Opening up these FLDS communities, authorities reasoned, would make it easier for the abuse of young girls to be discovered. But Utah Attorney General Mark L. Shurtleff and Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard have said often that Jeffs's establishment of the ranch -- the FLDS bought the land in late 2003 and began constructing and populating the compound in 2004 -- was an attempt to escape the scrutiny the sect was getting in their states."It crossed our mind all the time . . . when they first moved to Texas . . . that some of the abusive practices that we were trying to quell and get witnesses to testify to in Arizona" might be practiced in Texas, Goddard said.
Jeffs is awaiting trial in Arizona on sex charges involving minors.
The mass action in Texas was reminiscent of the 1953 raid by Arizona police and the National Guard at Short Creek, now Colorado City, over similar child-abuse allegations. That event led to almost half a century of tense alienation of the FLDS and other polygamous communities from Utah and Arizona authorities.
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