Judge challenged in trial of FLDS members: Motion to disqualify to be heard Monday
 
By Matthew Waller
San Angelo Standard-Times
 
SAN ANGELO, Texas — ELDORADO — A district court hearing in Eldorado to quash indictments against 10 members of the FLDS was cut short after the defense attorneys presented a motion to disqualify the judge, 51st District Judge Barbara Walther.

The defense claimed the judge’s role in selecting a grand jury commissioner to choose the grand jury that issued the indictments interferes with her role in judging the case at trial.

The defense, represented by lead attorney Jerry Goldstein, also argued that the grand jury composition underrepresented Hispanics, with only one on the 12-person jury in a town that is 37.5 percent Hispanic.

The 10 men are members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the polygamist sect that operates the secretive Schleicher County ranch. Most of the indictments allege child sex abuse associated with the sect’s practice of men taking multiple "spiritual wives," some of whom are alleged to be younger than the Texas age of consent.

The first of the men to go to trial, Raymond Merril Jessop, was found guilty in November of child sex abuse, a second-degree felony, and sentenced to 10 years in prison. The second, Allan Eugene Keate, was scheduled to go to trial Monday, when jury selection was scheduled to begin.

Jury selection was postponed to Tuesday to allow the disqualification motion to be heard. The hearing convenes at 11 a.m. in Eldorado.

The judge who will hear the motion was not named during Friday’s hearing, but Walther told the defense "in anticipation of your motion" another judge was on standby.

The charge against Keate is a first-degree felony because the crime is alleged to have occurred after the Texas legislature added an enhancement, which means he will face a penalty of five to 99 years in prison if convicted.
 
gosanangelo.com
Originally published December 4, 2009
 
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