A “self-proclaimed prophet” in Arizona who had more than 20 wives, including minors, is accused of trying to intimidate a government witness and using a jail phone to conduct “explicit sexual conversations” with children, federal Court documents state.
Prosecutors allege Samuel Rapille Bateman, a branch leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, used his phone privileges at the Core Civic/Central Arizona Florence Correctional Complex after he was arrested in September on charges of destroying records. repeatedly abused. Connected to a federal investigation.
According to the documents, during a conversation on November 26, Bateman called a 13-year-old girl identified as Jane Doe 4 a “sexy darling” and asked if she remembered their “sacred time” together. He also had inappropriate interactions with a 16-year-old girl, identified as Jane Doe 11, the filing states.
“Despite Bateman’s knowledge that his nonconsensual communications were monitored, he engaged in explicitly sexual interactions with children, including 13-year-old Jane Doe, 4,” prosecutors wrote.
At the time, Bateman was prohibited from communicating with Jane Doe 4 because she was a victim in a Coconino County child abuse case.
The documents further allege that Bateman phoned some of his wives and instructed them to send “intimidating messages” to a government witness.
Bateman’s phone and video privileges at the facility were eventually restricted and he was told he could only communicate with his lawyers, but court documents state that he used another inmate’s PIN to make calls. Tried to find ways around this by using no.
According to the documents, his adult wives, who were aware of the restrictions, also created new email addresses and obtained new phone numbers to attempt to contact Bateman. On Friday, the date of the court filing, one of Bateman’s wives allegedly used a new email address to send Bateman 33 messages before the email was blocked.
The document states that Bateman “attempted to call blocked phone numbers almost every day.”
Bateman’s attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Following his arrest, the underage girls Bateman believed to be his wives were placed in the custody of the Arizona Department of Children’s Services. Prosecutors said Bateman had more than 20 wives, nine of them minors currently between the ages of 12 and 16.
He allegedly called up their adult wives from jail to elope the eight girls. He was eventually tracked down to an Airbnb in Washington.
