Witness in Fugitive Polygamist Case Speaks Out

[Judi Lynn]

Witness in Fugitive Polygamist Case Speaks Out
Candi Shapley Was Forced Into a Polygamist Marriage at 16

May 19, 2006 — The crux of the FBI's case against one of its Top 10 Most Wanted fugitives rests on the shoulders of a 20-year-old Colorado woman who is reluctant to testify but spoke exclusively to ABC News about her case.

When Candi Shapley was just 16, she was forced into an abusive polygamist marriage arranged by Warren Jeffs, a self-proclaimed prophet and leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Jeffs has been on the run since 2004, accused of sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy to conduct sexual conduct with a minor. Yet, despite numerous allegations of forcing minors into sex, Shapley is the only victim who has gone on the record even though she said she is not angry at Jeffs.

"They're not going after Randy for raping me, they're going after Warren for marrying us," Shapley told ABC News in her first public interview. "He's on the 10 Most Wanted List with Osama bin Laden. I think that's unfair. I'm not for Warren Jeffs, but I'm not against him."

In March 2002, Shapley was summoned to a Nevada hotel where she was surprised that her father and Jeffs had arranged her marriage to Randolph Barlow, a 28-year-old man she had never met.
(snip/...)

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/LegalCenter/story?id=1980410&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

[Maraya1969]

1. Talk about horrible abuse going on in our own country. Why

doesn't Children and Family services get on these people more?

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

2. Very hard to prove anything is going on...

when none of the people involved will talk.

[DELUSIONAL]

7. It's religious -- they might not go to heaven

delayed pay-offs promised by so many "christian" churches are hot beds of abuse.

Pat Robertson etc.are rich from people trying to buy their way into heaven --

Women willingly give up nearly everything to please the mostly male egotistical leaders -- for the pie in the sky -- delayed rewards.

As someone at DU pointed out many of these religious are death cults.

[Warpy]

3. They're reliable votes for the GOP in western states

plus they generally OWN the government of whatever small town they set up camp in, moving in with multiple families of multiple wives and children, making a little town of 200 swell to three times that many overnight.

They're making "prophet" a synonym for "pedophile." Some of the "wives" are as young as 12 or 13 when they are forced into the beds of old men, and that isn't even the worst of it. Teenaged sons are forced out and dumped like garbage out in the desert or along roads when the pedophile prophet senses he may have competition. There are no consenting adults in this system, just victimized children who were too young to consent to anything (had they even been asked, which they are not) and found themselves tied down with multiple children by the age of consent.

It's a hideous system for all but a few twisted men.

[Mist]

5. AND, t hese multiple-marriage families cost the taxpayers, too. The

FLDSs consider themselves married in their church, but of course aren't married in the legal sense. They put the young mothers on welfare and food stamps to "starve the beast."

[bettyellen]

9. thye get $8 in services for evry $1 in taxes... you'd think we could at

least stop financing this shit.

[Maraya1969]

6. On "Big Love" the HBO series about polygamy one of the wives

said that she saw her father dump wives and their children at a gas station if the wives weren't behaving. This character is very manipulative though and it is hard to figure out what she says is true or not so I wonder if any of you know if this can be true for them. The polygamist family that she belongs to is very different because the man who started it was one of the young boys who were thrown out of the compound and did not become a polygamist until many years after he married his first wife, (and then it is hard to figure out if he was MADE to take the second wife because he borrowed money from her polygamist father.)

[K8-EEE]

4. Yikes Those Guys Are SO CREEPY!!!

OMG those poor girls. That is one sick MFing "religion!"

[kurth]

8. A man must have at least three wives to secure a place in heaven:

In land of no first kiss, Warren Jeffs rules Taleban-style
Khaleej Times/February 18, 2004

Colorado City, Arizona -- ...As Arizona Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl go on Sunday talk shows to argue for the rights of women in Iraq, Jeffs ascends the pulpit to tell his followers that a man must have at least three wives to secure a place in heaven, while a woman will get there only if invited by her man, local residents said.

Still, it is the prophet's - not men's - paradise here on Earth. A young fellow with an eye on a local girl must court his holiness instead, several locals said. Getting a wife requires being useful, pliant and ready to serve. And forwarding entire paychecks - in addition to the regular tithe - to church coffers... Then, maybe his holiness will be kind enough to put the suitor on a list for getting his first or second or third wife. Dating is prohibited, and women are discouraged from even talking to men outside their immediate families. The first kiss comes on orders from the prophet, who is rumored to have up to 80 "spiritual" wives in addition to one legal wife. If a married man falls out of favor, the prophet usually tells his wives and children to leave him.

Not a single newspaper or magazine can be found. No movie theatre, no video rental. The culture-averse prophet banned television years ago. Word of a stranger in town spreads like wildfire, and a burly man in an SUV becomes a permanent fixture in the rear-view mirror. His holiness is said to have a private security force called "The God Squad." In a town of approximately 7,000 residents, the public school has about 100 students, according to Deloy Bateman, the science teacher. About five years ago, church leaders ordered the faithful to take their offspring out because they had found the curriculum "wicked," says Bateman. Youngsters are being "homeschooled," with predictable results. Now and then, residents are told to get rid of their cats and dogs - no explanation given.

The last serious attempt at outside intervention dates back to 1953, when governor Howard Pyle arrested two-dozen local men and placed about 200 children in foster homes. But images of crying kids being torn away from their mothers had a boomerang effect: The governor lost his re-election bid after turning off mainstream Mormons, a powerful constituency in Arizona. Since then, the community has largely been left to its own devices - and those of the prophet.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy186.html

[sarcasmo]

10. One wife is way more than enough for me.

These are nothing more than Cults.