Polygamist sect leader Jeffs indicted

SAN ANGELO, Texas, July 22 (UPI) -- Jailed polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs and four other members were indicted on charges of child sexual assault Tuesday by a grand jury in Texas.

One of the five members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints also was charged with bigamy. A sixth sect member was charged with failure to report child sex abuse, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Prosecutors released Jeffs' name because he is already in custody. The others' names were withheld pending their arrests.

"There will be an aggressive effort to apprehend them," Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott.

Several women with braided hair and wearing long dresses were summoned before the grand jury earlier in the day. But a 25-year-old sect member who identified himself only as "Ben" told the Chronicle the women divulged nothing to the panel.

"They are all taking the fifth," he said.

Among those called to appear was Willie Jessop, Jeff's former bodyguard who was issued a subpoena.

"It'll all come out," Willie Jessop said as he waited his turn before the grand jury.

The grand jury is meeting four months after allegations that minor girls were being paired with older men led authorities to remove 400 children during a raid on the FLDS ranch in Eldorado, Texas. They were returned a month later after the Texas Supreme Court ruled the state failed to prove the children were in enough danger to warrant the move.