Does Samuel Bateman Still Have Wives and Followers? Trust Me: The False Prophet FLDS Leader

Samuel Bateman is serving a 50-year sentence in jail. But for a lot of of his followers, he stays their prophet, reinforcing his management with each day calls from his cell.

The documentary collection Trust Me: The False Prophet chronicles Bateman’s rise to energy throughout the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), a breakaway Mormon sect whose members follow polygamy. Almost a decade after FLDS chief Warren Jeffs was convicted of kid sexual assault and sentenced to life in jail in 2011, Bateman proclaimed himself a prophet, saying that Jeffs was now talking via him. He gained followers and took a number of wives — together with minors as younger as 9 — and, as mentioned within the documentary, subjected them to sexual abuse.

Directed by Emmy– and Peabody Award–profitable filmmaker Rachel Dretzin (Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey), the four-part collection is advised largely via footage captured by cult psychology professional Christine Marie and her videographer husband, Tolga Katas, who moved to Short Creek, Utah, in 2016 to assist the fractured FLDS group. When Bateman welcomed their cameras, believing they’d unfold his message to the world, they secretly gathered proof of his crimes as an alternative.

The docuseries culminates in Bateman’s 2022 arrest and eventual sentencing — a hard-won victory for the filmmakers and the ladies inside his group who risked the whole lot to carry him down. But it ends with a chilling warning: Many of his grownup wives nonetheless imagine he’s their prophet.

According to Dretzin, Bateman has maintained an unsettling degree of entry, and is ready to make many each day calls from jail. While he is not abusing them, imprisonment has solely strengthened his maintain on his followers, who contemplate him to have been “martyred.” And he reinforces that standing via each day calls together with his wives.

Christine agrees that Bateman’s entry to his followers helps him keep management. “That communication with him is like an IV of indoctrination,” she tells Tudum. “It’s like they’re getting fed certainty right into their veins — their belief that he is talking to God.”

After Bateman’s arrest, a number of of his wives — together with Naomi “Nomz” Bistline and Moretta Johnson — have been arrested and served jail time. Of his grownup wives, solely Nomz and Moretta later testified in opposition to him in courtroom.

For Nomz, the separation proved transformative. “As long as he was in contact, he still had control — and that’s how it is with them even now, which is really sad,” she tells Tudum, referring to Bateman’s remaining followers.

All 9 of Bateman’s underage victims, in contrast, have left the sect — a shift Dretzin attributes to their compelled separation from the group. “They were all removed from the community and put into foster care,” the director says. “Once they had the perspective of being outside the group, they were able to see what had happened to them and speak out.” They all testified in opposition to Bateman in courtroom.

Although Nomz is raring to depart Short Creek, she says she nonetheless often crosses paths with Bateman’s followers. “I have so much sympathy and compassion for them because I was there once, and I know what they’re going through,” she says.

Christine is satisfied that freedom for these ladies begins with breaking contact with Bateman. “Once they break from him and from the other people who believe in him, then they can say, ‘Wait, maybe I’m not so certain. Maybe he did make all this up so that he could get money, power, and sex — like every other cult leader,'” she says. “Those women deserve a life of freedom. They deserve to find true love. They deserve to know what reality is. You can’t be free if you’re living in a world of fiction.”

Dretzin acknowledges the tough place Bateman’s remaining followers are in, particularly given the insular nature of Short Creek. But she’s optimistic change can take root now that their story is out on the planet. “They’re all still living in the community — Christine, Tolga, Nomz, and all of Sam’s followers — and this community is tiny. So it’s a lot of pressure,” she says. “I’m hoping that the documentary will help create an environment in which some of them have the courage and the perspective to leave.”

Trust Me: The False Prophet is now streaming.