FLDS Trials: Jury to See Yfz Ranch Evidence

By Matthew Waller
San Angelo Standard-Times
March 24, 2012

http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2012/mar/23/-yfz-ranch-evidence-brought-to-bear-again-this/

The Texas Ranger had to squeeze through a hole in the wall to get into the vault, grasping a gun and flashlight.

Inside the locked precinct sacred to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Texas Ranger Lt. Jesse Valdez found rows of cabinets laden with boxes of records. It was April 2008 when he first entered the vault within the Temple Annex on the YFZ Ranch in Schleicher County, and now those records are being used as evidence against former FLDS President Wendell Loy Nielsen.

Nielsen, 71, a former president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is charged with three counts of third-degree bigamy, each count punishable by two to 10 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine. Friday was the third day of the trial, and the day began with testimony from Valdez.

Prosecutor Eric Nichols asked Valdez about gaining entrance to the building, the gleaming white Temple Annex, which housed the vault.

"Were law enforcement officers forced to make a forced entry into the building?" Nichols asked.

"Yes," Valdez said. He was one of the officers involved in the April 2008 raid on the ranch, triggered by a phone call that alleged to a women's shelter hotline that sexual abuse was occurring on the FLDS compound. Twelve men were indicted from evidence seized during the raid, and 10 of them have been convicted of charges such as sexual assault and bigamy. Nielsen's case is the first bigamy charge to go to trial; others have pleaded no contest to the bigamy charges.

Nielsen also pleaded no contest, but he withdrew his plea when he said he didn't like the terms of probation, and when he couldn't transfer his probation to Colorado where he has family.

Valdez and other Texas Rangers testified Friday about materials recovered from "Building 1," which has ties to Nielsen. The state is required to prove where the alleged offenses occurred, and the state intends to prove cohabitation. One name, "Ilene," is written on the floor plan to Building 1, and one of the women who allegedly was married in bigamy was Ilene Jeffs.

Jurors learned from documents that the three women with whom Nielsen is accused of having bigamous marriages were Ilene Jeffs, who would've been 43 at the time of the "marriage," Margaret Lucille Jessop Johnson, who would've been 58 at the time of her "marriage" and Veda Barlow Johnson, who would've been 65 at the time of her "marriage." Linda Black was Nielsen's legal wife, whom he married in 1965.

Also in Building 1 was a "birth center," as Texas Rangers described it. Jurors were shown photos of stirrups on a "hospital type" bed that, according to testimony given by Texas Ranger Danny Crawford, would've offered leg support. Crawford said he also found medicine and equipment there for taking care of infants.

Crawford said it was the only place on the ranch to have a birthing center. Outside the jury's presence, Nichols said the state intends to show records from now-imprisoned sect leader Warren Jeffs regarding the connection between the birthing center and Nielsen's home.

Warren Jeffs has been imprisoned from charges that came out of the raid. He is serving a life plus 20 year sentence in Palestine for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl and a 15-year-old girl.

Jeffs left a trail of records wherever he went, and the YFZ Ranch was no exception.

"I then took a tour through brother Wendell Nielsen's house. ... The delivery and recovery rooms were well organized," Nichols read from Jeffs' dictation.

The judge allowed photos to be shown, although the defense was afraid it would be prejudicial since there already had been a mention of children and a rescue mission before the jury when talking about the raid. The judge told the jury that Nielsen's charges have "nothing to do with children."

The state alleges that extraneous offense documents show Nielsen married 34 women in addition to his legal wife, among them sets of mothers and daughters and groups of sisters.

The documents also state Nielsen performed ceremonies to wed 16- and 12-year-old girls to Warren Jeffs, who has been named a witness in 258 allegedly bigamous marriages, and been involved in the marriage of 37 girls ages 12 through 16, with 29 of them having been bigamous.

The Texas Rangers spent much of Friday authenticating documents that came from the Temple and Temple Annex.

One ranger testified about the inside of the Temple and Temple Annex building. He described the colors on the first floor of the Temple as earth tones, blue and white colors on the second floor and then pure white on the top floor.

"It was all white, blinding white," Texas Ranger Capt. Aaron Grigsby said.

The Temple Annex also had white and blue tones, he said.

The jurors were dismissed about noon, and the attorneys spent the remainder of the day discussing redactions to portions of documents that the judge didn't believe the jurors should see because they might be prejudicial or redundant.

They also discussed how they would proceed when trial starts again Monday morning concerning expert witnesses. Defense attorney David Botsford expects to challenge ex-FLDS member Rebecca Musser's testimony as being an expert witness, and he said that if the state brings their expert family law expert, University of Texas law professor Jack Sampson, he would bring his own for a "battle of experts."

The trial resumes Monday at 9 a.m. in Midland district court, with attorneys assembling half an hour earlier to settle matters regarding witnesses.