A polygamous sect leader has been convicted on child abuse charges in Arizona while already serving a 50-year sentence in federal prison for orchestrating sex involving children.

A polygamous sect leader already serving a 50-year federal prison sentence for orchestrating sex involving children was convicted Friday on state child abuse charges after girls were found in an unventilated trailer he was hauling through Arizona.

Someone alerted authorities about the trailer in August 2022 after seeing small fingers reaching through gaps in the doors. Police stopped Samuel Bateman’s vehicle as he was driving through Flagstaff and found three girls inside, who were ages 11 to 14 at the time. The trailer was enclosed with a makeshift toilet, a sofa and camping chairs.

In the federal case, Bateman was convicted of coercing girls as young as 9 to submit to sex acts with him and other young adults, and for scheming to kidnap girls from protective custody, the story of which is the focus of a Netflix series, “Trust Me: The False Prophet.”

Bateman previously claimed to have more than 20 “spiritual wives,” including 10 girls under the age of 18. He testified in his own defense in the state case, telling jurors he would never harm the people he loves. He acknowledged during cross-examination that he knew the girls were in a hot trailer for hours and the ventilation wasn’t good, but downplayed the conditions.

“I just trusted myself as a driver,” he said. “I asked God to bless me every time we hopped in that vehicle.”

He claimed he thought the girls had gotten out when they stopped. He said he was as “shocked as could possibly be” when he learned that they were still inside when he was pulled over.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.worldEnglish
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      2 days ago

      I’m sure its touchy because of religious freedoms

      Ugh, that’s one thing I hate about religious “freedom” in this country - when something is wrapped up in religious garb, especially if its some xtian denomination (and no, I’m not playing that “no true Christian” game with LDS or its fundie groups - the full name of LDS is “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” so getting into a debate over it being “real” Christianity is just not really worth it) - it often takes a much higher bar to get it stopped.

    • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 days ago

      It was far down the article but yes, they describe it as an offshoot of the FLDS:

      Federal authorities said Bateman, a self-proclaimed prophet, traveled extensively between Arizona, Utah, Colorado and Nebraska as he built an offshoot network of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which historically has been based in the neighboring communities of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah.

      And indeed there is the link to Warren Jeffs:

      Bateman was one of the trusted followers of Warren Jeffs, who previously led the sect and is serving a life sentence in Texas for sexual assault of children.

      The AP claims that things were actually done to dismantle the network:

      The influence of the polygamous sect has waned significantly over time in the towns where the sect has historically been based. In 2017, a court order placed the towns under supervision, excising the church from their governments and shared police department.

      But the area has since transformed so quickly that they were released from court-ordered supervision last summer, almost two years earlier than expected. Practicing sect members are now believed to account for only a small percentage of the towns’ populations.

      … but I have no way of knowing it that was enough or not, don’t want to be too optimistic.

        • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de
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          2 days ago

          I don’t really know either, I was just going by the vibes of the AP text and conversation in the comments here.

          When I’m trying to check it does look like from this Wikipedia article that “the FLDS” seems to refer to one specific organisation

          Edit on the other hand this Wikipedia article has an entire list: Founders of mutually rival Mormon fundamentalist denominations include Lorin C. Woolley, John Y. Barlow, Joseph W. Musser, Leroy S. Johnson, Rulon C. Allred, Elden Kingston, and Joel LeBaron. The largest Mormon fundamentalist groups are the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS Church) and the Apostolic United Brethren (AUB).

        • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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          2 days ago

          There are but this is the one that took the name if memory serves right, this is one of those things where the Mormons fractured super hard at several points in their history so there are lots of offshoots.

    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
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      2 days ago

      Yep, I was gonna say… this FLDS, or an offshoot?

      Great work Mormons, you continue to generate terrorist pedophile sex cults, even into the modern era, truly an extremely legitimate cultural lineage and religious tradition.

    • MountingSuspicion@reddthat.com
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      2 days ago

      There’s a decently done but horrific doc on Netflix about this. The cops in that town are definitely in on something, if not just trying to protect Mormonism in general. A single woman went and infiltrated and collected all the evidence and the cops didn’t give a damn. She eventually got the feds involved and that was slow, but the cops clearly were dragging their feet.