A polygamist religious leader who claimed to have more than 20 spiritual “wives” including 10 underage girls was sentenced to 50 years in prison Monday in Arizona for forcing girls as young as nine to into criminal sexual activity with him and other adults, and for schemes to remove them from protective custody.
Samuel Bateman, whose small group was the hunt of the department once led by Warren Jeffs, had pleaded guilty to a years-long scheme to transport girls across state lines for his sex crimes, and later abducting some of them from protective custody.
Under the agreement, Bateman pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to transport a minor for sexual activity, which carries a sentence of 10 years to life in prison, and one count of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, which is punishable by up to life in prison. . He was sentenced to 50 years on each count, to be served concurrently.
The rest of the charges were dismissed as part of the deal.
Authorities say Bateman, 48, tried to start a group of The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints based in the nearby communities of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah. The fundamentalist group, also known as the FLDS, split from the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after Mormons officially renounced polygamy in 1890.
Statements from victims
US District Court Judge Susan Brnovich sentenced Bateman after hearing statements in court from three teenage girls about the trauma they are still struggling to recover from.
“You shouldn't have the opportunity to be free, and not have the opportunity to be around young women,” Brnovich told Bateman, noting that the sentence was a life sentence. a 50-year sentence for a man of his age. “You took them from their homes, from their families and made them sex slaves,” the judge said.
“You took them away from their innocence and childhood.”
A brief competency hearing closed to the public was held immediately before sentencing to discuss a doctor's evaluation of Bateman's mental health. The defense had argued that Bateman could have benefited from up to 20 years of psychiatric treatment behind bars before being released.
The girls told the court, sometimes talking to Bateman himself, how they got involved in developing relationships in high school, among other struggles. Now living with foster families, they said they received a lot of support from trusted adults outside their community.
After the sentence, the teenagers laughed and cried quietly. They were escorted out of court by half a dozen men and women wearing jackets with the slogan “Bikers Against Child Abuse,” an organization dedicated to protecting children from what it calls human and dangerous situations. A woman who sat with the teenagers said that no one in the group would have an opinion.
There was no one in the courtroom who appeared to be a supporter of Bateman.
The alleged practice of sect members sexually abusing girls they claim to be spiritual “wives” has long troubled the FLDS. Jeffs was convicted of state charges in Texas in 2011 related to sexually assaulting his underage followers. Bateman was one of Jeffs' trusted followers and declared himself, like Jeffs, to be a “prophet” of the FLDS. Jeffs denounced Bateman in a written “presentation” sent to his followers from prison, and then tried to start his own organization.
'Wives' mentioned
In 2019 and 2020, claiming that polygamy leads to heaven and that he was acting on orders from the “Heavenly Father,” Bateman began taking female adults and children from his male followers. and announcing that they were “wives”, the plea agreement said. Although none of these “marriages” were legally or ceremonially recognized, Bateman admitted that he claimed another “wife” each time to mark the beginning of his illicit sexual intercourse with the woman or the girl.
Federal agents said Bateman required his followers to publicly confess to any indiscretions and imposed punishments ranging from public humiliation to sexual activity, including ask some male followers to atone for their “sins” by surrendering their wives and daughters to him.
Bateman traveled extensively between Arizona, Utah, Colorado and Nebraska and regularly forced underage girls into his criminal sexual activities, the US Attorney's Office in Arizona said. Recordings of some of his sex crimes were sent across state lines through electronic devices.
Bateman was arrested in August 2022 by state police while driving through Flagstaff, Ariz., towing a trailer. Someone had called the authorities after seeing little fingers reaching through the door frame. Inside the trailer, which had no air conditioning, they found a mobile toilet, a sofa, camping chairs and three girls, between 11 and 14 years old.
Bateman posted bond but was soon arrested again, charged with obstruction of justice in a federal investigation into child trafficking across state lines for his sex crimes . Authorities also took nine children from Bateman's Colorado City home into protective custody.
Eight of the children later escaped from foster care in Arizona, and were found hundreds of kilometers away in Washington State, in a vehicle driven by one of the adult “wives”. Bateman also admitted his involvement in the kidnapping plot.
Federal prosecutors noted that Bateman's plea agreement was contingent on all of his co-defendants also pleading guilty. He also demanded that up to $1 million US be returned to each victim, and that all assets be forfeited immediately.
Black results
Seven of Bateman's adult “wives” have been convicted of crimes related to forcing children into sexual activity or obstructing the investigation into Bateman. Some admitted that they also forced girls to become Bateman's spiritual “wives”, which saw Bateman sexually offending girls, taking part in an illegal sex group taking a- entering children, or joining in removing them from foster care. Another woman is scheduled to be tried Jan. 14 on kidnapping-related charges.
In court records, attorneys for some of Bateman's “wives” painted a bleak picture of their clients' religious upbringing.
One person said his client was raised in a religious cult that taught appropriate sexual activity with children and was brought into Bateman's “marriage”. Another said her client was handed to Bateman by another man as if she were a piece of property, feeling she had no choice.
