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A polygamous religious leader who claimed to have more than 20 spiritual “wives,” including 10 underage girls, was sentenced Monday to 50 years in prison in Arizona for coercing girls as young as nine to submit to criminal sexual acts with him. and other adults, and for conspiring to kidnap them from protective custody.
Samuel Bateman, whose small group was an offshoot of the cult once led by Warren Jeffs, had pleaded guilty to a years-long scheme to transport girls across state lines for their sex crimes and then kidnap some of them. in protective custody.
Under the agreement, Bateman pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit transportation of a minor for the purpose of sexual activity, which carries a sentence of 10 years to life in prison, and one count of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, which is punishable by up to life sentence. . He was sentenced to 50 years on each count, to be served concurrently.
The rest of the charges were dismissed as part of the agreement.
Authorities say Bateman, 48, attempted to start a branch of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints based in the neighboring communities of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah. The fundamentalist group, also known as the FLDS, split from the main Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after Mormons officially abandoned polygamy in 1890.
Victim statements
U.S. District Court Judge Susan Brnovich sentenced Bateman after hearing statements in court from three teenagers about the trauma they are still struggling to overcome.
“You shouldn’t have the opportunity to be free and never have the opportunity to be around young women,” Brnovich told Bateman, noting that for a man his age, the 50-year sentence was effectively a life sentence. “They took them from their homes, from their families and turned them into sexual slaves,” the judge said.
“You stripped them of their innocence and their childhood.”
A brief competency hearing that was closed to the public was held just before sentencing to discuss a doctor’s assessment of Bateman’s mental health. The defense had argued that Bateman could have benefited from up to 20 years of psychiatric treatment behind bars before being released.
The girls told the court, sometimes addressing Bateman himself, how they struggled to develop relationships in high school, among other struggles. Now living with foster families, they said they had received a lot of support from trusted adults outside their community.
After the sentencing, the teenagers hugged each other and cried silently. They were escorted out of the courthouse by a half-dozen men and women wearing jackets emblazoned with the slogan “Cyclists Against Child Abuse,” a group dedicated to protecting children from what it calls dangerous people and situations. A woman who sat with the teens said no one in the group would comment.
There was no one in the room who seemed to be a Bateman supporter.
The alleged practice of cult members sexually abusing girls whom they consider spiritual “wives” has long plagued the FLDS. Jeffs was convicted of state charges in Texas in 2011 related to sexual assaults on his underage followers. Bateman was one of Jeffs’ trusted followers and declared himself, like Jeffs, a “prophet” of the FLDS. Jeffs denounced Bateman in a written “exposé” sent to his followers from prison and then attempted to start his own group.
Proclaimed ‘wives’
In 2019 and 2020, insisting that polygamy brings exaltation in heaven and that he was acting on orders from the “Heavenly Father”, Bateman began taking adult women and girls of his male followers and proclaiming them as his “wives”, the agreement of guilty plea. saying. While none of these “marriages” were legally or ceremonially recognized, Bateman recognized that each time he claimed another “wife,” it marked the beginning of his illicit sexual contact with the woman or girl.
Federal agents said Bateman demanded that his followers publicly confess to any indiscretions and imposed punishments ranging from public shaming to sexual activity, including requiring that some male followers atone for their “sins” by giving him their own wives and daughters.
Bateman traveled extensively between Arizona, Utah, Colorado and Nebraska and regularly forced underage girls to participate in his criminal sexual activity, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona said. Recordings of some of his sex crimes were transmitted across state lines via electronic devices.
Bateman was arrested in August 2022 by state police while driving through Flagstaff, Arizona, pulling a trailer. Someone had alerted authorities after seeing small fingers poking through the slats of the door. Inside the trailer, which had no ventilation, they found a makeshift bathroom, a sofa, camping chairs and three girls, between 11 and 14 years old.
Bateman posted bail but was soon arrested again, accused of obstructing justice in a federal investigation into whether children were transported across state lines for their sex crimes. Authorities also took nine children from Bateman’s Colorado City home into protective custody.
Eight of the children later escaped from the foster care system in Arizona and were found hundreds of miles away in Washington state in a vehicle driven by one of the adult “wives.” Bateman also admitted his involvement in the kidnapping plot.
Federal prosecutors noted that Bateman’s plea deal was contingent on all of his co-defendants also pleading guilty. It also called for restitution of up to $1 million per victim and immediate confiscation of all assets.
gloomy upbringings
Seven of Bateman’s adult “wives” have been convicted of crimes related to coercing children into sexual activity or impeding the investigation into Bateman. Some acknowledged that they also forced girls to become Bateman’s spiritual “wives,” witnessed Bateman engaging in criminal sexual activity with girls, engaged in illicit group sex with boys, or joined in kidnapping them from foster homes. Another woman is scheduled to stand trial on January 14 on charges related to the kidnappings.
In court records, attorneys for some of Bateman’s “wives” painted a bleak picture of their clients’ religious upbringing.
One said his client was raised in a religious sect that taught that sexual activity with children was acceptable and that she was tricked into “marrying” Bateman. Another said another man handed his client over to Bateman as if she were property, feeling he had no choice.
