Top Ten Fraudulent Religious Leaders

Sadly but not surprisingly, researchers find no shortage of candidates for this list. Compiling this list, researchers defined “fraud” in reasonably strict legal terms, setting aside all questions of doctrine and faith. In most cases, religious leaders duped their followers into believing in their righteousness; and they subsequently were exposed as pious hypocrites. Fraudulent leaders’ sexual exploits typically were the source of their undoing. Some faced criminal charges; all endured severe public humiliation, and none ever rebuilt a ministry after his exposure.

1. Jim Jones

Shortly after leading nearly 1000 of the faithful to establish a colony in Guyana, Jim Jones, founder of The People’s Temple, became the object of a Congressional investigation late in 1978. Deborah Layton, a Jonestown defector, and concerned relatives of Jonestown pilgrims alleged Jones had bilked his followers of all their assets and was holding them captive at the Guyana settlement. Layton disclosed The People’s Temple controlled millions of dollars in offshore accounts, and she detailed the deceptive practices by which Jones had secured their transfer. Other concerned relatives detailed their allegations that messages of family indicated Jones and his lieutenants held them against their will.

2. Warren Jeffs

In another much-publicized case, Warren Jeffs, a “descendant of the Prophet and leader of the Fundamentalist “LDS” Church, went to trial on charges of rape as an accomplice, because former members of his flock testified he had married them to church elders while they still were in their early teens. Jeff’s Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints openly practiced polygamy, housing all its members on a huge, well-fortified compound that straddled the Utah-Arizona border. According to testimony in the case, Jeffs and the elders banished teen-aged boys and claimed eligible teen-aged girls as their wives. Witnesses testified some elders had as many as seven wives, and some wives were as young as twelve years old. For a brief period, state officials took all the children from Jeff’s compound, making them temporary wards of the state. In court proceedings separate from Jeffs’s trial, FLDS officials won restoration of their parental rights, but a variety of criminal investigations continue.

3. Jimmy Swaggart

In a vivid illustration of a New Testament parable, Jimmy Swaggart threw stones—hard, fast, and repeatedly—before he took stock of his own sins. Third among the top three 1980s televangelists, Swaggart systematically took out his rivals, exposing Jim Gorman’s affair with a member of his congregation, and then trapping Jim Bakker and revealing his infidelity. Both exposes received extensive media coverage. Adapting the old principle “an eye for an eye” to the modern media world, Gorman retaliated, hiring a private investigator who found Swaggart in flagrante with a prostitute. In an impassioned, tear-filled confession, an icon of the televangelist age, Swaggart admitted between sobs, “I have sinned against you, my Lord.” The confession still attracts lots of hits on YouTube.

4. Jim Bakker

Arguably the best known and most successful among televangelists of the late seventies and early eighties, Jim Bakker and his wife Tammy Faye first came to prominence in Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network. The Bakkers later moved their popular “Praise the Lord” television show to Paul Crouch’s Trinity Broadcasting Network, contributing substantially to its nationwide success. In the mid-seventies, the Bakkers launched their own network and evangelical enterprise; by 1978 they controlled a satellite network with more than thirteen million regular viewers. They also operated “Heritage USA,” a surprisingly successful evangelical theme park in Fort Mill, South Carolina. In 1987, Bakker suddenly resigned his position, admitting he had an affair with Jessica Hahn, a “PTL” church secretary, who later became Playboy founder Hugh Hefner’s frequent friend and companion. Bakker confessed paying Hahn “hush money,” and further investigation revealed he had started a ponzi-like scheme with investors in Heritage USA. Bakker served five years in a federal prison. During his term, Tammy Faye divorced him and became a popular guest on television talk shows.

5. Ted Haggard

Between 2003 and 2006, Ted Haggard served as President of the influential National Association of Evangelicals while he continued his ministry at New Life Church, a huge and politically active congregation in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Handsome, articulate, and charismatic, Haggard emerged as one of the poster boys for America’s “religious right,” and he consulted with President George Bush on faith-based initiatives and social policy. Just before the 2006 mid-term elections, CNN and several other major media outlets reported Haggard regularly had visited with a male prostitute, who, in addition to providing sexual services, introduced Haggard to methamphetamine. Haggard resigned his posts, but many pundits believe the scandal influenced voters’ choices in the mid-term elections, when the Democrats scored significant gains in Congress, state legislatures, and key gubernatorial races.

6. Tony Alamo

Currently awaiting sentencing after conviction on ten counts of transporting minors across state lines for sexual purposes, Alamo faces a jail term of more than 100 years. In September, 2008, at the behest of city officials in Fouke, Arkansas, FBI agents raided the headquarters of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries. Former members of Alamo’s congregation alleged child pornography, child abuse, other sexual abuse, and polygamy. Agents collected more than enough evidence to charge and convict Alamo, including hours of videotaped interviews with children living on Alamo’s compound.

7. Joe Barron

Among the most recent American evangelical escapades, Joe Barron made news in May, 2008, after he was arrested for soliciting sex with a minor. At the time, Barron numbered among forty ministers at prestigious Prestonwood Baptist Church—one of the nation’s largest and most profitable, counting 26,000 regularly tithing members. Police nabbed Barron after he drove from suburban Dallas to Bryan, Texas, where he expected to have sex with a thirteen-year-old girl. Police based their probable cause for the arrest on dozens of transcripts detailing explicit sexual dialogues between Barron and “the girl.” Reminiscent of investigative programs on NBC, the Bryan police used one of their own undercover detectives as the lure.

8. Paul Crouch

Was in it for the money. Founder and CEO of the world’s largest evangelical broadcasting company, Crouch hosted Trinity Broadcasting Network’s wildly popular variety show, “Praise the Lord.” In September, 2004, investigative reporters at the Los Angeles Times broke a series of stories about financial improprieties at TBN. Although the reporters found nothing criminal in the network’s fundraising and accounting practices, they did find a long list of unethical and deceptive procedures. During the investigation, a former employee also came forward, alleging he and Crouch had a long-term homosexual affair. The humiliation drove Crouch and TBN off the air.

9. John Paulk

First achieved widespread notoriety with his best-selling autobiography Not Afraid to Change. In the book, Paulk credited his conversion to Christianity as “the cure” for his homosexuality, and he immediately became the darling and big-time crony of James Dobson and associates, movers and shakers in “Focus on the Family.” In September, 2000, at the peak of his popularity and influence, Paulk saw himself splashed across front pages and television screens as he drank-up and flirted wildly with other male cruisers at a D.C. gay bar. After a few vain, silly attempts at denying the photos and charges, Paulk retreated quietly into obscurity.

10. Robert Tilton

Linking religion with success and wealth, Robert Tilton drew millions of viewers to his weekly broadcasts. In 1990, at the peak of its popularity, “Success-N-Life” commanded big ratings in all 235 American television markets, earning approximately $80 million per year. In 1991, ABC investigative reporter Diane Sawyer exposed a long list of Tilton’s shady practices, none of which were criminal but all of which were dishonest, crass, and decidedly unholy. By the end of 1993, Tilton and his show were off the air everywhere.

Psychiatrist: Smart is best witness to Mitchell’s mental state

Courts » Michael Welner says the defendant manipulates situations to his advantage.

A psychiatrist who concluded that Brian David Mitchell is competent to stand trial in the abduction of Elizabeth Smart testified Friday that interviews with lay witnesses helped him reach his determination.

Those witnesses included Mitchell’s relatives, workers at the Utah State Hospital and ecclesiastical leaders, but one of the best witnesses was Smart because she had observed Mitchell almost every day for nine months, Michael Welner said.

Her impressions, along with other evidence, showed that Mitchell was manipulative and used religion to get what he wanted, he said. For example, he said, Mitchell gave blessings to his wife, Wanda Barzee, to placate her when she was angry that her husband was having sex with Smart.

Welner was testifying on Mitchell’s competency at a hearing in U.S. District Court.

The New York-based psychiatrist said Mitchell’s intelligence and his ability to control situations — including the time he convinced a police officer at the Salt Lake City Main Library that Smart was someone else — demonstrate that the self-proclaimed prophet is capable of understanding the charges against him and assisting his attorneys.

Welner testified that Mitchell worked with his attorneys in the state’s 3rd District Court, where he also faces charges, until fall 2004, when plea bargain negotiations fell apart. Then he started disrupting court hearings by singing, he said.

“In my professional opinion, Brian Mitchell made a decision that he needed to derail the process,” Welner said.

However, the singing and Mitchell’s cooperation with defense lawyers are selective, coming when it suits his purpose, according to Welner. He noted that U.S. marshals have seen Mitchell talking to his attorneys.

Welner testified that he tried to interview Mitchell on April 20 but he was mostly silent during a five-hour session, singing for about 20 minutes and shouting “repent” loudly several times. Mitchell at first sat with his eyes closed but his reaction changed when Welner played a tape of Smart’s interview with police.

A clip of Welner’s attempted interview shows Mitchell swivel his chair around when the psychiatrist starts playing the tape, open his eyes and watch intently. He scooted closer to the TV, occasionally raising an eyebrow or wrinkling his forehead.

When Smart starts talking about the first time Mitchell sexually assaulted her, he appeared to show emotion, Welner said. He said Mitchell’s reaction then was the same as the description of him watching the show “Charmed” at Utah State Hospital, where he would get very close to the set to see the “scantily clad” young women.

For the most part, Mitchell remained quiet and composed during a stressful situation, even when Welner raised the subject of Mitchell’s pedophilia, Welner testified.

The bottom line, according to the psychiatrist: “It informed my opinion that he’s perfectly capable of sitting quietly in court if he wanted to.”

Welner said he has been paid about $500,000 for his work on the case and he billed the agency rate of $425 an hour, a discount from his regular rate of $550. He testified that his agreement specified that the U.S. Attorney’s Office must accept his findings, even if they turned out to be not helpful to the prosecution.

He will continue his testimony on Monday.

pmanson@sltrib.com
The case so far against Mitchell, Barzee

Arrest » Brian David Mitchell, 56, and his wife, Wanda Eileen Barzee, 64, are accused of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart on June 5, 2002, from her home in the Federal Heights neighborhood. They were arrested in March 2003 while walking in Sandy with the girl.

Medication » A judge in the state’s 3rd District Court has ruled Mitchell cannot be forcibly medicated to try to restore his mental competency; the same judge ruled Barzee could be forcibly medicated, a process that began at the Utah State Hospital in May 2008.

Indictment » The state case against Mitchell and Barzee stalled over the competency issue, leading the U.S. Attorney’s Office to begin a case against the couple. A federal grand jury issued an indictment last year charging Mitchell and Barzee with kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor.

Competency ruling » Doctors at the State Hospital said this fall that they believe Barzee is now mentally competent. She pleaded guilty on Nov. 17 to the federal charges and agreed to testify against Mitchell in exchange for a 15-year prison term.

Polygamist Sect Leader Convicted of Sexual Assault

ELDORADO, Tex. — One of the leaders of a polygamist sect was convicted Thursday night of sexually assaulting an under-age girl whom the church elders had assigned to him as one of his nine wives.

A jury of seven men and five women deliberated 2 hours 20 minutes before returning a verdict of guilty in the first trial of a dozen members of the Yearning for Zion Ranch just outside this rural hamlet in West Texas.

The defendant, Raymond M. Jessop, 38, seemed unperturbed as Judge Barbara Walther of State District Court read the verdict. Mr. Jessop was immediately handcuffed and taken into custody by the Schleicher County sheriff. He smiled and nodded to several other men in his religious group, who sat grave-faced as he was led away.

Mr. Jessop will be sentenced after a second hearing before the jury on Monday. He faces penalties ranging from 2 years’ probation to 20 years in prison.

His lawyer, Mark Stevens, declined to say if he would appeal, though the defense had argued in hearings before trial that the state illegally seized the church documents that were crucial to the case during a raid on the ranch in April 2008.

Mr. Jessop is one of the most prominent members of a breakaway sect that has at least four other communities in Arizona and Utah. He is close to Warren S. Jeffs, the self-styled prophet and leader of the sect.

Mr. Jeffs has been convicted in Utah as an accomplice to rape, a charge related to his role in ordering the “spiritual marriage” of an under-age girl to one of his followers. He is in jail in Arizona awaiting trial on similar charges and has been charged in Texas with sexual assault and bigamy.

The trial of Mr. Jessop offered a rare glimpse of the inner workings of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a group that split from the Mormon Church. Followers believe polygamy brings heavenly rewards and treat Mr. Jeffs as a modern-day prophet.

The ranch first came to national attention a year and a half ago when the Texas authorities descended on it, seeking a girl who had complained in a telephone call to a San Angelo women’s shelter that she was being sexually abused. The girl was never found, and the Texas Rangers acknowledge that the tip was a hoax.

But in the course of executing search warrants, social workers and the Rangers uncovered evidence that at least a dozen girls had been coerced by church elders to serve as wives to older men. Seven had borne children.

The prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General Eric Nichols, put several Rangers on the stand along with a former member of the church to introduce several church documents seized from a vault on the ranch.

Since the woman said to be the victim, who is now 21, did not testify, Mr. Nichols used the documents, along with her photo album, to prove she lived with Mr. Jessop as one of his wives and was impregnated by him when she was 16.

The state’s case also rested heavily on genetic evidence that showed there was a 99.9 percent chance Mr. Jessop was the father of the child, who is now 4.

In his closing argument, Mr. Nichols attacked the theory that the teenager had consented to be Mr. Jessop’s wife. “Any act of sexual assault is a horrendous crime,” he said, “but an act of sexual assault on a child is of such an extreme nature we don’t even consider whether the victim was able, much less did, consent.”

One of the most damning pieces of evidence presented in court was a written record of Mr. Jeffs’s instructions in August 2005 not to take the girl to a hospital even though she had been struggling in labor for three days at a clinic on the ranch.

“I knew the girl, being 16 years old, if she went to the hospital, they could put Raymond Jessop in jeopardy of prosecution as the government is looking for any reason to come against us there,” Mr. Jeffs was quoted as saying.

Some of the most revealing testimony came from another witness for the prosecution, Rebecca Musser, a former member of the church who had been married to Rulon T. Jeffs, the sect’s founder and the father of Warren Jeffs. She left the church in 2002 after the elder Mr. Jeffs died.

Ms. Musser testified that Mr. Jeffs had controlled every aspect of the women’s lives, including how they dressed and what they ate. He also controlled whom they married and when.

“Age was not a factor,” she said. “It was when the prophet deemed she was worthy.”

Mr. Stevens mounted a technical defense, arguing that the state could not prove the crime had taken place in Texas since the evidence it had was purely circumstantial. He did not present any witnesses.

“It’s dangerous when we start trying to convict people based on documents and we are not sure where those documents came from,” he said.

Jury selection continues in first polygamist trial

ELDORADO, Texas – More than 150 potential jurors, including 10 women in prairie dresses and braids, crammed into a makeshift courtroom Monday as jury selection began in the first criminal trial stemming from the raid of a polygamist sect’s ranch last year.

Raymond Jessop, 38, is charged with sexual assault of a child, stemming from his alleged marriage to an underage girl. The girl, according to church documents seized by authorities, gave birth at age 16 at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado. If convicted, Jessop faces 20 years in prison.

He is also charged with bigamy, but that charge is to be tried separately. Prosecutors allege Jessop has nine wives, including three that were married to a brother before the brother was excommunicated by Warren Jeffs, the jailed leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

In all, 12 sect members have been charged with crimes ranging from failure to report child abuse to sexual assault and bigamy.

Potential jurors for what would be Schleicher County’s first jury trial in more than a decade spent Monday on plastic folding chairs in a building next to the courthouse. A few were dismissed with early exemption claims, but 17 FLDS members, conspicuous because of their distinct dress, remained in the pool, as did a relative of the local sheriff.

Randy Mankin, the editor of the weekly newspaper, The Eldorado Success, was dismissed. His mother and college-age son had also been summoned but took earlier exemptions allowed for older jurors and full-time students.

After answering group questions about their biases and whether they had personal connections to those involved in the case, potential jurors began undergoing individual questioning by attorneys late Monday. The voir dire was scheduled to continue Tuesday, and Texas District Judge Barbara Walther said she hoped to complete jury selection by then.

The county sent summonses to 300 potential jurors, the largest jury pool in its history, in hopes of seating 12 jurors and two alternates — a task that could be a challenge in a small county that became international news with the raid last April.

Authorities took 439 FLDS children into state custody and conducted a weeklong raid at the ranch, confiscating hundreds of boxes of documents and family photos.

Images of the women and children dressed in prairie clothing dominated cable news networks for weeks after the raid and after a subsequent court rulings sending the children back to their parents.

If lawyers can’t come up with a jury in Schleicher County, the trial could be moved to an adjoining county.

Jessop’s trial is expected to last two weeks, said assistant Attorney General Eric Nichols, who is prosecuting the case. The prosecution’s witness list includes 59 people, including law enforcement and child welfare officials, two of Jessop’s alleged underage wives and former FLDS members.

Authorities have said little publicly about the charge against Jessop, but documents seized from the ranch indicate the assault charge stems from his alleged relationship with a girl who was in labor for several days in August 2005. When ranch residents consulted Jeffs, he told them not to take her to the hospital, according to church documents seized at the ranch.

“I knew that the girl being 16 years old, if she went to the hospital, they could put Raymond Jessop in jeopardy of prosecution as the government is looking for any reason to come against us there,” Jeffs wrote in a journal seized by authorities.

Jeffs was arrested in 2006 and convicted as an accomplice to rape in Utah for arranging an underage marriage there. He faces similar charges in Arizona and is charged with bigamy and sexual assault of a child in Texas.

One of Jeffs’ daughters allegedly married Jessop the day after she turned 15. The bigamy charge against Jessop pertains to that alleged marriage.

Under Texas law, generally, no one under 17 can consent to sex with an adult.

Sect members, who believe polygamy brings glorification in heaven, historically have lived around the Arizona-Utah line, but the sect bought a ranch on the outskirts of Eldorado about six years ago. Hundreds of FLDS members have returned to the log cabin-style homes there.

The FLDS is a breakaway sect not recognized by the mainstream Mormon church, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago.

AOL News
October 2, 2009
By ELIOTT C. McLAUGHLIN, CNN

Smart Eager to Face Alleged Kidnapper

She Asked to Have Him Muzzled and Forced to Hear Her Testimony

Elizabeth Smart was not afraid to face Brian Mitchell in her first testimony detailing her 2002 abduction.

In fact, her father said, she wanted the man who allegedly kept her tethered to a tree in the Utah woods muzzled and forced to listen to her testimony.

Mitchell was in court Thursday for a competency hearing, but Smart never saw him because U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball ordered him removed from the court when he ignored requests to stop singing and disrupting the proceedings. He watched via a closed-circuit camera from another room.

“She actually wanted to face him,” Ed Smart said. “I think she asked [U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman] if he could be muzzled and have to sit there and watch it.”

Tolman, standing alongside Smart’s father after Thursday’s hearing in Salt Lake City, confirmed the 21-year-old woman’s request: “She did ask me whether or not [Mitchell] got to see that testimony and hear that testimony, and I indicated to her, to her relief, that he was there in a room with the audio and video and had nothing else to do but listen.”

Mitchell is accused of abducting Smart from the bedroom of her Salt Lake City, Utah, home in June 2002. She testified that she was kept captive in Utah and California until March 2003, when she was found walking down a street in Sandy, Utah, with Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee.

Smart said that, during those nine months, no 24-hour period passed without Mitchell being able to rape her.

Public defender Robert Steele says Mitchell is mentally ill, but Tolman said he believes that Mitchell “has attempted to fool or to deceive the system.”

Ed Smart said he hopes his daughter’s testimony nixes the notion that Mitchell cannot stand trial, “and if this doesn’t clinch the issue of competency, our nation is in really, really bad shape, because it means that anyone out there can manipulate and make the court do what it wants.”

Mitchell and Barzee are charged with six felony counts, including aggravated burglary, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault.
Smart’s testimony began with details of how she was abducted at knife point while she slept next to her sister. She was 14 at the time.

She said Mitchell took her to a wooded area not far from her home, performed a marriage ceremony and began raping her. Mitchell often sang about his intentions, she testified: “He would come up the mountainside, yelling, ‘I’m going to [expletive] your eyes out.’ ”

Mitchell also threatened to kill her if she tried to escape, Smart said.

“He said an angel would strike me down with a sword,” she said, “but he also told me that he would be that angel.”

Mitchell gave her drugs and alcohol, showed her pornography and used religion to justify most of his actions, she testified. He also said he was

God’s servant, a prophet, and would one day face and kill the Antichrist, she said.

On one occasion, Smart said, she vomited after Mitchell gave her too much to drink.

“He let me lie face-down in my vomit for the entire night until I woke up the next day,” she told the court. “He said that was showing my true state, that I was laying face-down in my vomit.”

That morning illustrated a recurring theme, she said, explaining that Mitchell often rationalized his actions by saying they would ultimately yield greater spirituality.
“He said that first I had to be humbled and to sink below all things before arising above all things,” she recalled. “You have to experience the lowest form of humanity to experience the highest.”

Smart, now a Brigham Young University student and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, described Mitchell as “evil, wicked, manipulative, sneaky, slimy, selfish, greedy, not spiritual, not religious, not close to God.”

During her nine months in captivity, Mitchell kept her in Utah until the winter approached, at which point he transported her to San Diego, California, she said.

It’s unclear when they returned to Utah, but Elizabeth Smart testified that she convinced Mitchell that they should hitchhike back to Salt Lake City. She told the court her ulterior motive was to return to an area where she more easily could be recognized and rescued.

While in Utah, Mitchell kept her confined with a cable attached to her leg, she said. The 10-foot tether was locked on to another cable that was 15 to 20 feet long.

“He had a big cable bolted onto my leg, which was strung between two trees, and there was a lock that would slide between the two trees,” she said.

“He had the key around his neck the entire time.”

Press Release of Senator Reid

REID CALLS FOR FEDERAL TASK FORCE TO INVESTIGATE CHILD ABUSE AND POLYGAMY Letter to Attorney General Urges Support For Local Prosecutions

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada sent a letter today to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales suggesting the creation of a federal task force to investigate the interstate activity of the polygamist community in the western United States. In addition, Reid asked the Justice Department to provide any necessary assistance to state prosecutors in the case of polygamist sect leader Warren Steed Jeffs. The so-called “Fundamentalist” group of polygamists is accused of systematic child abuse, and the majority of members live in the border region of Utah , Arizona , and Nevada . “For too long, this outrageous activity has been disguised in the mask of religious freedom,” Reid wrote in the letter. “But child abuse and human servitude have nothing to do with religious freedom and must not be tolerated. Individuals who force minors into adult relationships and marriage must be brought to justice.” The full text of the letter is below. ### September 12, 2006 The Honorable Alberto Gonzales Attorney General U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20530-0001 Dear Judge Gonzales: I write to urge that the Department of Justice provide all necessary assistance to state prosecutors in the case of polygamist sect leader Warren Steed Jeffs. More generally, the federal government should work with state officials to address the broader pattern of serious criminal conduct by all those who use multiple marriages to abuse women and children. As you know, Jeffs was recently apprehended by Nevada state troopers and has been extradited to Utah , where he faces rape accomplice charges for arranging the marriage of a teenage girl to an older man in Nevada . Jeffs is also under indictment in Arizona for sexual assault on a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. The charges in both states involve an ongoing course of conduct in which Jeffs arranged marriages between teenage girls and older, married men. Jeffs himself is said to have at least 40 wives and dozens of children. I respectfully suggest that DOJ monitor these state prosecutions and consider federal charges if, for some reason, Jeffs is acquitted in both Utah and Arizona . I was pleased to learn that the U.S. Attorney in Arizona has charged Jeffs with the federal crime of fleeing prosecution and will seek to keep Jeffs in custody even if he were to satisfy bail conditions on the state charges. In addition, I suggest that you consider the establishment of a federal task force to investigate the interstate activity of the larger polygamist community in the western United States . There is a substantial federal interest in preventing the systematic child abuse involved in this modern day polygamy movement. The so-called “Fundamentalist” sect of which Jeffs is a leader broke away from the Mormon Church more than a century ago and has been fully disavowed by the leadership and mainstream membership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The group is reported to have thousands of members, the majority of whom live in the border region of Utah , Arizona , and my state of Nevada . Forced marriages between teenage girls and older men are prevalent in the isolated communities in which these individuals reside, and interstate travel is frequent. For too long, this outrageous activity has been masked in the guise of religious freedom. But child abuse and human servitude have nothing to do with religious freedom and must not be tolerated. Individuals who force minors into adult relationships and marriage must be brought to justice. Thank you for your attention to this important matter. Sincerely, HARRY REID United States Senator

(CNN) — A grand jury has indicted polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs on a second sexual assault charge in connection with a probe of his Texas compound, prosecutors said Wednesday.

The Schleicher County, Texas, grand jury charged Jeffs, who already could be sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of a different charge in Utah, with a first-degree felony count of aggravated sexual assault.

The indictment is Jeffs’ second in Schleicher County.

In July, he was charged with sexually assaulting a child under 17.

Grand jurors have also indicted three more members of Jeffs’ Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, prosecutors said Wednesday. One member faces a count of conducting the unlawful marriage of a minor, another faces three counts of bigamy and a third faces three counts of bigamy and one count of tampering with evidence.

The Texas charges stem from a state and federal investigation into the sect’s Yearning for Zion Ranch outside Eldorado, about 190 miles northwest of San Antonio. In April, child welfare workers removed more than 400 children from the compound, citing allegations of physical and sexual abuse.

After a court battle, the Texas Supreme Court ordered the children returned in June, saying the state had no right to remove them and there was no evidence to show the children faced imminent danger of abuse on the ranch.

To date, 12 people associated with the compound have been indicted as part of the investigation, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said.

Jeffs, 52, is the leader and “prophet” of the estimated 10,000-member FLDS, an offshoot of the mainstream Mormon church. The FLDS openly practices polygamy at the YFZ Ranch, as well as in two towns straddling the Utah-Arizona state line — Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona.

In Utah, Jeffs was convicted on accomplice to rape charges for his role in the marriage of a sect member to a 14-year-old. He is awaiting trial in Arizona, where he faces similar charges.

He faces a sentence of up to life in prison for the Utah conviction, and he also could face another life term if convicted of the Texas charges.

His attorney in Arizona, Michael Piccarreta, has questioned the motives of Texas authorities, telling CNN in a July interview that the state’s investigation into Jeffs and his followers is an effort “to cover themselves up on the botched attack on the ranch in Texas.”

Tonight, MSNBC will be showing, “Witness to Jonestown” at 9PM ET. View some of the previews below and click HERE to be directed to MSNBC’s site for details.

Survivors’ stories

ABILENE, Texas — A religious sect’s elder who molested a girl under the guise of checking her for cervical cancer faces up to life in prison.

Yedidiyah Hawkins, 40, a House of Yahweh elder, was convicted Monday of aggravated sexual assault of a child. A judge will set the sentence, expected within 45 days. Hawkins earlier decided that he wanted a judge to assess the punishment if jurors found him guilty.

The sect’s leader, self-proclaimed prophet Yisrayl Hawkins, faces trial later this year on bigamy and child labor charges. He is accused of having more than 20 wives, performing polygamous weddings and forcing about 40 children to work jobs at his 44-acre compound in rural Clyde near Abilene. Hundreds of his followers have legally changed their last names to Hawkins.

At Yedidiyah Hawkins’ trial, a 15-year-old girl testified that she was 11 when he claimed to be checking her for cervical cancer with an instrument used by gynecologists — although other witnesses said he has no medical training. A former Yahweh member testified that Hawkins was worried the girl was no longer a virgin.

Rachel Hawkins, referred to by a witness as one of his wives, testified that she was not home at the time but found out and falsely told him video cameras recorded the incident. She said he repeatedly told her he would do anything to get the tapes.

Rachel Hawkins — who is no longer in the sect — said she did record Hawkins admitting to the assault but that it was later erased by a House of Yahweh elder.

But several defense witnesses testified that the accuser had told them the allegations were untrue, the Abilene Reporter-News reported in Tuesday editions.

One girl said she heard the accuser speak of abuse for at least five years but when challenged, she “almost always said it wasn’t true.”

One boy said the accuser told him Hawkins was “putting things inside me” but didn’t mention it again or seem bothered. The girl was rebellious and had said she hated Hawkins because he wouldn’t let her do things, the boy testified.

Another girl told jurors the accuser “told me she was lying. He’s innocent, and he’s spent a year in jail.”

Callahan County District Attorney Shane Deel said Tuesday he was pleased with the verdict.

“It was very difficult for the victim to wait this long, to see the House of Yahweh members in court and to look the defendant right in the eye,” Deel said.

Hawkins’ attorneys did not immediately return calls Tuesday seeking comment.

This is not the first time a House of Yahweh member has been accused of wrongdoing.

In 2003 a 7-year-old died after her mother and another member performed home surgery on her infected leg. Both women were convicted of injury to a child.

In 2006, a woman bled to death after giving birth because she was prevented from going to the hospital, according to a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by her husband against leader Yisrayl Hawkins, several midwives and the sect. -AP