Families torn apart, forced marriages, ‘lost boys’ don’t seem like America

Carolyn Jessop is the one who got away.

Jessop sat before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday and gave her heart-wrenching testimony about her life inside a polygamous sect. A mother of eight married to a polygamist as a teenager, she offered an eyewitness account of institutional abuse and criminal behavior cloaked in the cheap religious cloth of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. As she spoke, a simple refrain tumbled over and over in my mind.

This happened in America.

Dan Fischer is one of many who were pushed away. Born and raised in a polygamist community, he considered himself a faithful believer until his eyes were opened when he saw his family torn apart by a single decision from FLDS false prophet Warren Jeffs. Fischer's testimony gave a glimpse of the plight of the "lost boys" of Southern Utah, young male members of the church who are kicked "out of town" when they commit the sins of questioning the prophet and showing an interest in members of the opposite sex.

Fischer has devoted recent years to providing a safe haven for the troubled young men.

This happened in America.

On Thursday, attorneys general from Arizona, Utah, and Texas told the committee of Jeffs' complex criminal network, one that crosses state lines and international borders, and practices everything from child and spousal abuse to money laundering and welfare fraud. "Bleeding the beast," as cheating the government is known in polygamist country, is big business in intensely insular FLDS communities.

This happened in America.

Not 100 years ago, or even 50. Despite increasing prosecution and a more coordinated interstate law enforcement effort, it's happening today.

That's what is so important about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's bill to establish a federal task force to focus on crimes committed by polygamists, and offer assistance to their victims. But while U.S. Attorney for Nevada Gregory Brower and Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard noted the importance of increased cooperation and communication in criminal investigations that cross state lines and international borders, U.S. Attorney for Utah Brett Tolman questioned whether creating a federal task force would be "too blunt an instrument" to effectively investigate polygamist sect criminality. As I watched him testify via webcast, Tolman gave the impression a task force would be incapable of developing informants and treading sensitively in polygamist country.

The problem with that view is that it lacks historical context. Until recent years, state and federal authorities were doing almost nothing to investigate the FLDS and come to the aid of those exploited and trapped by its leadership.

Anyone who has studied Jeffs' career knows a comprehensive, multistate approach will be essential in clearing up this blight that not only harms children and women, but has been an embarrassment to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for decades. With Jeffs already convicted of being an accomplice to rape and under indictment in multiple jurisdictions, the more salient question about the creation of a federal task force is whether it might be arriving too late.

For Reid, one of 16 Mormons in Congress, the bill appears to serve two purposes.

First, it focuses on the substantial and long-neglected criminality of the FLDS.

Second, its passage would help further distinguish the outlaw FLDS from the Mormon church in a very public and high-profile manner. Mormons experience ridicule in no small part because of the church's polygamist past.

Although attorneys for the FLDS shout about religious persecution, the fact is state laws prohibit plural marriage.

And although polygamy makes big headlines, it already has been shown to be among the least of Warren Jeffs' crimes.

"I am here to tell you that polygamist communities in the United States are a form of organized crime," Reid told the committee. "I am not saying they are the same thing as the crime syndicates that used to run Las Vegas. But they engage in an ongoing pattern of serious crimes that we must not ignore."

The best way to attack that criminal organization is to augment state efforts with a federal task force that also comes to the rescue of those trapped inside polygamist sects as well as those shoved aside.

Scores of Carolyn Jessops and lost boys depend on law enforcement's timely and comprehensive action.

This can no longer happen in America.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0295.