Captured polygamist leader will go to Utah for prosecution
 
The Associated Press
KRISTV Channel 6 - Corpus Christi, Texas
 
SALT LAKE CITY -- Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs will be prosecuted first in Utah, then in Arizona, on charges that he arranged marriages of underage girls to older men, authorities said Wednesday.

Arizona officials filed charges first, but Utah prosecutors agreed to try Jeffs first because they believe they have a stronger case and more serious charges, including two counts of rape by accomplice, which accuse Jeffs of forcing a girl to marry an older man and submit to him sexually.

Prosecutor Brook Belnap said the decision came after state and federal prosecutors in both states discussed the case in a conference call.

"We have the gravity of the charges here," said Belnap, the prosecuting attorney in Washington County, in southwestern Utah, where many of Jeffs' congregants live.

Jeffs, 50, is the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a group that broke away from the Mormon church a century ago when the Mormons disavowed polygamy.

Jeffs' sect has built a large retreat development in Eldorado, Texas, about 40 miles south of San Angelo.

He was captured late Monday after a traffic stop north of Las Vegas.

Jeffs, who is said to have at least 40 wives and nearly 60 children, had been on the run for more than a year and on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list since May.

One accuser said Jeffs performed a wedding over her repeated objections. After the girl continued to resist the man for a month, Jeffs ordered her to "give your mind, body and soul to your husband like you're supposed to," according to an affidavit obtained by The Associated Press.

"Go back and do what he tells you to do," Jeffs said, according to the affidavit.

Jeffs was being held Wednesday at the Clark County jail in Las Vegas. He refused jailhouse interviews and did not yet have an attorney.

Police officer Jose Montoya said Jeffs' only visitor was a brother who stayed for 30 minutes.

Jeffs was scheduled to appear Thursday at an extradition hearing in Nevada.

People close to the sect have said his arrest will probably not change the influence he wields over 10,000 congregants who live mostly in Hildale and neighboring Colorado City, Ariz, on the Utah-Arizona state line.

One former church member predicted Jeffs would refuse to say anything in court on Thursday.

"He won't even recognize their authority," Andrew Chatwin said by telephone from Hildale. "Warren's done away with the Constitution in this part of the land."

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Associated Press Writer Ken Ritter contributed to this story from Las Vegas.
 
KRISTV.com
Originally published August 30, 2006
 
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