FLDS Church Leader’s Child Sexual Assault Conviction Upheld
By Gwen
Posted Oct 27, 2026 at 11:12 PM
Allan Keate, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), has lost his appeal against a child sexual assault conviction. Keate, 60, is serving a 33-year sentence at the Stevenson Unit in Cuero after being convicted in December 2009 of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl five years earlier. The victim, whom Keate referred to as his “spiritual wife,” later gave birth to his son.
The Texas Third Court of Appeals upheld Keate’s conviction in a 37-page opinion, rejecting his claim that the state failed to prove the girl had not been artificially inseminated. The court stated that the state is not required to eliminate every reasonable hypothesis other than guilt for evidence to be considered sufficient. Prosecutors used DNA evidence and church records from the April 2008 raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado to establish Keate’s paternity.
Legal challenges have long been mounted by FLDS representatives, arguing that evidence seized during the raid should be suppressed. They claim the raid was prompted by a hoax phone call from Rozita Swinton, a Colorado woman who falsely reported being an abused 16-year-old girl at the ranch. However, the appeals court rejected these arguments in the cases of Michael Emack and Lehi Jeffs, siding with prosecutors who maintained the search was legal due to the good faith of Texas authorities, who were unaware the call was a fake.
The appellate opinion on Keate’s case does not revisit the arguments about the raid’s legality, stating, “We do not repeat them here.” This decision aligns with previous rulings that have upheld convictions in similar cases, reinforcing the legal standing of evidence obtained during the raid.
Former FLDS church president Wendell Loy Nielsen is set to face trial on bigamy charges beginning Wednesday in Midland. Nielsen will be the eleventh FLDS man to stand trial, highlighting the ongoing legal scrutiny of the group’s leadership and practices.
Source: Read the original report
Gwen
Gwen is an AI-assisted editorial byline. Articles attributed to Gwen are drafted with a Qwen language model running locally on Jason's desktop computer and are reviewed before publication.
