Steed case remains unresolved
 
BY KEVIN JENKINS
kevin@thespectrum.com
The Spectrum
 
ST. GEORGE - The attorney for accused rapist Allen Glade Steed failed to agree with prosecutors Tuesday in 5th District Court on a way to resolve the case that was the key to putting former polygamous church leader Warren Jeffs in prison two years ago.

Despite a scheduled "special setting" for the resolution, attorneys said they had not yet agreed on an anticipated plea bargain and admitted they had failed to notify the court ahead of time of their impasse, something that clearly irked Judge G. Rand Beacham.

"I'm not really interested in tap dancing around for another two years," Beacham said. "After two years and a special setting for resolution, I'm being told, 'Nah, never mind.'"

Beacham repeatedly challenged defense attorney Jim Bradshaw to explain why his motion to continue the hearing should not be regarded as an attempt to waste the court's time.

"It sounds like you don't really know what your motion's going to be," Beacham said. "I'm trying to get some substance, to see if you know what the motion will be," he said during an exchange that lasted about 10 minutes. "Or if you're just blowing smoke."

Steed was charged in 2007 with raping his cousin, Elissa Wall, whom he had married in 2001 when she was 14 and he was 19. Both were members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a religion based in the Utah-Arizona border communities of Hildale and Colorado City that practices arranged marriages and polygamous marriage.

Wall later filed a civil suit against Jeffs that led to his criminal prosecution on charges of accomplice to rape, alleging she was an unwilling participant in the marriage Jeffs had arranged.

Wall has published a nationally distributed book, "Stolen Innocence," which chronicles her marriage to Steed, and has spoken publicly about her life.

Jeffs' conviction was the result of an unusual prosecution strategy in which Steed, the alleged perpetrator of the rape, was not charged with the crime until after he had testified on Jeffs' behalf at the trial. The defense has repeatedly questioned whether Steed was being considered guilty before he had even been charged because of Jeffs' conviction as an accomplice.

On Tuesday, Bradshaw asked for consideration of whether the statute of limitations ran out on the case before it was filed with law enforcement, and whether the case was properly filed.

County attorney Brock Belnap said the question revolves around a Utah statute, amended in 2005, that says the prosecution of a felony must be commenced within four years except, in the case of a rape, the prosecution may occur within eight years if law enforcement received the report of the alleged crime within four years of when it occurred.

Bradshaw said Wall's book appears to indicate that the report of the alleged crime was not filed within the statute of limitations. Court filings say the case arises from a January 2005 investigator's report, which could put it within the four-year limit.

Bradshaw also questioned whether the person who filed the report can be considered a member of law enforcement under the statute.

"Does an investigator for the Mohave County Attorney's Office constitute a law enforcement agency? The judge will have to decide that," Belnap said.

"There is an appellate case, but I've got to do some research, now," he said after Beacham acknowledged Bradshaw's concerns and allowed him time to file a new motion to dismiss the case.
 
TheSpectrum.com
Originally published July 22, 2009
 
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