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| FLDS member sentenced to 10 years |
| By fox13now.com |
| Published: 11/12/2009 |
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ELDORADO, Texas - A member of the Utah-based Fundamentalist LDS Church will spend the next 10 years in a Texas prison with no chance of probation. A jury in rural Schleicher County, Texas, deliberated about six hours on Tuesday before handing down the sentence. As he was led from the courthouse to jail, Raymond Jessop spoke with Fox 13's Ben Winslow. "Mr. Jessop, do you feel you're being persecuted because of your religion?" he was asked. "I'm at peace," he replied. "I'll say that. That's all." The 10 year sentence follows Jessop's conviction on a felony child sexual assault charge. Prosecutors alleged the 38-year-old Hildale man fathered a child with a 16-year-old girl who was his polygamous wife in an arranged marriage. "Raymond Merril Jessop had engaged in a total of one legal marriage in the state of Utah, and after that, a total of eight so called 'spiritual' or 'celestial marriages' within the FLDS Church," said deputy Texas Attorney General Eric Nichols. Polygamy and the Utah-based FLDS Church were a central theme at sentencing. Prosecutors focused on a culture of arranged marriages between teenaged girls and men twice their age. Defense attorneys portrayed Jessop as a "man of faith." Read More. |
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