He was as God to us, woman tells court at Mormon Cult leader's rape trial
Pastor Dale Morgan
He was as God to us, woman tells court at Mormon Cult leader's rape trial*
Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Saturday September 15, 2007
The Guardian
The key witness in the trial of the American polygamist sect leader
Warren Jeffs has testified that she had been indoctrinated to believe
she must obey church leaders to preserve her place in heaven. "We were
to follow them obediently as though we were led by a hair," she told the
court.
Jeffs is being tried in St George, Utah, on charges of rape as an
accomplice. If convicted he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
Prosecutors allege that Jeffs knew that the girl, then aged 14, objected
to her 2001 marriage to her 19-year-old cousin. But when she tried to
end the marriage Jeffs told her that she would forfeit her "chance at
the afterlife" should she disobey him.
The trial of the 51-year-old leader of the Fundamentalist Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) promises to shed light on the
workings of the 10,000-strong breakaway Mormon group. The group
practices polygamy, which is illegal; the Mormon church disavowed the
practice in 1890. The FLDS, however, maintains that a man must have
three wives to reach the highest realms of heaven.
Mr Jeffs assumed the role of "prophet" or leader of the sect in 2002,
succeeding his father. He was on the run, and on the FBI's most wanted
list, before being arrested in Las Vegas in 2006. The woman told the
court that Mr Jeffs "was always an authority figure in my life. The
prophet was as God to us. He was God on earth and his counsellors were
pretty much the same, so they had jurisdiction over us."
She described the FLDS school she attended, Alta Academy, where Mr Jeffs
taught classes instructing girls how to prepare for marriage. Pupils
were taught that dating should be determined by the group's officials,
and that girls and boys were to treat each other "as though they were
snakes", she said. "There was nothing permitted romantically."
Prosecutors played a recording of a 1997 lesson in which Mr Jeffs said
that obedience was key to good marriage. "Give yourself to him, that
means full obedience to righteous principles. No halfway, no holding
back," he said on the tape.
In its opening statement, the defence attorney Tara Isaacson argued that
the girl may not have liked being married to her cousin, but "being
unhappy is different from being raped".
"What did Warren Jeffs have to do with what was going on in her
bedroom?" asked Ms Isaacson. "Did he even know she was being forced to
have sex against her will?"
Ms Isaacson also noted that the girl had first bought a civil suit
against Mr Jeffs before going to authorities. The civil case is pending;
the criminal case continues.