Jeffs has pretrial hearing today
 Sect member files challenge to his leadership
 
By Matthew Waller
San Angelo Standard-Times
 
SAN ANGELO, Texas — Warren Jeffs has had an active time in jail, from which he will emerge today for a pretrial appearance at 10 a.m. in the Tom Green County Courthouse.

Jeffs is scheduled to be tried in July on allegations of bigamy and sexual assault. The purpose of today's pretrial hearing was not known.

The leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints recently has sent threatening prophecies to President Barack Obama, excommunicated prominent FLDS members and attempted to reclaim his position as head of the FLDS church as a corporation.

At the same time, one of his flock has filed a challenge to his leadership in Utah.

"I, the undersigned, William Edson Jessop, have been called as the President of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and by virtue of such calling am the corporation sole," said a church member in documents submitted to the Utah Division of Corporations and Commercial Code.

The forms Jessop filed ask the Utah Division of Corporations and Commercial Code for him to be listed president of the FLDS church. They also ask for the removal of Jeffs, whose application to be made the sole president of the church reached the Utah Division of Corporations and Commercial Code on Feb. 15.

Jennifer Bolton, a public information officer with the Utah Department of Commerce, said Jessop delivered the filing in person Monday.

"At this point there is no action for us to take," Bolton said. "We receive all filings in good faith. The person who makes the filing, they sign under penalty of perjury. There is nothing further for us to do at this point."

According to documents submitted in Washington County, Utah, in July 2007, Jeffs said he was not the prophet and said the FLDS should look to Jessop for guidance.

"I am not the prophet. I never was the prophet, and I have been deceived by the powers of evil and Brother William E. Jessop has been the prophet since Father's passing, since the passing of my father," Jeffs told an FLDS member while in prison, according to the documents.

Many still consider Jeffs to be the prophet and leader of the FLDS, although he has not officially been the president since late 2007, a situation he attempted to remedy in February.

The controversial leader will appear in court today with his attorney Jeff Kearney of Fort Worth, whose services he engaged after being without representation at several pretrials. He fired an attorney appointed by 51st District Judge Barbara Walther.

The sexual assault charges against him include one count of aggravated sexual assault against a minor younger than 14 and another charge of sexual assault against a minor younger than 17.

The first count is a first-degree felony punishable by five to 99 years or life in prison and up to a $10,000 fine, and the second count is a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.

Jeffs will be the eighth of 12 men to be prosecuted because of alleged evidence found during an April 2008 raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Schleicher County. The raid occurred after what was later determined to be a hoax phone call from a woman claiming sexual abuse at the ranch.

Walther has presided over all the criminal trials of FLDS men stemming from the raid.

Jeffs came to Texas after a lengthy extradition process that he fought because he wanted to be retried first in Utah, where the state Supreme Court had overturned his convictions of accomplice to rape.

He has been housed at the jail in Big Lake since he was extradited to Texas on Nov. 30.

Reagan County Sheriff Jeff Garner said Jeffs has acted well in his detention, in contrast to his time in jail in Arizona, where his fasting and prayer habits created the need for frequent medical attention, including force-feeding.

"He occasionally passes up food," Garner said, "but he hasn't been any trouble."
 
gosanangelo.com
Originally published March 29, 2011
 
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