As we have been predicting, the State of Texas has now criminally charged Warren Jeffs and five of his adult male followers. A grand jury returned the indictments today.
Texas got embarrassed when it was ordered to return the FLDS children to their parents. It didn’t need to happen.
It’s time to start telling the truth on all sides of this story. Jurisdictional turf wars and law enforcement egos have screwed a lot of things up over the years. Before their raid, Texas authorities never contacted the handful of people in Utah and Arizona who actually know the history and could have told them that their original “suspect” Dale Barlow was the wrong guy. I knew it and was publicly broadcasting my doubts on television within hours of the raid. But unfortunately they don’t watch my newscast in Texas. And there are at least a couple of people who know the story a lot better than I do. But Texas decided to go it alone and it got messy.
It seems there are a few law officers in the Lone Star state who have positioned themselves as authorities on this story. In all due respect , they are not. They don’t know the history and as I have said many times, the history of this story is critically important.
My concern now is that the Senate Judiciary Committee, that had will hold hearings on the FLDS church later this week, will make the same mistake–listening to the wrong people and not even ask the people who really know.
The U.S. Attorneys from Utah and Nevada will testify–so will the state Attorneys General from Arizona and Texas. Once again, in all due respect, I’m not really sure what the two U.S. Attorneys are going to add. Up until this point, the feds have been pretty useless. Yeah they put Warren Jeffs on the FBI’s Most Wanted List–but that’s about it. I suspect that the two U.S. Attorneys will go before the Senate Committee and talk a big game–saying that they have done this and they have done that. Don’t let them fool you they really haven’t done much. I don’t know much about the Texas Attorney General–he’s pretty new to this crazy story. Arizona’s Attorney General Terry Goddard certainly knows a thing or two–he’s testimony should be pretty interesting.
The really interesting testimony will, however, probably come from former FLDS members Carolyn Jessop and Dan Fischer. They are the real McCoy. They know what they are talking about. The other witness is some author who wrote a quicky book and started showing up at media events a few months ago. Everybody has got an angle.
I turned down an offer to testify before the Judiciary Committee. The reason: it didn’t seem like the right thing to do. I have been chronicling the history and practices of the FDLS church for more that a quarter of a century–I’ve already had my say. People interested in the story already know where I stand and know of the long and twisted history of criminal behavior that I have documented in more stories than I can now possibly count.
But more importantly, I see my role as calling the b.s. I’ve been covering this story a lot longer and more aggressively than any reporter in this country–and I know it to be dangerously full of more ass-coverering, self-serving liars than you can find even in a place like Congress. The polygamists lie. Cops lie. Politicians lie. Reporters lie.
It’s time for the lying to stop. It’s too bad the Senators didn’t invite Mohave County Special Investigator Gary Engles to testify–or private investigator Sam Brower–or Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith–or Washington County Attorney Brock Belnap–any one of these guys know more about the subject matter than all of the U.S. Attorneys combined.
Like I says–it’s all about history and there is a long history of turf battles and law enforcement egos screwing things. I pray for the children’s sake that doesn’t happen during these hearings in the nation’s capitol. But if it does I promise I’ll be there to call the b.s.
Mike Watkiss
I’ve had a lot of weird celebrity encounters during my career. Pierce Brosnon was a really cool guy. Elizabeth Taylor was a pain in the butt. Sylvester Stallone once tried to drag me in to a lawsuit.
Marlon Brando was charming as he escorted his son Christian out of an L.A. county jail early one morning. Jack Nicholson once ran over the tip of my boot with his car while I was standing in the driveway that Jack and Brando shared high atop Mulhulland Drive.
Comedian Rosanne Barr and her one-time husband Tom Arnold flipped-out–wrongly accused a member of our t.v. crew of trying to steal a coffee cup while we’re were attempting to interview the crazed couple at a home the twosome was renting in Malibu. What a comedy that was!
In real life, actor Tommy Lee Jones was scary and intense. He reminded me of the “missing link.” Jeff Daniels looked like a big goofy kid in a Halloween costume as he walked around the set of “Dumb and Dumber” wearing his dog grooming outfit. O.J. was a jerk long before he kill Nicole and Ron.
But of all my brushes-with-fame, the one that I still consider the most intriguing and bizarre was a chance encounter with a well-known and well-respected writer by the name of Jerzy Kosinski.
Kosinski is perhaps best known for a wonderful book he wrote called “Being There.” It’s the tale of a simple minded man who does nothing but tend a garden and watch t.v. Then, because of a strange twist of fate, the man becomes the President of the United States. The great actor Peter Sellers starred in the movie version and was nominated for an Oscar.
For my money Kosinski’s best book, however, was a haunting semi-autobiographical novel called “The Painted Bird.”
It’s the story of a little boy who is separated from his parents as war is breaking out in Europe. The poor child looked like a gypsy and as a result is subjected to one atrocity after another at the hands of the brutish back-country peasantry of Europe. It is a horrifying but stunningly told story of hatred, superstition, prejudice and hard-fought survival.
To this day, the mere thought of some of the book’s passages are powerful enough to make my skin crawl.
Let’s just say I had read several of Jerzy Kosinski’s books and was a very big fan when I spotted him one Sunday afternoon many years ago walking in Central Park with a young pretty woman.
I was certain it was Jerzy Kosinski because I had not only read many of his books, I had also seen the Warren Beatty movie “Reds” in which Kosinski played a small but significant role. It was Kosinski–no doubt about it–one of my favorite authors–right there in front of me taking a stroll through Central Park.
The problem was: I was on roller skates at the time–doing my own little Sunday afternoon sprint through the park. The question of course: Do I skate over and risk appearing like some drooling goof. Would I scare the guy? Do I miss my one chance at telling one of my favorite authors how much I admire him? To add to my dilemma I had read somewhere that Kosinski had enemies–people who wanted to kill him. Wonder if he called the cops?–wonder if he shoot me?
What the hell–I may look like a dork on my skates–but I had to shake his hand.
“Excuse me….are you Jerzy Kosinski?” I asked as I wheeled up along side the author and his female friend.
I would read a few months later that Kozinski committed suicide in his New York apartment. I can’t remember the details. He was a talented but haunted man.
Many years have pass since my chance encounter with the author but I will never forget his response to my question “…are you Jerzy Kozinski?”
Without missing a beat, his dark eyes locked on me, and he shot back: “That depends on if you are friend or foe.”
Mike Watkiss
Senators Harry Reid and Sheldon Whitehouse want some answers. Aids to the two Democrats have been busy in recent days making phone calls around the country (several to yours truly) trying to round up people who know what the hell they are talking about and are willing to testify about the inner-workings of Warren Jeffs’ FLDS church. (I politely declined–can’t really cover an event and testify at it at the same time–doesn’t look good.)
Very well placed sources, however, tell me the two Senators are looking to investigate the FLDS church’s for a lot more than just forced underage marriages. They also want to see if any federal laws (i.e. RICO and the Mann Act etc.) may have been broken by Mr. Jeffs and company. A hearing is slated for Washington D.C. this coming Thursday morning.
Meanwhile in Texas, a grand jury is probably going to start slinging out some criminal indictments pretty darn soon. The Lone Star State couldn’t hang on to the confiscated kids but its investigation following its ill-fated raid continued and that now-four-month-old probe will certainly lead to the indictment and prosecute of some of the adult FLDS men–and maybe even some of the adult FLDS women–and mark my words that could certainly include polygamous prophet Warren Jeffs himself and some of Jeffs’ closest allies….stay tuned….mw
Mike Watkiss