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Records: Jeffs conducted teen daughter's wedding
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Warren Jeffs married his underage daughter to the 34-year-old son of his chief deputy, one day after she turned 15, according to pictures, diaries and a marriage record kept by Jeffs' polygamist sect obtained Friday by the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News.

The documents were attached to a report filed Friday by Court-Appointed Special Advocates in San Angelo, the girl's guardian, in a battle over who represents her in court. The CASA report contradicts both interviews the girl and members of her church, The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, have given denying that she was ever placed in a "spiritual marriage" with an adult member of the church.

"Based on the information in the attachments, CASA feels that [the girl] would be at risk for continued sexual abuse," the CASA report states.

The girl's guardian who wrote the report was not available for comment Friday. FLDS spokesmen could not be reached for comment.

Jeffs' daughter, now 16 and in her mother's custody, has found herself in a three-way legal fight between the FLDS, the Texas Attorney General's Office, which is laying out a criminal case against the sect to grand jurors next week, and her own court-appointed attorneys hired to protect her legal and personal interests.

The Salt Lake Tribune has previously identified the girl as Teresa Jeffs, because she took her complaints about her attorney public.

The teen has been subpoenaed by the state to testify before the grand jury, which meets for the second time next Tuesday in Eldorado.

Natalie Malonis, the girl's attorney ad litem, representing the girl's legal interests, confirmed the report had been filed with the court in San Angelo but would not comment on it.

The revelation that Jeffs not only approved the marriage of his own teen daughter to an adult but officiated at the "spiritual wedding" is the most detailed evidence to surface in the case. It could show that underage marriages were perhaps not as rare as the church has been leading the public to believe.

Jeffs awaits trial in Arizona on charges of being an accomplice to sexual conduct with a minor for allegedly arranging marriages between underage girls and adult men. He was convicted in Utah last year of two counts of felony rape as an accomplice in the marriage of a girl there.

The records attached to the report include photos of the girl, pulled apparently from one of the many scrapbooks FLDS women keep, in which she is seen kissing her new adult husband.

An excerpt from the girl's own diary also included a recollection of the marriage to Raymond Jessop, which appears to have taken place July 26, 2006, at the "Home of President Warren Jeffs."

In a Dec. 27, 2006, entry, the girl wrote, "The Lord blessed me to go forward in marriage July 27, 2006, the day after I turned 15 years old."

The teen was one of more than 400 children taken from the FLDS' Yearning For Zion Ranch near Eldorado, Texas.

Court filing includes diary entries, photos that counter girl's claim she wasn't married to an adult
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