| FLDS member who testified in Jeffs case to face rape charge | |
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Reported by Anne Yeager KNXV-TV ABC 15 - Phoenix | |
One day after Warren Jeffs learned he was heading to prison for rape-as-an-accomplice, the man who proescutors say raped his 14-year-old bride is now being charged. "It’s about time. Why wasn’t he facing charges before?" asked television pundits right after the decision was made. Allen Steed, 26, says sex was consensual between he and his then-wife when they first married. But his now ex-wife, Elissa Wall, says she was forced into it and Jeffs pushed it to happen. Now Steed will have his day in court. Perhaps not on the stand, but facing a rape charge. If you ask local legal experts, prosecutors have a good case. "All members of that jury thought that a rape happened," one prosecutor said. "They believed her. They didn’t believe him." When Steed took the stand to defend Warren Jeffs, prosecutors clearly asked him if he understand his testimony can be used against him. His response was yes. Perhaps he never knew that just days after that testimony, he too will be charged, an arrest warrant signed, and bond put at $50,000. Ever since Wall left the FLDS church, Steed has not remarried. He has been a loyal member of the controversial church and told a jury, "that Warren Jeffs did nothing wrong." Still, prosecutors pushed the case. "She had never touched a boy, she had never been with a boy, and then three weeks later, you had sex with her," one prosecutor said. "Yes," Steed responded, in such a low voice that the court asked him to speak up. One juror interviewed said Steed appeared shifty, and that his testimony was less than credible. It seems Elissa Wall is not done with this case because the next time she testifies in court, she will do so in front of the man she claims raped her. Email: ayeager@abc15.com | |
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ABC15.com Originally broadcast September 27, 2007 | |
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