Tried, Convicted in Utah, Sect Leader Will Be Brought Here to Face Charges
By Amanda Lee Myers
Associated Press
November 22, 2007
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/1122jeffs1122.html
It could take between two and six months for polygamous-sect leader Warren Jeffs to be brought to Arizona to face charges involving marriages between two teenage girls and older men, an Arizona prosecutor said Wednesday.
Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith said prosecutors are eager to move forward but the longer it takes for Jeffs to be brought to Arizona, the longer attorneys will have to prepare their cases.
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Warren Jeffs reacts to the verdicts against him in this file photo, in a St. George, Utah, court. Photo by Jud Burkett/Associated Press |
"We're working on the cases now, so this is just more time for us to prepare, too," he said. "That's not a bad thing."
Smith said, however, that the time has come for Jeffs to answer to the Arizona charges. "It's just time to bring this case to a close and to find out what's going to happen here," he said.
"We'd like to see it resolved, hopefully favorably," he added.
Jeffs' Utah attorney, Wally Bugden, declined to comment, referring calls to Jeffs' Arizona lawyer, Mike Piccarreta. A call to Piccarreta's office was not immediately returned Wednesday.
Jeffs, 51, is head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, whose members practice polygamy in arranged marriages that often involve placing young girls with older men.
He faces four felony charges in Arizona in a 2005 case involving marriages between two teenage girls and older men who were their relatives. Jeffs also is charged as an accomplice on four counts of incest and four counts of sexual contact with a minor in an indictment handed up earlier this year for similar cases.
Both prosecutions have been on hold pending Jeffs' trial in Utah, which ended in September with a conviction. Jeffs was sentenced Tuesday to two consecutive terms of five years to life in prison for rape as an accomplice in St. George, Utah, the result of a marriage arranged for a 14-year-old follower and her 19-year-old cousin.
Smith called the sentence "puzzling," saying Jeffs could be released within a few years or spend the rest of his life in prison.
"You have no idea really when he's going to be released," he said. "You really don't have any feel for it, so its kind of indeterminate and ambiguous."
Smith said he's not sure what effect, if any, the Utah sentencing will have on the Arizona cases.
"It's a whole new ballgame here - different charges, different elements of the crimes, different people involved on both sides," he said.
Smith said prosecutors currently are whittling down massive amounts of material into a size that will make sense to a jury.
The FLDS Church practices polygamy and represents itself as an offshoot of the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, based in Salt Lake City. The Mormons, however, disavow any connection and renounced polygamy in 1890 as a condition of Utah statehood.
The FLDS Church is based in the twin border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, home to about 6,000 residents.
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