Netflix has turn out to be the place for documentaries about true crime, but in addition documentaries about cults and sects. And director Rachel Dretzin, who’s behind 2022’s Preserve Candy: Pray and Obey, is as soon as once more looking at abuse inside the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) in Quick Creek, Utah.
Belief Me: The False Prophet goes past what the final documentary chronicled and examines how one of many members of the group, Samuel Bateman, grew to become the following chosen one after the autumn of the group’s earlier chief, Warren Jeffs. However what occurred to Bateman? Does his story finish the identical approach as Jeffs?
The place’s Samuel Bateman Now & Is He Nonetheless in Jail?
Samuel Bateman got here into play after Jeffs was arrested in 2006 and sentenced to life in jail for the sexual assault of two underage women, each of whom he stated have been his wives. Bateman stepped up in his place, in the end forming an offshoot group.
The documentary follows Christine Marie, a former fundamentalist who grew to become an professional in cults, and her husband, Tolga Katas, embedding themselves among the many Samuelite Group with the hopes of garnering proof to deliver to the police. The group consisted of three male followers and dozens of wives and kids.
Because of the proof, Bateman was lastly arrested in 2022, and in April 2024, Bateman pleaded responsible to conspiracy to commit transportation of a minor for felony sexual exercise and conspiracy to commit kidnapping. In December of 2024, he was sentenced to 50 years in jail, to be adopted by a supervised launch for the rest of his life. Nevertheless, as Bateman was 48 on the time of his sentencing, the sentence is taken into account principally a life time period.
The U.S. Division of Justice says that Bateman abused at the very least 10 youngsters, some as younger as 9 years outdated. He additionally transported the women between states for sexual exercise. Alongside him, the three male followers of his cult, Moroni Johnson, Torrance Bistline, and LaDell Bistline Jr., have been additionally arrested. They backed Bateman’s life-style and allowed him to marry their wives and kids.
Marie and Katas had one ally contained in the group, Julia Johnson, Moroni’s spouse and the mom of 4 of Bateman’s wives. “None of them went straightforward to get married to Sam,” Moroni and Julia’s son, Warren Levi, says within the documentary, referring to his sisters. “Each considered one of them referred to him because the satan.”
Eight of Bateman’s wives additionally acquired sentences for a similar crimes Bateman was convicted. Moroni Johnson pleaded responsible to conspiring to move a minor for sexual exercise and was sentenced to 25 years. Torrance Bistline, in the meantime, was sentenced to 35 years for serving to Bateman to move minors throughout state traces to interact in felony sexual exercise.
The third man, LaDell Bistline Jr., was convicted of the receipt of kid pornography and transporting a minor for felony sexual exercise, amongst different costs, and was sentenced to life in jail.
On the time of the discharge of Belief Me: The False Prophet, Bateman and his three male followers are nonetheless in jail.
