Jeffs trial being watched closely from afar
 
By Dave Hawkins Special to the Standard-Times
San Angelo Standard-Times
 
KINGMAN, Ariz. — His far-flung, loyal followers are said to be anxious as the courtroom proceedings get under way in San Angelo.

Hundreds of miles from the Longhorn State in the communities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., great uncertainty prevails about the trial and what its outcome will mean for the future of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints led by Warren Jeffs, 55, who is looking at prison time up to 119 years if things go against him.

"It definitely seems to be more tense," said Sam Brower, a private investigator and author whose work has focused on Jeffs and the FLDS for the last seven years. Referring to the atmosphere in the twin communities where about 6,500 people, most of them FLDS followers, live, Brower said, "Actually, I don't know that I've ever seen it this tense before."

Jeffs has relayed communications to his followers there, Brower said, that assert he might somehow prevail in Texas, having previously won dismissal in Arizona and conviction reversal in Utah in criminal prosecutions centered on allegations that he arranged "celestial unions" between underage girls and adult men.

"I'm hearing that Warren has said that he's going to be delivered before the trial. That's what he's telling his people," Brower said, conceding it's not clear what "delivered" means.

Isaac Wyler believes he still has the pulse of the FLDS faithful, even though Jeffs personally excommunicated him from the church years ago. Wyler said day to day life in Colorado City and Hildale will be disrupted by congregational concern for Jeffs' fate in Texas.

"The thing that I seem to be gathering is, they don't think he's going to get a fair trial," Wyler said. "They're going to be praying and fasting. Warren's going to have them fasting and praying probably sometimes for days at a time."

Sheriff Tom Sheahan housed Jeffs in the Mohave County jail in Kingman, Ariz., for about 18 months before Jeffs was transported back to Utah and on to Texas after the Arizona charges were dismissed last year. Sheahan said he'll be monitoring the trial in San Angelo.

"I'll be staying in close touch. In fact, we have worked with the Texas authorities on information that was coming out of Colorado City and the YFZ ranch in Texas all along," Sheahan said. "My detectives have continued to work with them on the information that they have needed from this area, so we're definitely hoping for a conviction there."

Witness reluctance and other problems prompted Mohave County attorney Matt Smith to dismiss the Arizona case against Jeffs. Consider Smith a cheerleader for conviction and lengthy imprisonment of Jeffs in Texas.

"That's accurate," Smith said. "I certainly don't want to see him get out, based on everything that he's done."

Smith's special investigator Gary Engels said he spent seven years gathering evidence in remotely located Hildale and Colorado City, where he was detested by the FLDS faithful. "These people hate my guts and they pray for my destruction," Engels said.

Engels is disappointed, if not bitter, that his efforts did not earn a conviction for Jeffs in the jurisdiction where the FLDS is rooted. He said, however, there's some satisfaction that local prosecution led to convictions of four FLDS men for their involvement with assigned child brides.

And Engels said pressure applied by the prosecution and punishment of Jeffs' followers in Arizona has put an end, as best anyone knows, to the FLDS practice of assigning young girls to "celestial unions" with men, sometimes decades older than the child brides. Engels also believes law enforcement pressure in Arizona was the impetus for the development of the FLDS YFZ compound in Texas.

Sheahan and Smith note that Jeffs was prosecuted for arranging unions between others in Arizona and Utah, while he's being prosecuted for his own alleged involvement with two teenagers in Texas.

"Texas has a big hammer and they have lots of evidence, evidence that we didn't have here," Brower said.

Brower, whose new work, "Prophet's Prey," is coming out on e-book Aug. 1 and in print Sept. 13, believes the general public and outside government agencies will learn much from what's exposed in the Texas trial. He said signs of fissure and factionalism are evident within the FLDS.

From his jail cell in Reagan County, Jeffs excommunicated his former first counselor Wendell Nielsen. Jeffs' former associate Willie Jessop has reportedly partnered with former FLDS Bishop William Timpson to build a new sect offshoot with some 200 members. "That's quite significant in this town," Wyler said.

At the same time, Wyler said, many FLDS members will remain loyal and dedicated to Jeffs, no matter what happens in Texas. "The faithful are still going to accept Warren's leadership from prison, but there's also a group that's trying to take over in the vacuum, so to speak," Wyler said.

Smith said the Texas turmoil might be the beginning of the end for the Jeffs regime.

"I think the only way this empire's going to come crumbling down is if it implodes from within, and I'm hopeful that that's what's going to happen now because of all the infighting," Smith said. "And if Warren gets convicted, there's really going to be a power struggle ..."
 
gosanangelo.com
Originally published July 27, 2011
 
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