AUSTIN — Texas wants ownership of Warren Jeffs’ polygamist ranch, where prosecutors say the convicted sect leader and his followers sexually assaulted dozens of children, the state attorney general’s office said Wednesday.
A judge will determine whether to grant the state control of the 1,600-acre property owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
The sect bought the land for more than $1.1 million in 2003, according to court records. An affidavit filed Wednesday does not provide a current value for the Yearning for Zion Ranch. Texas has spent more than $4.5 million in prosecuting the cases against Jeffs and 10 of his followers.
Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said the seizure warrantbegins the final chapter in the state’s 5-year-old case against Jeffs.
“This is simply the next step,” Strickland said.
Texas Rangers raided the ranch in April 2008 after a call to a domestic-abuse hot line that turned out to be false, and took 439 children into state custody.
Jeffs last year was convicted of sexually assaulting two minors whom he described as his spiritual wives. At trial, prosecutors presented DNA evidence to show he fathered a child with one of those girls, aged 15.
Jeffs, 56, is serving a life prison term in Texas. He has continued to try to lead his roughly 10,000 followers from behind bars.
It’s not known how many people still live at the secluded Eldorado ranch about 200 miles west of San Antonio, but the seizure warrant does not require them to leave.
Under Texas law, authorities can seize property that was used to commit or facilitate certain criminal conduct.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 11/29/2012