Jeffs drops federal court fight over FBI evidence
 
By Ben Winslow
Deseret Morning News
 
Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs' lawyers have dropped a federal court fight over evidence the FBI seized when it arrested the polygamous sect leader.

A hearing was scheduled in a Las Vegas federal courtroom on Monday but was vacated when a motion to dismiss was filed by one of Jeffs' attorneys and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Utah.

"The parties agree and stipulate that the instant case should be dismissed as moot," Jeffs' defense attorney Richard Wright wrote in the motion.

That doesn't mean the battle over evidence is over. Instead, it is expected to formally shift to Utah, where Jeffs has been indicted by a federal grand jury on a charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

"We think it makes sense to consolidate the case in Utah," said Melodie Rydalch, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney for Utah.

Jeffs, 51, was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list until he was arrested in a traffic stop outside Las Vegas last August. Inside the Cadillac Escalade that Jeffs was riding in, FBI agents seized letters, documents, computers, prepaid credit cards, cell phones and more than $50,000 in cash, among other items.

Jeffs' defense attorneys have argued that some of that evidence is protected under the FLDS leader's First Amendment rights to freedom of religion. A judge has given federal prosecutors until September to decide what evidence is paramount to its criminal case before returning the rest to Jeffs' lawyers.

Jeffs is facing a September trial in St. George's 5th District Court with first-degree felony rape as an accomplice. He is accused of performing a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin.

E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com
 
deseretnews.com
Originally published Tuesday, July 10, 2007
 
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