Here you go:
ELDORADO -- A Schleicher County grand jury Tuesday handed down seven indictments, including one against Warren Jeffs, imprisoned leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
The indictments alleged a total of nine counts of sexual assault, bigamy and related issues against Jeffs and five other FLDS members whose names were not disclosed.
It was the second full day of testimony in grand jury proceedings stemming from an April raid on the polygamist sect's YFZ Ranch near Eldorado.
At the end of the day, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott spoke to reporters near the courthouse and took a few questions.
Jeffs was charged with first-degree felony sexual assault of a child. He was notified of the indictment in an Arizona jail while he awaits trial on a different charge.
Four other suspects were indicted on charges of sexually assaulting girls younger than 17. Each of those suspects faces one count of sexual assault, and one of those suspects faces an additional charge of bigamy.
Another defendant has been charged with three counts of failure to report child abuse.
In its first meeting last month, the grand jury met for a full day without issuing indictments stemming from the April raid in which state authorities took more than 400 children into custody and confiscated hundreds of boxes of documents from the YFZ Ranch. Authorities suspect the polygamist sect, which split decades ago from the Mormon church, of engaging in sexual abuse and forced "marriages" involving underage girls.
The sect practices a form of plural marriage that, when it involves only consenting adults, is acceptable under the law.
A grand jury is a group of 12 to 23 people empaneled in closed proceedings to evaluate the evidence presented by prosecutors in criminal matters. If the evidence is sufficient, an indictment or formal accusation is issued, and the accused person is subject to arrest.
"There will be an aggressive attempt to apprehend them," Abbott said. "We'll push for a speedy trial in this matter. It's very important they receive a fair and impartial trial."
He said the investigation is ongoing.
Abbott spoke to reporters about 6:30 p.m., an hour after the grand jury left the Memorial Building.
Other than Jeffs, the suspects were not named, Abbott said later in a news release.
"Because law enforcement authorities are still reviewing the arrest warrants issued today, further information about the indictments cannot be released at this time," he said.
Judge Barbara Walther, of the 51st Judicial District, who has overseen the case from the beginning, left the building at 6:15 p.m.
Abbott's brief news conference capped a long day that saw little action outside the courthouse. A half-dozen sect women spent most of the day on the courthouse lawn waiting with their attorneys. Law enforcement officials milled around the courthouse, and reporters waited outside yellow tape put up to keep the media from the courthouse.
"It's the continued harassment of FLDS for the women to be drug out in the sun all day," Willie Jessop, FLDS spokesman, said before the indictments were announced.
A sect member who identified himself only as Ben said outside the courthouse that most of the sect women subpoenaed to testify were planning to invoke their Fifth Amendment rights, refusing to testify because the information could incriminate them.
A group of sect men waited in parked vehicles outside the courthouse, sometimes taking pictures of the day's events.
Jessop was gone by the time the indictments were announced and could not be reached afterward.
It is not known what agency will execute the indictments. Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran said: "I will assist the Texas Rangers and the Attorney General in whatever is asked. I have received no directive."
Doran said he thinks the population has decreased and activity has slowed at the YFZ Ranch.
http://www.reporternews.com/news/2008/jul/22/flds-indictments-announced/
