FLDS Church Leader Warren Jeffs Owes $152 Million to Sex Abuse Survivors
Warren Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, owes $152 million to 15 victims as a result of a recent Utah federal ruling. Jeffs appeared on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List in 2006 after evading charges of arranging illegal marriages between adult male FLDS followers and underage girls. He was convicted of two felony accounts of child sexual assault 5 years later, and is currently serving a life sentence with an additional 20 years in prison. Still, both Jeffs and his loyal followers maintain that he is still the leader of the FLDS.
The Utah case was filed in 2016 with fifteen plaintiffs. U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart pointed to “forced labor, forced sexual servitude, extortionate taking of property, and disintegration of family units” as events that occurred under Jeffs’ jurisdiction of the FLDS. After careful examination, Stewart ruled that Jeffs was responsible for $47,305,585 in compensatory damages and $105 million in punitive damages.
Plaintiff Alicia Rohbock was the 23rd wife of Jeffs’ father, Rulon Jeffs. Founder of the FLDS, he lived until age 93. When Rulon passed away, Warren Jeffs married the large majority of his father’s wives. Rohbock resisted, asking to marry one of Warren’s brothers.
Rohbock’s marriage was fleeting, as Warren Jeffs declared her separated from his brother after a short period of time. Against her wishes and as an act of retaliation, he married her to another one of his brothers, Seth Jeffs.
This instability and turmoil continued further when Alicia Rohbock was forced to move from home to home while caring for a newborn. Often, conditions would be inhospitable: no water or electricity was a common occurrence. Additionally, “Rohbock was forced to sit and listen as her children’s caretaker ‘disciplined’ them by scratching their faces repeatedly with her fingernails. The children still have scars from the incident.”
The trauma and abuse manifested in physical pain for Rohbock, even after she fled from the FLDS with her children. She suffered from hair loss, high fevers, and sepsis.
News of Warren Jeffs and the FLDS permeated throughout Utah for years, but still, authorities were unable to track him down for years. Protecting women and children came at a cost when the state failed to provide evidence of abuse, culminating in court reversals.
Alicia Rohbock received the largest sum of money out of the 15 plaintiffs, with compensation totaling over $26.5 million. Still, fleeing the horrors of the FLDS comes at an emotional cost that may never fully cover the damages.
Authors: Alexis Kabat and Andy Goldwasser
