Shurtleff wants access to FBI's Jeffs evidence
 
By Ben Winslow
Deseret Morning News
 
ST. GEORGE — Papers, ledgers and computers seized by the FBI when it arrested Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs could help the Utah attorney general's organized crime investigation into the polygamist leader and his church.

Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said he wants to see the seized evidence to determine if it would aid his investigation into Jeffs, the FLDS Church and its financial arm, the United Effort Plan Trust.

"Obviously, we think the laptops may have some information on them," Shurtleff said. "It could have information about the UEP and the financial empire. Also, information about types of crimes that might have been committed."

Jeffs, 50, was an FBI Ten Most Wanted fugitive until he was captured in a traffic stop outside Las Vegas in August. Inside the Cadillac Escalade he was riding in, the FBI said it seized cash, wigs, papers, ledgers, cell phones, a GPS, computers and other items believed to have kept Jeffs on the run.

That evidence is now locked up in a federal court fight in Las Vegas. One of Jeffs' lawyers is asking a judge to force the FBI to return the papers, claiming they constitute "privileged communications" between the FLDS leader and his followers.

"The administrative impound impinges on the First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion insomuch as the government took possession of religious documents which are deemed confidential and sacred by the FLDS," lawyer Richard Wright said in a motion filed in federal court.

"We don't want to look at personal church records about people and their so-called 'sins,"' Shurtleff said. "He obviously had those laptops with him for a purpose. Everything else he had with him was to keep him hidden and keep him away from the law, and that stuff's got to be relevant to the charges against him and we need a chance to look at it."

Shurtleff said his office is communicating with the Washington County attorney about filing a motion in federal court to intervene in the evidence battle.

The Utah Attorney General's Office would join a growing list of people who want to see what the FBI has in its possession. The court-appointed special fiduciary of the UEP Trust is also asking to take a look at the evidence.

"In this case, we've got so little that everything is precious," fiduciary lawyer Jeffrey L. Shields said.

The fiduciary wants to see if any of the evidence is tied to missing property belonging to the UEP. The $110 million financial empire controls homes, businesses and land within the polygamous enclaves of Hildale, Utah; Colorado City, Ariz.; and Bountiful, British Columbia.

In 2005, a judge in Salt Lake City's 3rd District Court took control of the UEP, after the Utah Attorney General's Office raised allegations that Jeffs and other FLDS leaders were fleecing the trust. The judge recently signed a massive reform plan for the UEP.

After getting a judge to force the issue, the fiduciary's lawyers were able to see what the FBI seized in Colorado when it arrested Warren Jeffs' brother Seth on charges of harboring a fugitive.

Shields said they should be able to do the same with Warren Jeffs.

"He's got stuff related to the trust," Shields said. "We ought to be able to see it without going to hell and back."

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Utah recently entered the fray, appointing three lawyers to represent the FBI in the court case.

"We have an ongoing interest in the case," U.S. Attorney's spokeswoman Melodie Rydalch said. "We are working to protect evidence that could potentially be used as part of a federal criminal case."

Rydalch said they were working with state and local prosecutors on the Jeffs case.

Jeffs is charged with two counts of rape as an accomplice, a first-degree felony. If convicted, the FLDS leader faces up to life in prison. The FLDS leader remains incarcerated in Hurricane's Purgatory Correctional Facility.

On Tuesday, a woman who says she was forced into a child bride marriage with her 19-year-old cousin testified against Jeffs. The woman accused the FLDS leader of using his religious authority to force the marriage.

Defense lawyers are calling the prosecution of Jeffs "religious persecution."

"It is nothing less than the state of Utah condemning a culturally different religion," Jeffs lawyer Wally Bugden said outside of court on Tuesday. "It is a continuation of 165 years of intolerance for a people who engage in different cultural and religious practices."

E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com
 
deseretnews.com
Originally published Thursday, November 23, 2006
 
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