’Prophet’ Warren Jeffs May Lose Phone Privileges For Preaching From Prison Pulpit [United States]
Cathy Scott
Warren Jeffs, inmate number 08888382 and a self-proclaimed prophet, has been manipulating, controlling and terrorizing a polygamist sect from behind prison walls. But his antics may soon end if a state probe finds his actions to be illegal.
Jeffs has given members of the polygamist sect of the FLDS, a fringe Mormon group, an end-of-year deadline to prove their loyalty to him — or else. And this from a man who is serving out a life sentence at the Powledge Unit maximum-security prison near Palestine, Texas, for sexually assaulting two underage girls at an FLDS compound in Texas.
How was he able to pull it off? Apparently, via telephone calls. “We went through the phone records and did determine that [Jeffs] made two calls to a family member on Christmas Day,” said Michelle Lyons, spokesperson for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. “We’re determining whether the person put that phone call on speaker.”
Jeffs’ surprise sermon was delivered from prison during a First Ward church meeting in the small, rural Arizona town of Colorado City near the Utah state line. In his sermon, Jeffs ordered that his followers be “chosen” by December 31 or be destroyed. Jeffs’ latest do-or-die edict has sent the FLDS community into a frenzy and launched the state inspection general into investigation mode.
Jeffs’ errant behavior, Lyons said, “is something we take seriously.”
Crime, She Writes: Breaking Down the Headlines / Forbes, 29 december 2011
