Arrested US ‘prophet’ Samuel Bateman had 20 wives, many of them minors, FBI says

The leader of a polygamous group was detained after police found him driving three young girls in an enclosed trailer

Bateman is said to have punished followers who did not treat him as a prophet, and was accused of trying to marry his own daughter

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Samuel Bateman faces state child abuse charges and federal charges of tampering with evidence. Photo: Coconino County Sheriff’s Department via AP

Published: 4:19am, 8 Dec 2022Updated: 5:51am, 8 Dec 2022

The leader of a small polygamous group near the Arizona-Utah border had taken at least 20 wives, most of them minors, and punished followers who did not treat him as a prophet, newly filed federal court documents allege.

Samuel Bateman was a former member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or FLDS, until he left to start his own small offshoot group. He was supported financially by male followers who also gave up their own wives and children to be Bateman’s wives, according to an FBI affidavit.

The document filed on Friday provides new insight into what investigators have found in a case that first became public in August, when authorities said they pulled over Bateman on a highway and discovered he was driving three young girls in an enclosed trailer.

The latest filing accompanied charges of kidnapping and impeding a foreseeable prosecution against three of Bateman’s wives – Naomi Bistline, Donnae Barlow and Moretta Rose Johnson. Bateman is already facing state and federal charges of child abuse and tampering with evidence. He pleaded not guilty in September.

Family and followers of Samuel Bateman gather around as he calls from police custody following his arrest in Colorado City, Arizona, in September. Photo: The Salt Lake Tribune via AP

Bistline and Barlow are scheduled to appear in federal magistrate court in Flagstaff, Arizona on Wednesday. Johnson is awaiting extradition from Washington state.