San Angelo, USA - A Texas appellate court dismissed the child sexual assault and bigamy appeals of a member of a polygamist sect at the sect member's request.
The Texas Third Court of Appeals published an opinion Wednesday for Leroy Johnson Steed, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
"Appellant Leroy Johnson Steed has filed motions to dismiss these appeals," the opinion states. "We grant the motions and dismiss these appeals."
Steed received a seven-year prison sentence after he pleaded no contest to two counts of bigamy and one count of child sexual assault Nov. 1, during the illegal marriage ceremony trial of one-time FLDS bishop Fredrick Merril Jessop.
Online court records show that Steed filed a motion to dismiss on June 4.
The bigamy counts were second- and third-degree felonies, and under the agreement the first-degree felony enhancement on the sexual assault charge was waived by the state. The sentences were seven years for both bigamy counts and seven years for the child sexual assault charge, to be served concurrently.
A charge of tampering with evidence was dismissed.
In the November 2008 indictment, Steed was alleged to have illegally married at least two women other than his wife, one of whom was 16 years old at the time of marriage.
He was one of 12 FLDS men who were indicted for charges such as child sexual assault, bigamy, and illegal marriage ceremony performance. Their indictments came after a raid on the Schleicher County Yearning for Zion Ranch raid of 2008, when law enforcement executed search warrants responding to an allegation of sexual assault.