| Girl, 14, begged not to be married, says prosecution in Jeffs trial | |
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By Daphne Bramham, CanWest News Service Vancouver Sun | |
ST. GEORGE, Utah - Give yourself over, mind, body and soul to your husband. That's what the prosecution said Warren Jeffs, the 51-year-old leader of the largest polygamist group in North America, counselled a 14-year-old girl who had earlier got down on her knees and begged not to have to go through with the arranged marriage to her 19-year-old first cousin. Jeffs told the girl that her heart was in the wrong place; she had a duty to go forward and marry because it was God's will, the prosecution said during opening remarks in the trial Thursday. Jeffs is charged with two counts of rape as an accomplice, and if found guilty, faces the prospect of anywhere from five years to life in prison. Polygamy is not at issue in the case. However, polygamy, the control that Jeffs exercises over the 6,000 to 8,000 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - including about 600 in Bountiful, B.C. - and what the church's members are taught provide the backdrop to the case. The FLDS is a breakaway sect that has no affiliation with the Mormon church. Prosecutor Brock Belnap told jurors that on the victim's wedding day in April 2001, "She left as a child and came back expected to move into a bedroom with her adult husband. That night she put her pyjamas over her clothes and pretended to be asleep while her husband had a shower." A few weeks later, she went to Jeffs, told him that she was being touched in ways that she didn't like and that her husband was doing things that made her uncomfortable. Belnap said Jeffs told her, "'Repent. Go home and give yourself mind, body and soul to your husband.' And she did." But Tara Isaacson told the five men and seven women on the jury that the defence position is simple: "(The girl) was not raped and Warren Jeffs absolutely did not aid in the commission of that crime." Isaacson, one of Jeffs's three attorneys, said the husband - who has never been charged with rape - will testify that he sent her love letters and flowers and that intercourse was always consensual. Other defence witnesses will testify that the girl was "no passive young girl," Isaacson said. Rather, she was "feisty, strong-willed and unafraid to speak her mind. She had no problem telling you where to go." Both sides put into evidence some of Jeffs's sermons. Isaacson read from one Jeffs's Jeffs gave in 1999: "A man should only have marital relations with a wife if she invites it." Before they reach their verdict, she said jurors need to be convinced that the girl was raped. Then they must ask themselves: "What did Mr. Jeffs have to do with what was going on in the bedroom? Did he know that she was forced to have sexual intercourse? Because what happened between these two is a focal point in the case." The girl, who is now 21, began her testimony mid-afternoon, setting the context for her marriage within the FLDS tradition and providing background about her education. As part of that, the prosecution played audio tapes of lessons Jeffs had given while he was a teacher and principal at Alta Academy in Salt Lake City, a private FLDS school where the girl - called Jane Doe to protect her identity - attended Grades 1 through 5. Girls must place their trust in the prophet to choose their partners, he said. "The prophet has the key to revelation and he knows the heart more than any woman does." Disobedience had consequences. Doe said when she was 10 and her father disobeyed the prophet her mother, Doe and all her siblings were sent away to a ranch in southern Utah for the winter. In 1999, her father was excommunicated and Doe, her mother and four younger siblings were re-assigned to a "caretaker," who later took Doe's mother as his 15th wife. Jeffs, wearing a dark suit, white shirt, grey-striped tie with a bullet-proof vest, scribbled notes during her testimony, which he passed to his attorneys. Ten family members and friends were in the gallery. They rose whenever Jeffs entered the room as a sign of respect. Jeffs was transported to the courthouse and back to Purgatory Correctional Facility in a helicopter. He was shackled and wore the bullet-proof vest over top of his green-and-white striped prison jumpsuit. Security at the courthouse is tight. Jeffs was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List for four months after being a fugitive for nearly two years. Even if Jeffs is acquitted, he must still face eight charges related to arranged marriages of under-age girls in Arizona and two federal counts of fleeing from prosecution. dbramham@png.canwest.com | |
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canada.com Originally published Thursday, September 13, 2007 | |
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