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	Our Opinion: Jeffs Perverted His Religion to Commit Horrid Sex Crime San Angelo Standard-Times August 13, 2011 http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2011/aug/13/our-opinion-jeffs-perverted-his-religion-to-sex/ SAN ANGELO, Texas — In the end, it turned out Warren Jeffs was merely the worst kind of child molester. The trial of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints prophet was extraordinary on several levels, not the least of which was Jeffs' bizarre courtroom behavior. San Angelo's iconic image of the decade may be Jeffs standing mute in front of the jury for 30 minutes except for uttering, "I am at peace." After jury selection, he had fired his team of highly regarded lawyers — stunning but unsurprising, given that he has done that repeatedly since his incarceration — and elected to represent himself. But during the first day of testimony he questioned none of the state's witnesses and offered no objections. On the second day he erupted into a 55-minute oration about religious persecution as all in the courtroom watched open-mouthed. Jeffs called only one witness, an FLDS member whose primary role was to read from the Book of Mormon. As could be expected, the prosecution plowed through its case as if it were the Dallas Cowboys playing a team that put no defenders on the field. Prosecutors stacked great mounds of evidence showing that Jeffs had raped two girls, ages 12 and 15, whom he had taken as "celestial" wives. The most damning pieces of evidence were audio recordings of Jeffs having sex with one of the girls and giving explicit instructions to young girls about how to have sex. That was repulsive on its face, but it was made much worse by the fact Jeffs cast it as something God wanted them to do. He perverted his religion, using God as his tool and his purported status as God's prophet to coerce children into fulfilling his depraved sexual desires. His own words turned out to be the most convincing evidence that he deserved to be convicted and to receive the harshest punishment allowed. Ideally, his ties to the FLDS would be terminated immediately. As the church members at the Yearning for Zion Ranch absorb the gravity of Jeffs' crimes and punishment, many people hope they will come to recognize that they don't have to accept the vile crimes any religious leaders might impose on them. And it's incumbent on the FLDS' remaining leadership to change the ghastly culture that Jeffs established and to give special help those who have been victimized by him. Jeffs' attempts to cast the case as a challenge to his constitutionally guaranteed religious freedoms were buried under the state's evidence. While Jeffs' decision to represent himself made the prosecutors' job easier, they still deserve credit for building a thorough case. Too, 51st District Judge Barbara Walther acquitted herself well in a high-profile case with lots of potential pitfalls. She showed enormous patience, even after Jeffs read a statement he said was from God that contained veiled threats against the judge; but she quashed his outrageous antics that threatened to disrupt the proceedings. If Walther was disgruntled over the several attempts by Jeffs and his lawyers to have her removed from the trial, it didn't show. At times she seemed to bend over backward to the give Jeffs leeway. We hope her handling of the case survives the legal scrutiny that is certain to come. In a trial that put San Angelo in the national spotlight, Walther performed superbly, as did the prosecutors and jurors. And another message — a life sentence plus 20 years — has been delivered that society will not tolerate young children being sexually abused under the guise of religious expression.
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