Warren Jeffs' Polygamist Compound Is ThisClose to Being Seized by Authorities

By Madeleine Davies  |  November 29, 2012 | 5:30pm
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In what they’re calling the final chapter in a 5-year, multimillion dollar battle against polygamist cult leader Warren Jeffs, the Texas Attorney General’s Office has filed a 91-page affidavit in support of a search and seizure warrant for Jeffs’ Mormon fundamentalist compound, the Yearning for Zion Ranch. The affidavit states that members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, lead by Jeffs, purchased the 1,600-acre, $1.3 million property back in 2003 using laundered funds and intentionally “sought a rural location where the FLDS could operate a polygamist compound where the systemic sexual assault of children would be tolerated without interference from law enforcement authorities.”

In Jeffs’ “priesthood records,” cited in the affidavit, the leader instructs FLDS members “to keep this particular property so private and sacred and secret that not even the faithful who are driven will know of this place, because this is where the sacred records are…these places must be kept secret and sacred, and those who dwell there and here must be full of the Holy Spirit to keep the hedge of protection around us. The devil knows where we are, but through our faith the wicked and the righteous can be blinded and not find this place…Everyone here is under oath and covenant to keep this place, these places sacred and secret, and everyone here is under oath and covenant to live the fullness of the Holy United Order, the Celestial Law.”

The priesthood records also include Jeffs’ sinister designs for the compound’s chapel, which included this for the top floor:

“There is a table, but it will be made so it can be a table or it can be a bed. It should be made so the tabletop can come off. It will be on wheels… This will be made so that it can be taken apart and stored in a closet where no one can see it. When I need it, I will pull it out and set it up… It will be covered with a sheet, but it will have a plastic cover to protect the mattress from what will happen on it.”

Investigators believe that Jeffs used the bed for sexual assaults, often committed on female minors. Since the ranch was raided in 2008, nine cult members have been convicted of sexually assaulting girls — some victims as young as 12-years-old — under the idiotic context of “celestial marriages.” Jeffs is currently serving life plus 20 years for the sexual abuse of two underage brides.

Copies of the warrant and affidavit have been delivered to the ranch, though it is unclear whether or not anyone is still residing there at this time. Legally, those listed on the warrant have 10-days to respond. No one has yet to do so.

Texas moves to seize polygamist Warren Jeffs’ ranch compound [LA Times]

 
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