Characters: The religious and polygamous leader with 20 wives, many of them minors

The leader of a small polygamous group based near the Arizona-Utah border had taken at least twenty wives, most of them minors, and punished followers who did not treat him like a prophetshows recently filed federal court documents.

Samuel Bateman He was a member of the fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), but later split off to start his own group. He had the financial backing of male followers to which they had also given up their wives and daughters be the wives of Batmanaccording to an FBI affidavit.

The document filed on Friday offers new insights into what investigators have found in a case that was first made public in August. It also included the kidnapping and obstruction of justice charges against three of Bateman’s wives: Naomi Bistline, Donnae Barlow and Moretta Rose Johnson.

The women are alleged to have absconded with eight of Bateman’s children, who were taken into custody by the state of Arizona earlier this year. The children were found last week hundreds of miles awayin Spokane, Washington.

Child sex trafficking

Bateman was arrested in August when someone saw little fingers sticking out of a hole in a trailer he was hauling through Flagstaff. Bateman posted bail but was re-arrested and charged with obstruction of justice in a federal investigation to determine whether children were transported across state lines for sexual purposes.

Court records say Bateman, 46, was engaged in child trafficking and polygamy, but none of his current allegations are related to those allegations. Polygamy is illegal in Arizona, but was decriminalized in Utah in 2020.

Arizona Department of Children’s Services spokesman Darren DaRonco and FBI spokesman Kevin Smith declined to comment on the case on Tuesday. Bistline’s attorney did not return a request for comment and Barlow’s attorney declined to comment. Johnson did not have a publicly registered attorney.

The FBI affidavit filed in the women’s case focuses primarily on Bateman, who proclaimed himself a prophet in 2019.

Bateman claims former FLDS leader Warren Jeffs told him to call down the “Spirit of God upon these people.” The affidavit details explicit sexual acts committed by Bateman and his followers. to fulfill “divine duties”.

Jeffs is serving a life sentence in a Texas prison for child sexual abuse relating to child marriage.

Criminal defense attorney Michael Piccarreta, who represented Jeffs in the charges filed in Arizona, said the state has a history of trying to take an anti-polygamy stance by charging relatively minor offenses and then pursuing larger cases.

“Whether this is the same tactic used in the past or if there is more to this story, only time will tell,” he said.

The firm of Bateman’s attorney in the federal case, Adam Zickerman, declined to comment on Tuesday.

Bateman lived in Colorado City among a mixed group of devout members of the polygamous FLDS, former church members, and people who did not practice those beliefs. Polygamy is a legacy of the first teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but the majority church he abandoned the practice in 1890 Y now forbids it strictly.

Bateman frequently traveled to Nebraska, where some of his followers lived, and to Canada and Mexico to attend conferences.

When Bateman was arrested earlier this year, he ordered his followers to obtain passports and delete messages sent through an encrypted system, authorities said.

According to the FBI affidavit, Bateman asked his followers to confess publicly to any indiscretions and to broadcast those confessions. He claimed the punishments, which ranged from a period of exclusion to public humiliation and sexual activity, came from the Lord, the affidavit says.

Children identified by their initials in court records they said little to the authorities. The three children found in the trailer Bateman was transporting to Flagstaff – which contained a makeshift toilet, a sofa and camping chairs and lacked ventilation – told authorities that they didn’t need medical attention or health, according to a police report.

None of the girls taken into state custody in Arizona disclosed sexual abuse by Bateman during forensic interviews, although one of them said she was present during sexual acts, according to the FBI affidavit.

However, girls he often wrote in the newspapers, which were seized by the FBI. In them, many of them referred to intimate interactions with Bateman. Authorities believe the older ones influenced the younger ones not to talk about Bateman, according to the FBI.

Felicia Fonseca, Associated Press

Translation: Elisa Carnelli

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