Texas Polygamist sect leader pleads not guilty

Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs remained mute during a Wednesday arraignment on bigamy and child sex abuse charges, forcing the West Texas court to enter not guilty pleas on his behalf.

The 55-year-old ecclesiastical head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints sat and said nothing as prosecutors read a sexual assault charge accusing him of having sex with a girl younger than 17. He was then ordered to stand down as cases accusing him of aggravated sexual assault of a girl younger than 15 and bigamy were read.

District Judge Barbara Walther instructed Jeffs that his silence forced the court to enter not guilty pleas for him.

The charges against Jeffs stem from a 2008 raid of the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado, a remote community south of San Angelo. Authorities seized 439 children and placed them in state custody on suspicion that the girls were being sexually abused and the boys were being raised to be sexual predators.