FLDS Head: Jeffs Agrees to Be Extradited to Utah Polygamist Sect Leader Faces Two Counts of Rape in State, by Francis McCabe and Brian Haynes, Review-Journal [Las Vegas NV], September 1, 2006

FLDS Head: Jeffs Agrees to Be Extradited to Utah
Polygamist Sect Leader Faces Two Counts of Rape in State

By Francis McCabe and Brian Haynes
Review-Journal [Las Vegas NV]
September 1, 2006

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Sep-01-Fri-2006/news/9387587.html

Warren Jeffs' followers believed he would guide them to heaven.

But the self-proclaimed prophet and suspected rape accomplice is heading to purgatory -- the Washington County, Utah, jail.

Dressed in navy blue prison fatigues, his thin limbs shackled, the 50-year-old leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints appeared stunned as he stood Thursday before a throng of media and Las Vegas Justice of the Peace James Bixler.

Warren Jeffs appears in Las Vegas Justice Court on Thursday morning. Jeffs, who was escorted by members of the Las Vegas Police Special Emergency Response Team, is accused of marrying a girl younger than 18 to an older man and insisting she procreate against her will.
Photos by Clint Karlsen.

Mumbling quietly, the 6-foot-3-inch Jeffs agreed to "go ahead and be extradited" to Utah, where he faces two counts of rape as an accomplice for marrying a girl younger than 18 to an older man and insisting she procreate against her will.

The charges carry sentences of five years to life.

Utah authorities have 30 days to make the transfer, but Bixler told Jeffs: "I don't think it is going to take that long."

Isaac Jeffs stands in court Thursday while his brother, polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, is led from the courtroom.

Jeffs was arrested Monday night on Interstate 15 near Apex after a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper pulled over the red Cadillac Escalade he was traveling in for not having a visible license plate.

Jeffs was on the lam for more than a year after a grand jury in Mohave County, Ariz., indicted him on charges of sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor in June 2005.

In May, he was placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list.

"(The victim's) hope is that others may be encouraged to know that there is a way out from oppression and abuse. It is also very important for the victim that people understand that this case is not about religion, nor is it about polygamy. This case is about someone in a position of power and authority committing a crime against a vulnerable young girl."
Photo by Brock Belnap / Washington County, Utah, Attorney

The charges in both states stem from allegations that Jeffs conducted arranged marriages between underage girls and older men. Arizona and Utah agreed Wednesday that Jeffs would be extradited to Utah first because judges there can set higher bail.

At the time of his arrest, Jeffs was carrying three wigs, 15 cell phones, several laptop computers and $54,000 in cash.

Gary Engels, an investigator with Arizona's Mohave County attorney's office who has tracked Jeffs for years, surmised that the fugitive may have picked up the money just before he was arrested. "I have no doubt they had couriers running money to him," Engels said of Jeffs' followers.

Engels said he thought Jeffs may have been in Southern Nevada to visit sect members who moved in recent years from Hildale, Utah, and neighboring Colorado City, Ariz., where a majority of the FLDS members live.

The vehicle Jeffs was traveling in is owned by John Wayman, an FLDS official who manages Western Precision Inc., a company that recently moved from Hildale to Las Vegas and changed its name to Newera Manufacturing Inc.

Engels said he had seen only photo and video images of Jeffs until Thursday's court hearing.

"He looked very thin, very gaunt," the investigator said. "He looked like a man who's been on the run, a man under a lot of stress."

Ryan Shaum, deputy attorney for Washington County who attended the hearing, would not say for security reasons when Jeffs would be transported to Utah to face charges. Once in Utah, Jeffs will within 48 hours go before a judge for a bail hearing, Shaum said.

"Our intent is to have him held with no bail, if possible," he said.

Also Thursday, the Nevada attorney general announced he had dedicated an investigator to look into possible illegal activity by FLDS members.

"The Warren Jeffs arrest has brought to light that similar criminal activities may exist in Nevada," Attorney General George Chanos said in a statement. "We need to take a closer look at these activities."

One place to start would be Caliente, a town of 1,100 people about 100 miles north of Las Vegas that is home to the Caliente Hot Springs Resort.

The hotel, which was once owned by FLDS member Merril Jessop, has been a favorite vacation spot for Jeffs' followers and has been used by Jeffs to perform marriages, investigators and authorities said.

In one case pending in Mohave County, Candi Shapley testified that she was 16 when Jeffs married her to an older man in Caliente.

In the Washington County case, authorities said Jeffs performed an underage marriage in Nevada, but they did not specify the location.

When they visited the resort, FLDS members usually requested room 15 because that's where Jeffs performed marriages, said Flora Jessop, a former FLDS member who helps young women escape from the community.

A Caliente resident who asked not to be identified said FLDS members visited often, although their visits were less frequent when media scrutiny was high. They would usually show up in five or six vehicles and kept to themselves.

Some of them were at the resort just days before Jeffs' arrest.

"They usually come in right before dark and are gone before dawn," the resident said.

John Huston, who bought the resort two years ago, said he didn't know if FLDS members frequented his property.

"I wouldn't know one way or the other," he said.

Washington County attorney Brock Belnap said the victim in the Utah case, who is from Hildale, is concerned for Jeffs' followers in Hildale and Colorado City, who have been subject to media scrutiny in recent days.

"Her hope is that others may be encouraged to know that there is a way out from oppression and abuse," Belnap said. "It is also very important for the victim that people understand that this case is not about religion, nor is it about polygamy. This case is about someone in a position of power and authority committing a crime against a vulnerable young girl."

Thursday's hearing at the Regional Justice Center was a formality as Jeffs had already signed extradition waivers at the Clark County Detention Center.

Jeffs, who was blanketed by Las Vegas police and court bailiffs, was courteous to the judge, saying, "Thank you, your honor," at the hearings' end.

Jeffs' brother, Isaac Jeffs, who was driving the Escalade at the time of the arrest, appeared to be the only supporter in the courtroom.

Isaac Jeffs stood, looking sullen and staring at the ground, as his brother passed by, escorted back to jail by body-armor-wearing members of the Las Vegas Police Special Emergency Response Team.