Disir
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- Sep 30, 2011
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Phoenix, Arizona (CNN)As "Thug Willie," he defended his prophet with pit-bull ferocity. But by the time we meet in a fourth-floor hallway at the Sandra Day O'Connor federal courthouse, Willie Jessop has changed sides. He's the star government witness, testifying on behalf of outsiders he once considered his enemies.
He carries himself like a man determined to unburden his conscience even if it means turning against everyone and everything he once believed in.
Burly and middle-aged with a mop of brown hair, Jessop spent more than a decade as security chief and spokesman for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a polygamous sect that split from the mainstream Mormon church at the turn of the last century. As head of the "God Squad," he was perhaps the highest profile FLDS member -- with the exception of its prophet, Warren Jeffs.
For a while Jeffs occupied the same row as Osama bin Laden and Whitey Bulger on the FBI's Most Wanted list. Jessop admits on the witness stand that he once helped the fugitive prophet run from authorities. He describes one scheme in which Jeffs dodged a raid on the FLDS meeting house: While others rode out on four-wheelers as decoys, Jeffs and Jessop rode out in another direction on Honda motorcycles packed with cash and fake IDs. They raced up a dry creek bed to the airport.
At the civil trial, expected to go to the jury next week, the government is alleging that the FLDS runs Jessop's hometown like a theocracy, controlling virtually every aspect of life in Hildale, Utah, and its neighbor, Colorado City, Arizona. The cities and their shared police force discriminate against anyone who isn't FLDS, attorneys from the Justice Department's civil rights division contend.
But the cities say the federal government is discriminating against them -- and the FLDS -- because they practice a religion others don't like.
Only the cities are on trial; Jeffs and the FLDS are not named as defendants.
Jessop has been on the stand for most of the day when a government prosecutor finally poses the question everybody wants answered: Why did you switch sides?
Spectators lean forward in their seats only to be taken aback by the blunt response:
The FLDS bodyguard who turned on his 'prophet' - CNN.com
Interesting twist.
He carries himself like a man determined to unburden his conscience even if it means turning against everyone and everything he once believed in.
Burly and middle-aged with a mop of brown hair, Jessop spent more than a decade as security chief and spokesman for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a polygamous sect that split from the mainstream Mormon church at the turn of the last century. As head of the "God Squad," he was perhaps the highest profile FLDS member -- with the exception of its prophet, Warren Jeffs.
For a while Jeffs occupied the same row as Osama bin Laden and Whitey Bulger on the FBI's Most Wanted list. Jessop admits on the witness stand that he once helped the fugitive prophet run from authorities. He describes one scheme in which Jeffs dodged a raid on the FLDS meeting house: While others rode out on four-wheelers as decoys, Jeffs and Jessop rode out in another direction on Honda motorcycles packed with cash and fake IDs. They raced up a dry creek bed to the airport.
At the civil trial, expected to go to the jury next week, the government is alleging that the FLDS runs Jessop's hometown like a theocracy, controlling virtually every aspect of life in Hildale, Utah, and its neighbor, Colorado City, Arizona. The cities and their shared police force discriminate against anyone who isn't FLDS, attorneys from the Justice Department's civil rights division contend.
But the cities say the federal government is discriminating against them -- and the FLDS -- because they practice a religion others don't like.
Only the cities are on trial; Jeffs and the FLDS are not named as defendants.
Jessop has been on the stand for most of the day when a government prosecutor finally poses the question everybody wants answered: Why did you switch sides?
Spectators lean forward in their seats only to be taken aback by the blunt response:
The FLDS bodyguard who turned on his 'prophet' - CNN.com
Interesting twist.
