Wife of polygamist Mormon leader gets 15 years for child sex abuse
Josephine Bistline admitted to sexually abusing young girls and recruiting them to marry Samuel Bateman, spiritual leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Court News/August 30, 2024
By Joe Duhownik
Phoenix — The fifth of eight women indicted in an Arizona child sex abuse ring was sentenced to 15 years in prison Friday for her role in recruiting young girls into illegitimate polygamous marriages with the religious leader of a disgraced Mormon sect.
Josephine Bistline helped Samuel Bateman, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, marry and sexually abuse at least nine underage girls between 2019 and 2022. The victims were as young as nine years old, and two were Bistline’s own daughters.
Bistline admitted to engaging in sexual activity with two of the child brides, sleeping naked with them and sexually abusing at least one. She also helped plan a 2022 kidnapping of eight child brides from the Arizona Department of Child Services.
Bistline, indicted on 14 counts ranging from transporting a minor for sexual activity to conspiracy to commit kidnapping, pleaded guilty in April to two counts of persuading or coercing travel to engage in sexual activity, a class C felony.
Her attorney Mark Anderson painted Bateman as a master manipulator.
“No one actually thinks Josephine Bistline is some kind of pedophile,” he told U.S. District Judge Susan Brnovich, a Donald Trump appointee. “At the very worst, she was doing these things at the behest of Samuel Bateman.”
And yet the sexual conduct to which Bistline admitted happened in Arizona while Bateman was traveling in Nebraska.
“That’s not something Bateman forced her to do,” federal prosecutor Ryan Powell said.
Bistline told Brnovich she took full responsibility for her actions. Nonetheless, she showed little remorse for them.
“I haven’t been coerced by Samuel Bateman or anyone else,” Bistline said.
Prosecutors described Bistline as “by far the most culpable of any of the women involved.”
Many of Bateman’s wives were raised in a community in Colorado City, Arizona, without any access to the outside world. There, they were taught that complete obedience to the men in power, even when asked to perform immoral acts, was the only way to find salvation in the afterlife.
Federal prosecutor Ryan Powell said Bistline’s mother, Josephine Barlow, warned her against joining the community or marrying Bateman. At one point, Barlow even called police in an attempt to stop her granddaughters from entering Bateman’s world.
“She was involved with her own daughters being given away to terrible sexual abuse,” Powell said. “She fetched girls [and] brought them in knowing what would happen to them."
"She was there, she watched, and she participated," Powell continued — "and she didn’t do anything to stop it.”
Addressing the court, Josephine Barlow asked for mercy for her daughter.
“Before all this happened, she was very protected from all the evils that were out there,” Barlow said. “So, she was open to somebody who was evil."
“Deep down inside her heart, she knows good,” Barlow continued. “And the Lord does love her. She just needs to know that.”
Bistline’s father, Maroni Bistline, said outside the courtroom that Bateman punished Bistline in front of the others for reading a book about sexual predators. He said his daughter thought “this might be happening to us” but was stopped from learning more.
“Sam used mesmerism and hypnotism on her,” he said. “Sam knew what he was doing, and she didn’t.”
Any such punishment was not referenced in court documents or during the sentencing hearing Friday afternoon.
Siding with prosecutors, Brnovich found Bistline played a pivotal role in recruiting wives for Bateman. She found Bistline had shown little to no remorse for the crimes.
With that, she sentenced Bistline to 15 years in prison, followed by lifetime probation. Bistline will have to register as a sex offender and will be required to participate in parenting classes and a sex offender treatment program.
Bateman, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit transportation of a minor for criminal sexual activity and conspiracy to commit kidnapping in April, was scheduled to be sentenced Friday, but a last minute change pushed the date back to Oct. 28.
He was indicted on 52 felonies, but the rest will be dropped as part of his deal. The agreement recommends 20 to 50 years in prison.
After fellow defendant Naomi Bistline’s guilty plea on Wednesday, only three other defendants — one wife and two male followers — remain headed to trial, which is scheduled for Sept. 10.
In July, Brnovich sentenced three other wives of Bateman. Marona Johnson and Leia Bistline were each given two years in prison and three years of probation, while Brenda Barlow was given three years in prison because she helped plan the kidnapping. Earlier in August, Brnovich also sentenced Donnae Barlow to probation.
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