| Jeffs is Tucson lawyer's latest high-profile client | |
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By Kim Smith ARIZONA DAILY STAR - Tucson, Arizona | |
Tucson defense attorney Michael Piccarreta finds himself on the road quite a bit lately. At least every other week, Piccarreta travels to the Mohave County Jail in Kingman to visit his latest high-profile client, Warren Jeffs. Jeffs, the head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is awaiting trial on multiple sex-related charges pertaining to the marriages of two teenage girls to their adult male relatives. Piccarreta prefers to practice locally, but when he was approached by members of Jeffs' church, he agreed to take on the case. "I try not to take out-of-town cases, but occasionally I'm sought out and if the case is interesting factually and legally and if I believe the cause is meritorious and the accused is someone I'm comfortable working with, I'll take it," Piccarreta said. The Jeffs case appeals to him because of its "cutting-edge" nature, said Piccarreta, who has been practicing law for 34 years. The government is prosecuting a religious group and it's not often an attorney gets the opportunity to work on such a case, the former Arizona State Bar Association president said. The last time Piccarreta represented a religious figure, he spent 10 months in trial in Phoenix representing William Crotts, the former president of the Baptist Foundation of Arizona, who was accused of bilking investors out of millions of dollars. According to The Associated Press, about 11,000 mostly elderly investors had about $585 million tied up in Baptist Foundation investments when the foundation failed in November of 1999. They were able to recover $250 million in subsequent civil lawsuits. Twenty-nine counts against Crotts went away, either because they were dismissed or the jury acquitted him, Piccarreta said. He was convicted of two counts in July 2006. Piccarreta will be arguing Crotts' appeal later this week. Among Piccarreta's former clients are former Marana mayor Bobby Sutton Jr., who went to trial on attempted extortion charges, and NBA star Damon Stoudamire, who was charged with possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. Sutton ended up pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of deprivation of rights under the color of law. The charges against Stoudamire were dismissed after he submitted two negative drug tests, completed a substance-abuse treatment program and gave the University of Arizona athletic department $45,000 in scholarship funds. Piccarreta, who is currently the state chairman of the American College of Trial Lawyers, said Jeffs has been "nothing but a pleasure to work with." "Mr. Jeffs is a very quiet, thoughtful and deeply religious man," Piccarreta said. No trial date has yet been set in the Jeffs case. Contact reporter Kim Smith at 573-4241 or kimsmith@azstarnet.com. | |
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azstarnet.com Originally published April 5, 2009 | |
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