Court records allege that Bateman, 46, engaged in child sex trafficking and polygamy, but none of his current charges relate to those allegations. Polygamy is illegal in Arizona but was decriminalised in Utah in 2020.
Jeffs is serving a life sentence in a Texas prison for child sex abuse related to underage marriages.Naomi Bistline and two other women from a polygamous sect near the Arizona-Utah border are charged with kidnapping and impeding a foreseeable prosecution. Bateman often traveled to Nebraska where some of his other followers lived and internationally to Canada and Mexico for conferences.
He demanded that his followers confess publicly for any indiscretions, and shared those confessions widely, according to the FBI affidavit. He claimed the punishments, which ranged from a time out to public shaming and sexual activity, came from the Lord, the affidavit states.
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