Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Jeffs' alleged child bride taken from mom

|
|
 
  
Published: Aug. 19, 2008 at 5:22 PM

SAN ANGELO, Texas, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- A teenage girl who was allegedly married to polygamist leader Warren Jeffs at 12 must return to state custody, a Texas judge ruled Tuesday.

The girl, now 14, is the daughter of Merril Jessop, head of the Yearning for Zion Ranch, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. She and an 11-year-old brother had been living in San Antonio with their mother, Barbara Jessop, instead of returning to the ranch.

Judge Barbara Walther allowed the boy to remain with his mother, although she set additional restrictions. But she found that Barbara Jessop cannot guarantee her daughter's safety.

At a hearing, lawyers for the state submitted a photograph of the girl and Jeffs kissing and said the snapshot was taken when they were married in 2006. Jeffs is head of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints, a breakaway Mormon group that holds to its original teachings on polygamy.

Gonzalo Rios, a lawyer for Barbara Jessop, said that his client had been treated unfairly. He said she was the only mother at the ranch not offered a plan that would allow her children to remain with her safely.

Topics: Warren Jeffs
© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 20
Singer Janelle Monae arrives at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards in Universal City, California
View Caption
Singer Janelle Monae arrives for the MTV Movie Awards at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California. UPI/Jim Ruymen
fark
Traveling to the U.S.? If invited to a dinner party, bring a gift of wine, but not cash or toiletries...
Man turns dead pet cat into remote-controlled helicopter, calls it art (w/WTF pics)
"Good News" clubs teach children in public schools the Biblical importance of killing all nonbelievers...
Five arrested in prostitution sting. Article lists their names, ages and distance from a church
Photoshop this power tower technician
Driving drunk and unlicensed, with a kid not even buckled let alone in a safety seat, en route to...