The leader of an Arizona-based polygamous cult tried to bribe his own 14-year-old daughter into marrying him with potato chips, $50 and plane tickets.
The shocking allegations against Samuel Rappylee Bateman, 46, came in a new FBI affidavit filed on Friday. Bateman was taken into federal custody in September.
Bateman is also said to have told followers that convicted child rapist and cult leader Warren Jeffs is dead and that he has “talked through” Bateman as the new prophet.
He was arrested after being stopped by police officers while transporting underage girls in a run-down trailer fitted with a couch and a bucket for a toilet.
Bateman leads a splinter group of the radical Mormon offshoot Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS). His views are considered so extreme that even Jeffs distanced himself from him.
According to an FBI affidavit, Samuel Rappylee Bateman, 46, is accused by witnesses of “marrying” up to 20 women and girls as young as nine, including his own daughter
In 2019, Bateman was returning from a road trip to Canada with his 14-year-old daughter when he told her he felt like she was his wife. The teenager told lawyers in 2020 that her father’s words scared her.
While the couple was pulled over at a gas station, Bateman gave his daughter two bags of $50 Doritos and asked what type of car she wanted to drive.
In the FBI documents, Special Agent Dawn A. Martin described this interaction as Bateman’s attempt to bribe his daughter into marrying him.
The document goes on to say that Bateman gave his daughter “sloppy” kisses, which his daughter called “nasty.” He then spoke at length about having a child with her.
Bateman later informed his wife that he wanted to marry their daughter, prompting his wife to leave with the child.
Former FLDS supporters told the Salt Lake City Tribune in December that following the 2011 conviction of Warren Jeffs, Bateman exploited the power vacuum and became the group’s leader.
He told followers that the reason Jeffs stopped speaking to members was because he was dead “or translated,” Mormons speak for God changing a person’s body from mortal to immortal.
Bateman said that Jeffs could only speak through him and that members should reward him with money and new wives.
In reality, investigator Sam Brower said Jeffs denounced Bateman from his prison cell in recent correspondence. Brower appeared in the Netflix documentary: Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey.
Women and girls are seen during a traffic stop August 28 in northern Arizona, where police say Bateman towed three girls, ages 11 to 14, in a box trailer behind his SUV
A photographic evidence shows the trailer that Bateman allegedly used to transport underage girls
The dilapidated trailer was furnished with a couch, camp chairs and a bucket toilet
The most recent affidavit states that Bateman has since gathered “about 50 followers and more than 20 wives, many of whom are minors, mostly under the age of 15.”
Evidence cited in the affidavit includes recordings by Bateman himself speaking to a couple in Colorado City, Arizona, who were outreach to the polygamy community there and filming a documentary.
In an example cited in the document, Bateman told the couple that in early November 2021, “Heavenly Father” directed him to “give three of his adult male followers the most precious thing he has, the virtue of his girls.”
Bateman then reportedly watched as the three men had sex with his daughters, one of whom was as young as 12, according to the affidavit.
Bateman reportedly commented that the girls “sacrificed their virtue for the Lord,” continuing, “God will mend their bodies and put the membrane back into their bodies.” I’ve never had more confidence in doing His will. It’s all for love.”
Bateman is apparently so extreme that he was even denounced by former FLDS leader Warren Jeffs (above), a convicted child rapist
The affidavit further alleges that Bateman drove “in a big SUV full of women and girls” to the couple’s Colorado City home in late 2020, where he “introduced everyone as his wives.”
The youngest of the so-called “wives” was a girl who was born in 2011, Agent Martin wrote, meaning the girl would have been at most nine years old.
The affidavit also notes that Bateman owned two Bentleys, although it appears his “wives” traveled less in style.
Bateman’s first encounter with the law occurred in August when he was pulled over by a state police officer in northern Arizona towing a box trailer “full of people, including children.”
According to a police statement, the officer saw “kids’ little fingers moving in the gap in the trailer’s rear door” as he pulled up behind the trailer.
Police said three girls, aged between 11 and 14, were in the trailer, along with a couch, camp chairs and a toilet made out of a bucket. With Bateman in the SUV towing the trailer were two women and two girls under the age of 15.
Bateman was later arrested and charged at the scene with three counts of child molestation.
Federal prosecutors say that while he was in the Coconino County jail in Flagstaff, he spoke to the local defendants with his supporters in Colorado City and instructed them to delete messages sent through encrypted messaging app Signal and all women and girls asked to do so passports.
Bateman posted bail for the state charges, but weeks later he was faced with a federal indictment charging him with three counts of destroying or attempting to destroy records and tampering with criminal proceedings by reference to his instructions to his supporters.
He pleaded not guilty in the US Magistrates Court in Flagstaff
Federal Attorney Patrick Schneider said in September that state child welfare services removed children from Bateman’s home in Colorado City, where the FBI recently served a search warrant.
Bateman has not been charged with child sex crimes, although the FBI’s new affidavit says the FBI likely has reason to believe that he and others transported minors between Arizona, Utah, Nevada and Nebraska between May 2020 and November 2021, to engage in illegal sexual activity.
Three girls hug before being removed from the home of Samuel Bateman following his arrest September 14 in Colorado City, Arizona. Seven were removed from the Bateman home, as well as two others from another home
Bateman’s attorney Adam Zickerman warned in September against inferring that the federal case involved religious persecution, although he did not specify Bateman’s beliefs or say whether he practices polygamy. Zickerman said Bateman was not a danger to the community.
Schneider cited an investigative service report in which he said Bateman had relationships with multiple women, but also did not mention whether Bateman belonged to polygamous groups.
Both the US Attorney’s Office in Arizona and Zickerman declined to comment after a court hearing in September, as did two women who sat in the bleachers and met with Zickerman.
US Judge Camille Bibles ordered Bateman to remain behind bars while the case goes to court. She noted that Bateman is a pilot and survivor who has supporters and international contacts who could help with financial or other resources in the short term. She said she was also concerned about young girls in vulnerable positions.
“Courts have a tremendous interest in protecting people who cannot protect themselves,” she said.
Bateman listed a Colorado City mailing address where a patchwork of devout members of the polygamous FLDS, former church members and those who do not practice the faith live. Both Colorado City and its sister community, Hildale, Utah, have seen significant cultural changes in recent years.
The FLDS group, run by jailed leader Jeffs, has lost much of its control over the communities. Jeffs is serving a life sentence in a Texas prison for child sexual abuse in connection with underage marriages.
Polygamy is a legacy of the early teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but the mainstream church abandoned the practice in 1890 and now strictly prohibits it.