Judge to hear defense motion on Texas raid
 
By JIM SECKLER
Mohave Daily News
 
KINGMAN - A Mohave County Superior Court judge scheduled a hearing today to discuss a defense motion to interview three Texas police officers in the case of a Colorado City polygamist.

Warren Steed Jeffs' attorney, Mike Piccarreta, filed a motion last week asking to interview Texas law enforcement officials who were involved in the April raid at the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' compound in Eldorado, Texas.

Piccarreta's motion also asked if Arizona law enforcement investigators were "tainted" by evidence that was allegedly seized illegally during the raid. A motion to suppress evidence found at the raid has yet to be decided.

Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith opposes deposing the Texas law enforcement officials because the prosecutor currently does not plan to use evidence from the Texas raid at Jeffs' trial in Mohave County, however, he does leave the door open to possibly use some of the evidence from the raid.

Judge Steven Conn scheduled a hearing today on Piccarreta's motion to interview Texas law enforcement officials. Conn said if Smith agrees not to use any evidence from the Texas search, then it would not be necessary to rule on Piccarreta's motion to suppress the evidence seized during the Texas raid.

Conn also previously ruled to allow the defense attorneys to interview one of the victims in Jeffs' Mohave County criminal cases. Piccarreta will interview the victim Nov. 7 at his Phoenix law office.

Piccarreta's motion to suppress evidence claims that the phone call that triggered the Texas raid was a hoax and officers used the hoax to obtain a warrant to search each house at the compound. Arizona law enforcement officers also spent time in Texas with illegally seized items and documents, the motion claims.

Jeffs, 52, is charged in Mohave County with four counts of sexual conduct with a minor in two 2007 cases involving two underage girls. The crimes allegedly took place in the summers of 2002 and 2003.

Conn previously denied another defense motion to send Jeffs' case back to the Mohave County grand jury. The judge did dismissed four counts of incest filed against Jeffs, the convicted prophet of the polygamist sect in Colorado City. Jeffs was convicted in 2007 in St. George, Utah, on two counts of rape as an accomplice and was sentenced in November 2007 to 10 years in a Utah prison. He also faces felony charges in Texas.
 
MohaveDailyNews.com
Originally published Tuesday, October 28, 2008
 
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