After reportedly finding proof of Samuel Bateman’s wrongdoing, the police decided to place him under arrest and charge him with the kidnapping and sexual abuse of minors.
According to the reports, Bateman, 45, is a self-proclaimed “prophet” of Latter-Day Saints, which practices polygamy.
“Give Over” their Own Spouses, Daughters to Become His Wives
Bateman gained approximately 50 members in the year 2019, and over the course of the subsequent three years, he allegedly persuaded his male adherents to hand over their own wives and daughters so that he could marry them, MSN reported.
According to the police, Bateman and his followers drove juveniles across state borders to meet him in hotel rooms in Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and Nebraska so that he could have sex with them.
The documentary footage that a couple shot of Bateman and his wives was the basis for the case that was built against him by the investigators.
The video purportedly includes audio of Bateman providing three of his male followers sex access to many of his teenage brides.
The report also revealed that Bateman is claimed to have told the girls on the recording that they had “sacrificed their virtue for the Lord” in accordance with instructions from their “Heavenly Father.”
Reportedly in response, the sobbing females stated that it was an honor to suffer for the sake of another person so that they may rise.
One of Bateman’s Wives Arrested for Obstruction of Justice, Kidnapping of 8 Girls
Federal authorities have ordered an Arizona woman to face charges after she was detained Thursday leaving a Spokane Airbnb with eight girls thought to be the teenage spouses of a polygamist with ties to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Spokesman revealed that a federal judge in Arizona has set Dec. 16 as the date for Moretta Rose Johnson’s arraignment on counts of obstruction of justice and kidnapping.
All eight girls had escaped from group homes after Bateman’s arrest in late November, and a Spokane County Sheriff’s officer conducting a “knock and speak” at an Airbnb on Thursday spotted Johnson and them.
Johnson was formerly an underage wife of Bateman’s. The polygamist also claimed two other women as his wife in the lawsuit for helping the minors flee their Arizona homes, but neither of them were taken into custody on Thursday.
As for the girls who were with Johnson when she was detained, the Phoenix FBI office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday regarding their whereabouts.
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