- 23 hours ago
مسلسل Prisoner of the Prophet مترجم - Episode 1
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:14a polygamous sect of 8,000 people are still living a secret life church members in their
00:21signature clothing rarely engage with outsiders this cult that I was raised in there's mental
00:27illness domestic violence isolation they call themselves fundamentalist Mormons and they live
00:34in the largest polygamous community in the United States I would put the FLDS at the extreme end of
00:41the continuum of cults fortress like walls surrounding homes and businesses Colorado City
00:46is not welcoming I felt like there's a gun to my head it's not a choice you do it or
00:55else
00:55we believed we were doing something good but it just did not turn out that way
01:03the difference between a mainstream church and a cult is the all-powerful leader good morning everyone
01:12Warren Jeffs is their leader everything he does and everything he says is a direct line from God
01:19he's the prophet and then there's his spiritual wives or plural wives he was singling me out from a young
01:27age I was 18 years old I'm in the room with this man who's 50 years old and he said
01:35do you want to come
01:37sit on my lap I was weren't just 65th wife you have to be converted to think of God and
01:47your husband and every thought desire work action the church became a
01:55church run by and controlled by a madman close to Heavenly Father while you're young the charges started
02:06with the abuse of young children Jeffs is wanted on charges of sexual conduct with a minor he goes on
02:13the run he is the fugitive leader of a polygamist church but he keeps running the FLDS I started to
02:21realize I'm not safe because I knew too much he knew these women and girls could tell law enforcement what
02:29was going on Warren had set up the compounds to hide people from the law I'm locked up in a
02:37compound in South Dakota
02:38because Warren Jeffs feared that if I escaped I would tell people what I know he's still the prophet he
02:48has all these loyal followers we
02:50couldn't get a willing victim to come forward now a 25 year old woman has apparently escaped Arizona
02:57authorities say she was one of Warren Jeffs 87 wives I knew the rabbit hole went really deep I just
03:05didn't
03:06realize how much darker it can keep going it all just went off the rails Warren Jeffs is still in
03:16control to this day and he is still dangerous
03:55I didn't want to tell my story especially when I first escaped
04:15I've never told my full story I had so much trauma I was stripped of everything inside the FLDS
04:37long hair was supposed to be a sacred symbol for girls in the FLDS when I was younger I had
04:43hair
04:43clear down past my knees and so like I can braid French braids and stuff really easy I don't do
04:51it
04:51like I used to because I don't have long hair like I used to and I also don't like looking
04:57like my past it's hard
05:07the church calls you an apostate if you leave them because like you should know better than to leave the
05:13God that you're raised with because you're taught your whole life about him and to leave him is like saying
05:21that you know better
05:32I was born into the FLDS religion
05:36I'm proud to be an apostate of FLDS
05:43so the FLDS stands for Fundamentalist Latter-day Saints
05:50Latter-day Saints is mainstream Mormon so they're very different than FLDS
05:59FLDS believe in polygamy that's the main difference between them
06:13in the church you had to have three wives to make it into the highest kingdom of heaven where God
06:17is
06:17so if you don't make it into that kingdom then you'll never see God again so you have to have
06:23at least three wives
06:30Joseph Smith founded the Mormon church pretty much from the beginning the Mormons practice polygamy
06:38until the point at which Utah where huge numbers of them had settled wanted to become a state and in
06:45order to become a state they were told by the government that they had to give up the practice of
06:50polygamy
06:52so there's a split right there
06:54the Latter-day Saints went to one leader and the ones that wanted to live polygamy went to another location
07:13the church had believed in new revelations and the prophet was the only one who could update the revelation
07:19they believed they could hear God
07:33in all of Mormonism going back clear back to its first roots with Joseph Smith the leader of the church
07:41is believed to be a prophet of God
07:44the prophet would update his new revelations every once in a while and one of them was you can't watch
07:48movies you know
07:49and then later it was you can't wear red you couldn't wear any jewelry your dresses had to be a
07:54certain length and they changed that a few times it got longer and longer
07:58we had to follow all the rules follow all the commandments they can only be a prophet if the old
08:06one dies
08:06they'll be a new prophet those prophets write new rules
08:10Leroy Johnson was the prophet when I was born but he died within like a year
08:16Rulon Jeffs was the next prophet that my parents followed
08:20and Warren was Rulon Jeffs' son
08:24the mythology around Warren is that you know he was a sick child that the family had to take great
08:31care for him and that kind of through the family and God's grace he survived and thrived
08:40so Warren grew up in Salt Lake City and the surrounding area
08:45he was smart he helped with computers
08:49he helped run some of the FLDS businesses
08:53and of course he was also in his father's good graces
08:56and so he wound up teaching at Ulta Academy
09:00the kind of family school operated by Rulon Jeffs in Salt Lake City
09:04and pretty soon Rulon makes Warren the principal there
09:14good morning everyone
09:15good morning
09:17they taught us in our schools that nobody ever made it on the moon
09:22and the dinosaurs they never really existed on our planet
09:26they lived on other worlds and when they made our world
09:29they came from pieces of other planets and put them together
09:32and that's why you find bones but they never lived on our planet
09:37it wasn't really about our grades so much as like our behaviors
09:42we listened to a sermon every morning about the Book of Mormon
09:49and then when we listened to history
09:51it was all church history
09:52but one with ancient church history
09:55or you know about prophets
09:57it was never about the world
10:00so we would just listen to church
10:04it was so much indoctrination
10:09the situation with the FLDS was that you had this one absolute authoritarian leader
10:17I think it's important to understand that Rulon Jeffs he was very harsh
10:21he was very authoritarian
10:23and in my opinion he was occupying a position
10:28not unlike other cult leaders
10:30but he knew how to stay within the bounds of propriety
10:36to the extent that the authorities never came in
10:39previously in what was then the FLDS
10:43men became the prophet
10:45only after having served on a council
10:48and then there was kind of a seniority process
10:50as to who became the next president or prophet
10:53Warren just kind of usurped all that
11:02Warren Jeffs said God chose me and if you don't accept it then you need to leave the church
11:08and he taught us from childhood that God would not allow the leader to lead the people astray
11:13once Warren Jeffs took over
11:16he just created this entire change in the church
11:22it all just went off the rails
11:27you must
11:29get close to Heavenly Father while you're young
11:34what happens to people that enter into this great law of celestial and plural marriage
11:39and then turn away from them
11:43the revelation says they will be destroyed
11:47and then delivered over to the buffetings of Satan
11:50to suffer a misery
11:53or they can't be happy
11:55until they've suffered for every wrong
12:00the difference between a mainstream church and a cult is the all-powerful leader
12:07who becomes the defining element and driving force of the group
12:12that leader becomes an object of worship
12:15and when Warren Jeffs took over
12:18he became the worst nightmare of the FLDS
12:23typically when we think about cults we think of people getting recruited
12:26you know in the early days recruited off the streets and at bus stations or through bulletin boards
12:31and now being recruited over the internet or through workshops you get sent to whatever it might be
12:36but in the case of the FLDS
12:39I mean Warren Jeffs didn't have to do that
12:41he didn't really have to recruit
12:42he had a built-in cult
12:43because these people were born into the group
12:58I grew up in Salt Lake
13:00I did grow up in a polygamous community and I had two mothers
13:05I had thirteen brothers and sisters so I'm one of fourteen
13:09we were very much normal kids
13:11like we had board games
13:13we had family night
13:14we went camping a lot
13:16we were fishing a lot
13:18we had plays and music
13:21when I was younger in school
13:23we had a bunch of things that we liked to do
13:26until Warren Jeffs came
13:28when Warren Jeffs came he outlawed all the toys and all the things
13:33he didn't want anybody doing anything but working
13:38Warren Jeffs I remember him commanding people from Salt Lake
13:44they were all moving down to the creek
13:46I think it was to get everybody in the same location
13:56this whole area is considered Short Creek
14:00everyone around here calls it the creek
14:05of course they used the border between Utah and Arizona
14:07that's why they built Hilldale, Colorado City
14:09if one authority is coming after them
14:11they scoot over the other side
14:14the early settlers in Short Creek
14:17understood that the law might come after them
14:21because what they were doing was illegal in both Arizona and Utah
14:27the main line and the middle of town
14:30divides Utah from Arizona
14:33there is no perceptible difference between the two sides of the border
14:39for that matter the municipal governments
14:42in Short Creek, Hilldale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona
14:47are run by FLDS members
14:50and installed basically by Warren or the FLDS leadership
14:55Warren Jeffs was an incredibly powerful man
14:59he controlled the police forces in Hilldale
15:03in Colorado City
15:05and he had a great deal of money and power and property
15:09people who are in Short Creek now
15:14some of them still believe in Warren Jeffs
15:17and still follow him
15:30he is still in control to this day
15:34he can't stop being the prophet till he dies
15:37and then there will be another one
15:40some people have been able to break free and escape
15:43and find a path outside of those walls
15:46but there are hundreds of people that are still trapped in there
16:01they're trapped in there, women and children
16:04they're just right over there
16:08inside of those walls is my family and friends
16:11like people that are FLDS, people that I grew up with
16:14people I went to school with
16:25they're people, they're humans
16:26that are literally trapped physically and mentally
16:30and they don't know how to break free all the time
16:54I work with former FLDS families, women and children
17:02hi John
17:04the women that I work one on one with
17:05some of them have left the FLDS similar to what I did
17:11this kind of work, it's really powerful
17:14it means everything to me
17:15because I definitely know what it feels like to not be safe
17:21some of that stuff is going to take a while
17:24to heal from all those ripple effects
17:30there's really not a lot of communities like ours
17:35what I could say was my experience
17:37you could have gotten something totally different
17:39even though we went through the exact same thing
17:42I feel like that I've made a lot of strides
17:46but I also feel like I have to like keep making strides
17:53I never gave up on God
17:55which is really rare for somebody around here
17:57that come from something that was abusive
18:00that was in the name of God
18:04Warren Jeffs really made a lot of changes to the community
18:10I think he's most well known for the fact that he took a lot of young wives
18:26my older sister married Rulon
18:28my sister was barely 18
18:31she was like 18 in a week or something when she married Rulon
18:35he was 80 or so
18:38for my sister to go into Rulon's family was like this great honor that she even made it
18:42because that's really rare for somebody to make it into his family
18:44without a lot of generations of people in the church
18:49so that was like the ultimate blessing
18:51the highest that a girl could go
18:53to rise in Rulon's family
18:54you would have more opportunities to make it into heaven
18:58my mother thought it was an honor
19:01and we did go to her wedding and everything
19:05and Warren Jeffs would sit at the table with his father
19:09several of his wives said
19:10when you went up to shake Warren's hand and his father's hand
19:14to tell him thank you for the meal
19:19then they followed you out with their eyes
19:24after that he would single me out like a lot
19:27I was 14 when that happened
19:31in my opinion Warren Jeffs is a psychopath
19:34deeply disturbed person
19:36with a predilection for preying upon children
19:42the ones I really like are the submissive ones
19:44that never voice anything
19:46because then they can do whatever they want
19:50he wanted me
20:00there's a lot of men that were born and raised in the FLDS
20:03that have become apostate
20:04an apostate is somebody who has left
20:07or has been kicked out of the church
20:10I had got to know Brielle early on
20:13and I had seen how much she had improved
20:16from when I first met her
20:18she was pretty depressed
20:20her life had been changed quite a bit
20:23and the stuff that happened to her I could tell
20:25and a lot of the women that come out of it
20:27have had a tough experience like that
20:29I really appreciate what she's doing
20:32to bring our community back to a normal
20:38this is the part that woke me up
20:40was this kind of this bastard right here
20:4494 years old with 65 wives
20:47that's the part what woke me up
20:48was when these young girls
20:49that were age 16, 17, 18 years old
20:52marrying this guy
20:53and that's the part where I got pretty ticked off
20:55when I was 10, 12 years old
20:57seeing this kind of crap
20:58and going and shaking their hands
21:00at the meeting on Sunday
21:02and seeing all these women sitting down there
21:03and people that I grew up with
21:08and it got pretty twisted
21:10and I had to tell some of the guys
21:12that hey you guys went from polygamy
21:13clear over to polyamory
21:15or polyander
21:15or whatever you want to call it
21:18marrying other men's wives and daughters
21:20that's a goddamn mess
21:22the majority of men that are out now
21:24I do feel like that
21:26that they're tired of it
21:27you know like people are just
21:28to start waking up like that was a big mess
21:30that was just a big
21:32really big mess
21:34this is my sister
21:37that's your sister?
21:38yeah
21:38I was married to Roland first
21:39and then married Warren before me
21:43the older Roland Jeffs got
21:45the sicker and sicker he got
21:46the more dependent he was on Warren
21:48or at least the more Warren
21:50inserted himself into his father's affairs
21:52of course he was marrying his father off
21:54to much younger women
21:56and Roland just kind of
21:57kept accumulating wives
22:00my understanding of the history
22:02is that previous prophets
22:04had been sort of the grandfather image
22:07they had authority through their religion
22:09and through their supposed direct connection
22:12with the almighty
22:13but they didn't abuse it
22:15from what I understood
22:17after Roland died
22:18then most of these women
22:19ended up marrying Warren Jeff
22:24I remember Warren getting up
22:26and getting all pissed off
22:27and saying you leave everybody
22:29leave their hands off fathers' wives
22:31and meeting
22:32and then he marries them off
22:33and then he marries them off
22:40Growing up here
22:43had its plus and minuses
22:45it was all about culture and community to me
22:50this is a typical polygamist home right here
22:53it'd be about a 14, 16 bedroom home
22:56they're quite large the homes
22:58there's a lot of strange engineering on them
23:01from what I see growing up
23:03and being raised in one of these large homes
23:05I've got 37 brothers and sisters
23:08and five moms
23:09it was actually pretty fun growing up that way
23:16I personally feel partially responsible for what happened here
23:23because when I finally stood up and said no
23:26then it quit happening
23:28and so I realized that I was a co-creator in it
23:32and so I decided that I was going to do whatever I could
23:36to help clean up the mess that we had made
23:41first off I had a wonderful experience in polygamy
23:46being in you know in big families
23:50we thought we believed we were doing something good
23:55but it just didn't turn out that way
23:57just did not turn out that way
24:00we were our own worst enemies
24:04in Mormon polygamy at least
24:07it's very patriarchal
24:09and by Mormon polygamy
24:11I don't mean the mainstream Mormon church
24:13I mean the offshoots that still practice polygamy
24:17at its root
24:18it's always a patriarchal arrangement
24:22that keeps men in charge
24:25and the idea that a woman would fall in love with someone
24:30and marry someone because that's what she wanted to do
24:33that just is not part of their culture
24:37part of their community
24:39marriages were arranged
24:40they were decided upon by the hierarchy
24:43and you dare not refuse
24:47there was some jealousy issues with some of the women at times
24:51that's the honest truth of it
24:52there really was some jealousy issues that did go on
24:54but it was actually pretty neat when the unity's there
24:58but if there ain't unity there it don't work
25:00it can crumble
25:04apostate is just a fear word
25:06that they put in our heads to keep you in control
25:10and keep you doing what they want you to do
25:13I grew up with polygamy doctrine being the most important thing
25:19that we should do and live and be and be faithful and endure to the end
25:25Joseph Smith had said polygamy would need to be lived
25:28and that if women did not live plural marriage
25:30they would be destroyed
25:32we were to do this or we would not get to heaven
25:35and we wouldn't have our children in heaven
25:37so that was my main reason for thinking I had to live plural marriage
25:42the FLDS were starting to assign marriages
25:47eternity was within your reach
25:49you will just live faithful
25:51so the prophet can place you properly in marriage
25:56God will tell our leaders
25:57and they will know and we'll marry the right person
26:00it was so heartbreaking
26:03to all of us
26:05young women
26:07but we had to go along with it
26:09and I had practiced what my mom told me
26:12suffer and endure the end
26:13but with a smile
26:14keep sweet
26:19so keep sweet was a very strict doctrine in all my childhood
26:23I remember doodling on all the classroom papers
26:25like keep sweet was just like a commonly used phrase
26:28it meant you could have no other emotions
26:31except for sweetness
26:34sweetness was the only one God would accept
26:35anything else was of the devil
26:38and that's the only way polygamy really works
26:41is if all the wives are sweet
26:44and the husband makes all the decisions
26:46by keeping sweet
26:47loving one another
26:49by obeying the prophet
26:52those good people
26:53will receive the greatest of blessings
26:56it didn't matter how miserable
26:58we were you know you just have to hold it all in
27:01and if you don't you're considered evil
27:03I did it really well in public
27:07in fact everybody thought
27:09I was one of the happiest sister wives in the whole world
27:12and so does
27:13I thought that about all the others
27:15because we were really good at putting on that persona
27:20they didn't just say keep sweet
27:21they would say keep sweet no matter what
27:22it's a matter of life and death
27:24you would be punished
27:26like lose your family if you allowed other emotions into your family
27:31I felt like there's a gun to my head
27:39it's not a choice
27:41you do it or else
27:54so Warren Jeffs was God's prophet
27:58and he was God's mouthpiece
28:00and so if he told a man that he needed to marry a young wife
28:05they didn't question that decision
28:07and if a girl was told to marry this older man
28:13she didn't question it and her parents didn't question it
28:16that was God's will
28:31Warren Jeffs had so much control
28:34he made fathers
28:35choose him over their families
28:40a lot of flashbacks
28:51everything was pain
29:01this place is
29:03where I was married to Warren Jeffs
29:07it reminds me of pain
29:15so I was 18 two months in one day
29:21I was in the kitchen
29:22and I remember turning around really quickly to see my father standing in the doorway with his face all red
29:30I remember him turning to me and saying
29:34let's go on a drive
29:38it was late
29:39I remember it was dark outside
29:42when I get in the car
29:44with my father
29:45and I notice that he is crying like sobbing
29:49and he tells me I'm sorry
29:52I remember thinking like
29:55what's next
29:57my mother didn't follow us
29:59my mother didn't follow us
30:00she wasn't invited
30:01and we pulled up to a certain building
30:04and somebody came out
30:05told us that we need to get back in the car
30:09and he will escort us to the right house that Warren Jeffs is at
30:14that's when I realized that I was marrying Warren
30:19I was really scared
30:21I was really scared
30:25dear wives
30:28realizing happiness is only being a part and a strength to your husband
30:35get close to him
30:38confide in him
30:40don't let your former family
30:44be your total confidence
30:47it should be your new husband
30:50turn to him with a full heart
30:53and give him the opportunity
30:56to lead you right
31:03he drove me up to Ruland's house where they told him to go
31:13my father went in
31:15knocked on the door
31:17went into their big family room
31:19and it was lit darkly
31:21that's what I remember
31:22it was a darkly lit room
31:24and Warren was sitting on a chair
31:26and then he sends my father out of the room
31:31and father had to do what the prophet wanted
31:33that's all in the doctrine
31:34if he questioned Warren Jeffs
31:37he could lose his family over that
31:40so he just like held it all in
31:45I'm in the room with this man who's 50 years old
31:50then he turned to me and he said
31:52do you want to come sit on my lap?
31:56immediately I knew I wasn't safe
32:07so I was just like really nervous
32:12and he's like come over here and sit on my lap
32:16and I like hesitated
32:18and I saw like his face turn to anger
32:24I could have said no
32:26I could have said no
32:26but I knew that if I said no
32:29I would be punished
32:31so like I would have a severe repercussion
32:39I sat on his lap and he touched me
32:41and he asked me are you close to your mother?
32:43because obviously if I was close to my mother
32:45I'd have the education I needed to be able to touch him
32:50I've never had sex education
32:51my mother never taught me anything
32:54my older sister told me as a teenager
32:57she said has mother ever come to you and given you your education that you need
33:02and I said no
33:02I was kind of confused by that because I was old enough
33:06I don't know what he actually expected
33:08but I know when I went over and sat on his lap
33:11he started touching me all over
33:14it was really horrible the whole situation
33:19I remember zoning out at that time
33:23and then he turned to me and he said
33:27who has God told you that you were supposed to marry?
33:32he put it on to me
33:34I remember looking away and telling him
33:38like I wondered
33:40if I was supposed to go in the family with my sister
33:43and he said
33:45you're right
33:46God has given you a strong testimony
33:50he's telling me that
33:52God revealed I was supposed to marry him
33:56I didn't realize what I was walking into
34:02we did kiss at the end, there was no ring
34:11I was Warren Jeff's 65th wife
34:13I was Warren Jeff's 65th wife
34:14I was Warren Jeff's 65th wife
34:19Being married at an extremely young age to the leader of the group, right?
34:25so that's supposed to be a big honor
34:26it was a holy thing
34:29the parents believe that by surrendering their child to him
34:34it was a holy thing
34:34in their minds
34:35this was the prophet
34:37this was God speaking
34:39and if God wanted to use their child
34:43it wasn't a curse
34:45it was a blessing
34:46it was an honor that their child had been chosen
34:53Brielle may have been of legal age
34:55when she got into this spiritual marriage
34:58I would question whether this was a consensual marriage at this point
35:02because
35:02she grew up in this religion
35:04so there would have been a lot of pressure on her
35:07to do what Warren said
35:09or what her parents said
35:10and go along with this marriage
35:12and again, even though she's 18
35:14she doesn't really have anywhere to go
35:17I mean, she's never really been outside the faith
35:20she doesn't have her own income
35:23she doesn't have a credit history
35:25so there was a lot of pressure on Brielle
35:28to just go ahead and marry Warren
35:31once I married Warren Jeffs
35:33things immediately changed
35:46after I married Warren, I was moved to Texas
35:49to live with Warren and his wives
35:58everyone in town wondering why the nation's largest polygamy practicing sect
36:02chose this part of Texas
36:03to build a sprawling religious compound
36:07a guard tower, a cement plant
36:09acre upon acre of farmed fields
36:12what does it look like in there?
36:14it's a little city
36:15he says, now I'm gonna take all the people that are worthy to these elite compounds
36:22that's how he first started splitting at families
36:24I became one of the elite and was moved into an elite compound
36:28without, like, my family
36:31he would, in this way, fracture families
36:34he would break them apart
36:35he would isolate people so that he could work on them psychologically and emotionally
36:43I really believed when I married him that I would meet God
36:46you know, through him
36:47because that was what I was raised like
36:49but when I figured out how he was and stuff
36:52then it changed my perspective
36:55one time, he pulled me aside
36:57and he said, you don't talk very clear
37:00and you need to talk clearer
37:02and I was like, okay
37:04and that had always been a trigger for me
37:05because I, I didn't talk very clear and I took it personally
37:09when people would call me out on it
37:12he would torture people
37:14based on what they needed, what they knew, what they had
37:18just to experiment
37:28everyday we were told
37:30you will be a mother in Zion
37:33like, it wasn't, what do you want to be
37:36it was more of, you will be a mother
37:39he kept trying to talk to me
37:41he kept, like, trying to make conversation
37:45I kept trying to avoid him
37:48it was, every time I saw him
37:50I would just, like, freeze
37:53and he noticed that behavior
37:56at first, it was kind of like a game
37:58because he thought that I was playing hard to get
38:01in it
38:02it actually made him, like, zone in on me
38:04which was actually bad for me
38:06but I couldn't turn it off
38:08I couldn't turn it off
38:09like, I was terrified of him
38:12there was times, like, we had these huge dining rooms
38:15and he would look clear across the room
38:17and just, like, keep his eyes on me
38:24because of the attention that I was getting from Warren Jeff's
38:26the other wives were quite competitive
38:29and a little jealous
38:31so then they start reporting more
38:33it gives them brownie points to tell on me
38:36because of the wives and the tension
38:39there was a negative energy there
38:41later it got really, really ugly
38:43because he figured out that I really wasn't attracted to him
38:46and it made him mad
38:48because, like, he thinks people should worship him
38:51like, I'm his wife, like, I'm acting that way
38:54as a wife, I'm expected to be, like, following God
38:56and, like, I'm supposed to be really attracted to him
38:59I was in the highest position a lady could be in
39:02in the church
39:03and it felt like I was literally falling
39:06every single day
39:08you have to be converted to think
39:11of God and your husband
39:14that's me
39:16in every thought, desire, work, action
39:22and I'm here to do the will of my father
39:24and this heavenly father
39:27I'm asking the bird to put a shield of protection around you
39:32now reach
39:34that gift of protection
39:36called
39:38sweetness
39:43we had big rooms
39:44and they had, like, bunk beds
39:45and they had, like, several wives in the same room
39:48he came into the room and closed the door
39:49and he's like, where is everyone in this room?
39:51I need everybody gathered together
39:53he had them all sit down in a circle
39:55and then he singled me out
39:57and he said, I need you to come give me a hug
40:06what he's wanting me to do
40:08is to show him some type of sexual affection in front of everyone
40:13so that I can show obedience to him
40:15and because I don't
40:17he shows all of them that he's mad at me
40:21and that's not a good sign for him to be mad at me
40:27I start to realize how much control and how much power
40:30and how, like, deep in this I am
40:34I don't know if I can survive this
40:38like, I'm trapped
40:51Warren Jeffs used a variety of means of control
40:55not just sexual
40:56not just influencing the way they lived in their everyday lives
41:01and their behavior
41:01but he also used legal means and property means
41:06the UEP was created in 1942
41:09called the United Effort Plan Trust
41:12it was all owned by the community
41:14for the benefit of the people
41:24in the beginning of the UEP
41:26they were trying to live what they called the United Order
41:30and it's something that Joseph Smith taught in his teachings
41:32and it's the correct principle if people can live it correctly
41:38in the UEP
41:39if you decide to be a part of it
41:42you put in your lands and your home
41:44and you try to help make sure that nobody was going in the community
41:48without a roof over their heads
41:49without food on their table
41:50without clothes on their back
41:53they would give out lots to us kids
41:56as we got old enough to start building our own house
42:00and doing our own thing
42:01and that's the way you got to build a house here
42:03or live here and be part of the community
42:06the part that went wrong so bad
42:08is the Jeffs
42:11when Warren Jeffs became the leader
42:12he got up in church
42:14and he told everybody
42:15if you want to stay a member of the church
42:17you have to donate your titles to your houses
42:19to the United Effort Plan Trust
42:23so the Jeffs started requiring everybody
42:26swear their allegiance to the church
42:28and everything they owned
42:30their cars, their businesses, their families
42:33all belonged to the church
42:35in 1998 Warren Jeffs changed the trust
42:38from a business trust over to a charitable trust
42:42and so that way there was only one person
42:45which is Warren Jeffs owned everything
42:47people didn't own their own homes
42:49he did
42:50so that became a leverage point for power
42:54Warren Jeffs absolutely controlled
42:55over a hundred million dollars of assets
42:58and he owned the houses that his congregation lived in
43:03so he had the power
43:04to tell somebody
43:05you're out of the church
43:07you're out of your house
43:08you're out of your job
43:09and you're out of your family
43:10because I'm taking your wife and children away from you
43:14Warren Jeffs would get up and just say
43:16these men are now cut off the church
43:17they need to leave immediately
43:19they're not welcome on UEP property
43:21and they need to go repent from a distance
43:23and they are now cut off
43:27and sometimes he would send people away
43:28and not even tell them a reason
43:30like he would just send them away
43:32it was really hard on everyone
43:34because the people in the church
43:36believed Warren Jeffs
43:37and so some of your own families would be like
43:39oh yeah, they all lost the spirit of God
43:42they just went and did terrible things
43:43and that's why they got kicked out
43:46they could say
43:46you displease me
43:48you've been critical
43:49or you've done something I don't like
43:52if you didn't believe in their doctrines
43:54or their beliefs
43:55then they could take your family away
43:57they could take your house away
43:58and they use that as control over the people
44:02to make you do things against your will
44:04they took our homes to force us to turn over a young daughter
44:10obviously the biggest way that he could require parents
44:13to show loyalty to him
44:16would be to allow their children
44:19and give consent
44:21to marry Warren Jeffs or other leaders
44:23and what he was able to do
44:25was totally control and manipulate families
44:28and target what would be his prey
44:38what tends to happen often in polygamous communities
44:42is that the wives are a lot younger than the men
44:46and it was not uncommon for Warren to tell the men that it was time to take a wife
44:55and this teenage girl was going to be their wife
44:59underage brides
45:00was publicly talked about in his family
45:04he had a sermon about
45:05how Joseph Smith had an underage bride
45:08and he talked about like
45:09how God has made the younger girls
45:15prepared faster
45:17some of his wives that I met at that time were 12
45:21and one of them was my cousin
45:25and I didn't think that he was having relationships with them
45:29that was another thing I questioned really strongly
45:31because he would say I'm just protecting them
45:34so instead of getting a boyfriend
45:36you know as a teenager
45:38they'll just already have a boyfriend
45:40they'll know who their person is
45:42they're supposed to confide in and learn to trust
45:45and that was really common even in Ruland's day
45:47if the girl was in trouble or struggling
45:50you know like struggling
45:50that was underage was more something that happened
45:56so you might be thinking
45:58how does a community let a pedophile
46:01run their community and assault their children
46:04well they don't think of him as a pedophile
46:07they think of him as an agent of God
46:09they believe that everything he does and everything he says
46:13is a direct line from God
46:16when you get to make a decision like
46:18I have to give my daughter to Warren Jeffs
46:21and she's only 14 years old
46:23you know exactly the decision you need to make
46:26to stay in the good graces of that group
46:29I call that bounded choice
46:31your choices are limited and constrained
46:34by the confines of the group
46:36and by the will of the leader
46:38you are not really making that decision of your own free will
46:45you will now pass the next test
46:48for the test is upon you
46:51only those who choose
46:54to work their faith
46:55pick up the good books
46:57and obey
46:58will be called
46:59to be used in the redemption of Zion
47:04dear young people
47:06how I yearn for you
47:09I yearn for myself also
47:15this part of telling my story
47:18was really awkward and hard
47:22one day in Texas
47:24I was in the kitchen washing dishes
47:26somebody walked in behind me and said
47:28you need to go into like Warren Jeffs room
47:31he has something that he wants to talk to you about
47:34but you need to keep it quiet from everyone else
47:36because he is select few
47:39went straight into his room
47:40I didn't like these kind of things
47:42but I knew if I didn't do it then
47:45it would be worse for me
47:48so I went in there with five other ladies
47:53and he said I don't want you to look behind you
47:55and then he told us I want you to stay in eye contact with me
48:00like I don't want you to turn in your head or anything
48:03and I did hear the door behind me opening and closing
48:07but I wasn't going to turn around
48:08I wasn't going to try anything
48:10so I just sat there
48:13when he stared it was
48:15it was uncomfortable for me
48:17but like I noticed that he was really intently watching us
48:20like really
48:22like I can tell when he's like just kind of watching
48:25and then sometimes when he's like you better do this
48:27and he's serious about it
48:35he talked a little bit about Adam and Eve
48:41and he went into more detail
48:42he said he had new revelation
48:44God revealed that the forbidden fruit was another man
48:48and then he said if you really agree I want you to show me
48:53and you need to take off your clothes
48:57Warren Jeffs is telling us to take off our clothes to prove our loyalty to him
49:01because we are all his wives and we're all married to him
49:06so I did
49:18I'm in the room with Warren Jeffs
49:20and he said and you need to take off your clothes
49:23everybody starts obeying him
49:28so I took off my clothes
49:33and then he said I want you to turn around
49:37so I turned around and the entire room was filled
49:41with his other wives that were naked also
49:44that he had already done this to
49:47you know it was overwhelming
49:50and I noticed that he was staring at somebody
49:53and he was smiling
49:55and I thought I wonder who's looking at it
49:57so I kind of turned my head over there
49:58and it was an underage bride
50:05she was a cousin
50:07so my cousin who was 13 years old
50:09on the other side of the room naked
50:12I was like stunned
50:14like I was disgusted
50:17he's having relationships with these girls
50:19I didn't think he was having marital relationships with them until then
50:24and then he had us
50:27he said I want you to give a hug to everybody in the room
50:31and don't be shy
50:32don't be scared
50:33like just act normal
50:34and he said we could never talk about it
50:36not even to him
50:38he said we could get dressed
50:41he wasn't going to take off his clothes at that time
50:43he wanted to test us and see after
50:45that was like the beginning training
50:47I hope all of you can see that you're drawing closer together through me
50:52through priesthood
50:55and the confidence
50:57is creating a heaven between us
50:59he doesn't have time to have marital relationships with all of us
51:03this is the only way to do it
51:06if the Lord doesn't name you to be with me
51:10in the heavenly session
51:14then you will fall under a greater condemnation and not be used
51:19he said he gave us specific rules about like
51:22you can't undress without me in the room
51:25and in connection with me and each other
51:28I want all of you to learn the heavenly gentle touch
51:34make sure
51:36your connections with each other
51:39there and all day long is through me
51:43he didn't call them orgies
51:45but like they are really orgies
51:48and then he said you guys need to go off and think about it
51:51think about like
51:53if we're going to continue to go to more orgies
51:59when a cult leader involves his followers in a criminal enterprise
52:04they may not be physically being held prisoner
52:07but psychologically and emotionally they are
52:13Warren Jeffs would explain to these children
52:17that sex was and the moment of orgasm for him
52:22was a celestial experience
52:24and you get to help the prophet of God
52:28have his celestial moment
52:30and he would have girls brought in
52:33more than one at a time
52:35and of course to them it was their celestial experience
52:39he described it as which
52:43was orgasm to just be blunt
52:45but told them that would be their celestial moment with him
52:48it's like it will make you participate in this
52:51so you're a witness and if you ever talk about it
52:53you're going to be in trouble for it
52:54that is the absolute power
52:57Warren Jeffs had over their lives
53:03so because of how Warren Jeffs set it up
53:07he tricked us into being accomplices for underage relationships
53:13it was basically to force us to accept
53:16after that he could really target people and make their prison
53:20their mental prison like unbearable
53:22it was became a tool for him for every one of his ladies
53:27yeah like you're an accomplice now
53:33hypothetically if Warren Jeffs did in fact
53:35use a control technique over some of the adult wives
53:38to require them to watch or participate in sexual relations
53:43while he's with a minor that they could be held as an accomplice
53:48no in truth but how would she know that
53:50how would someone that didn't know about the outside world
53:53the criminal justice system and they're hearing
53:55all the time that you cannot trust police, law enforcement
54:00they're all against us
54:02and the only place you can be safe is here
54:05and so that is the mind and spiritual control
54:09I think they had over people's lives
54:12to think being a 12 year old
54:14that nobody was going to stand up for you
54:17is very damaging
54:21I still feel guilty for it
54:23I feel like why did I do more
54:27we're talking like 30 people that are telling a little child
54:32this is the way it should be
54:34because they are not fighting for her
54:37we aren't going to fight for you
54:38we're going to help the abuser
54:42it's not
54:43ugh, that's so bad
54:49the FLDS group existed on the border between Arizona and Utah
54:54for almost a century
54:56when I came in as Attorney General
54:58but it was largely out of sight, out of mind
55:01I came into office in 2002
55:03ironically that's the same year that Warren Jeffs became the leader of the SEC
55:08and I was very concerned about the lawlessness
55:11about the abuse of women and children in that area
55:14and ended up becoming connected with the then Attorney General of Utah, Mark Shurtleff
55:20and together we resolved that we could try to do something about it
55:24when I realized from my investigator that children were being forced to marry older men
55:30that had to stop
55:31we'd heard that there was this problem
55:34finding complaining witnesses was very difficult
55:38because nobody would leave the community
55:41what we learned and what really bothered me in addition clearly to the child bride marriages
55:45and abusing children
55:46but just the denial of basic civil rights to his entire community
55:51the power that was exercised over women and children was absolute
55:56it was simply too much
55:58we could not turn a blind eye
56:00to these people who were all victimized I believe by Warren Jeffs
56:04my job is to bring you to redemption
56:08we were trapped
56:11but I did everything I knew how to do
56:13and I'm still alive to talk about it
56:15because I fought to escape
56:17I fought to get out of there
56:22I saw do, but I knew where you were
56:23I did nothing for you
56:23yeah me
56:38I had my Millionenmalse
56:38la guacamole
56:47now now i
56:49You
Comments