The Voice of Eldorado and Schleicher County Since 1901

FLDS leadership in flux as pressure on group increases

SEPTEMBER 9, 2004
Sam Barlow, the man who once answered only to Prophet Warren Jeffs inside the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was reportedly excommunicated last week along with a handful of other men who no longer found favor with the Prophet.

Barlow once served as the Police Chief of Colorado City, Arizona. In recent years, he was Prophet Warren Jeffs right-hand man as the self-proclaimed church leader sought to consolidate his hold over the church following the death of his father, former FLDS Prophet Rulon Jeffs.

Sources close to the story tell the Success that Barlow and his brother Alvin, the man who until recently served as Superintendent of Schools for the Colorado City school system, were both kicked out of the church just over a week ago. Also said to be included in the excommunications were two men who, as recent as a month ago, were helping with the construction project at the YFZ Ranch just outside of Eldorado, Ernie Jessop and Allen Steed.

Ben Bistline, author of The Polygamists, A History of Colorado City, Arizona, told the Success on Tuesday that he had driven by Sam Barlow's office where he saw the man's white Chevrolet Suburban backed up to the door as if the office was being cleared out.

"There's still a sign in front that says 'Sam's Office' but no one has seen him around," Bistline said of Sam Barlow.

Interestingly, Private Investigator Sam Brower, the man who served a summons to Merrill Jessop a few weeks ago at the YFZ Ranch gate, (as reported in the Aug. 19 edition of the Success) managed to serve similar papers on Sam Barlow a few days later. The papers require Barlow to appear to testify in a civil lawsuit brought against Warren Jeffs by his nephew Brent Jeffs. The lawsuit accuses the Prophet and two of his brothers of sexually abusing their nephew when he was 5 years-old.

Ernie Jessop was the man in charge of the construction at the YFZ Ranch when Eldoradoans first became aware of the story in March of this year. It was Jessop and Allen Steed, along with Lee Roy Steed and David Allred, who met with local officials on April 28th of this year (as reported in the May 6 edition of the Success ) to admit that they had not been completely truthful when they said that the YFZ Ranch was meant to be a corporate hunting retreat. Now Ernie Jessop and Allen Steed are counted among the former FLDS members who are being asked to "repent from a distance." Also listed in that group is Mark Copeland, the man credited with locating the YFZ Ranch property and arranging for its purchase.

As Superintendent of Colorado City schools, Alvin Barlow found himself and his school system under increasing scrutiny in recent years. A mass exodus of FLDS children from the school in 2000 caused the district's student/staff ratio to balloon to 3-to-1 prompting Arizona state regulators to begin questioning expenditures at the school. What they found was a school system that was top-heavy with highly paid FLDS administrators and auxiliary staff while non-FLDS teachers were paid a below average salary to educate an ever-dwindling number of students. Published reports indicated that the school system had more than 100 employees on staff while student enrollment dipped below 300.

As the number of state inquiries grew, so did the number of investigative journalists looking into the Colorado City school system. A proposed bond election was scrapped when public outcry against higher taxes made it clear the bond would not be approved by voters.

School district residents already pay $13 per $100 valuation, a rate that is believed to be the highest in the United States. Sources tell the Success, however, that a series of complicated exemptions for church property and incomplete construction meant that few FLDS members paid the top rate. Another financial detail that tended to benefit FLDS members is the fact that the district's health insurance plan reportedly covered multiple wives and children of the church's polygamous members employed by the district.

Now, Alvin Barlow finds himself on the outs with FLDS Prophet Warren Jeffs. It is unclear who will be called on to lead the school system, or who will fill the shoes of his brother, Sam Barlow, as Warren Jeffs' enforcer in Colorado City.

Closer to home, Sheriff David Doran says his efforts to arrange a face-to-face meeting with missing FLDS leader "Uncle" Fred Jessop have been rebuffed by YFZ officials. "They continue to say that he's not here and that he just wants to be left alone," Doran said. "If that's true then all they have to do is produce the man. If he's OK then all of this will go away."

Sam Brower, the private investigator working for Brent Jeffs' attorney, Joanne Suder of Baltimore, MD, speculates that Fred Jessop is staying, or is being kept, at the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado. "I'm worried about his wellbeing, so are my clients and so are some of Uncle Fred's relatives." Brower said.

Brower said it is difficult to predict where the YFZ Ranch story will go next. "You wonder who is going to get kicked out next," Brower said. "And, will there be anybody left when Warren gets through?"

No one associated with the YFZ Ranch or the FLDS Church is willing to speak with the Success concerning this story.

The Eldorado Success invites Warren Jeffs and/or other leaders of the FLDS church to comment on this or any other story surrounding the FLDS and the YFZ Ranch