37 VOLUME 5 |ISSUE 3 |2014
to do with Jesus sending out disciples to cleanse “impure spirits.”
The group does not have church buildings or headquarters, and
it has no written policies or doctrines. Travelling missionaries live
with sect families for extended periods. Television, radio, movies,
dancing, and jewelry are banned. The sect holds five Victorian
conventions a year at various locations throughout Victoria.
Ex-member “Ruby” said Chandler had sexually assaulted her at
the beach in 1989 when she was 10. Her allegations led to one of
the eight charges against him. She said the sect had a “culture of
secrecy” and distrust of outsiders. Sexual abuse of young people
and children was common. She said Victorian and Tasmanian
leader of Friends and Workers, David Leitch, visited her before
she went to police and told her there wasn’t much the police
could do if she went to them. Ruby said Chandler had told her in a
Facebook message that he was molested as a child, had a different
memory of the beach incident, and was not a pedophile.
The sect was linked to the 1994 suicides of adolescents Narelle
and Stephen Henderson. In her suicide note Narelle said they
“…committed suicide because all our life we were made to go to
meetings. They try to brainwash us … and have ruined our lives.”
A Fairfax Media investigation last year established that sect
leaders knew of allegations against Chandler but still promoted
him in 1991 to the senior position of “worker,” or minister. Until
2004, he still was staying in private homes in locations throughout
Victoria, and he later positioned himself as a counselor and sect
contact for child sexual-abuse victims.
A WINGS (online group of former sect members) submission to
the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into the handling of child
abuse by religious groups said the sect has been ‘‘haphazard’’ in
dealing with sexual-abuse allegations. Leader David Leitch, who
is known to be close to Chandler, would not comment. A former-
sect source claimed Leitch, who sacked a sect leader for reporting
sexual abuse in 2013, has a file on alleged sexual offences by
Chandler, which he has not given to police. (The Age, 7/28/14)
Arizona Attorney General Asks Judge to Shut Down
Polygamous Towns’ Police Force
Pointing to statements town marshal Helaman Barlow made
in April admitting that law-enforcement officers discriminated
against residents who do not belong to the Fundamentalist
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), Arizona
Attorney General Thomas Horne has asked a federal judge to
disband the police department of the twin cities of Colorado City,
Arizona and Hildale, Utah. Barlow recounted numerous incidents
in which deputies tried to thwart legal action against FLDS
members and harm nonmembers.
Barlow made the statements in April, contradicting his testimony
from a civil-rights trial less than a month earlier, according to
documents the Attorney General filed in federal court. Barlow
described such actions as secretly recording meetings with Texas
and federal investigators about Warren Jeffs ignoring illegal
marriages of young girls in Hilldale and Colorado City by FLDS
men not reporting the doctoring of “numerous” police reports
that otherwise would have reflected poorly on the marshal’s
office and giving advance warning to local residents when
outside law enforcement planned to interview those residents.
Barlow allegedly said that the FLDS church often directed
activities at the marshal’s office, selected members who would
attend the police academy, had access to municipal security
cameras, and conducted meetings with Barlow to plan “how best
to protect our church or church members.”
In March, a jury awarded non-FLDS residents Ronald and Jinjer
Cooke $5.2 million at the trial of their discrimination lawsuit,
finding that the two towns had denied them access to utilities
for years. After the police department put Barlow—no longer an
FLDS member himself—on paid leave, he secured immunity from
state and federal prosecutors and admitted to falsely denying
discrimination by deputies in the Cooke trial. According to Horne,
Barlow said he had been afraid to testify truthfully at the Cooke
trial because “it could have jeopardized his employment and his
associations within the community,” where the “Marshal’s Office
has operated for decades, and continues to operate, as the de
facto law enforcement arm of the FLDS Church in support of the
FLDS Church’s discriminatory policies.”
Barlow’s statements “[lead] to the inescapable conclusion that
the disbandment of the Colorado City/Hildale Marshal’s Office
is the only remedy that will stop the FLDS-controlled towns ...
from using their willing participant Marshal’s Office as a tool to
perpetuate their historical discriminatory pattern and practice
of interfering with the ...rights of non-FLDS people.” (Salt Lake
Tribune, 6/17/14)
Charges Laid Against Bountiful Leader Winston
Blackmore After Judge Rules Charter Should Not
Protect Polygamists
Polygamous sect leader Winston Blackmore, who has exercised
power and control for decades over some 500 souls from his
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
(FLDS) stronghold in Bountiful, British Columbia (BC), recently
fought the tax man and lost. A Tax Court of Canada judge agreed
last year with an earlier ruling finding that Blackmore had
underreported his private company’s income by $1.8 million over
6 years. The judge slapped him with $150,000 in penalties and
dismissed claims that his community is a “religious communal
congregation” and thus tax exempt.
Mr. Blackmore is also being sued by the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints for alleged trademark violation. The church,
which represents mainstream Mormons, wants nothing to do with
Mr. Blackmore or Bountiful and its polygamous ways.
But these are the least of his worries as he now faces criminal
prosecution. BC’s Criminal Justice Branch (CJB) recently
announced that, on recommendations from the RCMP and
the advice of a special prosecutor appointed by the province’s
Attorney General, Mr. Blackmore and another man, James Oler,
have each been charged with one count of polygamy.
Crown prosecutors now have access to a lengthy and detailed
analysis of Bountiful, its polygamous practice, and the law. Written
in 2011 by BC’s Chief Justice Robert Bauman, the document is
described in Bauman’s own words as “the most comprehensive
judicial record on the subject ever produced.”
to do with Jesus sending out disciples to cleanse “impure spirits.”
The group does not have church buildings or headquarters, and
it has no written policies or doctrines. Travelling missionaries live
with sect families for extended periods. Television, radio, movies,
dancing, and jewelry are banned. The sect holds five Victorian
conventions a year at various locations throughout Victoria.
Ex-member “Ruby” said Chandler had sexually assaulted her at
the beach in 1989 when she was 10. Her allegations led to one of
the eight charges against him. She said the sect had a “culture of
secrecy” and distrust of outsiders. Sexual abuse of young people
and children was common. She said Victorian and Tasmanian
leader of Friends and Workers, David Leitch, visited her before
she went to police and told her there wasn’t much the police
could do if she went to them. Ruby said Chandler had told her in a
Facebook message that he was molested as a child, had a different
memory of the beach incident, and was not a pedophile.
The sect was linked to the 1994 suicides of adolescents Narelle
and Stephen Henderson. In her suicide note Narelle said they
“…committed suicide because all our life we were made to go to
meetings. They try to brainwash us … and have ruined our lives.”
A Fairfax Media investigation last year established that sect
leaders knew of allegations against Chandler but still promoted
him in 1991 to the senior position of “worker,” or minister. Until
2004, he still was staying in private homes in locations throughout
Victoria, and he later positioned himself as a counselor and sect
contact for child sexual-abuse victims.
A WINGS (online group of former sect members) submission to
the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into the handling of child
abuse by religious groups said the sect has been ‘‘haphazard’’ in
dealing with sexual-abuse allegations. Leader David Leitch, who
is known to be close to Chandler, would not comment. A former-
sect source claimed Leitch, who sacked a sect leader for reporting
sexual abuse in 2013, has a file on alleged sexual offences by
Chandler, which he has not given to police. (The Age, 7/28/14)
Arizona Attorney General Asks Judge to Shut Down
Polygamous Towns’ Police Force
Pointing to statements town marshal Helaman Barlow made
in April admitting that law-enforcement officers discriminated
against residents who do not belong to the Fundamentalist
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), Arizona
Attorney General Thomas Horne has asked a federal judge to
disband the police department of the twin cities of Colorado City,
Arizona and Hildale, Utah. Barlow recounted numerous incidents
in which deputies tried to thwart legal action against FLDS
members and harm nonmembers.
Barlow made the statements in April, contradicting his testimony
from a civil-rights trial less than a month earlier, according to
documents the Attorney General filed in federal court. Barlow
described such actions as secretly recording meetings with Texas
and federal investigators about Warren Jeffs ignoring illegal
marriages of young girls in Hilldale and Colorado City by FLDS
men not reporting the doctoring of “numerous” police reports
that otherwise would have reflected poorly on the marshal’s
office and giving advance warning to local residents when
outside law enforcement planned to interview those residents.
Barlow allegedly said that the FLDS church often directed
activities at the marshal’s office, selected members who would
attend the police academy, had access to municipal security
cameras, and conducted meetings with Barlow to plan “how best
to protect our church or church members.”
In March, a jury awarded non-FLDS residents Ronald and Jinjer
Cooke $5.2 million at the trial of their discrimination lawsuit,
finding that the two towns had denied them access to utilities
for years. After the police department put Barlow—no longer an
FLDS member himself—on paid leave, he secured immunity from
state and federal prosecutors and admitted to falsely denying
discrimination by deputies in the Cooke trial. According to Horne,
Barlow said he had been afraid to testify truthfully at the Cooke
trial because “it could have jeopardized his employment and his
associations within the community,” where the “Marshal’s Office
has operated for decades, and continues to operate, as the de
facto law enforcement arm of the FLDS Church in support of the
FLDS Church’s discriminatory policies.”
Barlow’s statements “[lead] to the inescapable conclusion that
the disbandment of the Colorado City/Hildale Marshal’s Office
is the only remedy that will stop the FLDS-controlled towns ...
from using their willing participant Marshal’s Office as a tool to
perpetuate their historical discriminatory pattern and practice
of interfering with the ...rights of non-FLDS people.” (Salt Lake
Tribune, 6/17/14)
Charges Laid Against Bountiful Leader Winston
Blackmore After Judge Rules Charter Should Not
Protect Polygamists
Polygamous sect leader Winston Blackmore, who has exercised
power and control for decades over some 500 souls from his
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
(FLDS) stronghold in Bountiful, British Columbia (BC), recently
fought the tax man and lost. A Tax Court of Canada judge agreed
last year with an earlier ruling finding that Blackmore had
underreported his private company’s income by $1.8 million over
6 years. The judge slapped him with $150,000 in penalties and
dismissed claims that his community is a “religious communal
congregation” and thus tax exempt.
Mr. Blackmore is also being sued by the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints for alleged trademark violation. The church,
which represents mainstream Mormons, wants nothing to do with
Mr. Blackmore or Bountiful and its polygamous ways.
But these are the least of his worries as he now faces criminal
prosecution. BC’s Criminal Justice Branch (CJB) recently
announced that, on recommendations from the RCMP and
the advice of a special prosecutor appointed by the province’s
Attorney General, Mr. Blackmore and another man, James Oler,
have each been charged with one count of polygamy.
Crown prosecutors now have access to a lengthy and detailed
analysis of Bountiful, its polygamous practice, and the law. Written
in 2011 by BC’s Chief Justice Robert Bauman, the document is
described in Bauman’s own words as “the most comprehensive
judicial record on the subject ever produced.”
