Texas District Judge Barbara Walther recessed the sexual assault trial of Raymond Jessop indefinitely, saying a juror's child is younger than five and may have swine flu. She did not indicate when the trial may resume.

It took 2½ days and the largest pool in Schleicher County history to seat a jury of 12 people and two alternates in the first of the criminal cases stemming from a raid that catapulted this tiny town into the spotlight as women and children in prairie dresses were taken off the Yearning For Zion Ranch.

Jessop, charged with sexual assault of a child, is the first of 12 men from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to face a criminal trial in Texas. The assault charge stems from his alleged marriage to a girl who was 16 when she became pregnant.

The jury began hearing the first testimony in the case Thursday morning. They heard only about four hours of testimony — primarily about how and where evidence was collected in the weeklong raid in April 2008.

The first witness, Texas Ranger Sgt. Nick Hanna, testified that he found the alleged victim in the sexual assault case with four other women and numerous children at a log cabin-style house during the early days of the raid.

Jessop was not there at the time, but he was considered a suspect by authorities early on, even as state officials struggled with how to handle the 439 children they took from the ranch and placed in state custody. Hanna acknowledged under cross-examination that Jessop was considered a potential suspect as the raid was concluding and that he went to San Angelo to collect a blood sample from him.

Other witnesses Thursday testified that DNA was also taken from the alleged victim, now 21, and from her daughter, now 4.

Authorities seized three trailer loads of evidence from the residences and temple at the ranch, and piles of documents, disks and books were stacked onto the ledge of the witness stand for identification during the testimony Thursday — an indication of how document-heavy the case against Jessop is.

FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop said Thursday that the piles of documents were proof that prosecutors don't have a victim.

"Ninety percent of the time, you'll have a girl up there saying, 'This terrible thing happened to me.' The state doesn't have that," he said. "You have a state-generated victim."

Under Texas law, generally, no one under 17 can consent to sex with an adult. If Jessop is convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

Prosecutors say Jessop had a total of nine wives, including one daughter of jailed sect leader Warren Jeffs. Jessop faces a separate bigamy charge, but that case is to be tried later.

The alleged victim in the sexual assault case was 16 when she gave birth to a daughter at the ranch in 2005, prosecutors say. The girl suffered days of child labor but was not taken to the hospital because of fears about possible prosecution, according to church documents seized at the ranch. She safely delivered a daughter.

Defense attorney Mark Stevens has said that prosecutors will not be able to offer evidence that a crime was committed in Schleicher County. The location is critical because prosecutors must be able to show the state has jurisdiction in the case.

The FLDS is a breakaway sect that is not recognized by the Mormon church. It has historically been based along the Arizona-Utah line, but church members bought a 1,700-acre ranch outside Eldorado about six years ago and began building sprawling homes and a four-story limestone temple visible from the highway through town.

Jeffs was arrested in 2006 and convicted as an accomplice to rape in Utah for arranging an underage marriage there. He awaits trial on similar charges in Arizona before he can be tried for sexual assault of a child and bigamy in Texas.

The Mormon church, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, renounced polygamy more than a century ago.

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