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On Tuesday, photographer Aaron Kimbell and I had the unfortunate task of going to court. It was nothing big – not for us at least. It was a big deal for Southern Utah gumshoe Sam Brower. Sam is a friend and occasional source for news about the “goings on” in the polygamist burbs of Colorado City and Hildale (why only one “L”?). Sam was hauled into court accused of being a pest and a pain in the backside of Willy Jessop.
That is the same Willy Jessop who is also known among current and former polygamists as “Willy the Enforcer”. Willy bragged about being the bodyguard of FLDS prophet and convicted felony, Warren Jeffs. (By they way, Willy, just where were you in ‘06 when your FBI-10-most-wanted-fugitive-boss, wearing a clever disguise of shorts and a t-shirt, was snagged during a routine traffic stop outside of Vegas?) Since the raid on the FLDS ranch – also known as the “shining city hidden in the middle of nowhere Texas” – Willy has became the outspoken spokesman for the FLDS Church. You remember - he's the guy who, after claiming he knew of no underage marriages, got in front of the cameras and microphones in Texas and promised that the FLDS will no longer perform underage marriages. (Willy… you can’t stop what you never started.)
Willy wanted a judge to make Sam go away. The lawyers call it a restraining order.
Tuesday they argued before the judge. Sam: “No way!” Willy: “Way!!”
So what was our role in all of this? We were to be witnesses for the defense. Here’s why: Willy complained that one day back in June, Sam led us to Willy’s hideaway in the Canaan Gap. And that Sam – Satan’s spawn to the FLDS – lured us into breaking journalistic principle (and the law) by breaching fences, stomping on “no trespassing” signs and chasing after his children and womenfolk with a camera.
One problem: It didn’t happen.
I mean, we did find Willy’s home-away-from-home – a really cool spot under the cliffs with cabins, a main house, a huge barn, livestock and lots of fencing – but after taking a couple shots from the county-maintained road (pretty boring stuff really) we left. No terrorizing children. No trespass.
That was to be our testimony. But guess what? We sat in the lobby of 5th District Court in St. George for the entire day and never got to testify. Around 5:00 in the afternoon the bailiff came out and said, “Go home, it’s over.”
The judge ended the hearing before the defendant (that’s Sam) had his turn. After listening all day to the plaintiff (that’s Willy), the judge looked down on Willy over the tops of his spectacles and essentially said, “Willy my boy, NO WAY. Motion Denied.”
So we missed our first (and we hope last) chance to sit on the witness stand and be grilled by $100-an-hour attorneys. But we were not alone in our daylong vigil for nothing. Besides Aaron and myself, there was a couple from Hildale (about that missing “L”), the former wife of FLDS big shot Merril (again with the missing “L”) Jessop (no relation to Willy ... that we know of), my good colleague and bitter competitor, John Hollenhorst of KSL, and Natalie Malonis, an attorney from Texas who represents one of the FLDS children now under court protection. We were all there. Waiting. All day. For testimony that it turns out wasn’t needed.
A day wasted in the service of justice.
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