Jeffs' defense attorney wants more interviews
 
By JIM SECKLER
Mohave Daily News
 
KINGMAN - The attorney for the convicted leader of a Colorado City polygamist church is again asking a Mohave County Superior Court judge to order the questioning of three witnesses in his client's case.

Warren Steed Jeffs' attorney, Mike Piccarreta of Tucson, filed another motion before Superior Court Judge Steven Conn to order Sam Brower, Dr. Dan Fischer and Rebecca Musser to be brought in for interviews. Conn previously ordered Brower and Musser to be deposed while Fischer voluntarily agreed to a pre-trial interview.

Piccarreta argued that Brower and Fischer are withholding evidence related to Jeffs' case. The defense attorney claims that the two have waged a campaign against Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In prior interviews, Fischer and Brower have refused to answer questions about Jeffs' case claiming attorney-client privilege, Piccarreta said.

Brower is a private investigator who has worked with Mohave County Attorney Office's investigator Gary Engels. Fischer is a dentist and former member of the FLDS, who Piccarreta claims funds the campaign against his client.

Musser, who had been married to Jeffs' late father, Rulon Jeffs, is a witness for the prosecution against Jeffs on his Arizona charges and has testified against Jeffs at his previous trial in Utah. She was also present during the search by Texas authorities at the FLDS compound in Texas, Piccarreta said.

Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith argued Tuesday that Musser, who lives in Idaho, had already been interviewed by defense attorneys in December 2008 in Las Vegas and does not need to be deposed. Smith again said he does not plan to introduce any evidence from the April 2008 raid at the FLDS compound in Eldorado, Texas, at Jeffs' upcoming trial in Mohave County. The prosecutor also said Texas authorities should also be present at Musser's interview.

Jeffs, 53, is charged in Mohave County with four counts of sexual conduct with a minor in two 2007 cases involving 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. He 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 Thursday, August 27, 2009
 
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