COLORADO CITY, Ariz. — The arrest and conviction of polygamist leader Samuel Bateman was the culmination of undercover work by a woman who has become an advocate for people in fundamentalist communities.
Bateman's sentencing was scheduled for Monday after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport minors across state lines for sexual activity and conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
He faced up to life in prison, but federal prosecutors recommended at least 50 years — which the judge ultimately sentenced him to on Monday.
"When they finally arrested him, we were there," Dr. Christine Marie said in a recent interview with FOX 13 News. "Thank you God, you know, I just was so grateful. Because a lot of people that are self-proclaimed prophets or cult leaders, they never get held accountable."
Dr. Marie lives in "Short Creek," the nickname for the border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., that have traditionally been the headquarters of the Fundamentalist LDS Church. A psychologist, she runs the nonprofit group Voices for Dignity.
"We help stigmatized populations," she said. "What we want to do is bring dignity to people who are from unpopular groups, or, you know, suffer from, you know, the trauma of those kinds of experiences. So the main thing is that we try to empower people, and we are here in Short Creek, and what we do that's unique is that we help the people who are still FLDS as well as those who are not FLDS."
Dr. Marie said she has acted as the "middleman" in resolving disputes between FLDS members and government or the land trust that has run housing. The FLDS Church is led by Warren Jeffs, who is currently serving a life sentence in a Texas prison for child sexual assault related to underage "marriages." It was following Jeffs' conviction that Sam Bateman began his own group that some in the community nicknamed "The Samuelites."
"So I knew something was weird, you know, something was going on when his wife left him," said Esther Bistline, an FLDS member who works with Dr. Marie at Voices for Dignity. "I saw that he was gathering wives, and I knew that that wasn't that, you know, that wasn't what the FLDS were doing at that time."
Bistline said Bateman was "always surrounded by these young girls and these ladies," and never boys. It raised red flags for her. Dr. Marie said she and her husband, documentary filmmaker Tolga Katas, had known Bateman in the community.
"Sam considered us safe people to talk to, and he tried to bring us into a circle," she said.
But Dr. Marie said she saw her own red flags of how Bateman interacted with people around him. Older men referred to him as "father" and his interactions with girls did not sit well with her. She suspected sexual abuses of children were taking place.
"It became clear to me that what Sam was doing was very suspicious. I didn't have any direct evidence. A lot of people in town were talking about him, and I talked to law enforcement, like many other people in town, but what I learned is that unless they have true evidence, not just hearsay, there is nothing they can do," she said. "And as an outsider, as somebody who's neutral, and as somebody who had the trust of Sam Bateman, I knew that I had to step in."
So Dr. Marie said she started secretly recording him.
"I was absolutely terrified," Bistline said of when she learned what was happening. "She had told me that he was talking about blood atonement, things like that. And so I really was terrified for it. I think if it would have gone on any longer, there probably would have been deaths."
Thousands of miles away, Laura Ricano watched it play out with concern.
"I had huge concerns for her safety," Ricano told FOX 13 News from her home in Texas. "In fact, she and I used to joke because she was like, 'Oh, you're, you're worried too worried about this.' And I said, 'I don't think I am.'"
Ricano serves as Voices for Dignity's board president, having joined after the 2008 raid on the FLDS Church's Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado, Texas. At the time, Ricano represented FLDS Church members whose children had been taken away from Texas Child Protective Services. She said she came to understand more about the people and wanted to do more.
When she found out about Dr. Marie's efforts to gather evidence on Bateman over suspected abuses, "we ended up getting involved with the FBI and then it just took off from there. It was a whirlwind of it."
Bateman himself became suspicious at one point, Dr. Marie said, asking to look at her phone. Acting on advice from her husband, she had swapped it with another one just like it.
"The women and children were well trained to hide the fact that the girls were actually wives in the wifely sense," Dr. Marie told FOX 13 News. "But there came a moment when Sam himself spilled the beans and that was when I secretly recorded the conversation, and I called Sgt. Wilkinson, and I said, 'I got what you need.' Because I'd been calling him and calling him and, you know, telling him more details that I would learn, but they needed something real. So that was the beginning."
They also managed to convince a follower of Bateman to come forward and tell authorities what was happening.
"Christine Marie was very helpful, and we appreciated all she did," Sgt. David Wilkinson of the Colorado City/Hildale Police Department said in an interview with FOX 13 News. "She, along with many other people, provided information that ultimately resulted in the the public results the things that people can see in the news."
Bateman himself was arrested in August 2022 on I-40 after Arizona Highway Patrol troopers found a vehicle with several girls inside a locked, enclosed trailer headed toward Phoenix. A couple of weeks later, FBI agents raided his home in Colorado City, serving a warrant as part of a child sexual abuse investigation.
"I was relieved when I finally realized that he was going to jail, and still I feel, you know, I still love these people," Bistline said. "They're still my friends, my relatives, and it was hard to sit there and listen to some of the things that they said the day of the raid, but I knew that I couldn't say how I felt, because I was there. They were there. You know, I had to interact with them at that point, and I wanted to protect Christine."
Authorities alleged Bateman had taken more than 20 wives, some younger than 15 years-old. Federal authorities brought charges against Bateman and several of his followers, after some of the girls taken into protective custody disappeared from a home where they were being kept.
The members of Voices for Dignity take issue with comparisons between Warren Jeffs and Samuel Bateman, insisting they are not the same.
"I think the distinctions are very different. I think that under the Warren Jeffs situation that there were mothers that knew something was probably awry, but I think there were a lot of mothers that did not know and they were not willing to let their children just go," said Ricano. "This group I think was, well, just to be honest, I think that he's a sexual predator."
Bistline said Bateman left the FLDS when he began doing what he was doing and was not a part of that faith, unlike what has been portrayed in some media accounts.
"I honestly think he just wanted money, sex and power," she said. "He just, he always wanted more women. He was always trying to gather more women. But he wanted to be famous."
Dr. Marie testified in the trials of Bateman's followers, which resulted in convictions.
"If I had to do it again, I would absolutely do it," she said. "But I'm very glad that I did not know the extent of all the dark details that were going on, because I wouldn't have been able to bear it very well."
The case against Bateman and some of his followers may not be over. Police confirmed to FOX 13 News they do have other investigations that remain open.
"There are still portions of that that are ongoing," Sgt. Wilkinson said.
Dr Marie said she still counts those she knows among Bateman's group as friends and she hopes they find a sense of freedom after being victimized by a "con man."
"What I want people to know is the importance of being kind and meeting people where they're at in their journey, even if you disagree with them, even if they're a different political party, a different religious walk, attacking others and being unkind doesn't change their mind or help," she said. "It really was kindness and acceptance when the rest of the town was shunning these people."
