Polygamist leader, 4 others indicted on sexual-assault charges

A Texas grand jury indicted polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs and four of his followers Tuesday on charges of felony sexual assault of a child.

Another was indicted for failing to report child abuse.

Attorney General Greg Abbott said the five men were indicted on one count of sexually assaulting girls under age 17. One of them, but not Jeffs, faces an additional charge of bigamy.

A sixth member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was indicted on three counts of failure to report child abuse, Abbott said.

Jeffs, already convicted of being an accomplice to rape in Utah and awaiting trial in Arizona on other charges related to underage marriages, is accused of assaulting a girl in Texas in January 2005, according to the indictment issued Tuesday.

"Our investigation in this matter is not concluded," said Abbott, whose office is acting as the special prosecutor in the case.

The grand jury in this tiny West Texas ranching community will continue considering other criminal charges Aug. 21, according to a source who spoke on the condition of anonymity because proceedings of the panel are secret by law.

The identities of Jeffs’ followers who were indicted were not released Tuesday because the indictments remain sealed until authorities can arrest the men.

"There will be an aggressive effort to apprehend them," Abbott said when asked whether he was concerned that the men may have fled Texas.

FLDS members have historically lived around the Arizona-Utah line and bought the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado, Texas, about five years ago.

Calls to FLDS spokesmen were not immediately returned Tuesday evening.