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Polygamist leader gets life in prison for assault

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Published : Aug. 10, 2011 - 11:35

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SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) -- Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs recorded everything he said. Thousands of pages, written with Biblical flourish, about God wanting him to take 12-year-old wives. About those girls needing to sexually please him. About men he banished for not building his temple fast enough.

Convicted polygamist leader Warren Jeffs is escorted into the Tom Green County Courthouse, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2011, in San Angelo, Texas.(AP-Yonhap News) Convicted polygamist leader Warren Jeffs is escorted into the Tom Green County Courthouse, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2011, in San Angelo, Texas.(AP-Yonhap News)

Women and children from the YFZ Ranch, the compound built by polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, are moved by bus to San Angelo, Texas, on April 6, 2008. (MCT) Women and children from the YFZ Ranch, the compound built by polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, are moved by bus to San Angelo, Texas, on April 6, 2008. (MCT)


Facing his last chance to keep his freedom, Jeffs didn't say a word.

He was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday for sexually assaulting one of his child brides - among 24 underage wives prosecutors said Jeffs collected - and received the maximum 20-year punishment on a separate child sex conviction. Jeffs, 55, will not be eligible for parole until he is at least 100 years old.

The head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints made no plea for leniency. He ordered his attorneys not to call witnesses during the sentencing phase, and forbade them from making a closing argument Tuesday.

Less than half an hour later, jurors returned with the harshest punishment possible.

"He's a pervert, and the crazy thing is, he perverted his own religion," his sister, Elaine Jeffs, said after the sentencing. Nearby, police escorted her brother into a waiting patrol car.

Elaine Jeffs, who left the FLDS in 1984, watched the end to an often bizarre and graphic two-week trial. Other onlookers included one of Jeffs' top lieutenants and state caseworkers who rounded up nearly 400 children during a 2008 raid at the sect's Texas ranch. There were a handful of spectators as well, including a retired couple who also sat in on the Casey Anthony trial in Florida.

Despite the convictions and life sentence, Jeffs remains in control of the FLDS and its roughly 10,000 followers. His most devoted consider him God's spokesman on earth and a prophet, but his followers were absent in court for the bulk of the trial.

Jeffs sometimes was, too. He boycotted the sentencing phase, remaining in a courthouse holding cell, and refused to answer state District Judge Barbara Walther when directly questioned Tuesday. Jeffs had represented himself during the conviction phase, and often interrupted court proceedings by contending that he was being persecuted for his religious beliefs.

The FLDS is a radical offshoot of mainstream Mormonism and believes polygamy brings exaltation in heaven. In closing arguments, prosecutors rejected the idea that the sect had been targeted.

"The evidence in this case shows that this isn't a prosecution of a people," prosecutor Eric Nichols said. "This is a prosecution to protect people."

Jurors ignored reporters after the sentencing, quickly walking to their cars that were parked single-file in a blocked-off street and driving away.

Willie Jessop, a former FLDS spokesman who railed against Texas authorities following the raid but has since disavowed Jeffs, said the heinousness of the charges has left a fractured FLDS community. He said his first goal would be tearing down the guard tower and gates at the Yearning for Zion ranch, which authorities stormed in 2008 and where they collected a trove of evidence against Jeffs.

That included photos of him kissing the young brides he took in "spiritual marriages" and scratchy audiotapes of him giving girls explicit instructions for sex. His journals speak of casting out men for not being humble, written around the same time Jeffs was photographed in a leather jacket atop a Harley Davidson motorcycle.

"Everyone in the church has got to take a responsibility for what has taken place," Jessop said. "In order for this to be fixed going forward, we have to take responsibility. This is a crisis for every single member in the church."

Jeffs rose to power in 2002 following his father's death, and has run the church despite being in police custody in either Arizona or Texas since 2006.

He'll be more restricted in whatever Texas prison he ends up in. Jeffs was flown to a prison intake across the state hours after being sentenced. It's there that prison officials will decide where he will serve his sentence and whether to assign him to the general prison population, safekeeping or protective custody. His telephone calls will be limited to a list of 10 people, and Jeffs will be prohibited from receiving any visitors under age 17.

Jeffs stood quietly Tuesday as the sentence was read. He must serve at least 45 years in prison: at least 35 years of a life sentence on one of the child sex charges, and at least 10 years on the other.

During the trial, prosecutors used DNA evidence to show Jeffs fathered a child with a 15-year-old girl and played an audio recording of what they said was him sexually assaulting a 12-year-old.

"If the world knew what I was doing, they would hang me from the highest tree," Jeffs wrote in 2005, according to one of his journals.

Nichols referred to that passage in his closing Tuesday.

 

<관련 한글기사>

일부다처 신봉, 성폭행 일삼은 교주에 종신형 선고

미국에서 종교를 빙자해 미성년을 성폭행한 ‘일부다처주의자’ 교주 워렌 제프(55)에 종신형이 선고된 데에 20년형이 더해졌다.

일부다처제를 신봉하며 여러 명의 아내를 두고 10대 소녀를 성폭행한 종교 단체의 교주 워렌 제프는 2006년 성폭행 혐의로 체포, 2008년 10대 소녀 성적 학대로 입건된 이후 최근 무기징역을 선고받은 데 이어 20년형이 더해졌다고 10일(한국시간) 데일리메일이 보도했다. 이는 미국 텍사스 배심원단의 판단이다.

워렌 제프가 거주하고 있던 미국의 대저택에는 50여명의 여성들이 거주하고 있었으며 생후 6개월부터 17세까지의 미성년자가 다수였다. 이들은 모두 워렌의 아내들이거나 딸들이었다. 이미 지난 2008년 체포 당시에는 텍사스주 엘도라 등에서 수백명의 여성과 어린이들이 발견돼 DNA 조사를 실시하며 세상에 큰 충격을 줬다.

검찰은 이번에도 DNA 검사를 통해 워렌이 15세 소녀와 성관계를 맺고 자녀를 출산한 것을 확인한 것은 물론 12세 소녀에게 자신을 성적으로 즐겁게 하는 방법을 가르치는 음성 파일을 공개했다.

'영적 결혼'이라는 표현을 사용하며 종교를 빙자한 워렌은 결국 신도로 찾아온 수많은 여성들에 교주인 자신을 육체적으로 즐겁게 하는 것이 ‘신을 기쁘게 하는 것’이라는 혼돈을 주며 성을 탐닉했다. 이는 곧 워렌이 미성년자들을 성적으로 학대했다는 증거가 되기도 했다. 그럼에도 워렌을 따르던 추종자만 무려 1만명, 미국 유타와 텍사스 곳곳에 거대한 은신처를 마련하고 수많은 여성을 아내로 맞아들인 워렌은 자신뿐 아니라 다른 남성들에게도 ‘일부다처제’를 강요했다.

지난 2002년부터 ‘FLDS’라는 명칭의 일부다처제를 신봉하는 종교 단체를 이끌고 있는 워렌은 일부다처제를 금지하는 미국의 법률에 따라 2006년 FBI 10대 수배자에 이름이 오르며 체포됐다. 당시 미성년자 성폭행, 중복 결혼 등의 혐의로 1심에서 10년형을 선고 받았고, 현재 무기징역에 20년형이 더해지며 재판을 마쳤다. (헤럴드경제)