Polygamous sect leader convicted of abuse charges after girls found in trailer on Arizona highway
Source: AP
A polygamous sect leader already serving a 50-year federal prison sentence for orchestrating sex involving children was convicted Friday on state child abuse charges after girls were found in an unventilated trailer he was hauling through Arizona.
Someone alerted authorities about the trailer in August 2022 after seeing small fingers reaching through gaps in the doors. Police stopped Samuel Batemans vehicle as he was driving through Flagstaff and found three girls inside, who were ages 11 to 14 at the time. The trailer was enclosed with a makeshift toilet, a sofa and camping chairs.
In the federal case, Bateman was convicted of coercing girls as young as 9 to submit to sex acts with him and other young adults, and for scheming to kidnap girls from protective custody, the story of which is the focus of a Netflix series, Trust Me: The False Prophet.
Bateman previously claimed to have more than 20 spiritual wives, including 10 girls under the age of 18. He testified in his own defense in the state case, telling jurors he would never harm the people he loves. He acknowledged during cross-examination that he knew the girls were in a hot trailer for hours and the ventilation wasnt good, but downplayed the conditions.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/samuel-bateman-trial-arizona-child-abuse-polygamy-1b0504057b9aed19852abb4317d2441c
PHOENIX (AP)
By JACQUES BILLEAUD and JOSH KELETY
Updated 8:44 PM EDT, June 26, 2026
ninjanurse
(146 posts)Examines how people can be controlled by religion and a dominating leader
Billsdaughter
(206 posts)It was unbelievable how long it took the authorities to do something. But that couple documenting everything, those two are heroes. The couple os still living up there!
barbtries
(31,389 posts)because I already watched "Keep Sweet Pray and Obey" and it's just fucking horrifying. That series is about warren jeffs.
Are they both FLDS?
as an aside, i don't know how you "love" someone who is nothing but a hole and a child making machine to you.
ret5hd
(22,720 posts)they always forget to tell us their drag names.
FakeNoose
(43,071 posts)
mwmisses4289
(5,190 posts)The one the pray and be sweet doc was about? This Bateman guy i think sees himself as the leader since the other guy (jeff, jeffers?) is in prison serving time for the same thing?
niyad
(135,376 posts)murielm99
(33,162 posts)with his followers. I have heard his creepy voice. I have often worried that he is going to ask them all to commit mass suicide.
barbtries
(31,389 posts)though I am pretty sure that jeffs is still running the FLDS from his prison cell.
JT45242
(4,241 posts)Reads like they could tack 12-24 years into the end of that term. 74 years would effectively be a life sentence.
GiqueCee
(5,082 posts)... don't fare too well in prison, they say. May Bateman's fate reflect that fact.
squiregeek
(18 posts)You never know what King Rottinghand will do with a pedophile. Pardoning this guy would be so on-brand. The state conviction will keep him behind bards.
squiregeek
(18 posts)Icanthinkformyself
(444 posts)why Republicans want to reduce or, preferably, remove the 'age of consent' laws. They just love phucking children any way they can. Raping them, taking away their food (SNAP and USAID and other program cuts), their rights (the repeal of child labor laws in Southern states) and, cutting education funding to keep them stupid so they will be agreeable peons. It will be a long time before the positive change that is happening will fully bloom. I hope I live to see the Social Democrats take the reins of power in DC. It will be glorious, as the Klingons say.
mdbl
(8,987 posts)Don't just leave him in federal prison. That's where all the criminals go to be released.
Farmer-Rick
(12,867 posts)But the state charges can't be pardoned no matter how much Bateman pays Trump.
AZJonnie
(4,220 posts)Farmer-Rick
(12,867 posts)Commuted her sentence. I guess money buys you anything in the United States.
AZJonnie
(4,220 posts)But it shows that a mechanism exists by which a corrupt, criminal POTUS with immunity, a lapdog Congress and cronies at SCOTUS can leverage their power to get state charges dropped too, even if they can't legally do so directly
popsdenver
(2,825 posts)While what you say is true, there are other ways. Recently, our DINO, Extremely Pro-Corporate Governor Polis pardoned a treasonous election person who had committed a major fraud espionage, and was sentenced to prison in Colorado for 10-20 years......
Polis and Trump had "conversations" and Polis went from saying "No Way."......to agreeing with Trump and commuting her sentence and releasing her......
Maybe Polis wants a position in Washington D.C. now that he cannot run for another term as Colorado Governor??????????
Maybe filling out the rest of Bennet's Senate Term, now that Bennet is running to replace Polis as Colo Governor??????.........
Of course, if Bennet doesn't win the governorship, he will just go back to his Do-Nothing act in the U.S. Senate, along with his sidekicks Hickenlooper and Degette in the house.......
Interestingly DeGette and Bennet have come out of the woodwork recently, both running a ton of political ads saying all that they have done to thwart Trump and Republicans in spite of the fact that we haven't heard a peep out of DeGette, Bennet, Hickenlooper the entire time they have been in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate........It seems to be apparent that there is a bit of Fright going on with them, because many Dems, are, for the first time, confronting Our Colorado.... Do Nothing Dem Politicians.
travelingthrulife
(5,747 posts)NBachers
(19,669 posts)dave99
(622 posts)58Sunliner
(6,465 posts)Where are the parents? Did they allow this?
radical noodle
(10,747 posts)He tells them it's God's will.
58Sunliner
(6,465 posts)Lifeafter70
(1,273 posts)I was a waitress in a well known restaurant franchise chain. The owner had a small travel trailer parked behind the restaurant. If you refused his advances you found yourself out of a job. I was lucky enough to find a new job. The authorities didn't seem to care. It was considered "consensual" .
58Sunliner
(6,465 posts)Lifeafter70
(1,273 posts)And that was pretty much how women were treated in that job sector.
hunter
(40,951 posts)This could be a bigger story than reported.
radical noodle
(10,747 posts)riversedge
(82,266 posts)artemisia1
(1,929 posts)was no real recourse -- or concern -- over young women and children trafficked and abused by "religious" leaders. If they still do this today, the scale, say in 1890 or 1920, must have been immense.
mwmisses4289
(5,190 posts)And even if something was done, it usually just meant moving the priest, pastor, whatever they were called to another parish, and the whole cycle started over again.