Jeffs' attorney: 'I smell a rat'
 
By JIM SECKLER
Mohave Daily News
 
KINGMAN - The attorneys in the case of Warren Steed Jeffs met Friday to argue a motion to depose two Utah men.

Jeffs, 54, is the jailed leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a polygamist church in Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah. He is in Mohave County Jail facing felony charges in Arizona.

Jeffs' attorney, Mike Piccarreta, argued to have Superior Court Judge Steven Conn order Sam Brower and Dr. Dan Fischer for another deposition. Brower and Fischer were previously interviewed by Piccarreta but refused to answer certain questions. Brower is a private investigator who has worked with the Mohave County Attorney's Office. Fischer is a dentist and former member of the FLDS, who Piccarreta says funds an anti-polygamist campaign against his client.

Piccarreta is asking for Brower and Fischer to answer more questions related to conversations between the men and Jeffs' accusers, Elissa Wall and Suzie Barlow. The defense attorney said Fischer and Diversity Foundation have poured millions of dollars into a campaign against the FLDS church.

The defense is entitled to communication between Wall and Barlow and Hoole & King, a Salt Lake City law firm, through Fischer. Piccarreta also said Brower was an informant for the FBI and would also not talk about conversations with law enforcement in previous interviews.

Roger Hoole countered that his law firm represents several clients, who currently have civil litigation with the FLDS and Jeffs. He said that Fischer is a client representative and is entitled to the same attorney-client privilege.

Hoole, who represents Brower, also said Diversity Foundation has been above board with disclosing financial information about the group that helps young men and women who have fled the church by providing money for housing, education and food. Brower is investigating the case of child abuse against the FLDS.

Randy Dryer, who represents Fischer, said neither his client, Wall, Barlow or the Diversity Foundation has charged Jeffs with a crime but rather that the state of Arizona did. He does not object to disclosing financial information but objects to disclosing communication between Wall, a Utah resident, and Hoole & King, a Utah law firm, which took place in Utah. Dryer calls Piccarreta's motion as an end around to depose Fischer.

Piccarreta argued that calling Brower and Fischer "client representatives" was a ruse. He also said he does not have a complete financial picture about the money behind this case. The attorney-client privilege also does not apply in Arizona.

"I smell a rat," Piccarreta said. "Elissa Wall has received so much money. I want to show that she's biased against my client."

Conn said he will take the motion under advisement. He will also set another hearing in February for another motion to exclude evidence seized during a 2008 raid on a FLDS compound in Texas. Other motions to be addressed is a deposition of Carolyn Jessop, a well-known critic of the FLDS, and a motion to list expert witnesses that Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith plans to call at Jeffs' upcoming trial.

Jeffs is charged in Mohave County with four counts of sexual conduct with a minor in two 2007 cases. He is charged with being an accomplice of two men who had sex with two underage girls, which allegedly took place in 2002 and 2003.

Jeffs is also charged with felony sexual assault of a child under 17 and aggravated sexual assault in Schleicher County, Texas after an April 2008 raid by Texas officers at the FLDS compound in Eldorado, Texas.

Jeffs was convicted in 2007 in Utah on two counts of rape as an accomplice and was sentenced in November 2007 to 10 years in a Utah prison.
 
MohaveDailyNews.com
Originally published Sunday, December 13, 2009
 
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