| Warren Jeffs Trial Begins in Utah | |||||
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By Rachael Bell Crime Library - New York, NY | |||||
ST. GEORGE, Utah (Crime Library) - After one year in Purgatory Correctional Facility at Purgatory Flats, Utah, Warren Jeff's trial began. He faced two first degree felony counts of rape as an accomplice for purportedly arranging a 2001 marriage between a young 14-year-old girl referred to as "Jane Doe" and her 19-year-old cousin. Nancy Perkins and Ben Winslow of the Desert Morning News reported that "the bride testified during a preliminary hearing that she didn't want to marry her cousin and objected to having a 'husband and wife' relationship." She eventually left her husband and went to the police seeking help. Warren faces five years to life in prison if he is found guilty of the charges. On September 13th, Judge James L. Shumate and a seven woman, five men jury listened intently to opening statements of Warren's trial at Utah's Fifth District Court. Washington County Attorney Brock Belnap led the prosecution's opening statements, telling jurors that despite "Jane Doe's" pleas not to marry her cousin because of her age and the fact that he was her first cousin, Warren instructed that she do so anyways. Jurors were then shown pictures of an unhappy girl in a wedding dress. Belnap warned the court that although they would see pictures of her smiling during the trial, they would not depict "what was in her heart" at the time, Perkins reported. He further explained that jurors would, in fact, hear exactly what "Jane Doe" felt at that time during her testimony before the court. The girl's testimony was to be supported by that from her family and friends, as well as "exiled male critics" of Warren and some of his former wives, Alexandria Sage reported for Reuters. The prosecution was expected to also present other damaging evidence, including hundreds of cassette tapes of Warren's lectures and sermons, where "the prophet" discusses polygamy and the subservience of young girls to their husbands. Child Bride Testifies The defense team's opening statements, led by Tara Isaacson shifted attention away from "Jane Doe's" age and instead focused on what she called the "consensual" marital union between the girl and her husband. Isaacson said that "Jane Doe's" cousin will take the stand to prove that "no rape occurred, that sex was never forced and that the girl even wrote him love notes," Perkins reported. The defense suggested that his testimony would be supported by other members of "Jane Doe's" family, as well as some of her friends. In the second day of the trial, the state's star witness, 21-year-old "Jane Doe" took the stand and read excerpts from her diary about the trauma she experienced under Warren's rule of the FLDS church. While periodically breaking into sobs, she told jurors what is was like for her at 14 years of age when she was preparing for her wedding at a Caliente, Nevada motel in a ceremony led by Warren. She testified, "I kept thinking I felt like I was getting ready for death." and "I felt betrayed by the people I trusted most...my father and Warren because he completely overlooked the fact that this was something I didn't want to do and was unwilling to do," the Associated Press reported. The girl told the court that she married only because she feared damnation and abandonment from her social network, although she felt that what she was doing was inherently wrong. She said that she requested a divorce, called a release, from Jeffs, but he would not allow it. According to a report by Brooke Adams in The Salt Lake Tribune, the girl felt so "dirty and used" after having intercourse for the first time with her husband that "she retreated to a bathroom, curled up on the floor and bawled" after downing a bottle of Tylenol and aspirin, which she later regurgitated. She felt so hopeless that she wanted to die. "Jane Doe" also talked about desperately trying to avoid her cousin's sexual advances following their wedding day, which "gradually escalated until he exposed himself to her in a public park one night and later undressed her to look at her naked body" the Associated Press further reported. In 2004, she left her marriage and the FLDS church after becoming pregnant with another man's child, Associated Press reported. | |||||
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CrimeLibrary.com Originally published September 18, 2007 | |||||
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