Brothers and Nephew Accuse FLDS Leader Warren Jeffs of Child Sexual Abuse

Ward Jeffs, a brother of fugitive polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, and Brent Jeffs, a nephew, publicly accused Warren Jeffs of sexually abusing young boys and girls over many years. They also placed blame on him for a tragic family suicide. Ward Jeffs said his brother “must be brought to justice,” adding that he “is not beyond the law even if he holds some title of a prophet of a church.”

According to the relatives, Warren Jeffs used his position in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) and threats of hellfire to force sex acts on children as young as five. These are allegations, and the report noted that religious and sexual turmoil had torn the Jeffs family apart. It also said that, if the allegations were true, the crimes were not victimless.

Last year, Brent Jeffs filed a lawsuit that began a growing series of legal problems for his uncle, FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs. In the suit, Brent Jeffs says he is suing his uncle “for sexually sodomizing me when I was a little kid.” He also described the threats he says were used to keep him silent, recalling that his uncle told him, “You do exactly what I say or you’re going to burn in Hell.”

The relatives say the abuse took place over many years at a compound at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon, which was once the FLDS Salt Lake headquarters. The building housed the church school, where Warren Jeffs allegedly preyed on victims as young as five or six. Protecting children who cannot defend themselves is the concern at the center of these claims (Proverbs 31:8-9).

The relatives also said Warren Jeffs began gradually taking over the group as early as 1972 and that by 1980 he was its principal leader in the area. They allege he was regularly using that position to abuse young children. Brent Jeffs’s brother Brandon has given a deposition stating that Warren Jeffs abused him as well. Another brother, Clayne, became a drug abuser and later died by suicide after making similar allegations.

Ward Jeffs said, “I blame Warren for laying the foundation and for, ultimately, the cause of my son’s death.” Brent Jeffs said he has first-hand experience of the suffering the family describes, saying, “Nightmares. Worse than any nightmare you could ever imagine. And I have to live with it now and for the rest of my life.”

Warren Jeffs has not responded to subpoenas in the lawsuit and remains a fugitive. The same day, a judge issued an order creating an advisory committee and setting out a procedure for taking over the financial trust at the heart of Jeffs’s polygamist empire.

Source: Read the original report