Polygamous leader pleads not guilty after girls found in tractor trailer in Arizona

The leader of a small polygamous group made a court appearance in Arizona after he was pulled over last month by state troopers who spotted children’s fingers wiggling in the gap of his trailer’s rear door.

Samuel Bateman, the head of a Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints off-shoot, pleaded not guilty in U.S. Magistrate Court on Thursday to three counts of destroying or attempting to destroy records, and tampering with criminal proceedings. He was indicted earlier this month following his arrest in Flagstaff back in August.

The religious leader is additionally facing three counts of child abuse in state court. He has also pleaded not guilty to those charges.

Authorities last month discovered three girls between the ages of 11 and 14 trapped inside a wooden trailer attached to Bateman’s vehicle. It was outfitted with a makeshift toilet, a couch and camping chairs, according to court documents. What’s more, the temperature inside the trailer, which lacked air vents, was “hotter than outside,” where it was 81 degrees, police told the Salt Lake Tribune.

The group was traveling to Phoenix or Tucson, where the temperature was in the triple digits, authorities added.

Federal prosecutor Patrick Schneider said the 46-year-old suspect instructed some of his followers to delete texts from the messaging app Signal from his phone after Department of Public Safety troopers pulled him over on Aug. 28. Bateman also allegedly ordered all women and girls in his religious sect to obtain passports.

Bateman previously posted bond on the child abuse charges, but was arrested again Tuesday in Colorado City by federal authorities who were searching his home. They were looking for any evidence indicating that children were being transported across state lines for sexual activity, Schneider said.

The warrant sought computers, “lingerie style underwear that could be worn by minors,” and any evidence indicating sources of income were used to arrange travel for underage marriage or sexual relationships, the Tribune reported.

It also sought any “correspondence about Bateman’s adult followers marrying, having sexual relationships with, or similar” associations with minors.

Authorities were also searching for any evidence of records being shredded or digital documents being destroyed.

Bateman, a former member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, left the group several years ago to form his own offshoot congregation. Once a high-ranking member of FLDS, Bateman has since been denounced by the groups imprisoned leader, Warren Jeffs, who has struggled to keep his community from fracturing while behind bars.

If convicted, Bateman faces faces a maximum of 20 years in prison on each federal charge.

With News Wire Services