ST. GEORGE, Utah (AP) - A former bodyguard and spokesman for polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs has filed a multi-million-dollar lawsuit, claiming church leaders ruined his business after he had a falling-out with Jeffs.
Attorneys for William "Willie" Jessop, 43, filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking more than $57 million in damages and at least $25 million in punitive damages from leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The lawsuit names imprisoned sect leader Jeffs, his brother Lyle Jeffs, his brother-in-law John Wayman and two dozen other people or organizations who allegedly worked to arrange a burglary at Jessop's Hildale-area excavation business and ranch. The suit also claims church leaders have harassed his family and kept them under 24-hour surveillance, and expelled his children from FLDS schools.
Jessop attorney Mark James tells The Spectrum that as of Thursday, defendants had not yet been served the lawsuit that was filed in 5th District Court in Cedar City, Utah. Media calls to FLDS leaders were not returned Thursday, and phone numbers for the church are not listed publicly.
The lawsuit states Jessop had supported Jeffs until he became convinced of claims that Jeffs was having affairs with other men's wives, and had renounced his role as the faith's prophet.
Jessop was expelled from the church and ordered to leave his home and family in 2011. According to the lawsuit, that was because he had refused to file a false letter defending Jeffs against allegations he trafficked and married 12- and 13-year-old girls from an FLDS settlement in Canada.
Jessop says when he refused to say his expulsion from the church was the will of God, FLDS leaders raided his Hildale-area business, R&W Excavating Inc., and removed computers and other electronic devices.
"Records of job costing, site plans, scope of work descriptions, invoicing, receivables and payables were lost," the suit states. "Virtually all information relating to R&W's long-term and day-to-day operations was stolen, directly and foreseeably resulting in the shut-down and demise of R&W."
Jessop said the business was also crippled by a mass employee exodus after FLDS leaders told workers they would be excommunicated from the church if they kept their jobs.
Warren Jeffs is serving a life sentence in a Texas prison after being found guilty last year of child sexual assault.
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