Genealogy Record Books Used as Evidence at Jessop Trial

Book of Remembrance

SAN ANGELO, Texas — Jurors leaned in to peer at sacred forms in the case of Merril Leroy Jessop.

Jessop, 35, a member of a polygamous sect, is on trial, charged with sexual assault of a child in connection with allegations he illegally married an underage girl.

Rebecca Musser, a former member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, testified to a dozen of those forms being family records, birth records, marriage records and priesthood records, all of them with special spiritual significance to the FLDS, she said.

She was shown a collection of such forms bound in a cover and called, “The Book of Remembrance.”

Read the full article in the March 15, 2010 edition of the GoSanAngelo.com website.