Arizona men found guilty of aiding religious child sex abuse ring

PHOENIX (CN) — Two Arizona men are facing up to life in prison after a jury found them guilty Wednesday afternoon of aiding and participating in a polygamous child sex abuse ring for three years across multiple states.

LaDell Bistline Jr., a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — a disavowed offshoot of the Mormon Church that still practices polygamy — transported his two minor daughters and nearly half a dozen other young girls across state lines to marry self-proclaimed FLDS prophet Samuel Rappylee Bateman in Colorado City, Arizona.

Bateman regularly raped his 10 child brides, two of whom were as young as nine when he married them and 10 when he raped them, in the name of spiritual atonement.

Bistline Jr. watched, sometimes on a video call and at least one time in person, as Bateman had sex with children, evidence throughout nearly three weeks of trial revealed.

The jury found him guilty of eight total charges, including transporting a minor for sexual activity and receipt of child porn.

A filmmaker whom Bateman invited to his home to make a documentary on his family recorded video of LaDell Bistline Jr. recounting how he brought the girls to Bateman.

“LaDell nailed himself,” filmmaker Christine Marie told Courthouse News in a phone call.

Prosecutors say his brother, Torrance Bistline, gave large financial gifts including luxury vehicles to Bateman to promote his religious mission, and anally raped a 13-year-old bride of Bateman’s in one of Bateman’s “atonement” ceremonies.

Torrance Bistline seemingly admitted to the crime when he later wrote to Bateman that he was sorry for “thinking about your wife again while I was in the bathroom.” He didn’t answer when asked by an FBI agent after Bateman’s houses were raided in 2022 whether it is wrong to have sex with a child.

“To force anyone to do anything is wrong,” he reluctantly conceded to the agent in an audio recording played in court.

Marie told Courthouse News that she asked Torrance Bistline if he felt guilty afterward, and he only shook his head and said “you have no idea.”

Torrance Bistline also destroyed evidence by deleting messages after Bateman was arrested in a traffic stop in late August 2022.

He was convicted of six counts including using interstate commerce to entice a minor and obstruction of justice.

The jury took less than two hours to reach a verdict.

“They were convinced,” defense attorney Kathy Henry, representing Torrance Bistline, said after the verdict. “I just don’t think they believed the argument.”

Defense attorneys worked to cast doubt on the testimony of more than a dozen women and girls, including all 10 of Bateman’s child brides, who corroborated stories about the defendants.

Certain details, like who else was in the room during certain sexual acts, how the victims were positioned on the beds, and what vehicles were used to transport them to and from hotel rooms, varied across witness accounts.

Federal prosecutor Dimitra Sampson asked the jury Tuesday if it’s fair to demand traumatized children to clearly recall every detail of their sexual assaults. She said the slight variations, if anything, prove the testimonies weren’t coached or rehearsed.

Sampson declined to comment post-verdict, but said the DOJ will release a statement soon.

The FBI raided Bateman’s homes in September 2022, but the agency had known about Bateman for at least a year before that.

Bateman invited Marie and her husband into his home in 2021 to make a documentary about his family, and the filmmakers obliged when they realized something wasn’t right. She went to local police, who told her she needed hard evidence.

In November 2021, Bateman told Marie about the sexual atonement with Torrance Bistline and the 13-year-old, and she secretly recorded the conversation and sent it to Colorado City police, she told Courthouse News.

The police sent the tape to a forensic lab immediately, but Marie said U.S. Marshalls didn’t even listen to it until mid-January.

“I went crazy,” she said. “I expected immediate action. Why in the hell did it take you so long to listen to it?”

Once they did, they told her they couldn’t pursue it until a victim came forward. She was later called to a meeting among local police and a few county attorneys in May, was asked to present her evidence, and again was told she needed more.

“It wasn’t fucking enough,” she said scornfully.

By July, though, the FBI had begun its investigation, planning for the Sept. 13 raid.

Bateman was pulled over twice in August 2022 for child endangerment, once in Colorado City and again in Flagstaff. Colorado City police let him go so as to not interfere with the FBI investigation, but he was arrested by Flagstaff police.

Marie said that arrest nearly botched the raid, as she and the FBI feared he would flee once he made bail.

Bateman has already pleaded guilty and admitted to regular sex with his child brides, and is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Susan Brnovich, a Donald Trump appointee, on Oct. 28.

The Bistline brothers will be sentenced in December.

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