FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – A 46-year-old alleged polygamist and cult leader in Arizona is accused of having 20 wives, many of whom were underage, and possibly marrying his own daughter, officials with the Federal Bureau of Investigations announced.
Samuel Rappylee Bateman, along with his co-conspirators and aiders, is accused of engaging in the transportation of minors in interstate commerce to engage in criminal sexual activity and travel interstate commerce to engage in illicit sexual conduct with minors, between May 2020 and Nov. 2021, between Arizona, Utah, Nevada and Nebraska, FOX 10 Phoenix reported. He was first indicted by a federal grand jury on Sept. 6.
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The FBI said the “wives” were allegedly trafficked across state lines in a trailer and forced to use a bucket as a toilet while Bateman drove two Bentleys and pushed failed business ventures in real estate and goal-coaching.
Bateman allegedly has “approximately 50 followers and over 20 wives, many of whom are minors, mostly under the age of 15,” according to a new FBI affidavit included in a criminal complaint against three newly charged co-conspirators. “Bateman allegedly has ‘impressions of Heavenly Father’s will’ to encourage his followers, including the minor children, to engage in sexual acts and relies on that submission to do his own will.”
FOX 10 reported that Bateman is also accused of trying to take his own daughter as a wife.
According to federal prosecutors, an investigation revealed that on Aug. 28, Bateman committed obstruction of justice by destroying records of his and his co-conspirators’ illegal actions.
Bateman is a self-proclaimed prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), a subset of the fundamentalist Mormon denominations whose members practice polygamy, FOX 10 reported. Investigators said some of Bateman’s wives were the wives or daughters of Bateman’s male followers.