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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Latter-day Saint movements Phoenix, AZ, USA · 2024

Samuel Bateman: 50-year sentence in child-marriage and sexual-abuse conspiracy

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Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

self-proclaimed prophet

Organization

Bateman fundamentalist Mormon group

Archive classification

This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.

The cited record identifies prophetic authority, child-marriage doctrine, isolation, and follower assistance as the material spiritual doctrine, practice, authority, or pretext connected to the documented harm. The relevant authority role is self-proclaimed prophet.

  • Prophecy or divine command
  • Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2024-09-30 · sentence

    U.S. District Court, District of Arizona. Sentenced to 50 years in federal prison after guilty pleas.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • prophetic authority
  • child-marriage doctrine
  • isolation
  • follower assistance

Cited record

Sources

prosecuting authority disposition U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, “Leader of Child Sexual Abuse Ring Sentenced to 50 Years in Prison” (Sept. 30, 2024).

The Justice Department describes Bateman as a self-proclaimed prophet who used religious authority to take minor girls as plural wives and directed followers who transported and concealed children. He pleaded guilty and received a 50-year sentence.

Source provenance

Source access and integrity log

This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.

Source and tier basis
https://www.justice.gov/usao-az/pr/leader-child-sexual-abuse-ring-sentenced-50-years-prison Corpus classification: prosecuting-authority; evidentiary role: disposition. SHA-256 326608d5129d2ad8d51ab10204db90c9bfb29ba207f1b2c3fe487e98bdfaed02
Retrieval
2026-07-20 · Preserved
Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger

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