The remaining three bodies will be relocated elsewhere at the familys expense. More than 400 children were taken into temporary custody by the state. The court added that Judge Walther had abused her discretion by keeping the children in state care. Willie Jessop, former bodyguard and onetime staunch supporter of Jeffs, is in a dispute with the state of Texas. I lived in Texas for 4 years. [52] He was sentenced to life in prison plus twenty years, to be served consecutively, and a $10,000 fine, for sexual assault of both 12 and 15-year-old girls. A lease-purchase deal was completed on November 27, 2018 between 51st District Attorney Allison Palmer and Terry D. Pope, vice president of ETG Properties LLC for Tactical training operations. And the county is covering the expense for any maintenance that may occur out there like broken water lines, water well issues.. The YFZ Ranch is a 1,691-acre tract with space enough for aself-sustaining community and an orchard filled with trees of apples, peaches and pears. Seven bodies must be relocated, and relatives of the deceased were given two options bodies could be moved to a place of their choosing or reburied in the local cemetery, Doran said. Does the FLDS Church in Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey still exist? - HITC Hindsight is 20-20, and now people ask why they couldn't have stayed. This is the YFZ RANCH in Eldorado Texas. All rights reserved. Bodies are removed from Texas ranch that used to belong to FLDS Unlike hundreds of their peers, the last remaining FLDS members on the YFZ Ranch will be removed from the property quietly and without public fanfare. Its also imperative to mention that before FLDS President Warren Jeffs was first arrested in 2006, he used the Ranch as his personal perverted Playboy Mansion, according to the Peacock docu-series. For a decade, Doran was the county's liaison with the polygamists and he still maintains contact with one of them. Inside the YFZ Polygamist Ranch - Oprah.com Authorities breached the ranchs gates in April 2008. [16] The children were held by the Child Protective Services at Fort Concho and the Wells Fargo Pavilion in San Angelo. Keith Johnson, Deseret News 7 of 8 At the peak of 2008, I guess prior to the raid or about the time of the raid, there was probably pushing the number 700 out there.. [104], On January 6, 2014, Judge Walther ruled that the state could seize the property, and that they could "enter the property and take an inventory. [75] Although the children had not been schooled while in state custody, a Texas Education Agency spokesman has stated that "there's a point at which their educational input is secondary" to their emotional well-being. TheSan Antonio Express-News reportstheir prophet and absolute leader, Warren Jeffs, 63, once on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List, is serving a life sentence in a Texas state prison for raping young girls at the site. Wright, Stuart A. and James T. Richardson. It is a free event open to anyone who would like to attend, said Terrill Musser, one of the organizers. [97], On December 22, 2008, The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services issued a 21-page final report on the raid entitled "El Dorado Investigation". The Texas jury found him guilty of sexual assault and aggravated sexual assault of children. [76], On April 16, 2008, several of the mothers appeared on Larry King Live to ask for their children and tell their story from their own viewpoint. Seclusion is not hard to find in West Texas. The YFZ Ranch raid 10 years later: 'Texas had the guts to do what other Because the state is exempt from paying taxes on the property, Schleicher County has not collected tax money on the YFZ Ranch since its seizure. Are There Still FLDS Members? It was how they left. Are There Still FLDS Members. But even then, the FLDS Church still struggles to make the numbers work. CPS announced they would seek to overturn the decision. Some parents stated on the Today Show that they were unable to visit their boys due to a shortage of CPS staff. Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune These aerial views of the YFZ (Yearning for Zion) Ranch outside of Eldorado, Texas, were taken on Tuesday, April 8, 2008, just days after law enforcement officers raided the FLDS . A copy of Jessops Utah judgment was filed with the Texas courts July 17, 2012, through a legal tactic known as domesticating, which gives the Utah judgment the same effect as any other judgment in Texas. [102][103][104] In a 91-page affidavit filed with the 51st District Court of Texas, the Attorney General argues that Warren Jeffs authorized the purchase of the ranch property as " a rural location where the systemic sexual assault of children would be tolerated without interference from law enforcement authorities",[103] therefore, the property was contraband and subject to seizure. They were later returned by order of appellate courts, including the Texas Supreme Court. [66] On May 22, CPS declared half of the alleged teen mothers to be adults, some as old as 27. "[98], A year after the raid, two thirds of the families were back at the ranch and sect leaders had promised to end underaged marriages. He married a 16-year-old girl at YFZ Ranch on August 5, 2004. The report found that "12 girls were 'spiritually' married at ages ranging from 12 to 15, and seven of these girls have had one or more children. Its always funny because I would call a place halfway across the United States for parts, and Id tell them my shipping address and, Oh, youre from that little town Eldorado with all the Mormons, Kent said, furrowing his brow in displeasure. But, the ACLU contends, "exposure to a religion's beliefs, however unorthodox, is not itself abuse and may not constitutionally be labeled abuse". But it wasn't the way they moved in that grabbed people's attention. Numbers that we never did fathom that was out there, he continued. All rights reserved. [63][64] Louisa Jessop had been classified as 17 by CPS, although her husband had previously provided a birth certificate and driver's license to demonstrate that she was 22. YFZ Ranch remains in limbo 10 years after raid near Eldorado The Yearning for Zion Ranch, or the YFZ Ranch,[1] was a 1,700-acre Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints community of as many as 700 people, located near Eldorado in Schleicher County, Texas, United States. So the county donated four cemetery plots and the states paying for the removal and transportation and I believe the permits. At first it was creepy because of everything that happened there. The property is valued at about $25 million down from the roughly $33.3 million it was worth when seized in 2013, according to the countys appraisal district. The remaining three bodies will be relocated elsewhere at the familys expense. convicted of two counts of child sexual assault, leader or the acting leader of the Church. The final judgment was the result of the Attorney General's Office filing for the seizure of this property in 2012. The 51-day Waco standoff ended with the compound being destroyed by fire, leaving nearly 80 people dead including more than a dozen children. The 12 confirmed victims of sexual abuse were among 43 girls removed from the ranch from the ages of 12 to 17, which means that more than one out of every four pubescent girls on the ranch was in an underage marriage. But just a few miles north of town, the abandoned Yearning for Zion Ranch looks much like it did when hundreds of followers of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints called it home. As per reports, it was purchased by an FLDS member in 2003 under the initial claim it would be used as a hunting retreat, only for it to soon become an entire community for the denomination. He said the county will not be reimbursed until a sale is made. Hurt this whole community bad. This page was last edited on 23 May 2023, at 04:24. While waiting for the sale to close, ETG has been leasing the property for $5,000 a month. I was only 12 years old. Now all that remains is a towering white. The district was collecting about $400,000 annually in taxes from the property before it was seized, said current Superintendent Robert Gibson. Unlike hundreds of their peers, the last remaining FLDS members on the YFZ Ranch will be removed from the property quietly and without public fanfare. On April 14, 2010, Emack also pleaded no contest on a bigamy charge and received a seven-year sentence that will run concurrently with the sentence he received for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl. The YFZ Ranch, or Yearning for Zion Ranch, was a 1,700-acre (690-hectare) Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) community of as many as 700 people, located near Eldorado in Schleicher County, Texas, United States. Billy Collins, former superintendent of Schleicher County Independent School District, said at the time of the seizure, the district expected to lose 5 to 10 percent of its operating budget because of the states tax exemption. They wanted to know how many people lived on the property and what was being built to know if the county would be equipped to handle a three-story structure fire or respond properly in the aftermath of a tornado. Leveled against Palmer, in her official capacity as DA, and Kent Richardson, acting on behalf of the Attorney General of Texas, the lawsuit was expected to be heard in the 13th Court of Appeals. 10 years after YFZ Ranch raid: Hildale hosting presentation Saturday. Since Texas law allows authorities to seize properties that have been used to commit or facilitate certain criminal conduct, the Attorney Generals Office began the motions for the same in November 2012. New Building at YFZ Ranch Puzzles Neighbors - Texas Monthly Jessop was convicted of illegally marrying and then fathering a child with a 15-year-old female. The region covers 39,731 square miles of diverse topography including dense scrublands and agricultural fields. Now empty, all that remains is a towering white stone temple and numerous buildings, a majority that were used for housing. And the county is covering the expense for any maintenance that may occur out there like broken water lines, water well issues.. There was a lot of turmoil and unrest in the county. More than 19 separate residences, including a home for Warren Jeffs, Estimated appraisal values of the YFZ Ranch, Source: Schleicher County Appraisal District. [109] On February 6, 2014, at the close of the courthouse day, the opportunity to appeal the seizure expired; since no one had filed an appeal challenging the seizure by that time, the state of Texas became the legal owner of the YFZ Ranch. We were trying to wrap our minds around what this group was about," he recalled. The Ranch was settled by members of the FLDS Church who left Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona under increasing scrutiny from the media, anti- polygamy activists and law enforcement officials. Yearning for Zion Ranch in Texas empty 10 years after raid Donate to the newsroom now. YFZ Ranch - Wikipedia ft. home for Warren Jeffs, among much more. [33] She stated that the actions in Texas were unlike the 1953 Short Creek raid in Arizona. Jessop is seeking to collect on two separate multimillion-dollar judgment liens one for $24.45 million and another for $8.5 million he won in a Utah court in 2012 against the FLDS church and several of its members. [16][17] Investigators eventually established by tracing the calls that they were placed by a much older woman, Rozita Swinton, who had been arrested for previous hoax calls posing as abused and victimized girls. They were returned seven weeks later after the Third Court of Appeals ruled that the state had not met its burden for an emergency removal.
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