The FBI searches FLDS sect chief Samuel Bateman’s properties in Colorado Metropolis, Ariz., on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022. A federal indictment towards Bateman has been unsealed, accusing him of destroying information in an try to thwart an investigation. St. George Information
A federal indictment towards a sect chief of the polygamous Fundamentalist LDS Church who has a house in Colorado Metropolis, Arizona, has been unsealed.
Samuel Rappylee Bateman, 46, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Sept. 6 with destruction of information in an official continuing, tampering with an official continuing and destruction of information in a federal investigation.
Court docket paperwork allege that Bateman and others "did knowingly alter, destroy mutilate and conceal information, that's, digital communications," on the Sign app — together with deleting or making an attempt to delete digital communications — in an effort to disrupt an investigation, legal continuing and prosecution.
The indictment was unsealed Wednesday following Bateman's preliminary look in federal court docket in Flagstaff. He's scheduled to be again in federal court docket on Thursday for an arraignment and detention listening to.
Though paperwork unsealed Wednesday don't present particulars as to what communication was doubtlessly deleted or what investigation it could have affected, one of many orders issued by the choose notes that the case entails both bodily or sexual abuse of a kid.
Bateman was arrested Tuesday by FBI brokers following a number of raids within the Arizona city of Colorado Metropolis, simply throughout from the Utah border city of Hildale.