A polygamous leader accused of taking more than 20 wives, including underage girls has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and tampering with evidence charges stemming from a federal investigation into his community on the Utah-Arizona border.Samuel Rappylee Bateman's case is the most recent example of law enforcement taking action against abuse in the sister cities of City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, longtime strongholds of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, known by its acronym FLDS. The FLDS is an offshoot of the LDS church that believes in polygamy, which was made legal in in 2020, but is banned in the mainstream Mormon religion.
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