December 3, 1955 - Warren Jeffs
As president of the FLDS Church, Jeffs wielded near-absolute authority over a closed religious community, using that authority to arrange marriages between adult men and underage girls and to directly assault children in his care. His case drew federal attention before his eventual capture and conviction, culminating in a life sentence. What makes him historically significant in this context is the degree to which institutional religious control was used as both a mechanism and a shield for sustained abuse.
From Wikipedia
Warren Steed Jeffs (born December 3, 1955) is an American cult leader and convicted child sex offender. He is the president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a polygamous cult based in Arizona and is serving a life sentence in Texas for child sexual assault after two convictions in 2011. The FLDS Church was founded in the early 20th century when its founders deemed the renunciation of polygamy by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) to be apostasy. The LDS Church disavows any connection between it and the FLDS Church, although there are significant historical ties.
In 2006, Jeffs was placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List for his flight from the charges that he had arranged illegal child marriages between his adult male followers and underage girls in Utah. In 2007, Arizona charged him with eight additional counts in two separate cases including incest and sexual conduct with minors.
In September 2007, Jeffs was convicted of two counts of rape as an accomplice, for which he was sentenced to imprisonment for 10 years to life in Utah State Prison. The conviction was overturned by the Utah Supreme Court in 2010 due to flawed jury instructions.
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