Defense to begin questioning witnesses in Jeffs trial
 
By Nancy Perkins
Deseret Morning News
 
ST. GEORGE — Testimony resumes today in the trial of polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs, who is charged with two first-degree felony counts of rape as an accomplice.

Jeffs, 51, is accused of conducting a 2001 marriage ceremony between an unwilling 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old first cousin. Jeffs leads the Fundamentalist LDS Church, whose doctrine includes polygamy and arranged marriages.

The now 21-year-old woman took the stand last week, testifying that Jeffs pressured her into marrying her cousin and would not listen to her when she complained about the marital relations that followed. The trial is being heard in 5th District Court in St. George.

"I was too young to be in a marriage. I was not happy or comfortable to have that kind of experience with him (her husband)," she testified on Friday. "When I did have to be with him, I would put my mind out of it."

The woman testified that she felt "dirty and used" following her first sexual experience with her new husband and that night downed two bottles of over-the-counter pain pills. She later threw up the medication.

During opening statements on Thursday, defense attorney Tara Isaacson told the jury that they would hear from the girl's former husband and other young couples whom Jeffs married.

Isaacson also reminded the jury that under Utah law, a 14-year-old could legally consent to sex under certain circumstances and that Jeffs could not have known if sex between the couple was nonconsensual.

On Friday, the jury of seven women and five men listened to more than an hour of taped sermons by Jeffs, who was discussing FLDS beliefs on the subject of marriage and the roles of men and women.

"Today you are being taught to resist, to withdraw from every male connection," Jeffs says in one tape prepared for a home economics class of young women at the Alta Academy in Salt Lake City, where Jeffs served as principal and the girl was a student. "When you enter celestial marriage, you do the opposite for just the one man you are given to. Your all centers in him, you seek his counsel, no secret is kept from him and you keep his secrets."

In the FLDS Church, women are taught that motherhood and plural marriage is the highest goal they could achieve in this life. Jeffs' taped sermons and lessons are often played at many private FLDS schools and in the homes of faithful members.

"A man's loyalty is to the priesthood and the prophet," Jeffs voice is heard saying on the tape. "A woman's desire shall be to her husband and he is to rule over her."

The woman testified that when she complained about her new husband touching her in ways she didn't like, Jeffs told her she needed to repent and turn herself over to her new husband, "mind, body and soul."

The trial is scheduled to last through Friday, although Judge James Shumate earlier told jurors that the trial could spill over into the following week.

E-mail: nperkins@desnews.com
 
deseretnews.com
Originally published September 17, 2007
 
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