Tonight on 20/20 ` You are looking at an extraordinary confrontation ` a young mother simply trying to take legal custody of her four children surrounded by a throng of polygamist women, members of an outlawed church, wearing prairie dresses and singing hymns. WOMEN SING HYMN You display an enormous amount of calm in the face of all this. Where did you muster that from? Well, I knew my kids were watching, and they needed to see me have courage. They did. Her name is Sabrina Broadbent. She is a former member of the FLDS, the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints ` a church to which the people surrounding her van are still zealously devoted. And they were all balling like someone passed away. Do you think it speaks to the level of fanaticism? I think to them, someone leaving the community, it's` it's like` it's like death to them, so once they leave, they're cut off; they can never see those people again. With the notorious leader of the FLDS, Warren Jeffs, behind bars, the church is under siege. Caught in the middle are children, with one parent still in and the other now out. Tonight we will follow three parents,... I want my children now. All of them. ...all former members,... This is human trafficking. ...on high-stakes, risky and emotionally fraught missions to extract their kids from the grip of the FLDS... Oh sh` Yes, I can, and I will. to protect them, they say, from a life of forced labour and forced marriages ` unlikely heroes who, despite years of indoctrinations, are now summoning the courage to face down the church that once dominated their lives. Were you nervous? Were you scared? I just pretended it was me and my kids. Like, I singled them out. Everything else` I didn't focus on anybody else. I'm like, 'They're not even there.' Kia ora. I'm Sonya Wilson. The Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints Church, or FLDS, is a religious community cut off from the outside world, run by cult-leader Warren Jeffs. Now, the community holds polygamy as a fundamental belief, and it's men take multiple wives ` arranged marriages sometimes involving underage girls. But the sect is under siege, divided by the faithful and defectors. Tonight we have the first in a two-part series following three parents, all former members desperate to now get their children out ` children who they claim have been brainwashed against them. When Sabrina Broadbent comes to pick up her four children, she is returning to what she considers the belly of the beast, the place where the darkest chapter of her life unfolded. There are so many followers out there that follow Warren. They're all for Warren. I just` I don't like it. This is a community known as 'the creek', an isolated, alternate universe set deep in the desert along the Utah-Arizona border. Here, the women where prairie dresses, the men ` at least the powerful ones ` have multiple wives and the homes have high walls and fences to keep out prying eyes. Sabrina defected from the FLDS back in 2008, and she now lives 200 miles away in Utah. Her children fell into the care of her ex-husband's sister. Her name is Samantha. Last month Sabrina went to court seeking and winning full custody. I was on cloud 39. Good boy. All this work up to this point to get my children and everything is just so I could show the judge... (SIGHS) I did not abandon my kids. I did not. Later that same day she along with her brother and her new husband drive to Samantha's house in the creek to pick the children up,... Did you have any idea that you were driving into a buzz saw? No. No. I did not expect any of that. ...but the ordeal is just beginning. When they arrive, the kids aren't there, so they wait, and just waiting provokes a reaction in the neighbourhood. MAN: Stay in the van. We'll get it on tap. No. I wanna get out. Suddenly, more than a dozen vehicles encircle them ` the private security force of the church known as the 'god squad'. Now they're backing up. The god squad. That's them. There's the god squad again. I just got a bad feeling in my gut. I'm like, 'Lock the doors.' But we were spooked? Yeah. I just got a bad feeling. It's well past midnight when a car containing Sabrina's children finally slips into the driveway. OK. They showed up at 1.10. 1.10, for the record. Oh, they're hurrying. Slam the gate. Sunrise. All right. I'm gonna give the sheriff a call. I'm not even kidding. All the trailers are lit up. After spending the night in the van, Sabrina spots her two sons. There's Isaac. Yeah. My cute little son. Is that Rulon? That's my baby, Rulon. Let's walk up there. They're all gonna duck. Mm-hm. Her two daughters are out of sight. The children are clearly keeping their distance, and when Sabrina goes to talk to her oldest, Isaac, who's 13, it doesn't go well. He has no desire to leave the only world he's ever known. I said, 'Isaac, come here. Let me talk to you,' and he's like, 'Get away from me. Get away from me, you apostate,' and he jumped the fence and ran. What does it to do you to have your son, your own son, talk to you like that? It was hard. I did not want him to see me cry. I didn't want them to see me weak. Samantha, the children's primary caretaker, seems to be stalling for time. She says, uh, 'Warren is coming. He will deliver these children. He's coming.' Do you think she actually believed that Warren Jeffs was going to break out of a prison several states away and come and protect these kids? Yeah. Even though he's currently serving life in a prison in Texas for sexually assaulting two underage girls, including a 12-year-old he married, he is said to have ramped up the rigid discipline he demands of his followers,... testing their faith through increasingly strange and seemingly random rules. HELICOPTER BUZZES INTRIGUING MUSIC It's 8 o'clock, 14 hours into the stand-off, and church members are coming out of the woodwork, and though they may be forbidden from watching videos from the outside world, they're apparently allowed to shoot their won. There's, like, 100 eyes on us right now. Now the reality starts to set in for Sabrina that, custody order notwithstanding, getting her children back will not be easy. They won't` They won't send 'em out. They won't let me get 'em. I'll bet you there's at least 15 video cameras, and I just about got spit on. They just try to intimidate you. They all had cameras, and they'd come right up to your face. They were obnoxious. The creek is not a welcoming place to outsiders. You back off! Back off! And I have a right to worship any damn thing that I want and wear any damn clothes that I want. And he turned around as soon as we did, and now he's right on my tail. Drive into this community, and you will almost certainly be tailed by the god squad, the private church security team that had encircled Sabrina. Can I ask you a quick question? ENGINE RUMBLES, REVS Can I just ask you a quick question? No. Can I ask you just a quick question? Guess not. On the rare occasion when you can actually get a church member to speak to you, what you will hear is unvarnished adoration for the imprisoned paedophile prophet. Is that the view of what's happening with, uh, the prophet? That it's persecution? Um, in my opinion, yes. INTRIGUING MUSIC Do people feel like he'll` he'll come back? I do. That is exactly how Sabrina Broadbent does not want her children to end up, but in order to get them back, she's gonna have to drink from a fire hose of classic FLDS intimidation tactics. Son, if you wanna video tape, you just go back a little bit for me, OK? Step back a little bit. This is how they treat people. Yup. This is how they treat people, and they think it's OK. While Sabrina may seem like a hard-charging FLDS antagonist, her story goes much deeper. Not long ago she was on the other side ` a die-hard church member, prairie dress and all. You grow up, and that's all you know, you know? That's all you know. You all right? The wrenching story of how she left without her children when we come back. (SCREAMS) TENSE MUSIC 2006 ` Let's do it. All right. Come on, come on, come on. Joe Broadbent, an FLDS runaway, launches a series of commando-style missions to extract his entire family from the church by any means necessary. I could see 'em sad, depressed, hurt, scared, and I'm like, 'Why not try and get 'em out?' As seen in a documentary called Sons of Perdition, his most adamant opponent is his oldest sister, Sabrina. Yes, ironically, the same woman who would later find herself on the other side of this conflict was then a zealous defender of the church ` here, literally pulling on one of her sisters to prevent her from leaving. When you grow up, that's all you know, you know? That's all you know. So you thought Warren Jeffs was God's mouthpiece? Right. The Broadbent family tree is actually quite slender by FLDS standards; Sabrina was raised in a household with one father, just two wives and 22 children. < How old were you when you got married? I was 17. And was it somebody you wanted to marry, you got to pick, or...? No. They're just assigned to you. (CHUCKLES) Sabrina knew from the recorded sermons of Warren Jeffs that the job of an FLDS wife is to obey her husband and bear children, and she did her duty, delivering two boys and two girls in rapid succession. Her brother Joe had a different duty ` working without pay as a manual labourer. How old were you when you were first put to work? I was 10 years old. I started driving a forklift when I was 12. In fact, I learned how to drive a forklift before a vehicle. Nine years ago at the age of 17, sick of a life of servitude, Joe escapes the church and heads straight to the devil's playground. I went off to Las Vegas. I mean, it was` it was sin city. It was awesome. Um, absolutely loved it. He finds his new freedom to be a revelation, one he wants to share with the family he's left behind. I could see how the world was to me, you know? I` I wasn't hurt. I wasn't possessed, you know? The people out here at not evil; they're good people. But after that ugly moment we showed you, Sabrina trying to prevent him from rescuing other family members, Joe knows it will take something powerful to shake his older sister's faith. What finally does it is a bombshell dropped by her husband, Jake. He wanted to marry my little sister, and she was 14. Sabrina's husband wanted to marry`? Wanted another wife, so... And he wanted to marry one of her little sisters? Mm-hm. Who was 14? > Yeah. Sabrina's husband is banished by Warren Jeffs ` not because he wanted to bed his wife's 14-year-old sister, but because only the profit can decide how many wives a man can have. Sabrina finds herself on the verge of being transferred into another marriage, perhaps with multiple wives,... I'm gonna be married off. I'll be the second wife, third wife, fourth wife, and I'm like, 'I don't wanna be a damn concubine.' ...so she calls Joe and other family members on the outside. They're like, 'We're coming to help ya. Ya ready?' They make a midnight run to a meeting spot in the desert outside the creek. 25-year-old Sabrina jumps into the car and races away to a new life on the outside. INTRIGUING MUSIC At first, freedom is exhilarating. She gets a new haircut,... ...enjoys partying,... You all right? ...but she is also tormented by the fact that her husband's family is insisting on keeping the children. There was nothing I could do at that point, cos I didn't dare go up against the church or anything. Because the church is so powerful? Yeah. I never dared go up against it. I wanted to. Believe me, I wanted to. I cried myself to sleep many nights, months ` GLASS CLATTERS, SHATTERS PEOPLE: Oh! even drink myself to death sometimes. (SCREAMS) She would scream, she would cry, because she missed her kids. She would lose her mind, pretty much, and it was sad to see. WOMAN: Do you wanna go upstairs? (CRIES) Sabrina is now 32, remarried,... Smile, cheese! ...with a 3-year-old son,... That's a good boy. ...and she has a career as a counsellor for troubled youth. She has never lost touch with her first four children, still in the church. However, during a scheduled visitation this past Christmas,... Give this to Isaac. ...it becomes painfully obvious that her kids view her as an evil outsider ` here, refusing to accept her Christmas presents. OK. They know that Christmas, gift-giving, toys, they all violate FLDS rules and mean a one-way ticket to hell. This estrangement becomes one of the big reasons why Sabrina finally musters the courage to fight for custody ` the court order a sweet vindication of her efforts. There's no tears. There wasn't. I was too happy to cry. And you got right in the car and went to go get them? Yeah, we did. Which brings us back to the stand-off. They won't send 'em out. They won't let me get 'em. It's now noon. We're 18 hours into this thing, and as the crowd surrounds Sabrina's van with video cameras, it is becoming clearer and clearer to Sabrina that her kids are siding with the faithful. That's Isaac right there, the eldest, and this is Rulon, the younger boy, and here are daughters Sandra and Leticia. Had to look the doors. Little people are throwing chickens in the van. At one point, the boys even try to put a calf in her van. I'm so sick of this. This is so uncalled for. So unnecessary. What do you think their fear was? Why did they so badly not want to go with you? Because they've been` they've been poisoned against me, because I live out here. I'm an apostate. Have they been taught that you're evil? Mm-hm. They called me the devil a few times. 'You're the devil,' you know? 'You're going to hell.' About 20 hours into the stand-off, Sandra, on behalf of her siblings, delivers a hand-written contract pleading for future trips to the creek. The war for these FLDS children is at a stalemate, but across town,... They wouldn't open the gate. ...another mother is fighting a similar battle on another front. (SIGHS) I'm scared. She was once the queen of the FLDS castle. Now she's come back in order to take back her children. I don't want my girls to be raped. I don't want any of my boys to have to sit on the side of their bed and watch their wife get raped. I don't want that. When we come back, her allegations of a new sadistic sex ritual. Plus, is the local government in the pocket of the church? Are you answerable to the public? We go uninvited to the city council for answers. Really? Nobody wants to respond to that? Stay with us. Dad! Dad! Hey. Hey. Dad! Reduce volume. Reduce volume. Dad! Locate undies. Locate undies. (WHINES, PANTS) Read top stories. Play favourites. ROCK MUSIC New Holden Cruze with voice-controlled MyLink ` what you say goes. TENSE MUSIC What is really going on behind these walls, where the leadership of the FLDS resides? It's just not the same any more. Charlene Jeffs used to the queen of this castle, and now she's returning to her old home wielding information that she says could rock this fortress to its foundations. My youngest daughter right now is... (SNIFFLES) 14. That's the age that they like to do things to them. This was just high weeds when I was here. Charlene is perhaps the most provocative new combatant in the civil war over FLDS children. She is trying to get her kids back from non other than Lyle Jeffs, Warren Jeffs' brother and reputed top lieutenant who now resides in this sprawling walled compound. He was always afraid I was gonna rock his boat. Well, I'm gonna capsize it. (CHUCKLES) Charlene was the most senior of Lyle's nine wives, running a polygamist family with 34 children until she was banished into exile two years ago. I was told I` I had complained. I didn't know what I had complained about,... (CHUCKLES) but I was told that I had complained. Lyle has no idea that his wife is now on the warpath, trying to get her two youngest children back. I would say to him, 'Lyle, you have hurt me more deeply than anyone ever has or ever will, 'and I will never go back to you, and I want my children now ` all of them.' Oh, no trespassing. So, legally, I can be on here, right? He'll find out soon enough, though, because today Charlene is outside, posting legal notices demanding a hearing in which she can argue for custody of her two youngest children, and the documents contain explosive allegations detailing her fears for her youngest daughter, Suzie. Susie, come out and talk to me, OK? Open the door so I can see ya. And I hope that Susie doesn't get involved in... (SIGHS) the rituals that's going on. The order accuses the church of a profoundly perverse so-called 'seed bearer' ritual in which Warren Jeffs has allegedly decreed that a select group of his 15 most faithful men be assigned to impregnate the women of the FLDS with their husbands required to observe the act. I don't want my girls to commit adultery, and I don't want them to be raped. I want all of them outta there. If true, how could this kind of abuse be allowed to take place here in the creek? Because, Charlene argues, the local police are in the pocket of the church. TENSE MUSIC This is a claim that many people here in the creek have made to us, so we go looking for some answers. If we can get anybody to talk to us. Curiously, when I show up at the Jeffs' compound just days after Charlene's visit, within minutes the cops mysteriously materialise. Just trying to see if we can talk to Lyle Jeffs. Do you work for him? Of course not. The allegation is that the government here basically reports to the church. That ain't true. Not true? OK. Good evening. Uh, my name is Dan Harris. I'm from ABC News. The federal government has sued you, saying that you're, essentially, a wing of the FLDS church. How do you respond to that? Do you have the attorney's phone number? They're saying that you, as an elected body here in the United States of America, are, effectively, the wing of a church ` one whose prophet is in prison for two counts of sexual assault of a child. > You wouldn't wanna respond to that? Our response would be that needs to be from our attorney. We were struck by how many of the council members share the same last name, a sign of how closely related everyone is here in the creek. Is anybody here not a member of the FLDS? So you're all members of FLDS, right? Seriously? Nobody will answer the question? 30 minutes is up. Thank you. The city's lawyer tells us the council is not controlled by the church. However, Charlene Jeffs, a believer turned apostate, fully expects discrimination when she arrives at the local marshal's office to ask for help. ...would like to have permission to check on my children. She has the right to conduct what's called a welfare check with her two youngest kids, but she doubts the local cops will assist the lowly wife taking on the bishop. OK. I'd be happy to help you out. There we go. Oh, there we go. To her surprise, the marshals allow her and her lawyer inside and produce her 17-year-old son Amin, and 13-year-old daughter Suzie. Suzie tried to fight on a hug, and I know it's just cos of the teachings, and Amin just did a handshake, but Amin smiled, and I felt like it was a more sincere smile. I know that they love me. They're just confused. For the moment, she's reassured that her kids are OK, but then late that night under cover of darkness, our cameras capture three large trailers easing out of the prophet's compound, destination unknown. MAN: No license plate. Could her kids be in those trailers? Could Charlene have just lost her last chance to get her kids back? (BREATHES SHAKILY) I'm scared. (SNIFFS) I'm scared of what Lyle will do. (INHALES) I know that he will put the children in hiding... (SNIFFS) so that I will never have any kind of contact with them again. And we'll have the very dramatic conclusion to that story right here for you next week.