FLDS – Mother of 6 escapes 12 year nightmare
Police are saying a mother of 6 was held captive in an Arizona town by Warren Jeffs’ polygamous sect and the local police force it controlled has escaped with her children. Ruby Jessup who is 26, whose detention in Colorado City led to a criminal probe of the church founded by the now-imprisoned Jeffs, was granted temporary custody of the children and has left the tiny town, according to Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne.
As a member of Jeff’s FLDS, Jessop was forced to marry her brother-in-law at age 14. For the next dozen years, she remained trapped in the Utah-Arizona border town, Horne said, along with several other women allegedly held captive by church elders.
“What they do is say, ‘Everybody watch her so she won’t run away.’ Then she can’t leave,” Horne said. “Women who wanted to escape have been forcibly held by the marshals against their will.”
There is still an ongoing criminal investigation which is conducted by the Marshal’s Office, the police force with jurisdiction over the twin polygamous towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City. The Marshall’s office is alledged to be under control of the sect. Attorneys for the two towns and the Marshal’s Office strongly denied the charges, characterizing Horne’s words as “inflammatory” and “absolutely not true.”
“I can’t speak for the FLDS, but the bottom line is the Marshal’s Office absolutely does not hold people against their will,” said lawyer Blake Hamilton. “The Arizona attorney general, as the highest ranking law enforcement official in Arizona, ought not be making those statements unless he has evidence of it.”
Jeffs is serving a life sentence in a Texas prison, but still runs the sect. Horne was joined at Tuesday’s news conference by Flora Jessop, a vocal critic of the FLDS who fled the church in 1986, her sister, Ruby Jessop, and the woman’s six young children. According to Flora Jessup her sister who did not speak, had been held captive by the FLDS for years and suffered sexual and mental abuse at the hands of her husband while not being allowed to leave with her kids. Ruby Jessop finally fled last year, and recently won temporary custody of her children, who were being held “hostage” by the sect.
Mohave County Sheriff Tom Sheahan said his agency also is involved in a criminal investigation of the FLDS and the Marshal’s Office, adding that authorities there function as “security guards for the FLDS church.”
Sheahan said it’s a dangerous situation for his deputies to be patrolling Colorado City without the cooperation of local law enforcement from the Marshal’s Office. Another attorney who represents Colorado City called the allegations outlandish, adding that the Marshal’s Office works well with Mohave County deputies.
Last year the .S. Justice Department sued Colorado City and Hildale claiming discrimination against residents who were not FLDS members. Arizona After receiving a complaint of child abuse, Texas authorities in 2008 raided the FLDS’ Yearning for Zion Ranch. The move led to a chaotic roundup of 400 children living at the secretive location, eventually becoming one of the largest custody cases in U.S. history.
All of the children were eventually returned but 11 men — including Jeffs and other high-ranking FLDS lieutenants — were arrested on charges of sexual assault or bigamy and later convicted.also has a similar ongoing civil lawsuit against Colorado City.
Newsdesk International 
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