Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs fighting extradition
 
Reported by: Brent Hunsaker
ABC 4 News
ABC 4 News
Warren Jeffs

POINT OF THE MOUNTAIN STATE PRISON, Utah (ABC 4 News) - Warren Jeffs won't be going to Texas without a fight.

In prison on Thursday, he was given a "waiver of extradition" which he refused to sign. That means he will have a hearing on extradition before a Utah judge in the next 30 days.

Legal experts tell ABC 4 the only grounds to deny extradition is "mistaken identity." In other words, Warren Jeffs would have to somehow prove that he is not the person named in the three Texas fugitive warrants.

Recently, Mohave County, Arizona dropped its charges against Jeffs and returned him to the Utah Department of Corrections.

Jeffs is serving two consecutive sentences of 5-years to life in Utah. In 2007 he was convicted in St. George of being an accomplice to the rape of a child.

In Texas, he's charged with rape for supposedly marrying girls as young as 11. The Texas Attorney General has filed four felony counts against Jeffs.

If convicted, Jeffs might never return to Utah again, instead spending the rest of his life in a Texas prison.
 
ABC4.com
Originally broadcast June 24, 2010
 
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