A man from a community on the Arizona-Utah line that has long been home to a polygamous group pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal charges of falsifying information, weeks after he was stopped on a highway with young girls in an enclosed trailer. Samuel Bateman was indicted earlier this month on three counts of destroying records and tampering with criminal proceedings. He pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Flagstaff, a mountain town where he was arrested in late August by a state trooper after someone spotted small fingers in a gap in the trailer’s back door. Authorities found three girls, between the ages of 11 and 14, in the trailer he was transporting through Flagstaff, according to court documents. The trailer had a makeshift toilet, a couch, camping chairs and no ventilation, the documents state. The documents do not say whether the girls are related to Bateman, and it was not discussed during Thursday’s hearing. Federal prosecutor Patrick Snyder said Bateman spoke to supporters in Colorado City, Arizona, from the Coconino County Jail in Flagstaff and instructed them to delete communications sent through a private messaging system and asked all women and girls to obtain passports. Snyder said state child welfare has removed children from Bateman’s home in Colorado City, where the FBI recently served a search warrant. A spokesman for the Arizona Department of Child Safety declined to comment Thursday, citing confidentiality laws. The FBI said the search warrant is sealed. Bateman posted bail on the state charges but was arrested again in Colorado City by federal authorities investigating whether children were being transported across state lines for sex, Schneider said. Samuel Bateman previously pleaded not guilty to three counts of child abuse in an Arizona state court, according to court documents. Bateman’s attorney, Adam Zickerman, cautioned against inferring that the federal case was about religious persecution, though he did not specify Bateman’s faith or say whether he practices polygamy. Schneider cited a pretrial services report saying Bateman had affairs with multiple women, but also did not say whether Bateman belonged to any polygamous group. Both the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona and Zikerman declined to comment after Thursday’s hearing, as did two women who sat in the gallery and met with Zikerman. U.S. Magistrate Judge Camille Bibles ordered Bateman to remain behind bars while the case plays out in court, noting she was concerned about young girls in vulnerable positions. “The courts have a huge interest in protecting people who can’t protect themselves,” he said. Bateman listed a home address in Colorado City, home to a mix of devout members of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or FLDS, ex-church members and those who do not practice the beliefs. Both the Colorado town and its sister community of Hilldale, Utah, have seen significant cultural changes in recent years. The FLDS group led by imprisoned leader Warren Jeffs has lost much of its control over the communities. Jeffs is serving a life sentence in a Texas prison for child sexual abuse related to child marriage. Polygamy is a legacy of the early teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but the mainline church abandoned the practice in 1890 and now strictly forbids it. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Bateman leads a small branch of the polygamist sect.
