Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs in Utah court
 
By James Nelson
Reuters
 
SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) - Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs, who was arrested last week after two years on the run, made his first Utah court appearance on Wednesday by closed-circuit TV and told a judge he understood the charges against him.

Jeffs, 50, who was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List, is accused in Utah of being an accomplice to rape in arranging marriages between underage girls and older men.

The courtroom was packed with reporters and onlookers for the brief hearing in which Jeffs appeared via closed-circuit TV from the Purgatory Correctional Facility in Hurricane, Utah -- not far from the community where his Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) is based.

In the St. George courtroom, near the Arizona border, District Judge James Shumate set Jeffs' next court appearance for Monday, followed by a hearing on September 19 to consider whether to grant him bail.

Utah law enforcement officials have said they consider Jeffs, who is considered a prophet among his estimated 10,000 FLDS church followers, a flight risk.

He was arrested on August 28 following a routine traffic stop just north of Las Vegas and transferred to the Purgatory Correctional Facility on Tuesday.

Security surrounding Jeffs has been tight since his arrest.

"Our job is to keep him safe. We're prepared to give him a fair trial," Washington County Sheriff Kirk Smith said.

The FLDS sect has its main compounds in the border communities of Hilldale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, but there are other enclaves in Texas, Colorado and Canada.

The rape as an accomplice charge is a first degree felony and if convicted Jeffs could be sentenced to from five years to life in prison.
 
Reuters.com
Originally published September 6, 2006
 
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