Overview
- Trust Me: The False Prophet, which premiered on Netflix on Wednesday, draws on years of embedded footage to bring the case back into public view.
- Samuel Bateman pleaded guilty in 2024 to conspiracy to transport a minor for sexual activity and conspiracy to commit kidnapping, and he is serving a 50-year federal sentence.
- Federal filings say he took more than 20 “spiritual wives,” including girls as young as nine, and coerced group sex by claiming divine authority.
- Failures by local systems are a throughline, with police initially dismissing a taped confession in 2021 and child‑welfare staff later placing underage victims together, a setup that enabled a 2022 kidnapping plot; the girls were recovered in Washington state.
- Director Rachel Dretzin reports Bateman still phones adult followers from prison, showing how control can persist even as minors have been separated from him and several accomplices serve long terms.