Jailers ready for Jeffs
 
By Matthew Waller
San Angelo Standard-Times
 
SAN ANGELO, Texas — The jail is set and the schedule cleared.

Preparations are underway in the Texas courts to receive Warren Jeffs, the spiritual leader of the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

The governor of Utah has signed extradition papers to get Jeffs to Texas, a process which Jeffs’ attorneys have said they will fight. The FLDS former leader remains in Utah after convictions on which he was sent to prison were overturned by the state Supreme Court in Utah.

One expert described Jeffs’ defense team’s plan to fight the Texas extradition as "a long shot."

"He would have to file a writ of habeas corpus in the Utah court to test the legality of his arrest, to assert that there is no probable cause for his arrest," said Clifford Rosky, a criminal law professor at the University of Utah.

Jeffs’ attorney has said that is the route he will pursue.

Rosky guessed that the process might take a few weeks before he is sent to Texas.

Jeffs remains incarcerated in the mental health unit of the Utah State Prison in Draper, Utah, while awaiting a hearing to consider a new trial on the Utah charges that were dismissed by the state supreme court there in late July.

According to a Friday story in the Salt Lake Tribune, Walter F. Bugden, one of Jeffs’ attorneys, said he will file a habeas corpus motion opposing the extradition until there is a resolution in the Utah case.

"It is not only a question of fairness but of constitutional proportion to shuttle him back and forth between states," Bugden said. "I think that the decision should be made and shouldn’t just be left pending until after he has a trial in Texas. I think it is fundamentally unfair to not finish what they started."

Staff at the Schleicher County District Clerk’s office said at least one case has been postponed to make way for the possibility that Jeffs will be tried in Texas. The pretrial of another FLDS member, Wendell Loy Nielsen, had been scheduled for Aug. 12. Nielsen was indicted on three charges of bigamy, and his court date was moved to Sept. 7. As of the end of this week, it remained set for that date.

Jeffs faces three indictments: sexual assault of a child, aggravated sexual assault of a child and bigamy. He is alleged to have married a 12-year-old girl and fathered a child with another underage girl in 2005.

Jeffs had faced four charges of accomplice to sexual conduct with a minor in connection with allegations that he performed an illegal marriage ceremony in Arizona involving an underage girl. Arizona dropped the charges on June 9 specifically so that Jeffs could get sent to Texas to face more serious charges.

Jeffs refused to sign those extradition papers.

Later, on July 28, the Utah Supreme Court overturned the conviction for which Jeffs has been in prison. In 2007, he was convicted on two counts of rape as an accomplice for performing an underage marriage. The overturn came as a result of what the Utah Supreme Court called improper instructions to the jury by the judge.

The decision has been submitted for a rehearing.

The charges in Texas came from documents seized during a raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Schleicher County that turned out to be the result of a hoax phone call by a woman claiming abuse at the property.

All the criminal trials of FLDS men that came out of evidence seized in the April 2008 raid except one have been held in Schleicher County, where the indictments were filed, and by default Jeffs’ trial will also be held there since he was indicted by a Schleicher County grand jury. Either the prosecution or the defense could request a change.

"The venue will be the subject of possible discussion," said Jerry Strickland, spokesman for the office of the Attorney General of Texas.

Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran said his office hasn’t heard anything officially about whether Jeffs will be coming to his facility. Nevertheless, he said the jail will be ready for him.

"We definitely have made preparations to house him," Doran said. "We just want to make sure our security is where it needs to be. It’s no different from housing any inmate except this one is a little more high profile."

Doran said that far and away Jeffs would be the best known person to stay at the jail.

The jail has 15 beds and the maximum security area has four separate cells; small as it is, the jail has room for Jeffs, Doran said.

In the event that Jeffs goes to Tom Green County, Todd Allen, the captain at the Tom Green County Jail, said Jeffs would go through the regular intake process and be treated like any other prisoner. Whether he is placed in a minimum, medium or maximum security care will depend on the charges when he arrives, Allen said.

"He would just be like anyone else," Allen said. "There would be added security going to court, but other than that, it would have to be determined after he got here."

Allen said that his status as a flight risk (Jeffs had been on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list when he was caught) would have an effect on how he is transported to the jail, but not how he is confined in the jail.

Jeffs’ attorneys did not return calls.
 
gosanangelo.com
Originally published August 20, 2010
 
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