Sect leader given 10 years in Texas assault
By The Associated Press
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Published: November 11, 2009
ELDORADO, Texas — The first polygamist sect member to face criminal trial following the raid of a West Texas ranch was sentenced to 10 years in prison Tuesday for sexually assaulting an underage girl with whom he had a so-called "spiritual marriage.”
Jurors, who last week convicted
Raymond Jessop, 38, handed down the sentence that includes an $8,000 fine. His attorneys had sought probation for the conviction that could have brought him up to 20 years in prison.
Jessop is the first member of the
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to go on trial since authorities raided the sect’s
Yearning For Zion Ranch in April 2008.
The girl in the assault case, now 21, previously was in a spiritual marriage with Jessop’s brother before being "reassigned” to Jessop when she was 15, according to documents seized at the ranch. She became pregnant at age 16.
An appeal will challenge the search warrants initially obtained with what authorities now acknowledge were false calls to a domestic abuse hot line, said
Willie Jessop, an FLDS spokesman.
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