By Brooke Adams
The Salt Lake Tribune
September 19, 2007
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_6938779
St. George - After calling just 10 of its 70 listed witnesses, the defense has rested in the trial of Warren S. Jeffs, the polygamous sect leader accused of being an accomplice to rape.
The prosecution planned to call one, unidentified rebuttal witness. After that, 5th District Judge James Shumate said, jurors will go home, take Thursday off while jury instructions are being drafted, and then return Friday to hear closing arguments and begin deliberations.
The defense ended its case after recalling Allen Steed, former husband of Jane Doe - the woman accusing Jeffs of being an Warren Jeffs Trial, Day Five
accomplice to rape. She claims she was forced to marry Steed, her then 19-year-old cousin, when she was 14, and then raped.
Steed had first testified he never forced his young bride to have sex. He was recalled to clarify that other than polygamy, he knew of no other laws that conflicted with the teachings of the sect, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Steed said his first sexual encounter with Doe, which occurred about three weeks into their marriage, was initiated by her. He offered jurors a starkly different account of what happened.
He had been putting in 12 to 15 hours as an electrician, he said, got home late and went to bed in his work clothes.
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"She woke me up, asked me if I cared about her," he said. "I told her I did. She rolled up close to me, asked me to scratch her back. One thing led to another," he said, and the couple had intercourse.
In her testimony last week, Doe said Steed had told her it was "time for you to be a wife." She said she was sobbing and her "whole body was shaking" and she told him "Please don't" as he laid her on a bed and had sex with her.
Steed denied that Doe had acted that way when questioned by prosecutors.
Steed, 26, had to be prompted numerous times to speak loudly enough to be heard in the courtroom, finally standing throughout his testimony to project his voice.
When asked by defense attorney Walter F. Bugden if he ever forced his wife to have sex with him, Steed answered, "No sir." He said that if she asked him to stop, he would.
Bugden read Steed his Miranda rights as the morning began, asking him whether he was willing to testify knowing it could lead to charges against him. Steed has not been charged with any crime.
Steed said he was testifying to get the truth out.
Steed said police never interviewed him about the alleged rape until after they filed charges against Jeffs in April 2006.
Jeffs faces two counts of being an accomplice to rape related to the 2001 marriage he performed between Steed, then 19, and Doe, who was 14. She testified she objected to the marriage and told Jeffs so.
Steed said Fred Jessop, Doe's stepfather, advised him before the marriage to "take it slow, take a long, long time, be kind and considerate, careful."
Like Doe, Steed said he knew nothing about sexual intimacy before they married and described himself as "clumsy" and a bad communicator.
After their marriage, he asked Doe when she wanted to have children and her answer ranged from two weeks to five years, he said.
"I just always felt like the woman had the right to decide," said Steed, though he also described having children as a mutual decision.
FLDS members believe sexual intimacy should occur only for procreation.
Steed said he tried to court Doe in the early days of their marriage, and wrote her love letters. But the relationship was not going well, and he went alone to Jeffs for advice a few times.
"I wanted counsel, how to make things work," he said. "Things weren't so smooth. I needed some ideas."
He said Jeffs' advice was: "Take it slow. Try to get close. Try to show love. Be kind."
Steed also said Jeffs told him that he had to "learn how to get her to love me to the point she would obey me because she loved me."
The couple went to see Jeffs together once, he said, and were told to "pray together, work together, pray together, play together, love each other."
Steed said Doe was standoffish to him in public but affectionate in private. He relied "more on actions than words" as a signal for when she was comfortable enough to consummate their marriage.
He portrayed Doe as the strong personality in the relationship. "I would have liked to have thought I was [the boss]," he said, but "I never was."
He said he tried to make the marriage work and believed his wife was trying, too. His wife later began staying away from him, sleeping at his mother's home, and infrequently accepting his telephone calls.
Steed broke down in tears when asked about his wife's affair, which she had denied at the time. The affair eventually broke up their spiritual marriage.
"It hurt really bad," he said. "I tried everything I knew. Never been good with communication."
On Tuesday, Jeffs' defense called four couples and one woman, all faithful FLDS members. They testified about their courtships, marriages, intimate relations and counsel they received from Jeffs when difficulties arose.
Prosecutors drew distinctions between the defense witnesses' experiences and those of Jane Doe. They pointed out that none of the women were 14 when married and none was asked to marry a first cousin. The witnesses also didn't experience the pressure Doe felt, because of her stepfather's position as second counselor in the faith, to go ahead with an unwanted marriage. And unlike Doe, they all wanted to be married.
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