Warren Jeffs Kissing And Cuddling Underage Brides Pictures Introduced As Evidence (PHOTOS)

SAN ANGELO, Texas -- Shocking new photographs show polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs holding and kissing two different young girls in wedding-like photos. [scroll for more]

The images, dated July 2006 and January 2005, were entered into evidence last Friday by the defense in the custody battle over a 1-week-old baby, the Deseret News reported. The case was sparked by an April 3 raid of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints compound in Eldorado, Texas.

In one set of photos Jeffs appears with a girl named girl named Loretta under the label of "First Anniversary" with a date of Jan. 26, 2005. The second set show him and a girl named Merrianne and are dated July 27, 2006.

The Texas Child Protective Services lawyers would not reveal how they obtained the photos, but are using them to allege the culture at the compound is abusive, and forces young girls to become child brides, the Deseret News reported.

FOX News' Policy is Not to Identify Possible Underage Victims of Sexual Crimes.

Dan Jessop, the father of the baby at the center of this particular case, told reporters on Friday the photos are "shocking."

"You see far worse, immoral, disgusting, gross things than a girl kissing a man in the streets of your own community," said Jessop, according to the newspaper. "And you and I don't know if the state of Texas fabricated that."

******
The Deseret News and Dallas Morning News, both of which have more on the story, report that one of the girls in the photos was 12.

******
The Smoking Gun first had the Warren Jeffs kissing photos.

Comments

[pie8ter]

Please remove the photos....­They are disgusting.

Now that this cult members have been arrested, McCaine and the republicans lost few votes in Texas.

[meremortal]

Agreed. Why is this site publishing photos of underage abuse victims? Disgusting.

[EndianaDOTcom]

Just wondering.­..

If California's provision to permit gay marriages prevails in court, would polygamous marriages also be permitted?

[shockmagog]

The answer:

Only if polygamy involves two consenting adults.

[groucho]

Stop wondering and go read a book. this had NOTHING to do with homosexuality. read the statistics, straight men molest girls for the most part. try to stay on topic

[kellygrrrl]

not when you are talking about minors

[KarateKid]

Have any of you thought about how they "acquired" these photos, before the trial has come to a conclusion? Has it occurred to anyone that maybe one side is trying to stoke people's hysteria against a religious sect they despise?

Does anyone remember that in this country, people are innocent until proven guilty?

And for you Catholics in this thread, you ought not to be casting stones.

The Texas court ruled that the children be returned to their parents; now, why do you think they made that ruling?

I'm not an advocate of FLDS nor do I condone child abuse, but we are a nation of laws, not of lynch mobs.

[PAposter]

I'm a Catholic, "Karate", and I assume you are talking about Priests. If that is the case, I just want
to make it clear that I would be the first one asking the Judge to execute my Priest if he raped a child.

Tortured souls, need to be put out of their misery.

Peace be with you, TROLL!

[KarateKid]

Correct, re: priests. And not everything has come out thanks to the massive coverup. You ought to dedicate yourselves to cleaning up your own mess before you pass judgment on others.

[KarateKid]

Correct, re: priests. And how many have gone to prison? Your Church has covered up this mess to a great degree, paid a huge fine, then reassigned the offending priests. Why aren't you calling for their heads?

That was my reference to casting stones on others while your church has a lot to answer for yet.

[supermanolo]

As a Catholic and progressive I don't know what you mean about "casting stones". Perversion shouldn't be tolerated. If you mean the sick priests who pray on altar boys and girls it is just as unacceptable, just as perverse and just as wrong. If you think most Catholics stand for this you haven't been following the Priest abuse scandal other than by Fox News proxy or by speaking with rational Catholics. What Jeffs did is sick and child abuse, what some priests did (and do) is too.

[KarateKid]

That's assuming the courts rule that it was perversion. And your church has not come completely clean, paying a humongous fine then reassigning the offending priests. So, you should clean up your own church before passing judgment not based on facts as presented in court. How many priests have been defrocked or sent to prison?

[mistlesuede]

As a Catholic, I am not married to someone 30 years older than I, nor is he married to 5 or more other women. I have no clue where that "casting stones" crap came from? You sound a little crazy.

[colleen2]

"And for you Catholics in this thread, you ought not to be casting stones."

Beg pardon? I'm not Catholic but, unlike you, the Catholics I know condemn and are disgusted by the pedophilia within the Church. I would also add that the pedophilia problems amoungst right wing Christians of all sects are widespread and pervasive.
In this case it's Mormons who should apologise (not that y'all ever will accept responsibility or admit knowledge)

[Mort]

Why should I apologize for something Jeffs does?

[realitycheck7]

does it matter how the photos were obtained?

this is obviously a cult that fosters child abuse

[ipitombi]

This man is a sicko. Lock him up, and throw away the door.

[PAposter]

He is locked up, now they can circulate these pictures to the general population at the prison, and Jeffs can see what it's like to have sex against your will. I hope they beat the f*cking shit out this coward.

[renoir]

the incidence of rape in prison seems to be a running joke in the general population of our country. i don't believe in an eye for an eye and i do believe that jeffs should be locked up but kept safe.

i'm amazed by the constant reference in our country about prison rape. it's a given and it's presumed: go to prison = certain rape. doesn't it concern you that incarcerated are endangered? or do you not believe in humanitarian treatment of our incarcerated?

a country that allows sanctioned torture (ala guantanamo) and systematic and presumed rape of inmates (ala every prison in the country) while law abiding citizens stand by and say "serves them right" is a country that is long over-due for a major philosophical overhaul.

[helonias]

So does anyone have any comments about religious freedoms?

This is so wrong in so many ways, just imagine your 12 year old daughter in the photo.

[BlackLeatherRain]

I want to deliver multiple swift kicks to Warren Jeffs' naughty bits.

Having said that, I believe Jeffs is in jail. These pics only prove that he's a pedophile and a disgusting usurer of women and children - not that the compound in Texas was participating in this BS, too.

(I do admit to thinking they likely were)

[djreedps]

barf

These pictures don't look much different from the so-called "purity ball" pictures where evangelical fathers would take their teenage daughters to a prom-like ceremony. At the purity ball, the daughters would sign pledges to remain virgins until they are married.

All of this must stop.

[PAposter]

...but did they passionately kiss they're fathers, and these girls aren't teenagers.

Apples and Oranges.

[Oilygarch]

No.

Spoilt Latter Day Apples and Pseudo-Eva­ngelic-Che­rries

[ZimboChick]

you are so right....t­hat purity ball stuff is nauseating­...especia­lly the fact that the fathers give their daughters "promise rings" that they will stay virgins...­.hmmm

[tsloan]

this is sick....th­ese pictures should not be posted at all.

[nolalily]

Eeeeeick.

[DCCommuter]

The regular Morman/Later Day Saints should make this cult change the name of their group.

[Mort]

I wish we could. It'd sure save a lot of confusion and misdirected nastiness.

[robXdion]

Well, that should kill Mitt Romney's shot at VP. It's not fair, but this is sick.

[PAposter]

I was thinking the same thing, "robX"

[bdul26]

Why? Mitt Romney is not FLDS.

[ladyv]

Because not that many people know there *is* a difference, and even fewer know what that difference is. Also, there is a perception that the LDS church tacitly permits the FLDS people to do this by not aggressively campaigning to disassociate themselves from them, and since the FLDS's heaviest operations are located in the same states with the heaviest LDS operations, it's not hard to conflate a simple unwillingness to engage (which I believe is what the LDS intends) with unvoiced acceptance.

To sum up, you're kidding yourself if you think that any significant percentage of people will differentiate between the LDS of Utah and Arizona and extended branches that used to be polygamists and the FLDS of Utah and Arizona and extended branches that are still polygamists and pedos, besides.

[lisakaz2]

Yeeeeeek! How old are those girls?

[Naithom]

They look about 13 tops. That's just wrong.

[PAposter]

This is the sickest f*cking thing I have ever seen. I swear the judge that sent those kids back, is somehow connected to these Child Abusers. This is heartbreaking, to say the least. I going to research that Judge.

[mamak]

sick SOB

[deecee22]

what is more disgusting and no one is talking about is; 2 million tax payer dollars a year
goes to these people in the form of welfare payments, to support their illegal lifestyle.

[lisakaz2]

Good point. That warrants jail right there for fraud.

[PuffAndStuff]

$2M .. are you sure? ... I think the annual figure has GOT to be FAR higher than that!

ALL of the women -- except the "1st wives", whom the husband claims/files with -- claims herself as 'a single parent', claims ALL (5-6-7-8-?) of her children as her dependants, and that all of them are without any source of income ....

Multiply that figure by ALL of the '2nd' and '3rd' and so-on additional wives/women in the FDLS community and it has got to be well beyond $2M that they're swindling from the system.

[PAposter]

First of all, I didn't think you could collect welfare if you know the whereabouts of the child's father. So, I'm really not sure how they are funded. I can assure you, if they were being funded through public assistance, that's over. What a bunch of sorry ass men that rape little children and make their wives collect welfare to support the family. What a bunch of weak ass losers.

[Naithom]

How is it that the social workers don't know this and flag it? It's fraud.

Why should we be expected to foot the bill for child abusers to live in compounds?

[Stargazer51]

I was thinking back to my own weddings, ... and the only person I kissed as Jeffs is in these photos, ... was my wife, ... and only after she was declared to be so. "Clergy"? I don't think so! If I was the father of one of those girls, ... Jeffs would have eaten his teeth, at the least.

Texas, ... I hope you did not totally screw up in the identification of these young children, ... They are obviously at risk to the "mem" who claim to be their husbands and fathers.

How is it that these "brave men" send their women folk on to Larry King to beg for their children back? Just curious what sort of men this cult is breeding, ... or is it all for the fun and games to the old fools who run the sect?

[PAposter]

"Star" the fathers offer their girls to Jeffs, these marriages are not legal, how could they be, even if a clergyman were present, these girls are minors. It's making me sick to my stomach, just talking about this. I just want to research the Judge that sent some kids back last week.

BTW, the boys are also being sexually abused. I hate sh*t like this, I feel so helpless. If that Judge is in any way connected, God help him.

[tschlak]

The girls are not offered. The "prophet" chooses who marries whom, but most do see it as a honor to be chosen and therefore wouldn't put up a fight about it. If they did, they'd be banished from the community and probably never see their kids again.

[bamboozled]

I love the comment of "You see far worse, immoral, disgusting, gross things than a girl kissing a man in the streets of your own community.­" Like what?

I think if you're arguing that prostitution or drug use is worse than pedophilia, you're skating on thin ice.

There's no doubt that pedophiles exist outside of their secret society, but our community certainly doesn't condone that behaviour or turn a blind eye when happens "in the streets."