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	Fall of a 'Prophet': Lawyers Relegated to Background By Matthew Waller San Angelo Standard-Times August 20, 2011 http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2011/aug/20/records-doom-rather-than-bless/ SAN ANGELO, Texas — Dallas lawyer Robert Udashen was ready for the second phase of an evidence suppression hearing when his client, Warren Jeffs, dropped a bomb. The leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints told his attorneys he wanted to represent himself. "It was a surprise that he decided that morning," Udashen said. "I was prepared to go forward with the hearing." Jeffs was facing charges of sexual assault of a child that could send him to prison for life. The state alleged he had illegally married and assaulted two underage girls — one of them 12 years old at the time and the other 15. Since his extradition from Utah to Texas Nov. 30, Jeffs had struggled to settle on a legal team. Udashen and his brother Gary joined a long list of attorneys hired by Jeffs or assigned to him by the court, and then fired: Gerry Morris of Austin, Fred Brigman of San Angelo, Jeff Kearney and Reagan Wynn of Fort Worth, Emily Detoto of Houston, Deric Walpole of McKinney and Jed Silverman of Houston. The judge, 51st District Judge Barbara Walther, urged Jeffs to keep his attorneys. "Mr. Jeffs, you may have assembled the most impressive legal team this court has ever seen, and perhaps in the state of Texas," Walther said. Jeffs ignored the judge. Once the trial got under way, Jeffs took a soft-spoken attitude, barely raising his voice even when he repeatedly made legal objections in court. Udashen said that working with him one-on-one, the situation was much the same. "I never heard him raise his voice," he said. "He definitely knows what he wants. He had firm ideas and arguments he wanted to make about his religious rights. He didn't feel like the attorneys fairly understood." Jeffs had turned to Detoto in his failed effort to get Walther removed from his case. Walther has presided over all the FLDS member criminal trials and issued the search warrants in 2008 of the FLDS' YFZ Ranch near Eldorado. Detoto met Jeffs for the first time in the Schleicher County Jail on June 30. She recalls visiting him in the lockup's day room furnished with a stainless steel picnic table and bookshelf. She spoke with him for several hours, and later that night, Jeffs hired her. "He is a very involved client," Detoto said. "I spent countless hours with him in the Schleicher County jail. Mostly we spent a lot of time discussing how the trial may or may not go, and goals in recusal. He always gave suggestions, but as with any client, ultimately the lawyer has the ultimate decision in the things that happen." At the trial, Walpole started as Jeffs' lead counsel. An intense, determined litigator, Walpole became the face of the defense for the jury. He said he took the news that Jeffs had decided to defend himself hard. He worked through that disappointment, he said, by putting the focus back on Jeffs, not himself. For all of the trial, Walpole would act as standby counsel. After Jeffs was found guilty and requested to stay out of the courtroom during the punishment phase, Walther moved Walpole back to the defense table. "I respected his decision to represent himself," Walpole said. "I respect his decision to let me represent him again even more." Acting as his own attorney, Jeffs often resorted to making awkward objections, softly uttering a phrase, pausing a second or two and then tacking on another phrase until he finished a sentence. "The very word priesthood ... by the prosecution ... shows religion ... in need of protection ... by the Constitution," Jeffs said in one objection to admitting church records into evidence. A defining moment in his defense came when Jeffs remained silent during nearly all the 30 minutes he was allocated for closing arguments, saying only "I am at peace" near the end. Jurors quickly found him guilty of sexually assaulting the girls. They followed up by sentencing Jeffs to life plus 20 years in prison. Jeffs' attorneys have filed to withdraw as attorneys of record, but no order has been given as to whether Walpole and others may stay on for Jeffs' early October bigamy trial, 51st District Court staff said. For now, Robert Udashen and others can only wonder whether another shot at representing Jeffs would be as unusual as the first trial. "It was certainly a challenging and interesting experience," Udashen said.
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