Polygamous group leader charged after 3 girls found in enclosed trailer
Global News
American Samuel Bateman, 46, was arrested by a state police agency after someone spotted small fingers in a gap of his trailer's rear door.
A leader of a small polygamous group on the Arizona–Utah state line pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal charges of tampering with evidence, weeks after being stopped on a highway with young girls in an enclosed trailer.
Samuel Bateman, 46, was indicted earlier this month on three counts of destroying or attempting to destroy records, and tampering with criminal proceedings. He pleaded not guilty in U.S. Magistrate Court in Flagstaff, a mountain city where he was arrested in late August by a state police agency after someone spotted small fingers in a gap of the trailer’s rear door.
Authorities found three girls, between the ages of 11 and 14, in the trailer he was hauling through Flagstaff, according to court documents. The trailer had a makeshift toilet, a couch, camping chairs and no ventilation, the documents state. The documents didn’t say if the girls are related to Bateman, and it wasn’t discussed during Thursday’s hearing.
Bateman was a former member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or FLDS, until he left in recent years and started his own small offshoot group, said Sam Brower, who has spent years investigating the group.
Bateman was once among the trusted followers of imprisoned leader Warren Jeffs, but Jeffs recently denounced Bateman in a written revelation sent to his followers from prison, Brower said.
Bateman’s group still practices plural marriage with a small following of fewer than 100 people, estimated Brower, who wrote a book on the FLDS and appeared in the recent Netflix series, Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey.
Federal prosecutor Patrick Schneider said Bateman talked to supporters in Colorado City, Ariz., from the Coconino County Jail in Flagstaff and instructed them to delete communications sent through an encrypted private messaging system, and demanded all women and girls obtain passports.
Schneider said the state child welfare agency has removed children from Bateman’s home in Colorado City where the FBI had recently served a search warrant.
The European Union's parliament voted on Wednesday in favour of the 'My Voice, My Choice' citizens' initiative, which will be considered by the European Commission in March.
Putin said 'if the opposing side and its foreign patrons refuse to engage in substantive dialogue, Russia will achieve the liberation of its historical lands by military means.'
United States President Donald Trump said he is ordering a blockade of all “sanctioned oil tankers” into Venezuela, pressuring the country’s authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro.
U.S. President Donald Trump intends to preview his agenda for next year and beyond in a live speech from the White House on Wednesday night.
Five more countries and the Palestinian Authority were added to the list of countries facing a full ban on travel to the U.S., while new limits were imposed on 15 other countries.
The couple were Bondi locals and described by their loved ones as an 'honest' and 'hardworking' couple who were 'devoted' to their family.
A statement issued by the National Council of Canadian Muslims says the delegation was barred from entry by Israeli authorities as 'public safety threats.'
The lawsuit, filed in a Florida court, seeks $5 billion in damages for defamation and $5 billion for unfair trade practices.
Lai, a former media mogul and outspoken critic of Beijing, was found guilty Monday of violating Hong Kong's stringent, China-imposed national security law.
U.S. officials said talks in Berlin led to narrowing differences on security guarantees that Kyiv said must be provided, as well as on Moscow’s demand that Ukraine concede land.
Ahmed Al Ahmed jeopardized his life when he tackled one of two alleged shooters to the ground and seized his gun during Sunday’s attack on a Jewish gathering on Bondi Beach.
'They passed directly in our flight path.... They don’t have their transponder turned on. It’s outrageous,' the JetBlue pilot said in a conversation with air traffic control.
At least 11 people were shot and killed on Sunday during a Jewish holiday celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, Australian authorities said, declaring it a terrorist attack.