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ELDORADO — The first criminal trial stemming from the raid of a polygamist sect’s West Texas ranch was abruptly halted Thursday after a juror’s child came down with a high fever and flu-like symptoms.
State District Judge Barbara Walther recessed the sexual-assault trial of Raymond Jessop indefinitely, saying a juror’s child is younger than 5 and may have swine flu. She did not indicate when the trial may resume.It took 2 1/2 days and the largest pool in Schleicher County history to seat a 12-member jury and two alternates in the first of the criminal cases stemming from a raid that catapulted this tiny town into the spotlight as women and children in prairie dresses were taken off the Yearning For Zion Ranch.Jessop, charged with sexual assault of a child, is the first of 12 men from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to face a criminal trial in Texas. Authorities say he was married to a girl who was 16 when she became pregnant.Jurors began hearing testimony Thursday morning. They heard only about four hours — primarily about how and where evidence was collected in the weeklong raid in April 2008.The first witness, Texas Rangers Sgt. Nick Hanna, testified that he found the young woman in question living with four other women and numerous children at a log-cabin-style house.Jessop was not there, but he was considered a suspect early on, even as state officials struggled with how to handle the 439 children they took from the ranch and placed in state custody. Hanna acknowledged under cross-examination that Jessop was considered a potential suspect as the raid was concluding and that he went to San Angelo to collect a blood sample from him.Other witnesses Thursday testified that DNA was taken from the young woman, now 21, and from her daughter, now 4.Authorities seized three trailer loads of evidence from the residences and temple at the ranch, and piles of documents, disks and books were stacked onto the ledge of the witness stand for identification during the testimony Thursday — an indication of how document-heavy the case against Jessop is.FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop said Thursday that the piles of documents prove that prosecutors don’t have a victim."Ninety percent of the time, you’ll have a girl up there saying, 'This terrible thing happened to me.’ The state doesn’t have that," he said. "You have a state-generated victim."Under Texas law, generally no one under 17 can consent to sex with an adult. If Jessop is convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.Prosecutors say Jessop had nine wives, including one daughter of jailed sect leader Warren Jeffs.Jessop faces a separate bigamy charge, but that case is to be tried later.The young woman in the case was 16 when she gave birth to a daughter at the ranch in 2005, prosecutors say. The girl was in labor for days but was not taken to the hospital because of fears about possible prosecution, according to church documents seized at the ranch. She safely delivered a daughter.Defense attorney Mark Stevens has said prosecutors will not be able to offer evidence that a crime was committed in Schleicher County.The location is critical because prosecutors must be able to show that the state has jurisdiction in the case.The FLDS is a breakaway sect that is not recognized by the Mormon church.It has historically been based along the Arizona-Utah line, but church members bought a 1,700-acre ranch outside Eldorado about six years ago and began building sprawling homes and a four-story limestone temple visible from the highway through town.Jeffs was arrested in 2006 and convicted as an accomplice to rape in Utah for arranging an underage marriage there.He awaits trial on similar charges in Arizona before he can be tried on allegations of sexual assault of a child and bigamy in Texas.The Mormon church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, renounced polygamy more than a century ago.
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