>
Samuel Rappylee Bateman is accused of having multiple wives, including some as young as nine years old.
The Mormon “prophet” who drives a Bentley and has 20 wives, including some as young as nine, is so extreme in his views that he even turned down notorious child molester Warren Jeffs.
According to a newly filed FBI affidavit, Jeffs recently denounced Samuel Rappylee Bateman in a letter to his supporters inside the church.
Bateman has been charged with multiple counts of child abuse for allegedly supporting 20 wives, including girls as young as nine.
He remains in custody in Washington but was arrested for crimes in Arizona.
Bateman leads a splinter group of the radical Mormon branch Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or FLDS.
Jeffs, 67, remains in prison for crimes.
He served as FLDS president from 2002 until 2004, when he received the first in a long list of charges related to his treatment of children.
Notorious child rapist Warren Jeffs, left with one of his victims, remains in prison on his own child abuse charges. He recently denounced the church’s Samuel Rappylee Bateman and told followers that Bateman was too “extreme.”
Not only did he marry children, but he also orchestrated arranged marriages between adults in the church and children.
It is not clear if Bateman’s attitude towards young women was what disgusted him enough for Jeffs to report him.
Bateman, 46, was arrested earlier this year on obstruction charges, but new legal documents in recent weeks have revealed just how grotesque his alleged abuse of children has been.
FBI agent Dawn A. Martin, citing witness testimony, writes in the filing that Bateman “began to claim that he was a prophet” and declared his intention to marry his own teenage daughter in 2019.
The affidavit states that Bateman has since amassed “approximately 50 supporters and more than 20 wives, many of whom are minors, mostly under the age of 15.”
Two women and two girls were in the van and three girls were in the trailer, according to court records.
The sordid trailer where Bateman’s wives were found. Remains in custody
Evidence cited in the affidavit includes recordings of Bateman himself, speaking to a couple in Colorado City, Arizona, who are reaching out to the polygamy community there and are filming a documentary.
In an example cited in the document, Bateman told the couple that “Heavenly Father” had instructed him in early November 2021 to “give the most precious thing he has, the virtue of his girls” to three of his followers. adult males.
Bateman then allegedly watched as the three men had sex with their daughters, one of whom was just 12, according to the affidavit.
Bateman reportedly commented that the girls had “sacrificed their virtue for the Lord” and went on to say, “God will fix their bodies and re-membrane them.” I have never been more confident in doing his will. Everything is for love.
The affidavit further alleges that in late 2020, Bateman drove to the couple’s Colorado City home “in a large SUV full of women and girls,” where he “introduced everyone as his wives.”
The youngest of the so-called ‘wives’ was a girl born in 2011, Agent Martin wrote, meaning the girl would be nine years old at most.
FBI agents raid the home of Samuel Rappylee Bateman in Colorado City, Arizona, on September 13.
The affidavit also notes that Bateman owned two Bentleys, although it appears his ‘wives’ traveled with less style.
Bateman’s initial run-in with the law came in August, when a state trooper pulled him over in northern Arizona towing a trailer “full of people, including children,” according to AZFamily.com.
The trooper saw “the little fingers of the children moving in the gap of the rear door of the trailer” when he pulled up behind the trailer, according to a police statement.
Police said there were three girls in the trailer, all between the ages of 11 and 14, along with a couch, camping chairs and a bucket toilet. With Bateman in the SUV towing the trailer were two women and two girls under the age of 15.
Three girls embrace before being taken from the home of Samuel Bateman, following his arrest in Colorado City, Arizona, on September 14. Seven were taken from the Bateman home, as well as two others from another home.
Samuel Bateman’s family and supporters gather as he calls from police custody following his arrest in Colorado City, Arizona on September 13.
Bateman was later arrested and charged locally with three counts of child abuse.
Federal prosecutors say that while he was being held at the Coconino County Jail in Flagstaff on the local charges, he spoke to his followers in the Colorado city, directing them to delete communications sent through the encrypted messaging app Signal, and required all women and girls to obtain passports
Bateman posted bail on the state charges, but weeks later received a federal indictment charging him with three counts of destruction or attempted destruction of records and tampering with criminal proceedings, a reference to his instructions to his followers.
He pleaded not guilty in the US District Court in Flagstaff
US Attorney Patrick Schneider said in September that the state child welfare agency had removed the children from Bateman’s Colorado City home, where the FBI had recently served a search warrant.
Bateman has not been charged with child sex crimes, although the new FBI affidavit says the FBI has probable grounds to believe that he and others transported minors between Arizona, Utah, Nevada and Nebraska to engage in unlawful sexual conduct between May 2020 and November 2021.
Bateman is apparently so extreme that he has even been denounced by former FLDS leader Warren Jeffs (above), a convicted child rapist.