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REID TAKES ON POLYGAMY

September 13, 2006 12:46 PM

ABC's Z. Byron Wolf reports: The Senate's only Democrat Mormon - Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada - is calling for the Justice Department to set up a polygamy and child abuse task force. In the attached letter he also asks Attorney General Gonzales to consider federal charges against polygamist sect leader Warren Steed Jeffs in case the state charges against him in Arizona and Utah fall through. Reid is careful to point out that. Jeffs' "Fundamentalist" sect is not affiliated with LDS.

September 12, 2006

The Honorable Alberto Gonzales
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C.   20530-0001

Dear Judge Gonzales:

I write to urge that the Department of Justice provide all necessary assistance to state prosecutors in the case of polygamist sect leader Warren Steed Jeffs.  More generally, the federal government should work with state officials to address the broader pattern of serious criminal conduct by all those who use multiple marriages to abuse women and children.   

As you know, Jeffs was recently apprehended by Nevada state troopers and has been extradited to Utah, where he faces rape accomplice charges for arranging the marriage of a teenage girl to an older man in Nevada.  Jeffs is also under indictment in Arizona for sexual assault on a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor.  The charges in both states involve an ongoing course of conduct in which Jeffs arranged marriages between teenage girls and older, married men.  Jeffs himself is said to have at least 40 wives and dozens of children. 

I respectfully suggest that DOJ monitor these state prosecutions and consider federal charges if, for some reason, Jeffs is acquitted in both Utah and Arizona.  I was pleased to learn that the U.S. Attorney in Arizona has charged Jeffs with the federal crime of fleeing prosecution and will seek to keep Jeffs in custody even if he were to satisfy bail conditions on the state charges.  In addition, I suggest that you consider the establishment of a federal task force to investigate the interstate activity of the larger polygamist community in the western United States. 

There is a substantial federal interest in preventing the systematic child abuse involved in this modern day polygamy movement.  The so-called “Fundamentalist” sect of which Jeffs is a leader broke away from the Mormon Church more than a century ago and has been fully disavowed by the leadership and mainstream membership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The group is reported to have thousands of members, the majority of whom live in the border region of Utah, Arizona, and my state of Nevada. Forced marriages between teenage girls and older men are prevalent in the isolated communities in which these individuals reside, and interstate travel is frequent.

For too long, this outrageous activity has been masked in the guise of religious freedom.  But child abuse and human servitude have nothing to do with religious freedom and must not be tolerated.  Individuals who force minors into adult relationships and marriage must be brought to justice.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Sincerely,



HARRY REID
United States Senator

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