Warren Jeffs vehicle, personal items sells for $80k

The red 2007 Cadillac Escalade that imprisoned polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs was riding in when he was arrested nearly a decade ago was auctioned off Monday, along with its contents.

Former Jeffs bodyguard William "Willie" Jessop, now estranged from his former leader's church, agreed to pay through his company, R & W Excavating, $30,000 for the vehicle and $50,000 for its contents during an auction held on the steps of the 5th District Courthouse in St. George. He said he planned to take the car back to display at the America's Most Wanted Suites and Bed & Breakfast in Hildale.

"It brings a lot of closure for a lot of people that actually want to have the experience I did, which is to try to understand what he did, and it really sheds a real insight into the double life he was leading at the expense of a lot of people," Jessop said, indicating that he hoped others would be able to look at the vehicle and some of its contents and come to their own conclusions about what crimes Jeffs had committed.

The bids are expected to be entered as credit bids to reduce a court-ordered financial judgment awarded to Jessop and his companies in 2012. He won a lawsuit against Jeffs and his sect in 2012 by default after leaders with the sect failed to appear in court to defend themselves against claims that they destroyed Jessop's business, R & W Excavating, took property and harassed his family.

Judge G. Rand Beacham awarded a $26 million judgment to R & W Excavating, as well as another $4 million in additional damages to Jessop and his business Boulder Mountain Group

In a related debt auction held in 2013, Jessop showed up to win a bid of approximately $3.6 million to purchase a compound-style 6-acre piece of property in Hildale that formerly belonged to Jeffs and his followers.

Jeffs was inside the Escalade with a brother and a wife when he was arrested in August of 2006 during a traffic stop near Las Vegas. Inside the vehicle, officers found three wigs, 15 cellphones and $54,000 cash. They also found laptops, thumb-drives and other items that authorities said contained evidence of Jeffs admitting to marrying underage girls.

Jeffs is serving a life prison sentence in Texas after being convicted in 2011 of sexually assaulting the young girls he had taken as wives.

Jeffs, who was 50 when he arrested, was alleged to have taken more than 70 wives, including some pre-teens.

His sect, known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, preached that polygamy would bring exaltation in heaven.

It is a radical offshoot of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which abandoned the practice of polygamy more than a century ago.

Before Jessop can take possession of the Escalade, he will have to negotiate the release of the vehicle with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said his attorney, Mark James. It was also unclear which items from inside the vehicle would be included.

James said he has been communicating with FBI counsel about a way to do just that - hence the need for Monday's auction.

A previous effort to gain possession of the Escalade failed in 2013, when Jessop and his attorneys served garnishments to the U.S. Attorney's office.

Follow David DeMille on Twitter, @SpectrumDeMille, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SpectrumDeMille. Call him at 435-674-6261.

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