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SAN ANGELO, Texas (CNN) -- Texas authorities say they have collected DNA swabs from jailed polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs in connection with a criminal investigation involving "spiritual marriages" to four girls ages 12 to 15.


Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs is jailed in Arizona awaiting trial on 10 felony counts.

1 of 3 The samples were taken Thursday in Arizona from Jeffs, the sect's jailed 52-year-old "prophet," said Jerry Strickland, spokesman for the Texas attorney general's office.

Jeffs is leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Marital records -- known as bishop's records -- were seized April 3 from the sect's Yearning for Zion ranch, according to an affidavit for a search warrant seeking the DNA samples. The records show that Jeffs married a 14-year-old girl on January 18, 2004, in Utah, the affidavit says.

Jeffs also "married" three other underage brides -- two 12-year-olds and a 14-year-old -- at the sect's 1,700-acre ranch near Eldorado, Texas, the affidavit says.

The court document refers to photos of Jeffs with his alleged child brides. In one picture, the affidavit states, he is kissing one of the 12-year-olds. In another, he is with a 15-year-old wife at the birth of their child in October 2004, according to the affidavit.

Jeffs is believed to have "committed the felony offense of sexual assault of a child," the affidavit says. One of the 12-year-olds, who was believed to have married Jeffs on July 27, 2006, allegedly was sexually assaulted by him later that day, the affidavit states.

The DNA samples will allow authorities to determine whether he is the father of the children born to underage mothers, according to the court documents. Jeffs' Arizona attorney, Mike Piccarreta, was not available for comment on Friday, according to his office.

The criminal investigation, led by the Texas attorney general's office, is separate from an ongoing custody dispute involving the sect. A hearing in the custody case is scheduled later Friday in San Angelo. Timeline »

The Texas Supreme Court ruled Thursday that social workers overstepped their authority in rounding up more than 460 children from the YFZ ranch.

Child Protective Services did not present sufficient evidence that children were being abused, the state's highest court ruled, upholding a lower appeals court. "We are not inclined to disturb the court of appeals' decision," the high court said. "On the record before us, removal of the children was not warranted."

The 6-3 ruling could clear the way for the children to be returned to their families. State officials have expressed concern that the parents, members of the polygamist FLDS, could leave Texas.

The ruling came in the case of 38 mothers who had appealed the removal of their children, but attorneys have said the reasoning can be applied to all the children taken in the April raid. Watch the sect's spokesman demand the children back »

State officials have said the sect, with its polygamist beliefs, groomed young boys on the ranch to be abusers. FLDS members deny any sexual abuse at the ranch and claim that they are being persecuted because of their religion.

Jeffs is jailed in Mohave County, Arizona, awaiting trial on five counts of sexual conduct with a minor, four counts of incest and one count of conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor.

(Cont'd)......

If convicted, he could face more than three years in prison. In November, he was sentenced to two consecutive terms of five years to life in Utah after being convicted on two charges of being an accomplice to rape in connection with a marriage he performed in 2001.

He was accused of using his religious influence over his followers to coerce a 14-year-old girl into marriage with her 19-year-old cousin. The girl, Elissa Wall, testified that she repeatedly told Jeffs she did not want to be married and that she was uncomfortable with sexual advances from her husband, Allen Steed, who is now awaiting trial on rape charges.

Jeffs' trial last year thrust the FLDS into the national spotlight, and April's raid on the YFZ ranch intensified scrutiny on the sect.


In addition to the YFZ ranch, the FLDS is prevalent in the twin border communities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona.

The FLDS is not affiliated with the mainstream Mormon church, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago. Critics of the sect say it arranges marriages for girls as young as 13 to older men.





This is the kind of proof I was talking about existing and my reasons for not seeing the children sent back....they have evidence that girls as young as 12 are being forced to marry and they are testing the leader to see if he fathered children of these underage mothers.....

Dissenting Justices Opinions....taken from the Texas children thread....I happen to agree that there was enough evidence that these practices show an on-going pattern....and therefore the teen girls at least are in imminent danger.....


While she agreed there was no evidence of imminent danger to the safety of the boys and pre-pubescent girls to justify removal, she said the state agency needed more time to work to protect the ranch's "endangered" population — teenage girls.

For that group, O'Neill argued that the trial court did not abuse its discretion given the obstacles authorities encountered in gathering information.

The dissenting opinion was supported by Justice Phil Johnson and Justice Don R. Willett.

In their dissent, the three justices said evidence was presented that showed:

• Several teenage girls on the ranch were pregnant or had given birth.

• The ranch's religious leader had "unilateral power to decide when and to whom they would be married."

• Documents taken from the ranch showed there were "several extremely young mothers or pregnant 'wives'" on the ranch.

• One expert confirmed that the FLDS Church accepts the age of "physical development" (the start of a monthly cycle for a girl) as the age of eligibility for "marriage."

• A child psychologist testified that pregnancy of underage children at the ranch was the result of sexual abuse because children ages 15, 15 or 16 are "not sufficiently mature to enter a healthy consensual sexual relationship or 'marriage.'

"Evidence presented thus indicated a pattern of practice of sexual abuse of pubescent girls, and the condoning of such sexual abuse, on the ranch — evidence sufficient to satisfy 'a person of ordinary prudence and caution' that other such girls were at risk of sexual abuse as well," the dissenting opinion said.

"This evidence supports the trial court's finding that 'there was a danger to the physical health or safety" of pubescent girls on the ranch," the opinion states.

Do people really believe the devil is 'just' some spirit?

I hope he rots in hell, for ruining those children's lives.


It's horrible horrible horrible.

I suppose they do...I look at this group as being a cult and this man as having a God complex....NOT a religion....and yes he should rot.....

If you want to be an adult and have 10 wives....go for it...just don't bring kids into your sick game!!!!!!!!

I agree! Can you imagine the kind of trauma these kids and their kids will possibly/eventually suffer, in future?
How can selfishness drive a person to such extents? I don't think 3 years of doing time, is punishment enough. Women in my country (members of parlaiment), will not rest, till such heinous crimes are dealt with by castration. I'm all for that, too.


'A child psychologist testified that pregnancy of underage children at the ranch was the result of sexual abuse because children ages 15, 15 or 16 are "not sufficiently mature to enter a healthy consensual sexual relationship or 'marriage.'

I totally agree with the above.

I agree he deserves the max and I hope when all is said and done he gets it....BUT so do the other men who belong to this so called church....the whole thing should be busted up.....as long as there are children involved.....

Mormons are just plain crazy.

their religion is based on racism. In the Book of Mormon, there were two lost tribes of Israel..The Lamenites and the Nephites.

The Nephitesfollowed God's laws. And were blessed.

The Lamenites did not and were cursed with dark skin.

[/b]Racism in the Book of Mormon[/b]

1 Nephi 12:23
"And I beheld, after they had dwindled in unbelief they became a dark and loathsome and a filthy people, full of idleness and all manner of abominations."

1 Nephi 13:15
". . . and I beheld that they were white, and exceedingly fair and beautiful . . ."

2 Nephi 5:21
"And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them."

2 Nephi 30:6
". . . a white and delightsome people."

This is the reading of Joseph Smith's original 1830 edition. Smith changed the wording "white" to "pure" in the 1840 printing, though until 1982 the word "white" was again in use.

3 Nephi 2:14-15
"And it came to pass that those Lamanites who had united with the Nephites were numbered among the Nephites; and their curse was taken from them, and their skin became white like unto the Nephites. And their young men and their daughters became exceeding fair.."

According to LDS theology, the Lamanites are the ancestors of the American Indians. In the verses above we see the unbelievable LDS teaching that the skin of the Lamanites would turn white upon conversion!

Jacob 3:8-9
"O my brethren, I fear that unless ye shall repent of your sins that their skins will be whiter than yours, when ye shall be brought with them before the throne of God. Wherefore, a commandment I give unto you, which is the word of God, that ye revile no more against them because of the darkness of their skins "

And the church still publishes the "Juvinille Instructor" (a periodical) explaining that when one goes to god they will be "white and pure."

It wasn't until 1978, after much public uproar, that Blacks were allowed into the priesthood.

Keep in mind that in mainstream Mormonism, (not the fndamentalists), Poligamy was removed from their belief system after the Government stepped in and made Monogamous marrage a condition of Utah's statehood.

The fundies still practice it, however.

Those poor kids.....