Costly room and board for Warren Jeffs
 Sheriff Sheahan: Expense to county about $120,000 while FLDS leader was in custody
 
By JIM SECKLER
Mohave Daily News
 
KINGMAN — The cost to house Warren Jeffs in Mohave County Jail for more than two years is well more than six figures.

Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith dismissed the charges Wednesday against Jeffs, 54, the convicted leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Colorado City, Ariz. He had been charged with four counts of sexual conduct with a minor in two 2007 Arizona cases. He was charged with being an accomplice of two men who had sex with two underage girls in 2002 and 2003 in the polygamist communities of Colorado City and Hildale, Utah.

Smith said the two-year case cost about $10,000 for relocating the victims and travel costs for witness interviews. That does not include the cost for his prosecution and his office’s investigator Gary Engels’ time. Jeffs already served more time in county jail than he would have served if he had been convicted of all four charges.

"Our victims did get tired of the defense tactics and suffered much personal loss over these cases," Smith said.

Sheriff Tom Sheahan said the cost to the county to house Jeffs at the jail was about $120,000 for 720 days of being in custody. The cost also includes added security when corrections officers took Jeffs across the street to court hearings. Sheahan expects Jeffs to be taken back to the Utah prison within a week.

The jail costs also included several medical issues, including Jeffs being taken by air to a Las Vegas hospital. Jeffs was involved in several hunger strikes while in custody, which included being force-fed by more expensive liquid food.

Jeffs’ attorney, Mike Piccarreta, filed a non-waiver of extradition to Texas. Superior Court Judge Steven Conn ruled that Jeffs must be sent back to Utah before he can be extradited to Texas whether he waives his rights or not.

Jeffs currently is serving a 10-year prison sentence after being convicted in Utah in 2007 of two counts of rape as an accomplice. He also is 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 Monday, June 14, 2010
 
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