Texas Sect's Sick "Temple"

APRIL 10--During a raid at the Texas compound of a polygamist sect police discovered a "Temple" that was outfitted with beds upon which adult males had sex with underage girls who were virtually imprisoned at the group's walled property.

During a search earlier this week, investigators found "multiple locked safes, locked desk drawers, locked vaults, as well as multiple computers and beds" inside the building, which was referred to as the "Temple" by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) group.

According to a search warrant affidavit, a copy of which you'll find here, a confidential informant (who had been a FLDS member) recently told a local sheriff that "the temple...contains an area where there is a bed where males over the age of seventeen engage in sexual activity with female children under the age of seventeen." While the affidavit notes that the confidential source has, on more than 20 occasions over the past four years, provided "reliable, true and correct" information about the FLDS, it is unclear why the sect's compound had not been raided sooner.

The current law enforcement scrutiny was triggered when a 16-year-old called a family violence center to report that her husband, 50, had abused her. (4 pages)