FLDS leader Warren Jeffs awaits criminal trial in Arizona
 
Dave Hawkins Special to the Standard-Times
San Angelo Standard-Times
 
KINGMAN, Ariz. — The leader of a northern Arizona-based polygamous sect who has been convicted in Utah and is charged in Texas is expected to stand trial in Kingman some time next year.

Sexual conduct occurring through arrangements of unions involving underage girls and male adults is the common theme premise in each of the tri-state prosecutions of Warren Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS).

Hearings in the Arizona case against Jeffs, 53, have occurred months apart in the near two-year period he’s been awaiting trial in the Mohave County jail. That doesn’t mean attorneys aren’t working the case.

"I wouldn’t look at it that way," said Mohave County attorney Matt Smyth. "I think that the defense in this case is being paid an extraordinary amount of money to turn over every rock and to look at every possible angle in the case, and we’ve actually done more witness interviews in this matter than in any other case I’ve ever been involved in."

Jeffs does not qualify for indigent representation, and Smith said church donations are financing his defense team that includes Richard Wright of Las Vegas and Mike Piccarreta of Tucson.

Piccarreta agrees that pretrial preparation has been exhaustive. Piccarreta, however, is building a defense that big money flowing from a former FLDS member who is trying to take down the church is possibly fueling the prosecution of Jeffs and civil litigation against the FLDS.

Piccarreta has argued in Mohave County Superior Court that the nonprofit Diversity Foundation established by FLDS critic Dan Fischer has paid out more than $1.7-million to provide financial assistance, an investigator and attorneys for some whose allegations have prompted the prosecution of Jeffs and lawsuits against the FLDS.

The state has not contested, for example, Piccarreta’s claims that Diversity Foundation funds have provided shelter and living assistance and attorneys fees for Elissa Wall, who is the source of allegations that helped convict Jeffs in Utah and one of the alleged victims in the two criminal cases pending against Jeffs in Arizona.

Additionally, Diversity Foundation funds have paid investigator and attorneys fees in civil litigation Wall filed against the FLDS.

"I’ve never had criminal cases where money has been flowing to people and the money has been flowing to their lawyers and then to witnesses," Piccarreta said. ''I mean, that I’ve never seen before."

Piccarreta said the payments could become the basis of a motion to dismiss. If not, he plans to ask a future Jeffs jury to question the veracity and the credibility of the accusers because of their remuneration from the anti-Jeffs, anti-FLDS Diversity Foundation.

Diversity attorney Roger Hoole said the Foundation exists to battle child abuse within the FLDS and rescue and assist victims wherever possible.

Smith said the focus on Diversity and the "money trail," as Piccarreta calls it, is a deliberate dodge and distraction from the merits of the case and the Church-sanctioned, Jeffs-arranged unions that promote the violation of underage girls by male adults.

"The defense has focused a lot of attention on Dr. Fischer and there will be some pretrial motions filed to try to limit the scope of this stuff," Smith said. "But the defense has pretty wide latitude under Arizona and United States law to pursue whatever defense they think is valid."

Two members of the FLDS sect at the Yearning for Zion Ranch (YFZ) in Texas have recently been convicted in separate trials. Allan Eugene Keate, 57, was sentenced Dec. 18 to 33 years in prison for sexual assault of a child involving his spiritual marriage to a 15 year-old girl. Raymond Merril Jessop was sentenced in November to 10 years.

Piccarreta has boldly asserted that the April 2008 raid and roundup of more than 400 women and children at the YFZ ranch outside Eldorado was illegal and unconstitutional for lack of sufficient probable cause, an argument that has been presented by FLDS attorneys in Texas and rejected by 51st District Judge Barbara Walther. Piccarreta wants to litigate the propriety of that Texas raid in defense of Jeffs in Arizona through a motion to suppress that will be argued in Kingman Feb. 17.

Mohave County Superior Court Judge Steve Conn has made it clear he does not look forward to deciding the constitutionality of the Texas exercise in Arizona. Yet Piccarreta maintains he has the right to prohibit use in Arizona of any evidence, testimony or information arising from the YFZ ranch raid.

"The stink of Texas is not just the stink of the evidence, it’s once you get the stink on you, what else does it taint?" Piccarreta said. "The Texas authorities are going to have to come to Arizona and answer for their behavior before a neutral judge."

Smith hopes the Jeffs trial can take place sometime in the summer. Piccarreta said any ruling denying his motion to suppress involving Texas would necessitate extensive additional preparation that would push the trial further off the calendar.

Piccarreta said there’s no need to rush forward to trial as Jeffs is not deprived of his personal liberty because he is serving two five years-to life sentences for his previous convictions in Utah. And he said Jeffs is better off in the county jail in Kingman anyway.

"They’ve been treating him professionally and no different from any other person, while at times when he was in Utah it seems people would go out of their way to cause him misery," Piccarreta said.

Jeff Brown, deputy commander of the jail, said Jeffs is isolated from the rest of the inmate population and closely monitored.

"He does a lot of pacing, a lot of reading and a lot of praying," Brown said.

Jeffs was force-fed nutrients through a tube on two occasions when he engaged in extended fasting. Brown said Jeffs is eating well and maintaining his weight of late.

Brown said Jeffs is allowed no more than two visitors for the two visitation periods he’s afforded each week. His lawyers have additional access to Jeffs in the jail.

Roughly a dozen followers attend each of his hearings in Mohave County Superior Court. Jeffs and the supporters are not allowed any physical contact but have many times exchanged smiles and well-wishes.

Extra security is used to escort Jeffs between the jail and courthouse and extra guards are posted in the courtroom and around the outside of the three story building.
 
gosanangelo.com
Originally published December 28, 2009
 
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