Trust Me: The False Prophet, Netflix’s new four-part docuseries directed by Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Rachel Dretzin, tells the story of Samuel Rappylee Bateman, a former rank-and-file member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints who declared himself a prophet and formed a group in Short Creek, Utah, taking dozens of wives, including girls as young as 9 years old.

Who was Samuel Bateman?

Bateman’s rise was made possible by a leadership void. When FLDS leader Warren Jeffs was sentenced to life in prison in 2011 for sexually assaulting two girls, his followers were left without direction. According to the documentary, this led to members possibly rising and taking control. Bateman stepped in, claiming Jeffs was either dead or “translated” and that divine communication would now flow through him, Time and Netflix’s Tudum reported.

In 2019, he formed a group known as the “Samuelites” and began asserting dominance. The series utilizes footage from cult psychology expert Christine Marie and her husband, Tolga Katas, who moved to Short Creek to document a community in crisis.

Initially, Bateman believed they were covering a documentary with a positive message. Instead, the couple embedded themselves in his inner circle and ultimately helped bring him down.

Bateman built his following through religious manipulation, financial pressure and isolation. He required his followers to demonstrate loyalty by giving him their daughters as plural wives. If they dissented, it was viewed as a spiritual failure. The documentary features two properties in Short Creek: the “Blue House,” where Bateman lived with his wives, and the “Green House,” which was a more crowded home where both women and young girls lived.

Marie and Katas were already supporting the FLDS members, with Tolgas even making a documentary about them. After learning about the project, Bateman welcomed their cameras, believing the documentary would spread his message. He didn’t realize he was building a case against himself.

“I was so trusted. I wanted to help them before they found out I was a mole. I’m not betraying them—I’m helping them, right?” Marie says in the series.

Details on Christine Marie and Tolga Katas documenting the abuse and Bateman’s arrest and conviction

The couple began visiting Bateman’s properties in 2021. Over time, their recordings captured evidence of abuse. In late 2021, Marie recorded Bateman describing an “Atonement” ceremony involving the sexual abuse of his wives. He would give the young girls to his followers and ordered them to have sex while he watched. Marie turned over the material to law enforcement and became a central figure in the case against him.

She eventually became an FBI informant while Katas provided video evidence and assisted with charting the group’s properties, according to Time.

Bateman was arrested in August 2022 after drivers reported children in a trailer he was towing, leading to the rescue of three girls. After his bail release, federal warrants were issued for his arrest. On Sept. 13, 2022, he was apprehended by FBI agents during a fake interview Katas arranged.

In April 2024, Bateman pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport a minor for criminal sexual activity and conspiracy to commit kidnapping, spanning several states. Some of his followers assisted in the abuse by transporting minors from state custody across several states before they were located and returned.

On Dec. 9, 2024, Bateman was sentenced to 50 years in prison for conspiracy to commit transportation of a minor for criminal sexual activity and conspiracy to commit kidnapping. Several of his male followers also received lengthy prison sentences for their involvement in the crimes.

The women and young girls associated with Bateman had mixed reactions about what happened. Some of his adult wives severed ties with him, while others remained loyal. All of Bateman’s underage victims testified against him in court, per Tudum.

Where are the survivors now?

Julia Johnson

She secretly met with Marie in July 2022, providing critical testimony against Bateman after refusing to give two of her underage daughters to him as wives. Her former husband, Moroni Johnson, a devoted Bateman follower, is now serving a 25-year prison sentence.

“Julia is extraordinary,” Dretzin told Tudum. “In many ways [she’s] the heroine of the film, because it takes so much for a woman at that age to turn against her husband and to risk what she risked in going for help.”

Moretta Johnson

Julia’s daughter and one of Bateman’s underage wives, Moretta served prison time for her role in the kidnapping plot and has since fully left the community, married and started a family.

“Moretta had spent a year in prison,” Julia said of her daughter in the documentary. “Her words are, ‘Prison set me free.’ It helped her get into a thought process of her own.”

Nomz Bistline

One of Bateman’s most devoted adult wives, she also served prison time and is the only survivor to speak publicly.

“Prison was the best and worst thing that happened to me,” she told Tudum. “It forced me to start thinking for myself. It forced me to start questioning things.”

She remains in Short Creek but is working toward leaving and has channeled her experience into music and art.