| Witness list to be sealed until Jeffs trial begins Judge seals witness list for Jeffs case | |||||
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By Matthew Waller San Angelo Standard-Times | |||||
SAN ANGELO, Texas — Warren Jeffs stumbled forward in the courtroom in chains, wearing a gray sweater and an orange jumpsuit. Two followers of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints stood as he entered the courtroom. Jeffs, leader of the polygamist sect, was in 51st District Court on Wednesday morning for the sixth pretrial hearing held for him since his extradition to Texas in November 2010. At Wednesday's hearing, which lasted less than 30 minutes, the court set dates for the final pretrial, deadlines for submitting motions, and it sustained the trial dates of July 25 for the count of sexual assault of a child and Oct. 3 for felony bigamy. Jeffs' attorney, Jeff Kearney of Fort Worth, asked for more time to prepare his client's defense. "The discovery is voluminous," Kearney said, referring to the documentation and other material waiting to be examined before trial. Kearney said he has four felony trials between now and May and wouldn't have any time between them to work on Jeffs' case. He asked that the final pretrial be rescheduled from late May to June 16, and 51st District Court Judge Barbara Walther agreed. All motions are to be submitted June 1, except for a motion to suppress evidence, which Walther said could be filed on July 1. Eric Nichols, the lead prosecutor on the case, gave the defense the option of having the witness list for the case and the list of extraneous offenses sealed from the public. "The state is prepared to make more disclosure," Nichols said. Kearney accepted the offer, and both documents have been sealed to the public. Previous trials have allowed for witness lists and extraneous offenses to be filed without being sealed. "These items can be sealed in certain circumstances," 51st District Attorney Stephen Lupton said. "They are not always sealed, but the law does allow for the sealing." Walther also allowed for a suppression hearing to be held after the jury is selected. That hearing would determine what evidence the attorneys are allowed to bring before the jury. "The court wants us to select a jury without a ruling on what evidence will be allowed?" Kearney asked. Walther said it has been done that way before and it no evidence would be admitted while selecting a jury anyway. She said she wanted to hold the suppression hearing after jury selection so as to minimize the effect of pretrial publicity. Jeffs has been in jail in Reagan County since he came to Texas at the end of November 2010. He will be the eighth of 12 men to be prosecuted as a result of evidence collected on a raid at the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Schleicher County. The raid was based on a call received from a woman claiming to have suffered abuse at the ranch. Defense attorneys in previous cases of FLDS members have argued to the jury that the call was a hoax, and the prosecution and law enforcement has not countered that idea. While in jail, Jeffs has reasserted himself as the president of the FLDS corporation, even as another church elder is in the process of claiming to be the sole head of the corporation, and Jeffs has reportedly excommunicated members of the church while in confinement. | |||||
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gosanangelo.com Originally published March 30, 2011 | |||||
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