Bentley-driving polygamist had 20 wives as young as nine, FBI alleges

A polygamous cult leader in Arizona is said to have had 20 wives as young as nine, married his own daughter and drove their spouses in a trailer with a bucket for a toilet.

A new FBI affidavit has revealed shocking allegations against Samuel Rappylee Bateman, 46, a Bentley driver, who was arrested in Arizona earlier this year.

Samuel Rappylee Bateman, 46, is accused by witnesses of ‘marrying’ up to 20 women and girls as young as nine, including his own daughter, according to the affidavit filed Friday, the Salt Lake Grandstand informed.

He has been in federal custody on obstruction charges since his arrest in September, which came after police detained Bateman as he was transporting underage girls inside a seedy trailer outfitted with a sofa and a bucket for a toilet.

Bateman leads a splinter group of the radical Mormon branch Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or FLDS, but Bateman is apparently so extreme that he has even been denounced by former FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, a convicted child rapist.

The FBI affidavit, filed in the Eastern District of Washington, outlines sickening allegations of incest, group sex acts involving adults and minor children, and child sex trafficking.

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.”

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.

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.

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 was a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or FLDS, until he left in recent years and started his own small spinoff group, said Sam Brower, who has spent years researching the group.

Bateman was once one of jailed leader Warren Jeffs’ trusted supporters, but Jeffs recently denounced Bateman in a written disclosure sent to his followers from prison, Brower said.

Bateman’s group still practices plural marriage with a small following of fewer than 100 people, estimated Brower, who wrote a book on FLDS and appeared on the recent Netflix series “Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey.”

Bateman’s attorney, Adam Zickerman, cautioned in September against inferring that the federal case involved religious persecution, though he did not specify Bateman’s faith or say whether he practices polygamy. Zickerman said Bateman is not a danger to the community.

Schneider cited a pretrial services report as saying Bateman had relationships with multiple women, but also did not mention whether Bateman belonged to any polygamous groups.

Both the Arizona US Attorney’s Office and Zickerman declined to comment after a court hearing in September, as did two women who were sitting in the gallery and met with Zickerman.

US Magistrate Judge Camille Bibles has ordered Bateman to remain behind bars while the case moves through the courts. She noted that Bateman is a pilot and survivor who has international supporters and contacts who could help with financial or other resources at any time. She said that she was also concerned about young women in vulnerable positions.

“The courts have a vested interest in protecting people who cannot protect themselves,” he said.

Bateman listed a mailing address in Colorado City, where a patchwork of devout polygamous FLDS members, former church members and those who do not practice the faith live. Both Colorado City and its sister community of Hildale, Utah have seen significant cultural changes in recent years.

The FLDS group led by imprisoned leader Jeffs has lost much of its control over the communities. Jeffs is serving a life sentence in a Texas prison for child sexual abuse related to underage marriages.

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.