An Arizona cult leader accused of taking more than 20 women and girls as wives 'constantly' said he wanted to kiss and touch his underage daughter, FBI says

• A polygamist cult leader said he felt compelled to wed his teen daughter, court documents allege.

• Samuel Rappylee Bateman "constantly" said he wanted to kiss and touch the teen.

• The FBI alleges he told the daughter "if his feelings were right, he would make her have a child."

An Arizona cult leader from a polygamist sect accused of taking more than 20 women and girls as wives felt compelled to marry his underage daughter and "constantly" said he wanted to kiss and touch the teen, federal court documents allege.

The FBI alleges in an affidavit filed last week in federal court in Washington and obtained by Insider that Samuel Rappylee Bateman, 46, first said that he wanted to take his daughter — born in 2005 — as his wife in 2019.

Bateman had given his daughter a cell phone and would text the teen saying: "I love you," "I want to kiss you," and "I want to hug you," the affidavit alleges.

Bateman is a self-proclaimed "prophet" of the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), according to the court papers, which allege Bateman has about 50 followers and over 20 "wives" — "many of whom are minors, mostly under the age of 15."

According to the affidavit, "Bateman allegedly has 'impressions of Heavenly Father's will' to encourage his followers, including the minor children, to engage in sexual acts and relies on that submission to do his own will."

The court documents state that investigators have probable cause to believe Bateman and others transported minors "to engage in illicit sexual conduct" across Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and Nebraska between May 2020 and November 2021.

Court documents say Bateman was married to only one woman as of 2019. When he "first proclaimed a feeling that he should take his own daughter" as his wife, his wife left him and "refused to allow him to take" their daughter, who would have been 14 at the time, the court documents say.

The FBI alleges that on a drive back to their Colorado City, Arizona, home in February 2019, Bateman asked his daughter if she had "prayed" about who she would marry, and she said she had not because she was "too young."

The court papers say that Bateman told his daughter, "if his feelings were right, he would make her have a child."