The leader of a small polygamous group near the Arizona-Utah border took at least 20 wives, most of them minors, and punished his followers who did not treat him as a prophet, according to recently filed federal court documents.
Samuel Bateman was a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, until he left to start his own small spin-off group. He was financially supported by male followers who also gave up their own wives and daughters to be Bateman’s wives, according to an FBI affidavit.
The document filed Friday provides a new perspective on what investigators found in a case first made public in August. It accompanied charges of kidnapping and preventing a foreseeable trial against three of Bateman’s wives: Naomi Bistline, Donnae Barlow and Moretta Rose Johnson.
Bistline and Barlow are scheduled to appear in federal magistrate court in Flagstaff on Wednesday. Johnson is awaiting extradition from Washington state.
The women are accused of fleeing with eight of Bateman’s children, who were taken into the custody of the state of Arizona earlier this year. The children were found hundreds of miles away in Spokane, Washington, last week.
Bateman was arrested in August when someone saw little fingers in the space of a trailer he was transporting through Flagstaff. He posted bail but was re-arrested and charged with obstruction of justice in a federal investigation into whether children were being transported across state lines for sexual activity.
Court records allege that the 46-year-old Bateman engaged in child sex trafficking and polygamy, but none of the current charges against him relate to those allegations. Polygamy is illegal in Arizona, but it was decriminalized in Utah in 2020.
Arizona Department of Children’s Services spokesman Darren DaRonco and FBI spokesman Kevin Smith declined to comment on the case Tuesday. Bistline’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment, and Barlow’s attorney declined to comment. Johnson did not have a publicly traded lawyer.
The FBI affidavit filed in the women’s case focuses heavily on Bateman, who declared himself a prophet in 2019. Bateman says former FLDS leader Warren Jeffs told him to call on the “Spirit of God upon these women.” people”. The affidavit details the explicit sexual acts that Bateman and his followers engaged in to fulfill “godly duties.”
Jeffs is serving a life sentence in a Texas prison for child sexual abuse related to underage marriages.
Criminal defense attorney Michael Piccarreta, who represented Jeffs in the Arizona charges that were dismissed, said the state has a history of trying to take a stand against polygamy, charging relatively minor offenses to build larger cases.
“Whether this is the same tactic that was used in the past or if there is more to the story, only time will tell,” he said.
The office of Bateman’s attorney in the federal case, Adam Zickerman, declined to comment Tuesday.
Bateman lived in Colorado City among a patchwork of devout polygamous FLDS members, former members of the church, and those who do not practice the faith. Polygamy is a legacy of the early teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but the majority church abandoned the practice in 1890 and now strictly prohibits it.
Bateman traveled often to Nebraska, where some of his other supporters lived, and internationally to Canada and Mexico for conferences.
When Bateman was arrested earlier this year, he instructed his followers to obtain passports and delete messages sent through an encrypted system, authorities said.
He demanded that his followers publicly confess to any indiscretions and shared those confessions widely, according to the FBI affidavit. He claimed the punishments, which ranged from time-out to public shame and sexual activity, came from the Lord, the affidavit states.
Children identified by their initials in court documents have said little to authorities. The three children found in the trailer Bateman was transporting through Flagstaff, which had a makeshift bathroom, sofa, camping chairs and no ventilation, told authorities they had no health or medical needs, according to a report.
