Polygamist Samuel Bateman serving 50 years for trying to force women and girls to have sex

A polygamous religious leader who claimed more than 20 spiritual “wives” including girls as young as 10 was sentenced to 50 years in prison Monday in Arizona for forcing girls as young as 9 to confess to crimes with him and other adults, too. by making tricks to capture them in protective custody.

Samuel Bateman, whose small group was an offshoot of the cult once led by Warren Jeffs, pleaded guilty to a years-long scheme to transport girls across state borders for sex crimes, and later to take some of them into protective custody.

Under the plea deal, Bateman pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to transport a child for sex, which carries a 10-year-to-life sentence, and one count of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, which carries a sentence of life in prison. . He was sentenced to 50 years on each count, to be served concurrently.

Some charges were dropped as part of the deal.

Authorities say Bateman, 48, tried to start an offshoot 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 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after Mormons officially outlawed polygamy in 1890.

Statements from victims

US District Court Judge Susan Brnovich sentenced Bateman after hearing statements in court from three teenage girls about the trauma they are still struggling to overcome.

“You should never have a chance to be free, and you should never have a chance to be around young women,” Brnovich told Bateman, noting that for a 50-year-old man, a 50-year sentence was life in prison. “And those who take them from their homes, from their families and make them sexual slaves,” said the judge.

“He robbed them of their innocence and friendship.”

A brief competency hearing closed to the public was held shortly before sentencing to discuss a doctor’s evaluation of Bateman’s mental health. Defense attorneys had argued that Bateman could have benefited from 20 years of psychiatric treatment in prison before being released.

The girls told the court, sometimes speaking to Bateman himself, how they dealt with developing relationships in high school, among other issues. Since living with their adoptive families, they say they have received a lot of support from trusted adults outside their community.

After the sentence, the youth embraced and wept silently. Half a dozen men and women wearing jackets with the slogan “Bikers Against Child Abuse,” a group dedicated to protecting children from what it calls dangerous people and situations, were brought out of court. A woman who was sitting with the youth said no one in the group would comment.

No one in the courtroom seemed to agree with Bateman.

There has been a long-standing practice of sexually abusing girls who claim to be spiritual “wives” of so-called cult members who sexually assault FLDS members. Jeffs was convicted of federal charges in Texas in 2011 involving the sexual abuse of his minor fans. Bateman was one of Jeffs’ most trusted followers and identified himself, like Jeffs, as a “prophet” of the FLDS. Jeffs criticized Bateman in a written “revelation” sent to his followers in prison, then tried to start his own group.

Announced ‘wives’

In 2019 and 2020, insisting that polygamy brings exaltation to heaven and that he was doing it on orders from “Heavenly Father,” Bateman began taking old women and children from his male followers and declaring them his “wives,” a plea deal. said. Although none of these “marriages” were legally or legally recognized, Bateman admitted that each time he called another “wife,” it meant the beginning of his illicit sexual relationship with a woman or girl.

Federal agents said Bateman required his followers to publicly confess to any transgressions and issued punishments ranging from public shaming to sexual acts, including requiring certain male followers to atone for their “sins” by giving their wives and daughters to him.

Bateman traveled extensively between Arizona, Utah, Colorado and Nebraska and often forced young girls into his sexual acts, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona said. Recordings of some of his sex crimes were broadcast across state lines using electronic devices.

Bateman was arrested in August 2022 by state police while driving through Flagstaff, Ariz., while pulling a trailer. Someone alerted the authorities after seeing tiny fingers digging into the doorposts. Inside the air-conditioned trailer, they found a makeshift toilet, a couch, camping chairs and three girls between the ages of 11 and 14.

Bateman posted bond but was soon arrested again, accused of obstructing justice in a federal investigation into whether children were being transported across state lines for his sex crimes. Authorities also took nine children from Bateman’s home in Colorado City into custody.

Eight children later escaped from foster care in Arizona, and were found hundreds of miles away in Washington State, in a car driven by elderly “wives.” Bateman also admitted his involvement in the kidnapping attempt.

Federal prosecutors noted that Bateman’s plea deal was contingent on all of his co-defendants pleading guilty. It also demanded the return of up to $1 million US for each victim, as well as the immediate confiscation of all assets.

A bad upbringing

Seven of Bateman’s former “wives” have been convicted of charges related to forcing children to have sex or obstructing the investigation into Bateman. Others admitted that they also forced the girls to become Bateman’s spiritual “wives”, witnessed Bateman committing sex crimes with the girls, participated in illegal group sex involving minors, or participated in their abduction in their upbringing. Another woman is expected to go on trial on January 14 on charges related to the kidnapping.

In court records, attorneys for some of Bateman’s “wives” painted a negative picture of their clients’ religious upbringings.

Another said her client was raised in a religion that taught that having sex with children was acceptable and that she had been tricked into “marrying” Bateman. Another said his client was given to Bateman by another man as if he were a piece of property, feeling there was nothing he could do.