a criminal case involving members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

All the charges are felonies, said Schleicher County District Clerk Peggy Williams, but she declined to elaborate further. The suspects' identities were not disclosed.

The indictments come after a quiet day at the courthouse. No sect members were seen in their trademark prairie dresses or long-sleeved button-down shirts walking in or out to testify, as was the case in previous grand jury hearings.

Williams said she could not comment on whether the indictments involved people without previous charges in the investigation.

Previous indictments were issued against Raymond Merril Jessop, 36; Allan Eugene Keate, 56; Michael George Emack, 57; and Merril LeRoy Jessop, 33, on charges of sexual abuse of a child. The four men are free on bail of $100,000 each.

Also indicted on the same charge was sect leader Warren Jeffs, who is already serving time on a conviction in Utah of accomplice to rape while awaiting trial in Arizona on a similar charge.

Dr. Lloyd Hammond Barlow, the physician at the YFZ Ranch clinic, was also indicted with the others on July 22 and released on $5,000 bond. Barlow was charged with three counts of failure to report child sex abuse, a misdemeanor.

Three further indictments were issued in late August, although it was not disclosed who was indicted.

The indictments issued today will remain sealed until the defendants have been served, Williams said.

It is not clear whether the defendants are residents of the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado, home to hundreds of members of the polygamist sect.

Williams said the Schleicher County Sheriff's Office will serve defendants in the county, but other law enforcement agencies will serve anyone living elsewhere.

Some may come to the county on their own accord, she said.

The grand jury will meet again Nov. 12 and Dec. 16.

 
 

Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.