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
A leader of a polygamous Arizona cult had 20 wives when he was just nine, married his own daughter and drove his spouses around in a trailer with a bucket for a toilet, they say.
A new FBI affidavit has revealed shocking allegations against a polygamous Bentley-driving cult leader who was arrested in Arizona earlier this year.
Samuel Rappylee Bateman, 46, is accused by witnesses of “marrying” up to 20 women and girls as young as nine, including his own daughter, according to the affidavit filed Friday, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
He has been in federal custody on disability charges since his September arrest after Bateman was pulled over by police while transporting underage girls in a run-down trailer equipped with a couch and a bucket for a toilet.
Bateman runs a splinter group of the radical Mormon offshoot Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or FLDS — but Bateman is apparently so extreme that he’s even been denounced by former FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, a convicted child rapist.
The FBI affidavit, filed in the Eastern District of Washington, contains sickening allegations of incest, group sex with adults and underage children, and child trafficking.
FBI Agent Dawn A. Martin, citing testimony in the filing, writes that Bateman “began to proclaim that he was a prophet” and declared his intention to marry his own teenage daughter in 2019.
The 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.”
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
The dilapidated trailer was furnished with a couch, camp chairs and a bucket toilet
Evidence cited in the affidavit includes recordings by Bateman himself speaking to a couple in Colorado City 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.”
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 happened 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 AZFamily.com.
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.
A photographic evidence shows the trailer that Bateman allegedly used to transport underage girls
FBI agents raid the home of Samuel Rappylee Bateman in Colorado City, Arizona on September 13
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
Family and supporters of Samuel Bateman gather as he calls from police custody following his September 13 arrest in Colorado City, Arizona
Bateman was a former member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) until he left in recent years and started his own small offshoot group, said Sam Brower, who has spent years researching the group.
Bateman was once among the trusted supporters of incarcerated leader Warren Jeffs, but Jeffs recently denounced Bateman in a written revelation he sent to his supporters from prison, Brower said.
Bateman’s group still practices plural marriage, with a small following of fewer than 100 people, estimates Brower, who has written a book about the FLDS and starred in the recent Netflix series Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey.
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.
Bateman is apparently so extreme that he was even denounced by former FLDS leader Warren Jeffs (above), a convicted child rapist
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.