Warren Jeffs Extradition Hearing
 
KLAS TV Eyewitness News Channel 8 - Las Vegas
 
A fight over who will try Warren Jeffs is brewing. The polygamist is facing charges in two states for sexual misconduct with minors.

Utah's charges carry a more severe punishment of five years to life. Still, Arizona prosecutors filed for an extradition hearing to get Jeffs to face charges there.

A Utah judge told Arizona they will have to wait. The judge's order forces Arizona prosecutors to take extra legal steps to get the leader of the fundamentalist LDS church on trial in their state.

Warren Jeffs is currently in custody in Utah and will not let him go until he faces rape as accomplice charges. Jeffs was arrested just outside Las Vegas in August.

Utah authorities quickly extradited him to Washington County to stand trial in St. George, Utah. Washington County Deputy District Attorney Jerry Jaeger gave the civil answer to the legal tug of war started by Arizona.

"It was to work out details with extraditing Warren Jeffs at some point from Utah to Arizona," said Jaeger.

"Arizona will have to wait," said Judge James Shumate, Washington County District Court. The judge explained to Jeffs that he wouldn't release him without a governor's warrant. That means local Arizona prosecutors will have to ask their governor to ask Utah's governor to let Jeffs go.

The judge also set a deadline. The governor's warrant must be in front of him by Dec. 21, or he will not recognize the Arizona charges.

In the meantime, prosecutors in St. George have prepared the underage victim to take the stand Nov. 21.

Until then, Jeffs remains in Purgatory Correctional Facility. The rape as accomplice charges stem from Jeffs role marrying underage girls to older men. The marriage in this case happened in Nevada according to prosecutors.
 
KLAS-TV.com
Originally broadcast October 25, 2006
 
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