Polygamist Leader Charged With Rape by Proxy
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ST. GEORGE, Utah— The leader of a polygamous sect insisted a 14-year-old girl surrender her “mind, body, and soul” to an older cousin, despite her objections to being married, a prosecutor said yesterday.
Warren Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is charged with rape by accomplice in the case. As his trial opened, prosecutors said he told the girl she risked salvation if she refused to enter a religious union with her 19-year-old cousin.
The girl first had sex with her cousin months after their ceremonial marriage in a Nevada motel, the Washington County prosecutor, Brock Belnap, said. When she later complained to Mr. Jeffs, he replied: “‘Repent. Go home, and give yourself mind, body, and soul to your husband.’ And she did,” Mr. Belnap said.
The jury will see pictures of the girl having her wedding dress sewn, Mr. Belnap said. “She’ll be smiling, but you’ll understand that pictures don’t necessarily say what was going on in her heart.”
Mr. Jeffs, 51, was a fugitive for nearly two years and was on the FBI’s Most Wanted list when he was arrested during a traffic stop outside Las Vegas in August 2006. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
Mr. Jeffs has led the FLDS church since 2002. Followers see him as a prophet who communicates with God and holds dominion over their salvation; exchurch members say he reigns with an iron fist, demanding perfect obedience from followers.
Defense attorney Tara Isaacson said the alleged victim’s cousin will testify that no rape occurred. She said other couples belonging to Mr. Jeffs’s FLDS church will talk about how he counsels them about marriage.
During a 1999 sermon, Ms. Isaacson said, Mr. Jeffs told his followers that a “man should only have marital relations with a wife if she invites it.”
The girl may not have liked being married to her cousin, Ms. Isaacson said, but “being unhappy is different from being raped.” Ms. Jeffs is not charged with being a polygamist, and the marriage between the cousins was monogamous.
