Judge Grants Entry From Two New Parties in Jeffs Case
 
KSL News 5
Warren Jeffs
 
Warren Jeffs loot

(KSL News) When the FBI arrested polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, they also collected his personal documents, ledgers, and laptop computers found inside his car.

Jeffs wants all of it back, the FBI wants to hold on to it as evidence, and two other agencies want a look at it, too.

A hearing in Las Vegas today could settle all of this. The hearing should determine who will have access to those documents or whether they will be returned to Jeffs and the FLDS Church.

Jeffs claims the documents are sacred and he wants them back. Jeffs' lawyer filed an emergency motion in Federal court demanding the FBI return the papers based on Jeffs' right to religious freedom.

The U.S. Attorney for Utah, the agency handling the case for the FBI, wants to protect the documents as evidence for the criminal trial against Jeffs.

Those papers could hold information about the Fundamentalist LDS Church business deals, its leaders and the $110- million United Effort Plan Trust.

The court-appointed fudiciary of the UEP trust believes the papers have information he needs to recover Trust property. He filed a series of motions in Salt Lake and Las Vegas asking to see the papers and laptop computers.

Attorney General Mark Shurtleff would also like to see those documents. He believes they hold information he needs for his organized crime investigation into Jeffs and his polygamist Church.

A federal judge in Las Vegas was supposed to decide today but something else happened. He granted entry in the case today to the United Effort Plan Trust and to a former Jeffs follower who won a 338-thousand dollar judgment against Jeffs last May. The judge left to another day arguments about the disposition of the evidence.

Jeffs is still being held the Purgatory Jail without bail. He is charged with rape as an accomplice.

If a judge refuses the release of the documents in today's hearing, the information inside those papers may not come out until Jeffs' trial.
 
KSL.com
Originally broadcast January 8, 2007
 
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