This week saw a landmark sentencing for child abuse in the state of Texas. Merril Leroy Jessop, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), was convicted on a count of sexual assault of a child and sentenced to 75 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. He was also convicted of bigamy. Merril L. Jessop, a member of the Yearning For Zion (YFZ) Ranch community, is just one of the FLDS members picked up in the last few years for engaging in underage celestial marriages.
Merril L. Jessop’s wife was 15 when she married him in a ceremony at the YFZ Ranch. Prosecutors used DNA evidence to prove that Jessop had fathered a child with his then underage spouse. Jessop told a doctor that he was his underage wife’s uncle and couched her to tell authorities that she was 18-years-old. He also attempted to destroy computer-based photographic evidence of his relationship with his child bride.
This marks the most recent conviction in Texas of a YFZ Ranch man for sexual assault and represents the stiffest penalty yet for the offense. The crime of sexual assault of a child was changed from a second-degree to a first-degree felony by the Texas state legislature in 2006. The range of punishment for a first-degree felony in Texas is five to 99 years imprisonment.
Many feel the change in the severity of punishment was done specifically to combat the child abuse prevalent at FLDS compounds. YFZ Ranch, which is located just outside of Eldorado, Texas, is one of the largest settlements of FLDS members in the world. According to some reports it has become the new headquarters of the whole FLDS movement and its Bishop, Merril Jessop (father of Merril L. Jessop), may be the spiritual leader of the FLDS Church.
The question of who exactly is in charge of the FLDS Church has been in the air since the conviction and imprisonment of Warren Jeffs. In 2007 Warren Jeffs was found guilty of two counts of rape as an accomplice and sentenced to prison for 10 years to life. Warren Jeffs is the son of Rulon Jeffs, the man who abolished the seven-man council that previously controlled the FLDS community and replaced it with a prophet-based dictatorship. Rulon Jeffs was the FLDS president and prophet for over 15 years and had (by some estimates) 75 wives and 65 children at the time of his death in 2002.
2 Comments
These cult freaks should have read the street signs in tx. They say “dont mess with texas” and they mean it. Hope other states take notice of this just sentence for statatory rape and long term brainwashing.
Very unfortunate. One of the erroneous rumors about the FLDS was that they were welfare abusers. The women and children may have to resort to welfare (at taxpayer expense) as the major bread winners are sent to prison (at taxpayer expense) for things that were not a crime in 2005, before Hildebran changed the law to target them. That would be, on top of the tens of millions taxpayers have already paid for the raid and legal expense. I resent the double standard. The first child born Tx in 2009 was born to a teen and an adult male. Instead of jail, they got media attention and gifts. According to TDFPS, a Tx teen gets pregnant every 10 seconds and statistics say that at least half are with adult males. Many resort to welfare to support their children. When will these cases of “child sexual abuse” be prosecuted? DNA testing required before welfare benefits approved? When will the state of Tx send a “harsh message” to the average Joe “child sexual abuser”?