Trial set for Jeffs
 Mohave County Superior Court expected to hear case in November
 
By JIM SECKLER
Mohave Daily News
 
KINGMAN — After more than two years, a Mohave County Superior Court judge finally set a trial date in one of two criminal cases filed against Warren Jeffs.

Jeffs, 54, the former leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is charged with four counts of sexual conduct with a minor in two 2007 Arizona 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 in the polygamist communities of Colorado City and Hildale, Utah.

Jeffs’ attorneys, Mike Piccarreta of Tucson and Richard Wright of Las Vegas, along with Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith agreed that most of the interviews have been conducted and a few remaining motions would be filed by August or September. Piccarreta said the cases could go to trial by November.

Judge Steven Conn set the trial to begin in one of the cases on Nov. 2 with a pre-trial hearing set for Oct. 8. At the Oct. 8 pre-trial hearing, a number of remaining motions may be argued. The trial in the second case, involving one victim, may be set after the completion of the first trial.

Piccarreta also suggested a series of dates in August and September as deadlines to file several remaining motions. Motions that may be filed are motions to dismiss the indictment, motions seeking the suppression of evidence found during Jeffs’ arrest, a change of venue or possible enhancements filed by the state.

Smith also said there are remaining interviews, including an interview next week with Lamont Barlow, the current husband of one of the two alleged victims in Jeffs’ Arizona criminal case.

Jeffs, the self-proclaimed prophet of the polygamist church in Colorado City, is serving a 10-year prison sentence after being convicted in Utah in 2007 of two counts of rape as an accomplice. He is also charged with felony sexual assault of a child under 17 and aggravated sexual assault in Schleicher County, Texas, after a raid by Texas law enforcement officers at the YFZ compound in Eldorado, Texas, in April 2008. He has been in Mohave County Jail since February 2008.
 
MohaveDailyNews.com
Originally published Sunday, March 28, 2010
 
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