He remembers Bateman, a cousin on his mother’s side, as an outgoing boy who had a wild streak - once riding his bicycle off a diving board into a swimming pool. Lamont Barlow was close with Bateman when they were kids. It’s the same school district where his father, DeLoy Bateman, taught science - a controversial subject at the time for the fervently religious community. He attended public school in the Colorado City Unified School District, according to his LinkedIn profile.
home where Samuel Bateman was raised.īateman grew up in Short Creek in the 1980s in a Colorado City home in the center of town, close to the Utah-Arizona state line. (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Colorado City, Ariz. “Will we ever have to do without you in this life?” wrote a third. “How do you know when a Heavenly being is close by your side?” penned another. “Is it possible,” one woman wrote in a neat cursive, “for us, your wives, to ever have enough gratitude in our hearts for you and what you have done for us?” In one display of their devotion, on the day after authorities raided their homes, a group of his closest followers wrote questions on colorful slips of paper that they hoped he would answer on-camera once he was freed from jail. Several of Bateman’s followers who have spoken to The Tribune express deep loyalty and commitment to him. He also faces federal charges for allegedly instructing his followers to delete the messaging app Signal from his phone after he was arrested that day.īateman’s attorney didn’t respond to a request for comments, and Bateman didn’t respond to an email sent to him in jail. The FBI sought evidence of underage marriages or sexual relationships between adults and children.īateman hasn’t been charged with sexual abuse, though the 46-year-old man faces child abuse charges from prosecutors who say authorities discovered three young girls inside a locked cargo trailer he was pulling near Flagstaff in late August.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Followers of Samuel Bateman in the immediate aftermath of his arrest in September. “You put all those together,” Jessop said, “and you have a toxic situation.” But the traditionally polygamous community also has a history of secrecy and isolation, which Jessop said contributes to a certain innocence.
The people who live there have deep religious conviction, he said. Willie Jessop, a former bodyguard for Jeffs who became disillusioned after the leader’s arrest on sexual assault charges, said there are several factors that leave Short Creek residents vulnerable to potential abuse. A federal agent later wrote in court papers made public last week that authorities believe Bateman has 20 wives.
Those concerns put Bateman on the FBI’s radar, and agents who searched his homes were seeking evidence of underage marriages or sexual relationships between adults and children, according to a copy of the warrant shared with The Salt Lake Tribune. Federal court documents say some told officers they were concerned that Bateman had taken young girls as his wives - a heightened fear as FLDS leader Warren Jeffs’ conviction for sexually assaulting girls he had married still looms over the religious community. Several residents reported him to law enforcement for the last two years, police officials have confirmed, as Bateman led his small new offshoot of the FLDS faith. Known collectively as “Short Creek,” the community has historically been closed off.īut Bateman’s arrest is one of the latest signs of how much Short Creek is changing and becoming more open. They await formal federal charges, while their faith leader remains behind bars in Pinal County, their group scattered nearly two years after they settled in Colorado City.īateman was raised in the small town on the Utah-Arizona border, the traditional home base - along with Hildale, Utah - of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
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