| FLDS: Jeffs back in court today FLDS leader expected to name counsel | |
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By Matthew Waller San Angelo Standard-Times | |
Warren Jeffs, the head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, will appear in a Tom Green County court today for a pretrial hearing on charges of aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault and bigamy. During the past four pretrial hearings over more than a month, Jeffs has said he will get his own representation, each time announcing that he should have representation within a week. The "expectation is he will provide information about who will represent him," said Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for the office of the attorney general of Texas, about today’s pretrial. Tom Green County court staff said they did not know whether Jeffs has found counsel. Richard Wright, a Nevada attorney who has represented Jeffs in the past, said Jeffs has had difficulty getting an attorney because the trial is scheduled relatively soon. Jeffs faces three charges, for which three separate trials will be held. Jan. 24 is the date for the first trial, for aggravated sexual assault, Feb. 21 is the date for the sexual assault charge trial, and March 14 is the date for the bigamy charge trial. All the charges are first-degree felonies, punishable by five to 99 years or life in prison and fines up to $10,000. Fifty-first District Judge Barbara Walther has said the state must finish prosecuting Jeffs for all three charges within 120 days of his arrival because of extradition laws. Jeffs was moved from Utah to Texas on Nov. 30. During the last pretrial, Jeffs was arraigned before the court. The prosecution read the indictments to Jeffs, and when Walther asked how he pleaded, Jeffs said nothing. Walther had told Jeffs that if he said nothing, the court would enter pleas of not guilty, which is what Walther did for each charge. Wright was allowed to stand in front of the bar at one pretrial but was instructed to sit in the gallery after Walther asked if he had received temporary admission into the Texas bar, and he said no. Jeffs was extradited from Utah after a slew of legal proceedings. Arizona had been holding Jeffs on four charges of being an accomplice to sexual misconduct with a minor, but Arizona dropped the charges to hurry Jeffs’ extradition to Texas last summer. In late 2010, the Utah Supreme Court overturned a 2007 conviction against Jeffs for accomplice to rape, finding that the jury had received faulty instructions from the judge. Utah, meanwhile, gave out extradition orders, and Jeffs’ attorneys fought the extradition, saying he should be retried before being moved. The Utah Supreme Court, however, upheld the extradition process and ordered Jeffs moved to Texas at the end of November. Jeffs is the eighth of 12 men indicted using evidence gathered from a state raid on the FLDS Yearning for Zion Ranch in April 2008. The raid was based on a hoax phone call from a woman claiming she was being sexually abused on the ranch. More than 400 children were taken from the ranch, but an appellate court ordered them returned. The seven men that have undergone prosecution have received sentences ranging from six to 75 years in prison. | |
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gosanangelo.com Originally published January 4, 2011 | |
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