Prosecutors Say Fundamentalist LDS Leader Bateman Made Explicit Jail Calls to Underage Wives

Prosecutors allege that Samuel Rappylee Bateman, 46, a self-proclaimed prophet of the Fundamentalist LDS Church from Colorado City, Arizona, used jail telephones to make sexually explicit calls to underage girls, according to KSL.com. Bateman is alleged to have about 50 followers and more than 20 wives, nine of whom are minors between the ages of 12 and 16. Those figures are allegations, not findings.

On August 28, Arizona Department of Public Safety officials reported that Bateman was towing a box trailer with three girls inside, and he was arrested. A federal grand jury indicted him on September 6 on charges including destruction of records and tampering with an official proceeding. On September 14, nine girls were taken into Arizona Department of Child Services custody.

On December 1, police in Spokane, Washington, found eight of those girls, according to KSL.com. On December 14, a superseding indictment added kidnapping and conspiracy to kidnap charges against Bateman. In December, Donnae Barlow, Moretta Rose Johnson and Naomi Bistline were also charged with obstructing a federal prosecution and kidnapping. FOX 13 reported that three of Bateman’s wives face charges related to the disappearance of eight girls taken into child protective services custody after an FBI raid on his Colorado City home.

FOX 13 described the case differently in one respect. It reported that authorities have investigated Bateman for transporting minors across state lines for sexual activity, but that so far he has faced charges only related to obstructing federal investigators. KSL.com’s account of the superseding indictment includes kidnapping charges against Bateman, so the two reports differ on which charges he currently faces.

FOX 13 reported that Bateman has claimed leadership of the Fundamentalist LDS Church since the imprisonment of Warren Jeffs, and that court documents accuse him of taking child brides. Bateman appeared in U.S. District Court in Arizona on a Wednesday, which FOX 13 did not date, and entered a not guilty plea to criminal charges including aiding a kidnapping and obstructing a federal investigation. A federal judge set a January trial date, but Bateman’s attorneys immediately filed to have it continued.