| Defence tries to show Jeffs not linked to alleged rape | |
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By Daphne Bramham Vancouver Sun | |
ST. GEORGE, Utah - Warren Jeffs' lawyers got a chance Monday to poke some holes in the state's case against Jeffs, the "prophet" of the largest polygamous group in North America, who is charged as an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl. The prosecution is alleging that Jeffs counselled, enticed, encouraged and aided in the rape of the girl first by helping arrange her marriage to her 19-year-old first cousin and then by telling her to give herself to her husband "mind, body and soul." But the prosecution has a problem. The alleged rapist has never been charged. As a result, its case rests on the star witness's credibility. To find Jeffs guilty, the jury must first believe that she was raped and, then, that Jeffs' actions contributed to that rape. The witness, now 21 and called Jane Doe to protect her identity, testified Friday and was cross-examined Monday. Jeffs' lawyer Tara Isaacson got Doe to admit that Doe's mother and several sisters told her she didn't have to go ahead with the unwanted marriage; Doe had never spoken directly to Jeffs about sexual intercourse or the rapes; and she never told anyone about the rapes until several years after they had occurred. Isaacson questioned how Doe could say she was "trapped" in her marriage, when she held a job during the marriage, and went to Bountiful, B.C. without her husband and stayed with her sister for nearly five months. And in early 2004, Doe was able to sneak away to Las Vegas with another man who is now her husband. But Doe kept repeating that she was only 14 and had been taught since birth that to disobey the prophet could mean being forced out of the community and losing her chance at salvation. To disobey her husband -- even in sexual matters -- was akin to disobeying the prophet, who is like God on earth. Asked whether Jeffs ever directly told her that she must have sexual intercourse with her husband, Doe told the jury of seven women and five men that was impossible. "We didn't use those words in our society," Doe said. "He wouldn't have told me that because that is something we just didn't use." The society she referred to is the reclusive community of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a sect that broke away from the mainstream Mormon church in 1890 over the issue of polygamy. There are somewhere between 6,000 and 8,000 FLDS members living in Hildale, Utah and its twin Colorado City, Ariz., and about 600 members in Bountiful. (Another 700 or so people in Bountiful follow Winston Blackmore, an FLDS bishop who was excommunicated in 2002.) Doe admitted that ultimately it was her mother who convinced her that she must go ahead and marry her first cousin. "She finally showed me that there was no other choice." Earlier, Doe had testified that Jeffs had insisted the marriage take place immediately after his father -- Rulon, who was the prophet at the time -- had told the girl to follow her heart. But Isaacson questioned that. In a statement to police in January 2006, Doe said it was several hours after she had met with Rulon and only after Warren had returned from delivering a sermon that he told her she couldn't know her own heart. Does that make her a liar? That's what the jury must decide. Doe did not tell her mother about being raped. Isaacson asked why not. "Who wants to tell anyone that they are being raped?" Doe replied. Isaacson also got into the record that Doe went to lawyers before she went to police and that she has a civil lawsuit against Jeffs claiming compensation from him, the FLDS and the church's trust. Isaacson also noted that both Doe and her new husband have received financial help from the state's victims' services programs. Later in the day, two of Doe's many sisters testified, filling in some of the blanks about the community and Jeffs's influence. Several months after Doe's marriage and after the first alleged rape, Teressa Blackmore said that she and her husband -- one of Winston's nephews -- convinced Jeffs to let Doe go back to Bountiful with them. She stayed there until her husband ordered her home. Why did Doe go back? "He [her husband] wanted her back home and you just did what you were told," Blackmore said. Another sister, Rebecca Musser, testified that she had married Jeffs' 86-year-old father -- the prophet Rulon Jeffs -- when she was 19. "At 19, I had no idea of sex. I was taught by Rulon in the first two months after we were married." Several times, Musser was called into Warren's office after refusing Rulon's requests in the bedroom. "Warren would tell me under no circumstances do you ever, ever, ever say no to your husband. He would never be led by God to do something wrong." After Rulon died, Warren (who married several of his father's 80 wives) told Musser she would be reassigned. She refused. "He said, pointing at me, 'I will break you and I will train you to be a good wife. You have had too much freedom for too long . . . I will always have jurisdiction over you.'" Walter Bugden, another of Jeffs' lawyers, suggested that Musser's relationship with Warren Jeffs was "based on venom" and so was her testimony. Musser denied that, saying it was based on what girls were taught -- that they have no power to stand up to their husbands, the church's leaders and especially not the prophet. Prosecutors then burnished her testimony by getting her to read selected passages from Warren's own sermons. The trial continues. dbramham@png.canwest.com | |
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canada.com Originally published Tuesday, September 18, 2007 | |
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